of split bamboo,
and other like curios, Iligan is a most unattractive and desolate
place, by God forsaken and by man forgot.

Picturesque it could not help being. All Philippine coast towns
accomplish that, built as they are of _cana_ and nipa in the midst
of luxuriant foliage, and surrounded by palms and bamboos, beyond
which spread verdant plains or lofty forest hills on one side, and
on the other stretches of sunlit sea and an unobstructed view of
the blue and cloudless sky. Lovely beyond description, to be sure,
but a loveliness of which one would tire all too quickly, its very
beauty becoming monotonous, like the pretty face of an insipid woman;
its sunshine and balmy airs but an aggravation to the soul, combining
to make one long for rugged outlines, rough east winds, and climatic
hardships and privations, anything rather than the enervation of that
unending tropic softness.

Market-day, which comes every Saturday at Iligan, made a break in the
dull uniformity of our several visits there. It was full of interest
to everyone, for it is then the Moros come to town, like the beggars
in the old nursery rhyme, "some in rags and some in tags," but none
in velvet gowns, no doubt because of climatic exigencies. It was a
glorious day of dazzling sunshine, and the market-place fairly swarmed
in colour, which blinded the eyes and warmed the heart. There were to
be seen in _sarong_, or coat, or turban the faded reds and subdued
blues that artists love, with here and there a dash of vivid green,
scarlet, and purple, barbarously tropical.

The Moros were represented mostly by men and boys, lithe, graceful
creatures, their legs encased in skin-tight trousers, or else
concealed entirely by a _sarong_ wrapped closely about them, the long
end tucked into a belt at the front. Their jackets, in the gayest of
colours, fitted them not wisely for so hot a climate, but too well;
their long, lank hair, done up in a knot at the back of the head,
was usually surmounted by a resplendent turban, whose colours shrieked
and stuck out their tongues at each other, being on even worse terms
with the rest of the costume; and in their belts would be stuck a
_barong_ or _kris_, often both, and a square or semicircular box of
brass, sometimes inlaid with copper, sometimes handsomely carved,
and sometimes plain. These boxes were divided into three compartments
on the inside, one for betel-nut, one for the lime to be smeared on
the betel, and one f