The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1902-10-30
PHILIPPINE ODDITIES.
NOVEL ASPECTS OF LIFE IN THE
PARKWAY ARCHIPELAGO.
The Treacherous Leech That is Feared
by American Soldiers-The Peculiar
Call of the Island Lizard--Ouspost

! py american SOIQleTS-ln ne FeCulldI
Call of the Island Lizard--Ouspost
Fooled by lightning Bugs.
Speaking of things in the Philip
| pines,' said young man who has
recently returned from the archipel
ago, Il was just thinking of some of
| The more novel aspects of life in the
! Sar-away islands which have lately
come under Uncle Sans supervision.
We are prone to forget the little things
because of the largeneSs of the issue
and the tremendousness of the re-
sponsibilities which We have assumed.
We talk about Tagals and bolomen,
and the stubborness with which the
MoroS fight, and all that sort Of thing,
without ever once thinking of getting
down to a few of the smaller, yet no
less interesting, features of life in the
archipelago. During my experience
in the Philippines found it profitable
to take notice OF some of the smaller
things, and the study incident to these
observations proved by no means dull.
The fact is that l was able to pick up
deal of natural history which had
| escaped me up to the time l went TO
| the Philippines, and some of the facts
! gathered are so odd, and so altogether
! peculiar to the islands of the archipel-
ago, that / am sure never could have
gathered them from books, and could
not have encountered them in other
sections of the world. The climate,
topography, and other peculiar fea-
lures of the country have given rise
to many curious varieties of insects,
and other forms of life, which may
be easily classified, and yet which are
vastly different from the classes
known in this country. We may take
the leech, for instance. l have never
found anything quite so annoying
as the Philippine leech. He has all
the persistence of his kind in other
sections OF the world when it comes to
holding on, besides being very danger
Gus. The leech became the constant
dread of American soldiers in the is
lands, especially when they were
marching through marshy places. In
not few instances soldiers lost the
lower part of limbs on account of this
treacherous member.
They would work their way in IN
der the leggings, bury their heads in
the flesh, and begin their blood-pillag-
ing operation. Soon after they would
drop off blood poisoning would set in,
and it would be necessary to ampu-
tate the lower part of the leg to save
the soldiers life. I know a number
OF cases of this sort, and it is not sur
prising that these pernicious things
became the dread of soldiers when
On the march across the putrid
marshes of the archipelago.
But the leech is not the only thing.
There are few mosquitoes if you are
not particular about what you say.
They are not small either. They are
large and numerous. They are cum
ming. They know what they want,
and they know how to get it. They
simply come after YOU with lance,
and they leave a scar behind them.
There are snakes, too, in the Philip
pines, which would make some of the
bottle images pale into utter nothing
ness. l have killed boa constructors
twenty feet long, and seven or eight
inches in thickness. But the two
things that interested me more than
any other things were the lightning
bugs and the lizards. These seemed
to represent rather novel departure
from the kind we are familiar with
in this country. Ny introduction to
the Philippine lizard was rather novel.
One night while l was or watch l
heard a curious sound out in the
bushes near the camp. 1t saIu in a
sonorous sort of way, Kick 'em. Kick
'eIa.' Kick 'em! or at least, that was
what is seemed to say. Directly l
heard the same sound. Kick 'em!'
come from another direction, and in
q short while there was regular
'Kick 'em' chorus. The thing kept
up ali through the night, and l never
learned until next day that this was
the peculiar call of the Philippine liz
ard It is a curious sound, but after
l bet anne accustomed to it l rather
liked it because of the clever imita-
tion IF the human sound Kick 'cm!'
Thes,* lizards are much larger and
longer than any have ever found this
side of the Philippine Islands.
"Oae of the funniest things that hap
peneG in camp during my experience
in the Philippine Islands was while
We were skirmishing around in Cebu.
My recollection is that a night or two
before we had been surprised uy an
attack from the insurgents, who had
swooped down upon us from ambush.
One Ct the guards was stationed out
probably hundred yards from the
camp. The main body of men had
coiled up for the night. We all went
to sleep with an uneasy sort OF feel
ing because we were in constant dread
that the insurgents would surprise us
again with an attack from ambush.
Il suppose the men assigned to
guard duty felt the same way, and
from what happened on the night in
question l am satisfied that the man
on the outpost was particularly ner-
vous Really, he never denied it, and
seemed to get as much sport out of the
curious happening as any of the other
men. I guess it must have been along
:bcut midnight 1t was dark, cloudy
night. with strong indications of rain.
Su6deSly the camp was reused by
Quick firing on the outpost. We knew
ra were in for it again. The insurg
ents had certainly started in on an
other attack. We were quick in re.
spending. You cannot imagine how
much surprised and relieved We felt
wien we found that there was moth
ing doing The man on the outpost
had fired all right. and he thought
he was firing al the enemy. He had
seen few lights fitting in an uncer-
tain way some distance off in the.
bushes, and he cracked down on them.