A Betel-nut Gatherer of Luzon.
There are nearly one thousand warehouses and retail shops in Manila for the sale of the areca nut, or for the fresh buyo leaf and lime necessary in its preparation; or for the slices wrapped and ready for immediate use. The buyo leaf is hot to the taste. When bruised and placed on the wound it is an antidote to the bite of the most venomous snakes. It is useful in cholera; and water in which the leaf has been steeped, is used by mothers as an outside application in cases of infant colic.
The Nipa Palm and Nipa Wine.
The nipa palm looks like a gigantic fern. It grows in swamps, and its leaves are deemed invaluable for the thatching of native huts. A tall grass, called cógon, is also used for this purpose. From the fruit-stalks of the nipa a wine is distilled that is a Government monopoly; and the art of manufacturing brandy from sugar-cane seems to be aboriginal. The inhabitants of the most distant islands and provinces have a patient, slow, inglorious way of making their favorite drink. The fermented juice is boiled in four-gallon jugs; the steam then escapes through bamboo pipes, is cooled, and condensed by a primitive arrangement overhead, running water passing through a hollow log,—and the liquor falls into another large stone jug. It is extremely strong and pure, and small quantities of the drink are not unhealthful. The natives of the Philippines, as I have said so often, hate to trouble themselves about anything, and are impatient of slow processes; they will, however, take infinite pains in the distillation of sugar-cane brandy. The rewards, though slow, are definite, enchanting, and, above everything else, personal.
Various Fruits of the Islands.
A Typical Native Fruit-girl.
The fruits of the Philippines include many varieties well-known in American markets,—bananas, shaddocks, oranges, lemons, citrons, and pineapples. Others are the usual ones found in the tropics, and nowhere else; and none is to be compared to the apple, peach, grape, cherry, and strawberry of the temperate zone.