The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-30


heads. Their saiutauon to the strangers
was smile and a bend to the knee.
AS the topography changed the types
of natives altered The Indians encoun-
tered in the occasional mountain huts
We're q finer, more spirited lot than the
subtiued-looking, dusky inhabitants we
met IN the valley and along the coast,
The popularity of these mountain tribes
Is that while they are more active and
better developed than the lowland clans
they are less to be trusted. The sea-
coast Indians are good-uatured and lazy,
but they are honest-as Indians go. At
length We came to La Trinidad, a scat
tered pueblo In a cup-shaped basin in the
mountains, with no visible outlet for the
rain that Is precipitated during the wet
season This water, however, Is drained
on by a subterranean river
Az every Indian hut our cavalcade was
an object of attraction to the Inhabitants.
The natives in the fields ran to meet us
and stared At us. The men wore nothing
put short glrd}e about the waist TO
which was attached small bag in which
they carried a knife, tobacco and pipe. The
women were clad In gaudy -co(ored blank
cts wrapped around the waist, with a VI
wildly colored scarf thrown over the Shout
ders and bosom. Their long hair fell
straight and unconfined to their waists.
Inc younger girls wore considerable less
clothing and had their hair banged"
Just as the sun was touching the noun
tain tops on this afternoon of our arrival
we were treated to our first view of saw
age life. Accompanied by the lieutenant
we visited an Indian or Garoties camp in
the southern part of the valley, where a
three days feast and dance was IN pro-
gress in celebration of the completion of a
new house" or pow-wow building These
Garoties are the true aborigines OF this is
land-a different race from the Malay
cross" on the coast, some of whom have
been brought up here to help influence
these savages to come under the sway of
the Church. Thus far all prosecuting eff
forts have proved unavaillng. The Malay
half-breeds are small, thin, yellow, con-
sumptive-looking lot. while these noun
tain savages are darker, stouter and more
muscular, some of the men reaching the
hight of FIVE feet eight or nine inches. The
women are not handsome by any means.
but in this village there were several with
tolerably regular features and splendid
forms. The Garoties women smoke cigars
and cigarettes, rolled from the native to-
bacco without special preparation, almost
necessarily, perform all the house work
and a good portion OF the field work, and
IN every sense are the hewers of wood and
drawers of water in this wilderness.
Their houses are of one ROOM raised on
bamboo piles to hight of six or eight
feet from the ground. The roofs are
matched and the walls consist of a light
wicker-work which The women weave as
the house is in course of construction.
The dancers were resting when we ar
rived at the new ''pow-wow' house This
was the second day of the celebration, and
as they keep an almost incessant move
ment day and night with but two or three
hours devoted to sleep, they were a pretty
haggard-looking lot of savages In honor
Of this event they had killed buffalo, two
or three pigs and lot of chickens These
Il
en- platters. We had scarcely seated our
selves on the outskirts of the circle of ma
tives when three very comedy young wo-
men, whose adornmcnt consisted of "a
blanket fastened around the waist a ma
tive cloth Jacket a string of glass beads
around the neck and an expansive smile,
brought us a drink of some kind of fer
mented liquor served in polished cocoanut
bowls. It was a very mild drink, not I'M
palatable with a pleasant aroma. The In
dams drink II by the gallon, for 1t re-
quires about that quantity, l judge, to have
any effect on a person.
The dancers circled around in perfect
time TO the music, with a hopping, shut
fling step, swaying the body and arms
gracefully and maintaining a very sober
face. The male dancer kept his arms out
stretched almost constantly, occasionally
changing the position of the two blankets
which hung from his shoulders. The wo-
man swayed her body with greater free
dom and grace than the man, varying the
the movement with an occasional serpen-
time twist of her waist and hips Her
blanket hung from her left shoulder and
reached nearly to her knees, but, unlike
her male companion. she never changed
its position. After the dance more wine
was passed around, and then wooden plat
ters OF smoking boiled pork. IT wasn't
half bad, this supper of pork and wine
though bowl of rice would have added
to it.
We errived at Kapouga eighteen XII
from La Trinidad, about noon, after some
startling rides down the sides OF great
gulches TO save our lives from the native
, suspension bridges, which certainly
would have given way beneath US had we
attempted to cross on them. IT is the
gold region village, and right in front
of us, three-quarters of mile away,
further up the mountain SIDE in some
deep gulleys and ravines, lay the gold
fields.
The gold Is found in a creamy quartz
rock. The quartz Is broken off the hedges
then ground between stones, and this pow
dered stuff Is washed In spring water to
obtain the tiny particles of gold for traf-
fic. In the first gully or trench 1 found
one man and two women at work. The
women sat fiat on the ground, while the
man squatted on his launches alternate
ly smashing quartz and washing the resi-
due IN Smali copper baSin The sur
roundings were barren and cherries in
the extreme. / could see no free gold In
any of the rock, while the placer diggings,
/ was told did not pay for the working
by the primitive methods employed.
il may be that there are fortunes of
this yellow metal hidden in these rocks
and concealed in the unexplored mountain
streams. 1t strikes me that an enterpris-
ing American miner might, in connection
with a Spanish partner for protection, find
enough to repay him amply for his trou BILE
among these mountains of Luzon. But
the great difficulty to be solved would be
how TO get the ponderous machinery of
stamp mill to these remote recesses of the
island. 1t might on investigation be dem
onstrated that it would pay to have the
quartz rock transported to the valleys
nearer the coast, where mills for the re-
duction of the ore could be established
cannot solve these questions myself FOR
l am neither a prospector nor a miner.
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