spear, barong, and kreese with great skill, and, when not engaged in a game of monte, may be seen practising with these weapons of warfare.
The nights in this island of the Celebes Sea commence immediately at sundown, there being no twilight; a calm serenity pervades the barrios after the shades of night have fallen, when natives gather under the drooping palms surrounding the nippa-shacks, around which the graceful coils of smoke ascend from a smudge kept burning to check the advance of the ever-annoying mosquito. Here, to the accompaniment of harp and guitar, the Filipino inhabitants (for there are many of these in Mindanao) sing quaint songs in the Tagalog or Visayan tongue. Dancing girls, bearing such names as Oleano, Agripina, Donaziti, and Juana, perform the “Fandango” with bewitching contortions, gracefully tapping a tambourine and snapping the castanets to the music of the “La Paloma.” The village is dimly lighted by cocoanut oil, kerosene being a rarity in this section of the world. At such places we marines off duty gathered nightly,
where, over a bottle of dulce tinto and box of alhambras, we spun yarns of our adventures, occasionally joining the señoritas in their late carousals, to the delight of the friendly Moros who inhabited the village.
The Moros had become quite hostile in the Lake region, and a battle had been fought near what is now Camp Vicars on Lake Lanao, with dire results to the enemy; this had exercised every native warrior on the island to such an extent that it became necessary for the marines to re-establish an outpost overlooking the bay and the Amadao Valley. Having volunteered for this particular duty, we were ordered (one sergeant, two corporals, and ten privates) to pack everything of necessity pertaining to field-service on ponies and proceed to our destination.
With a string of pack ponies, two Colt automatic and one machine gun, we set out for the site of the outpost amid deafening cheers from the garrison. We reached the knoll of a hill, a splendid point of vantage, seven miles distant from the town, from which we could view the entire surrounding
country; here stood an old Spanish blockhouse, from which we flew “Old Glory,” and, after policing the ground, pitched tents, mounted the guns, posted a sentry, and were ready for action. The following day we were connected by telephone with the garrison and had cut the underbrush away from the knoll of the hill on which we were stationed.
The only break in the monotony of several months of this life would occur when a detail, sent into the garrison for rations, would return, bringing us mail from the outside world and news from the company in quarters.
Game abounded plentifully in this section of the island, and at night the weird grunt of a wild boar and the bark of a deer could be heard in the near-by jungle. Large vampires, darting overhead like phantom aeroplanes, were numerous here as in other islands of the Philippines.
Moros approaching the outpost were compelled to leave their side-arms in the jungle. Quite a number desired to be friendly with the Americans; these were
traders. They would bring in chickens, eggs, fruit, wild-fowl, venison, fish, roasted grasshoppers, and tuber. Eggs containing chickens, as in other parts of Mindanao and northern Luzon, were more valuable than fresh eggs. Tuber is a native beverage taken from the cocoanut tree, and has all the exhilarating effects of “Dry Monopole.”