he tropics.

Fondness for gay dress is universal, and the _ninas_ take considerable
pains to understand the subject, and to adorn their natural good looks
to the most advantage by the selection of the most appropriate colours.

Their hair is one of the most remarkable beauties in the native and
Mestiza women, being very much longer, and of a finer gloss, than
that of any Europeans.

The staple and most favourite food of the people is rice seasoned
by sun-dried or salted fish, if they should be unable to procure
it fresh, which is, however, seldom the case, as the rivers in the
country abound with many different sorts, and all of them appear to
be very good and well tasted.

And not only do the rivers abound with fish, but great numbers of
_dalag_ are found in the flooded paddy fields during and subsequent
to the rainy season, when they are soaked with water. How this fish,
which is not very good to eat, being tasteless and insipid, comes
there, is a curious problem, as it is often killed in paddy grounds at
a great distance from any stream, out of which it could come during
an overflow. I am not quite certain whether this fish is ever killed
in a stream or not, or whether it is only found in the paddy fields.

I do not recollect of its once being caught in a river, although
the natives kill the fish in the ditches and paddy fields in large
quantities, either by shooting them with shot, as they flounder in
the fields, or by pursuing and capturing them, and knocking them down
with a stick.

In fact, I suspect the _dalag_ to be an intermediary between the
reptile and the fish, although not naturalist enough to investigate
the subject in a proper manner.

CHAPTER XXII.

Many of my readers may chance to be aware that the whole group of
Philippine islands was mortgaged to Great Britain for payment of the
ransom agreed upon at the time of our conquest of them nearly a century
ago; and as up till this time neither the money nor the interest on
it has been obtainable, as it probably never will be, they are, at
this, or any other time, virtually our property, should the British
Government foreclose the mortgage and demand payment. This, even at
present, when the kingdom is groaning under extreme pressure for the
necessary funds annually squeezed out of it, would not be thought a
prudent course, even by the ultra-economical politicians who are so
lavish of displaying their crude projects of retrenchment on neatly