The oxen sold in Manila markets do not yield very palatable beef, being fattened on an herb that they are very fond of, but that gives to the flesh a taste the reverse of agreeable.
In fact, neither fish, flesh, nor fowl has the same taste as those of Europe and America, and newcomers to Manila have to acquire a taste for these viands. Of course they are all right with those “to the manner born.”
Sheep are not indigenous to the soil, and do not thrive there, languishing and dying within a few months.
The other domestic animals include goats, dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, and the ordinary fowls. The dogs and cats are of inferior breed, a peculiarity in the cats being twisted tails. Among the viands that foreigners seem to approve, is stewed monkey, but the natives will not touch it except as a medicine, they deeming it of value in cutaneous diseases.
Grand-stand, Santa Mesa; Where the Pony Races Are Run.
Reptiles, Bats, and Insects.
Reptiles and insects abound both in the jungles and in the villages. In the latter they are, indeed, more numerous than is agreeable to strangers. Among them are lizards, frogs, snakes, centipedes, tarantulas, spiders of great size, hornets, beetles, ants, and myriad other inmates of the minor world. The snakes while usually harmless are not always so; one species,—the manapo,—found in the rice-fields, haunts the mud and the tall rice-blades; its bite is fatal if not immediately cauterized. Leeches are numerous in swamps and stagnant pools, and one tiny species, found in dense forests only, has the disagreeable habit of leaping from the trees upon passers-by, and at once beginning its blood-imbibing habit.
Boa-constrictors are the giant members of the serpent family. They are rare, and when caught are caged. Large as they are, little dread is felt of them, they being far less dangerous than the manapo, the small tenant of the rice-fields.