Part 5 (2/2)
”What an odd tail he has, much like a mule's hairless tail. It looks like a piece of hose-pipe,” I exclaimed.
Moro, way up on the buffalo's neck, heard me and laughed: ”He can't reach me with his rubber tail.”
”But I'll reach you, Sir, if you don't get down soon from your dangerous perch,” said Fil's father.
The Padre explained: ”We sometimes call these animals carabao. We use them for plowing, for drawing our sugar to market, for pressing our hemp mill, for turning our water wheels and sugar rollers, for pulling the huge logs of hardwood out of the thick forest. When the roads are too muddy for wheeled carts, we make a mud sleigh with runners; and the water buffalo with his thick hoofs pulls our loads of rice bags through the ooze.”
”And we eat him too, though his steaks are tougher than cow meat,”
laughed Fil.
”And we make taws and whips out of his thick hide to correct little boys, if they have too much to say sometimes,” remarked Fil's father, who winked at me, showing that his words were more severe than were his intentions or acts. Like the terrier, he just liked to frighten people; his bark was worse than his bite, as the saying is.
CHAPTER XII
BATS; CATTLE; HORSES; CATS; MONKEYS
”Let us stop here,” begged Fil.
The driver, who wore a mushroom-shaped bamboo hat, pulled the water buffalo to a stop. All, except Filippa and Favra, got off at the mouth of a cave.
”I won't go in or near it,” exclaimed Filippa.
”Girls are afraid of real things, of imaginary noises, and even of unreal shadows,” jeered Fil.
”No wonder, if you refer to this damp cave,” remarked Fil's mother.
Creeping up quietly to the entrance, Fil and Moro threw stones and oranges and mangoes up to the echoing roof.
”Lie down quick,” shouted Fil's father.
We had need to stoop, for there was a whirring in the roof of the cave and over its mouth, like the sound of birds or aeroplanes.
”What are they, owls or eagles?” I exclaimed.
”Furry fruit-bats, as large as flying cats,” laughed Fil, who was proud of his secret cave and of his discovery.
”You don't really mean to say that those large flying things have fur, and eat fruit?” I asked.
”Exactly,” replied Fil's father. ”These are the large Philippine bats. The wings of some of them are three feet across. Ladies use their fur to decorate gowns. The bats live on fruit, just as monkeys do; only the bats eat at dusk, and sleep during the day. That is why we caught them napping, by going to the cave in daylight.”
”Wonderful country! Wonderful new kinds of life! I notice too that your cattle have humps on their shoulders,” I remarked.
”Yes,” replied Fil's father, ”our cattle, though smaller than yours, have high humps on their shoulders. They are of the Indian and Chinese breed; not of the English breed. But they are very good animals and have beautiful soft eyes, which seem to cry and plead for pity. We use them also to draw our carts.”
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