one
with killing and stealing.
There were many women and children, the children very shy. Of
weapons there were none. Dancing went on uninterruptedly the whole
day and night of our stay, and Cootes and I had to dance again. Only
we had now arranged to simulate a boxing-match, which we presented
to the beat of the _gansa_, and to the applause of our gallery. A
runner came in while we were here, carrying a note in a cleft stick,
the native substitute for a pocket. In dress and appearance, the
Andangle people differed in no wise from those of Kiangan. Many of
them, however, have a silver jewel, of curious and original design,
worn chiefly as earring, but also on a string around the neck. Our
splendid chief at Payawan also wore many of these jewels, but his were
of gold. Mr. Worcester distributed his white slips to the ever-eager
multitudes, listened to reports, and held council with the head men;
the people were fed with rice and meat, appeared thoroughly to enjoy
themselves, and so the time passed.
The next morning, May 4th, we rode off. Shortly after leaving,
we came suddenly upon a party apparently wrangling over a piece
of meat, at a point where the trail was crossed by a small stream,
flowing in a thin sheet over a smooth face of rock, twenty or more
feet high, and tilted at about seventy degrees. The wranglers took
alarm on our approach and scattered in all directions. One of them,
a boy of perhaps sixteen, ran up the rock just described at full
speed on his toes, and disappeared in the bushes at the top. Even
if he had wished to use his hands, there was nothing to lay hold
on. If I had not seen it performed with my own eyes, I should have
declared the feat impossible: I mention it to mark the agility and
strength of these people. Bear in mind that this youngster ran up,
that the rock was not far from the vertical, and that the water-worn
face was smooth and slippery. The thing was simply amazing.
We stopped again at our rest-house of the day before, meeting a
few _cabecillas_, who showed us, with much pride, long ebony canes
with silver tops, and inscriptions showing that they had been given
by the Spanish Sovereign as rewards for faithful service, etc. One
of these canes had been given by Maria Cristina. Others produced,
from bamboo tubes, parchments of equally royal origin, setting forth
in grandiloquent Spanish the confidence reposed by the Sovereign in
such and such a _cabecilla_.
This day's journey wa
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