ing
about, that trouble has followed. It is the practice, therefore,
of our Government when arranging these meetings to suggest that the
old women be left at home, and if so left, it is a good indication.

CHAPTER IX

Return to civilization.--Reception at Bambang.--Aglipayanos
and Protestants.

The return to the main road from Campote was a great improvement over
the advance. The sun had partly dried the trail, and his vertical rays
enabled us to see about us a little, and realize what a tremendous
phenomenon tropical vegetation can be. Some Philippine trees, for
example, the _narra_, throw out buttresses. One we saw on this trail
must have measured twenty feet across on the ground, from vertex to
vertex of diametrically opposite buttresses, the bole itself not being
over two and one-half feet in diameter, and the buttresses starting
about fifteen feet above the ground. But the greatest difference
to me personally was in my mount, Connor having lent me his pony,
as admirable as mine of the day before had been wretched. In spite
of the fact that Connor had to stay behind at Campote and could catch
us up later, this attention on his part was one of the most generous
things that ever happened to me, for certainly the pony he got from
me was the most irritating piece of horseflesh imaginable. I am glad
publicly to give him my warmest thanks again! Mr. Worcester was well
mounted, too; he rode this day at two hundred and thirty-five pounds,
and his kit must have weighed some thirty more, yet his little beast
carried him soundly to Bambang, our destination, about seventeen
miles, twelve of them at a "square, unequivocal" trot, by no means
an unusual example of the strength and endurance of some of these
native ponies. In what seemed a very short time (but the trail was
comparatively dry) we broke out of the forest, and again had our
lovely valley below and in front of us. At the top we saw some giant
fly-catchers, a bird of so powerful and erratic a flight that no
one has so far, according to Mr. Worcester, succeeded in killing one
of them. It may be mentioned here that we saw very few birds or any
other animals on our journey. Shortly after beginning the descent,
some of the party, impatient of the zig-zags, decided to go straight
down, the temptation being a cool green stream at the foot of the
mountain; half an hour afterward, on turning a point, we could see
them disporting themselves in the waters, and a