Evening star., 1901-07-30

forcements reached them by boat Only
five Of this little band were left, and the
sergeant appeared to be a nervous wreck.
Several OF the men told n1a me ne raenne was une
and that they feared his mind would some
The men Of the 43d have hard tales to
tell Of their officers. They accuse them OF
everything. 1t is customary for volunteers
to put the cause of all their troubles on
the officers so we did not believe all that
was told us.
There are three officers Of the 43d under
arrest at Tacloban whom, the men claim.
will be tried for aiding the insurgents by
supplying them with ammunition and
stores: They say they could not discover
munition until secret service man was
put on the case.
We were notified that there were about
Atty insurgents, armed with rifles, In the
mountains near here, but so far we have
no trace of them. A part Of this command,
composed Of fifty-fiye men, Is stationed at
Catalan, about twenty five miles distant,
and today a detachment OF ten men, with
Lieut. Ansen in command. started over the
mountains with two native guides to open
up communication with them.
The insurgents only success has been
laying In ambush for small detachments,
which are generally led astray by their
guides.
It is rumored that the notorious negro
Pagan is In this section. He Is said also
papers claimed he was dead while we were
there but it was officially denied by the
authorities.
fantry He has made notorious reputa-
ton since his desertion and stands high In
the insurgent band. He Is said to be
regular flend in battle, and treats all per-
sons with barbarous cruelty. A negro COM
rade denied the last charge against Pagan
in Manila paper, claiming that he had
been captured twice by Pagan and had al
ways been treated with great considera-
tion.
InhabitaRts Uncommunicative.
Several of tie 48d Infantry deserted to
the enemy and are supposed to be In this
section. The natives say they have heard
nothing OF them 1t is impossible to get
anything out of these people They resem-
BILE the American Indian in a great many
ways. They will stare you out OF coun-
tenance and only grunt in response to your
questions
Very few of them in this section under
stand Spanish. Each province has its Jar
gon The people here do not understand
the language of those at Cabalian which
Is only twenty-five miles distant.
Next to sleeping, cock fighting Is the
principal pastime Of the natives in this
town. I was up to the pit for short time
last Sunday. All the male population OF
ems. Each fight lasted only few seconds.
One blow with the big spurs was all that
was necessary AS fast as the dead birds
were taken out fresh ones took their place.
Bathing in soldiers' Spring.
The natives here are very clean as to
their person They appear to be always
bathing when not sleeping They occupy
all the available water holes in town just
at the time when we wish to take our
morning wash. We cleaned out spring
near our quarters and placed a large box
in the hole so the hogs could not wallow in
it. Imagine our surprise to find two men
and woman sitting In the spring yester-
day morning slowly washing themselves.
They had on thin garments and wasned
themselves by pouring water under the
garments. The woman had smooth rock
with which she was massaging herself
In that place since they were babies, and
could not see why they should change. We
politely informed them that that was our
only drinking water and requested them to
find another place to battle. They put on
their clothes and left, mumbling something
that we could not understand.
The women are very adept In changing
from their ordinary dress to their bathing
costume without the aid OF a bath house
They first put on bath robes over their
other garments. which they unbutton in
some mysterious manner and allow to fall
down to the ground. It takes less than q
minute for them to make the change.
We had several showers o. grasshoppers
last week, the air and ground being alive
with them. ] believe paw more Of these
here than did In all my life before. Inc
aicalde says that they make excellent food
and that the natives are very fond OF them.
I suppose It Is q cultivated appetite which
the Americans are not likely to take to.
Every Man His own Doctor.
The army in the Philippines is very def
cient In surgeons and hospital corps, a. we
have not got a man at either station who