[258] Doubtless the python, which is often domesticated in the Philippines. See VOL. XII, p. 259, note 73.
[259] La Gironiére (Twenty Years in the Philippines—trans. from French, London, 1853) describes an interesting fight with a huge crocodile near his settlement of Jala-Jala. The natives begged for the flesh in order to dry it and use it as a specific against asthma, as they believed that any asthmatic person who lived on the flesh for a certain time would be infallibly cured. Another native wished the fat as an antidote for rheumatic pain. The head of this huge reptile was presented to an American, who in turn presented it to the Boston Museum. Unfortunately La Gironiére's picturesque descriptions must often be taken with a grain of salt. For some information regarding the reptiles of the islands see Report of U.S. Philippine Commission,, 1900, iii, pp. 317-319.
[260] Unless we are mistaken, there is a fish in the Filipinas called Pámpano.—Rizal.
[261] For catalogue and scientific description of the mollusks of the Philippines, see the work of Joaquín González Hidalgo—now (1904) in course of publication by the Real Academia de Ciencias of Madrid—Estudios preliminares sobre la fauna malacológica de las Islas Filipinas.
[262] The Río Grande.—Rizal.
[263] No fish is known answering to this description.—Stanley.
[264] The island of Talim.—Rizal.
[265] Retana thinks (Zúñiga, ii, p. 545*) that this device was introduced among the Filipinos by the Borneans.
[266] A species of fishing-net. Stanley's conjecture is wrong.
[267] Esparavel is a round fishing-net, which is jerked along by the fisher through rivers and shallow places. Barredera is a net of which the meshes are closer and tighter than those of common nets, so that the smallest fish may not escape it.