Fil and Filippa Part 4

"Swallow it anyway. That turpentine smell lasts only a second,"

explained Filippa.

I tried another mango, and found it to be the juiciest and sweetest fruit that I ever ate, dripping wine, full of refreshment in a hot climate, food and drink and medicine in one.

"What do you do with its large seed, as hard as iron?" I inquired.

"I'll show you," replied Moro.

The bright boy at once lighted a fire, and roasted the hard seed in the ashes. Then he brushed and washed it clean; and handed it to me, when it became somewhat cool, saying: "Eat it too; it is really chocolate toast now."

And such I found it to be.

"Your mango then is a whole breakfast,--toast, drink, and fruit,"

I said.

CHAPTER IX

THE FOREST

When we all met next morning, again under the bamboo grove, the good Padre said:

"If you were lost in your woods at home, you would soon wander and die; but if you were lost here, you could live for years."

"Then let us go into such a forest of Eden," I replied, and held out my hands to Fil and Filippa.

Away we went down the white sh.e.l.l road across the ca.n.a.l; and soon we were lost among the many trees, palms, and vines.

The Padre pointed to the coconut tree and the nipa palm, and said: "As we already have told you, they would afford you a house, food, drink, light, and soap."

"What is this great hard tree?" I inquired.

The Padre explained: "That's the valuable mahogany. Thin strips of it are polished, and used to cover the woodwork of your piano and bureau at home."

"And this other wonderful, new tree?" I asked.

"That is the molave. It is so hard that sea worms and white ants cannot bore into it. So it is good for boats, wharves, and frames for big buildings," replied the Padre.

"Here is a pretty tree," remarked Filippa.

"You should think so," answered her father. "It is the lanete. Its wood is so strong and pliable, that your violin was made from part of one."

"Here's a skipping rope," exclaimed Filippa.

"No, a boat rope," explained Fil.

"That is really the bejuco rattan vine," remarked the Padre, who knew botany and the lore of nature. "It is three hundred feet long, as long as a city block, if you pull it out of the jungle and away from the tree tops, where it has climbed like a huge snake. We can use it for bridge or carriage ropes, or we can divide the strands and make cloth, or hats, or cord out of it."

"What gorgeous and sweet-scented flowers," exclaimed Filippa, pointing to a great tree.

"That is the Ylang," said the Padre. "Our friend uses its perfume on his handkerchief; but he did not know, perhaps, that the flower grew in the far-away Philippines. It has the deepest fragrance of any flower, whether on plant, bush, or tree."

"What can its strange name mean?" I inquired; for I seemed to have no acquaintance with nature at all, in this wonderfully different land.

The Padre, who knew many languages, explained: "It is a Malay word which means, 'The chief flower of all flowers'; and such I think it really is. We capture the fragrance by distilling the flowers, and mixing pure alcohol with the essence."

"If you were ill in the forest, and caught fever from the mosquitoes and ants that stung you, the bark of this tree would cure you, just as quinine does," continued the Padre.

"Is it the little quinine, or cinchona, tree?" I inquired.

"No, it is a sister tree. We call it 'Dita' in our language."

"I said our forests would house and feed you. Now I'll show you how they would also clothe you. Please show me your handkerchief, Filippa," said the Padre.

Filippa handed him a little square of linen cloth, so thin and watery in color, or absence of color, that I could look through it.

"In your country, that little handkerchief would be worth twenty-five dollars. It is woven from the very thin fibers drawn from pineapple leaves, and is called Pina cloth, or Pina linen."

Filippa's mother added: "It is finer than silk or hemp linen. We make our best s.h.i.+ny gowns and laces out of it. Because it is so fine, it takes a long time to get enough threads to weave and work it together. The time spent in making it, explains its great cost."

"I see now why Filippa is promised a Pina gown for our coming feast, or fiesta day, that you kindly promise to give in my honor before I go away. It certainly is a cloth fit for a queen," I replied.

"Oh! when will the feast day come?" Filippa eagerly inquired.

"Soon," laughed her mother.

"Here is a more wonderful tree, from the gum of which we make automobile tires, rubber heels, elastic bands, hot water bags, rain coats, rubber shoes, hose, and so on," exclaimed the Padre.

I looked; and surely enough, there was the identical rubber tree which we see in florists' shops or in the greenhouse at home; only this tree was larger. Its thick leaves were nearly as large as a hat.

"We cut a hole in the bark, and, when the yellow gum oozes out, we boil it down thick, till it is dark colored. Then we mix it with chalk and sulphur; and behold, afterwards we roll out your automobile tire,"

explained the wise Padre.

"Could you pull the rubber tree out as high as the stars, and would it snap back again?" asked joking Moro.

"Stop your joking," replied Fil's mother. "You know very well that the rubber tree itself is not pure gum, any more than the maple tree in America is pure sugar. It is the gum of the rubber tree that becomes the rubber."

CHAPTER X

MINERALS

"It is not only what towers above us, that makes our islands rich. Dig at your feet, and you will find valuable minerals! Magellan, the Spaniard, first discovered the Philippine Islands while he was on a search for gold, though I think a rubber tree, or a bamboo, is more valuable than gold," said the wise Padre.