CHAPTER XVI.
ANIMALS.
The buffalo is, perhaps, the most useful of Philippine quadrupeds. Immense herds of wild buffaloes are found in the interior, but the tamed animal is employed in the labours of the fields and the transport of commodities, whether on its back or in waggons. His enjoyment is to be merged in water or mud. Such is the attachment of the mother to her young that she has been known to spring into the river and furiously to pursue the crocodile that had robbed her of her calf. Wild boars and deer abound.
A good deal of attention has been paid to improvement of the race of native ponies, and their value has much increased with the increasing demand. Till of late years the price was from forty to fifty dollars, but the Captain-General told me that the four ponies which he was accustomed to use in his carriage cost 500 dollars.
Though the accounts of the silent, concealed and rapid ravages of the white ants would sometimes appear incredible, credulity respecting them will outstrip all bounds. We had a female servant at Hong Kong who told us she had lent her savings in hard dollars to one of her relations, and, on claiming repayment, was informed that the white ants had eaten the dollars, nor did the woman’s simplicity doubt the story. In the Philippines at sunset during the rains their presence becomes intolerable. One well-authenticated fact may serve as an illustration of the destructive powers of these insects, to whom beautiful gauze wings have been given, as to butterflies in the later stage of their existence, which wings drop off as they find a resting-place. In the town of Obando, province of Bulacan, on the 18th of March, 1838, the various objects destined for the services of the mass, such as robes, albs, amices, the garments of the priests, &c, were examined and placed in a trunk made of the wood called narra (Pterocarpus palidus). On the 19th they were used in the divine services, and in the evening were restored to the box. On the 20th some dirt was observed near it, and on opening, every fragment of the vestments and ornaments of every sort were found to have been reduced to dust, except the gold and silver lace, which were tarnished with a filthy deposit. On a thorough examination, not an ant was found in any other part of the church, nor any vestige of the presence of these voracious destroyers; but five days afterwards they were discovered to have penetrated through a beam six inches thick.
Few of the larger wild animals are found in the Philippines. The elephant must have been known in former times, as the names gadya (elephant) and nangagadya (elephant-hunting) are preserved in the Tagal language. Oxen, swine, buffaloes, deer, goats, sheep, a great variety of apes and monkeys, cats, flying squirrels, dogs, rats, mungoes and other quadrupeds, are found in various stages of domesticity and wildness.
The great insect pests of the Philippines are the white ants (termes) and the mosquitos. Fleas, bugs and flies are less numerous and tormenting than in many temperate regions.
Some of the bats measure from five to six feet from the tips of their wings.