transportation
to Guam. His former army was _mucho amigo_ to the Americans, and
once again the pretty drives around Dumaguete were quite safe, and
once again the native, when passing an American, touched his hat and
smilingly said good day in Visayan, a greeting which sounds uncommonly
like "Give me a hairpin."

On the evening of our second day in Dumaguete, the natives of the
town gave a ball in honour of the cable-ship, at the house of one of
the leading citizens. There, on a floor made smoother than glass with
banana leaves, we danced far into the night to the frightfully quick
music of the Filipino orchestra. One would hardly recognize the waltz
or two-step as performed by the Visayan. He seems to take his exercise
perpendicularly rather than horizontally, and after galloping through
the air with my first native partner, I felt equal to hurdle jumping or
a dash through paper hoops on the back of a milk-white circus charger.

Their _rigadon_, a square dance not unlike our lanciers, the Filipinos
take very seriously, stepping through it with all the unsmiling dignity
of our grandparents in the minuet. The sides not engaged in dancing
always sit down between every figure and critically discuss those
on the floor, but while going through the evolutions of the dance,
it seems to be very bad form to either laugh or talk much, a point of
etiquette I am afraid we Americans violated more than once. Another
very graceful dance, the name of which I have forgotten, consists of
four couples posturing to waltz time, changing from one partner to
another as the dance progresses, and finally waltzing off with the
original one, the motion of clinking castanets at different parts of
the dance suggesting for it a Spanish origin.

At midnight a very attractive supper was served, to which the
presidente escorted us with great formality. As is customary, the
women all sat down first, the men talking together in another room and
eagerly watching their chance to fill the vacant places as the women,
one by one, straggled away from the table. The supper consisted for
the most part of European edibles, but there were several Visayan
delicacies as well, all of which I was brave enough to essay, to
the great delight of the native women, who jabbered recipes for
the different dishes into my ear, and pressed me to take a second
helping of everything. All of them ate with their knives and wiped
their mouths on the edge of the table-cloth, havin