ntervals in an eruptive fever of gorgeously
coloured embroidery. A fez topped off this costume and added to its
picturesqueness, while clumsy tan shoes of undeniable American make
well-nigh ruined the whole effect.

Balbriggan undershirts, hideously utilitarian, are much worn by these
Moros of Bongao in lieu of the skin-tight gaily coloured jacket,
which combines so effectively with the snug trousers buttoned up the
side with gold or silver buttons, and the bright turban or scarlet
fez. But fancy the shock to one's aestheticism at seeing coarse
balbriggan allied to barbaric splendour. The Moros really looked more
undressed so attired than if they had appeared without any coat at
all, but they thought these shirts very elegant, and would buy them
of the soldiers at every opportunity.

The women's dress in Bongao, unlike that of northern Moros, is more
typical than the men's, and shows an even greater variety of colour,
but because of their blackened teeth, which are often filed to an arch
in front, these women, as a rule, are anything but pretty. Their hair
is nearly always fringed over the forehead and temples, while at the
back it is drawn into a knot, from which one end invariably straggles,
giving a most untidy effect. The wealthier women wear their finger
nails very long, in some instances almost as long as the finger
itself, and often this nail is protected by an artificial shield
of silver. All the women have their ears pierced, and many of them
wear a round bone or stick, resembling a cigarette in shape and size,
thrust through the aperture. Altogether they are as unlike European
women as one could well imagine, and I do not blame the Sultan for
looking forward to white wives in the hereafter, though I hope the
celestial harem won't have to blacken its teeth!

There was one beauty in Bongao, however, a slave girl of eighteen,
so graceful and lithe that her every attitude suggested a bird just
alighted for an instant from a flight through space. Her dark eyes
were fringed by the longest of black lashes, and even her stained
teeth could not detract from the curves of her pretty mouth. She had
a self-satisfied consciousness of her own attractions, and was as
imperious and overbearing as any American beauty, stamping her tiny
foot in rage at our photographer's lack of haste in taking her picture,
and once walking away from the camera with a disdainful toss of her
head. When, after much persuasion, she was finally