they did not think the service was worth anything. The
doctor turned them away good naturedly, but they returned the next
day with the medicine, reporting that undoubtedly it was no good,
because, forsooth, the child had cried when they applied it! As a
peace-offering they brought a dozen miserable bananas.

Slinging a tablet around his neck, a "valuable remedy against the
pest," the Filipino thinks that he is reasonably secure against
disease, and that if he becomes afflicted, it is the result of some
transgression against heaven. I happened to receive a startling proof,
however, of its efficacy when the padre's house-boy, rather a bright
young fellow, made me a present of his "remedy" and died the next
day of cholera. Still I have seen the "_anting-anting_," which is
supposed to render the wearer bullet-proof, pierced with the balls of
the Krag-Jorgensen and stained with blood. Although the Visayans show
considerable sympathy toward one when he is sick, the native dentist
cutting out the tooth with a dull knife, we would consider almost too
barbarous to practice in America. The Igorrotes have a way of driving
out the fever with a slow fire; but between this Spartan method and
Visayan ignorance the choice is difficult. No wonder that the people
drop off with surprising suddenness. Your laundryman or baker fails to
come around some morning, and you ask one of your neighbors where he
is. The neighbor, shifting his wad of _buya_ to the other cheek, will
gradually wake up and answer something ending in "_ambut_." "_Ambut_"
is a convenient word for the Visayan, as it means "don't know," and
even if he is informed, the Filipino often is too lazy or indifferent
to explain. You finally discover some one more accommodating who
replies: "Why, haven't you heard? He died the other day."

Sulkiness, one of the characteristics of the girls and boys, develops
into surliness in men and billingsgate in women. And I have no doubt
that little Diega, the sulkiest and prettiest of the Visayan beauties,
in a few years will be gambling at the cock-fights, smoking cigars,
and losing her money every Sunday afternoon at Mariana's _monte_
game. Vulgarity with them goes down as wit, and the Visayan women make
a fine art of profanity. It is always the woman in a family quarrel
who is most in evidence. And even the delicate Adela when the infant
Richard fell downstairs the other day, cried, "Mother of God!" which
she considered to be more appropr