and crows inhabited
the upper regions, while the buzzards perched like evil omens in the
topmost boughs.

Just when our throats were parched from lack of water, we discovered
a small mountain torrent gushing over the rocks and bowlders of the
rugged slope. Leaning across one of the large bowlders, from a dark
pool where the sunlight never penetrated, we scooped up refreshing
hatfuls of the ice-cold water. Here was the world as God first found
it, when he said that it was good. It was impressive and mysterious. It
seemed to wrap us in a mystic spell. What wonder that the pagan tribes
that roamed through the interior had peopled it with gods and spirits
of the chase, and that the trees and rivers seemed to them the spirits
of the good or evil deities? The note of the wood-pigeon sounded on the
right. The padre smiled as he looked up. "That is a favorable omen,"
he declared. "In the religion of the river-dwellers, the Bagobos,
when the wood-dove calls, it is the voice of God. Hark! It is coming
from the right. It is a favorable sign, and we can go upon our journey
undisturbed. But had we heard it on the left, it would have been to us
a warning to turn back. Our journey then would have been unpropitious,
and we would have been afraid to go on farther."

"Does it not seem like a grand cathedral," said the padre, "this vast
forest? In the days when Northern Europe was a wilderness and savage
people hunted in the forests; in the days when the undaunted Norsemen
braved the stormy ocean in their daring craft,--here, in these woods,
the petty chiefs and head men held their courts of justice after the
traditions of their tribes, just as they do to-day. Here they have
set their traps--the arrows loosened from a bamboo spring--and while
they waited, they have left the offering of eggs and rice for the good
deity. Here they have hunted their blood enemies, lying in ambush,
or digging pitfalls where the sharpened stakes were planted. Tama,
the god of venery, has lured the deer into their traps; Tumanghob,
god of harvest, whom they have invited to their feasts, has made the
corn and the _camotes_ prosper; Mansilitan, the great spirit, has
descended from the mountain-tops and aided them against their enemies."

We knew that it was growing late by the deep shadows of the
woods. So, taking our bearings with a pocket compass, we turned
east in the direction of the coast. There was no trail to follow,
and we blundered on as best we could