The Forest, Which Abounded In Clear, Rocky Streams
Of Cold Water, Was Very Luxuriant And Beautiful, Especially In Many
Of The Cool, Damp Ravines Further Back In The Mountains.
But near my
camping ground a great deal of the forest seemed to be half smothered
with large thickets of bamboo, and consequently the larger trees
were rather far apart.
There was also a climbing variety of bamboo,
which scrambled up to the tops of the largest trees. The undergrowth
in places was most luxuriant and consisted of different species of
palms, rattans, tree-ferns, PANDANUS, giant ginger, PIPERS, POTHOS,
BEGONIAS, bananas, CALADIUMS, ferns, SELAGINELLAS and lycopodiums,
and many variegated plants. Growing on many of the trees were some
fine orchids. Chief amongst them may be mentioned a very beautiful
"vanda," which grew mostly on trees in the open grass country, and
which I witnessed in full bloom during my stay here. They presented
a wonderful sight. Out of the large sheaths of fan-like leaves grew
two grand flower-spikes, bearing from thirty to forty large white,
chocolate and crimson flowers. Of these there were two varieties,
and on one large plant I saw fully a dozen flower-spikes. Further
back in the mountains I came across some fine species of PHALAENOPSIS.
I early made the acquaintance of the little Negritos, the aborigines of
these mountains, and during my wanderings I would often stumble across
their huts in small clearings in the forest. They never seemed to have
any villages, and I hardly ever saw more than one hut in one place,
and they were nearly always miserable bamboo hovels. As for the little
people themselves, they seemed perfectly harmless, and from the first
treated me with the greatest friendliness, and would often pay me a
visit at my hut, sometimes bringing me rice and "papayas" or a large
hornbill, which had been shot with their steel-pointed arrows. They
were quite naked except for a very small strip of cloth. Their skin
was of a very dark brown colour, their hair frizzly, and the nose
flat. They were by far the smallest race of people I had ever seen,
and they might quite properly be termed pigmies. I certainly never
came across a Negrito man over four feet six inches, if as tall,
and the women were a great deal smaller, coming as a rule only up to
the men's shoulders; the elderly women looked like small children
with old faces. Both sexes generally had their bodies covered with
various patterns cut in their skins, a kind of tattooing it might
be called, but the skin was very much raised. Many of them had
the backs of their heads in the centre shaved in a curious manner,
like a very broad parting. I did not see them wearing many ornaments,
but the men had tight-fitting fibre bracelets on their arms and legs,
and the women sometimes wore necklaces of seeds, berries and beads;
they would also sometimes wear curiously carved bamboo combs in their
hair. The men used spears and bows and arrows; these latter they were
rarely without. Their arrows were often works of art, very fine and
neat patterns being burnt on the bamboo shafts. The feathers on the
heads were large, and the steel points were very neatly bound on with
rattan. These steel points were often cruel-looking things, having
many fishhook-like barbs set at different angles, so that if they once
entered a man's body it would be impossible to extract them again. A
very clever invention was an arrow made for shooting deer and pig. The
steel point was comparatively small, and it was fitted very lightly
to a small piece of wood, which was also lightly placed in the end
of the arrow. Attached at one end to the arrow-head was a long piece
of stout native cord, which was wound round the shaft, the other end
being fastened to the main shaft. When the arrow was shot into a pig,
for instance, the steel head soon fell apart from the small bit of
wood, which in its turn would also drop off from the main shaft. The
thick cord would then gradually become unwound, and together with
the shaft would trail on the ground till at length it would be caught
fast in the bamboos or other thick growth, and the pig would then be
at the mercy of its pursuers. The steel head, being barbed, could
not be pulled out in the pig's struggles to break loose. I had one
of these arrows presented to me by the chief of these Negritos, but,
as a rule, they are very hard to get as the Negritos value them very
highly. An American officer I met in Manila told me that he had been
quartered for some time in a district where there were many Negritos,
and though he had offered large rewards for one of these arrows he was
not successful in getting one. The women manufacture enormous baskets,
which I often saw them carrying on their backs when I met them in
the forest. I was much struck with the cleverness of some of their
fish-traps; these were long cone-like objects tapering to a point,
the insides being lined with the extraordinary barb-covered stems of
a rattan or climbing palm, and the thorns or barbs placed (pointing
inwards) in such a way that the fish could get in easily but not out.
These Negritos were splendid marksmen with their bows and arrows, and
during my stay amongst them I became quite an adept in that art; their
old chief used to take a great delight in teaching me, and my first
efforts were met with hearty roars of laughter. They were certainly
the merriest and yet the dirtiest people I have ever met. Whenever
I met them they were always smiling. When, as happened on more than
one occasion, I lost my way in the forest and had at length stumbled
upon one of their dwellings, I made signs to let them understand
that I wanted them to show me the way back.
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