small packages of goods from one country shopkeeper to
another, as the roads they have to traverse are such as to preclude
any use of conveyances upon wheels.

CHAPTER XX.

Throughout the islands there is a part of every village set apart for
the market-place, where in the early morning, and after sunset in the
evening, the utmost activity in buying and selling prevails. At all of
these places rice, fish, and butcher meat (generally, but not always),
fruit, and merchandise of the most suitable sorts to supply the wants
of the people who are likely to purchase it, are exposed for sale. It
is a curious scene to walk through such a place for the first time,
especially after sunset, when the red glare of the torches or lamps
shows to perfection the sparkling eyes, swarthy features, and long
hair, which, waving about over the foreheads of the men, gives them a
wildness of look, which their sombre dress, consisting of a dark blue
shirt and trousers, having nothing to attract the attention from the
sparkle of their eyes, makes all the more striking.

In Santa Cruz market-place at Manilla, between the hours of six and
eight in the morning and evening, an immense crowd collect to supply
their household wants, and innumerable are the articles displayed
in the shops;--here the cochineal of Java, there the sago of Borneo,
or the earthenware of China. In the Bamboo Islands the more perishable
commodities are exposed for sale; and fish being the principal article
of the natives' food (and also a favourite one of the white men),
is found exposed for sale in large quantities. But all so offered
is dead, even when the vendor is a Chinaman, although in his native
country great quantities of it are hawked about the streets by the
sellers carrying them alive, in water, so that the purchaser is
certain always to have this food fresh and untainted by keeping;
for even a few hours is sufficient to spoil it in this climate.

The market is well supplied with all descriptions of fish caught in
the Pasig or the bay, most of which are well tasted; the fishermen of
the villages in the neighbourhood being the principal suppliers. A
small sort is found in the river very much resembling white-bait in
taste. Shrimps are also consumed in large quantities. After the rains
there may generally be procured, by those who like them, frogs, which
are taken from the ditch round the walls in great numbers, and are
then fat, and in good condition for