d seated ourselves,
patiently awaiting the withdrawing of a curtain, upon which was
delineated an uncouth figure and accompaniment, supposed to represent
the "divine Apollo" and his lyre.

The building was of bamboo, and, covered with leaves from the same tree,
was cool and well ventilated.

About fifty persons composed the audience, and these were principally
civilized Indians of the Tagalo tribe, a fine-looking race. They were
remarkably well behaved, and listened with much attention and apparent
pleasure, to some most execrable music, elicited by scraping "the
hair of the horse over the entrails of a cat," to wit: fiddling!
which, ceasing at last, at a given signal, up rose the curtain,
and with it Apollo took flight, and ascended to the clouds. The
performance commenced, and lo! we found we had been beguiled into a
puppet-show!--the actors being of pasteboard, and, although managed
very well, we soon tired of them, and retracing our road to the hotel,
took a shower bath, and turned in.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: Fernando Magelhaens, generally called as in the text, was
the first who attempted the circumnavigation of the globe. He was a
Portuguese by birth, and sailed from the port of St. Lucar, in Spain,
with an expedition of five vessels, under the auspices of Charles V., on
the 20th of September, 1519. But one of his vessels effected its object,
the Vitoria, under Sebastian del Cano, which reached St. Lucar, the 6th
of September, 1522, with but eighteen survivors, who made a pilgrimage
barefooted to the Saints for their safe return. He gave his name to
those Straits, through which he reached the East, a few years after his
fellow-countryman, De Gama, had passed around the Cape of Good Hope.]

CHAPTER X.

Drive to the Balsa--Meaning of the word--A Mob of Women--Nora
Creena--Magic, slipper--Description of the drive--Ferryman of
the Females--Decline the office--The Suburbs--A la Balsa--
Manilla, intra murales--The Mole by Moonlight--Friend in a
fit--Circo Olympico--Scenes in the Circle.

Up betimes upon the morning of our second day on shore, for a drive to
the Balsa. The word, in English, means pool or raft, and the road over
which we drove led to a ferry over a stream, which you cross to reach
the romantic village of Maraquino.

Met crowds of native women coming in from that neighborhood to commence
their work at the tobacco factory. Had heard of _miles_ of girls at
Lowell, greeting wi