A wonderful river rushes through the mountain canyons, and
the famous valley of the Cagayan is formed--the garden of Eden of the
Philippines. The peaks of the Zambales are so high that frost will
sometimes gather at the tops, while in the upper forests even the flora
of the temperate zone is reproduced. Negritos, the primeval savages,
run wild in the great wilderness, while cannibals, head-hunters,
and other barbaric peoples live but a short distance from the shore.

The islands to the south of Luzon reach in a long chain toward Borneo,
a distance of six hundred miles. During a journey to the southern
islands a continuous procession of majestic mountains moves by like
a panorama--first the misty peaks of the Mindoro coast; and then
the wooded group of islands in the Romblon Archipelago, that rises
abruptly out of the blue sea. Hundreds of smaller islands, like
bouquets, dot the waters off Panay, while the bare ridges of Cebu of
the Plutonic peaks of Negros loom up far beyond. Passing the triple
range of Mindanao, the scattered islands of the Jolo Archipelago,
the Tapul and the Tawi-Tawi groups mark the extreme southern limits
of the Philippines.

In nearly all these islands the interior is taken up by various tribes
of savages, sixty or seventy different tribes in all, speaking as many
different dialects. There are the Igorrotes of the north, who make
it their religion, when the fire-tree blooms, to go out on a still
hunt after human heads. When one of their tribe dies, the number of
fingers that he holds up as he breathes his last expresses the number
of heads which his survivors must secure. An Igorrote suitor, too, must
pay the price, if he would have his bride, in human heads. The head
of his best friend or of his deadliest enemy is equally acceptable;
and if his own pate fall in the attempt, he would not be alone among
those who have "lost their heads" because of a fair woman.

Although the island of Luzon was settled later than the southern
islands, civilization has been more widely disseminated in the north. A
railway line connects Manila with Dagupan and the other cities of
the distant provinces. Aparri, on the Rio Grande, near its mouth,
is the commercial port of Cagayan. The country around is rich in
live stock, and is partly under cultivation. During the rainy season,
however, the pontoon bridges over the Rio Grande are swept away; the
roads become impassable. The raging torrent of the river threatens
the