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Pearls of Sulu · Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme

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  Speaker 1: Section eleven of Untinanting Stories by Sergeant Kaymeh. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Pearls of Sulu Now
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  Speaker 1: and then people comment upon the odd style of a
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  Speaker 1: charm which I wear upon my watch chain. The charm
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  Speaker 1: is a plain gold sphere, and is I acknowledge, a
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  Speaker 1: trifle too large to be in good taste. If those
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  Speaker 1: who ask me about the charm are people whom I
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  Speaker 1: care to trust, I sometimes open the globe it has
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  Speaker 1: a secret spring, and show them hidden away inside a
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  Speaker 1: single pearl so large and perfect that no one who
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  Speaker 1: has ever seen it has failed to marvel at its beauty.
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  Speaker 1: If they ask me why I wear so regal a
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  Speaker 1: gem and where I got it, I tell them that
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  Speaker 1: I am not quite sure that the jewel is mine,
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  Speaker 1: and that if I ever find the person who seems
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  Speaker 1: to have a better right to it than I, I
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  Speaker 1: shall give it up. Meanwhile, I like to wear the
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  Speaker 1: locket where I can sometimes look at the pearl, since
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  Speaker 1: it is a reminder of what I think was the
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  Speaker 1: strangest adventure I ever had in the Philippine Islands, and
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  Speaker 1: I had many queer experiences there during the years I
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  Speaker 1: have journeyed up and down the archipelago in one capacity
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  Speaker 1: and another one summer, when I was collecting specimens for
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  Speaker 1: a great European museum. I was living on the southeastern
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  Speaker 1: shore of the island of Palawan, or rather I was
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  Speaker 1: living above or beside the shore of the island. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know which word would best describe the location of
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  Speaker 1: my house, which, however, one could hardly say was on
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  Speaker 1: the island. The Moros, who lived on that side of
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  Speaker 1: the island, which is washed by the Sulu Sea, and
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  Speaker 1: who ostensibly depend upon pearl fishing for a living, and
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  Speaker 1: really lived by their high handed deeds of piracy against
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  Speaker 1: their neighbors and mankind in general, inhabit odd houses which
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  Speaker 1: are built on stout posts driven into the sand at
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  Speaker 1: the edge of the sea. The walls of the house
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  Speaker 1: houses are woven of bamboo, and the roots are thatched,
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  Speaker 1: like those of nearly all the native habitations, but the
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  Speaker 1: location is unique. When the tide is high, the surface
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  Speaker 1: of the water, fortunately the village is built over a
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  Speaker 1: sheltered bay, comes to within two feet beneath the floors
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  Speaker 1: of the houses, and the inhabitants go ashore in cockle
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  Speaker 1: shell boats. When the tide is low, the foundation posts
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  Speaker 1: rise out of the mud and sand, and the people
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  Speaker 1: go inland on foot, dodging piles of seaweed and similar
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  Speaker 1: debris left by the receding waves. It was one of
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  Speaker 1: these houses that I hired, and in it set up
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  Speaker 1: my household belongings while I was at work in that
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  Speaker 1: part of Palawan. The location had many advantages, for at
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  Speaker 1: that time I was principally engaged in collecting corals, sponges,
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  Speaker 1: shell fish, and similar salt water specimens. The natives brought
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  Speaker 1: me both loads of such material, for once in their
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  Speaker 1: lives at least working for honest wages. I sorted over
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  Speaker 1: the stuff they brought on a platform built out in
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  Speaker 1: front of my house, and disposed of the mass of
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  Speaker 1: refuse in the easiest way imaginable, merely by shoving it
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  Speaker 1: off the edge of the platform into the water, where
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  Speaker 1: the tide washed it out to sea. Then, too, this
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  Speaker 1: keeping house over the water brought a blessed relief from
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  Speaker 1: the invasion of one's home by snakes, rats, ants, and
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  Speaker 1: all the vermin of that kind, which makes Philippine housekeeping
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  Speaker 1: on the land a burden to the flesh. While I
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  Speaker 1: did not foresee at first that the very water which
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  Speaker 1: protected me from these dangers might make possible the secret
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  Speaker 1: incursions of larger creatures. The disadvantage of this semi marine
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  Speaker 1: style of architecture, as I looked at it, was that
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  Speaker 1: some night a big tidal wave might come along, chasing
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  Speaker 1: a frolicsome earthquake, and bearing my house and myself along
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  Speaker 1: with it, leave us hanging high and dry in the
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  Speaker 1: top of some clump of palm trees half a dozen
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  Speaker 1: miles inland. So far as the Moros were concerned, I
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  Speaker 1: gone along all right with them. They knew in the
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  Speaker 1: first place that I had the authority of the Spanish
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  Speaker 1: government to do about what I chose in Palawan. And
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  Speaker 1: although they cared not one ripple of the Sulu Sea
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  Speaker 1: for the authority of Spain when it could not be
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  Speaker 1: enforced by force of arms, they did respect my arsenal
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  Speaker 1: of weapons and the skill with which I one day
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  Speaker 1: shot down a crazy Tulisan of their tribe who had
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  Speaker 1: started to run amok, and by the shot save the
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  Speaker 1: lives of no one knew how many of them. This
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  Speaker 1: and my doctoring back to health two of their number
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  Speaker 1: who were ill, made us very good friends. And I
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  Speaker 1: could not have asked for more willing helpers or more able,
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  Speaker 1: especially Polenho. It was not for many weeks after I
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  Speaker 1: had left Palawan for good that I came to understand
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  Speaker 1: that Polhncho may have had a double reason for his willingness,
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  Speaker 1: which at that time I little suspected. I remember very
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  Speaker 1: well the first time I saw the fellow. It was
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  Speaker 1: the day of the Macasilla festival. Up to that time
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  Speaker 1: I had found no morrol who would work steadily as
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  Speaker 1: my helper. Whatever men I hired, although satisfactory while they worked,
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  Speaker 1: would eventually have something else to do, either pearl fishing
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  Speaker 1: or hunting, or long trips seaward in their Proas they
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  Speaker 1: said for fishing, But I thought and found later I
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  Speaker 1: had thought rightly for robbery. Even po Henshow used to
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  Speaker 1: claim time now and then when he said the conditions
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  Speaker 1: of the water and weather were favorable for finding pearl
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  Speaker 1: oysters to go and dive for those lottery ticket like
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  Speaker 1: by balms. To tell the truth, I did not blame
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  Speaker 1: the men so very much for turning pirates. After I
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  Speaker 1: came really to understand the conditions connected with the pearl fisheries,
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  Speaker 1: the pearl oysters live at the bottom of such deep
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  Speaker 1: water and are so hard to get that I have
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  Speaker 1: often seen a man come up from his search for
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  Speaker 1: them with blood running from his ears and nose, the
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  Speaker 1: result of staying down so long. Of course, such things
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  Speaker 1: as divers suits and air pumps were unknown there. The
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  Speaker 1: men stripped their slim brown bodies naked and went over
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  Speaker 1: the side of the boat with no apparatus except their
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  Speaker 1: two hands and a sharp knife to use against the sharks.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes the men never came back, and then we knew
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  Speaker 1: the knife had not been quick enough. Polhnsho had a
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  Speaker 1: row of scars on one leg where a shark had
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  Speaker 1: bitten him years before, which made the leg look as
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  Speaker 1: if it had been between the bars of a giant's
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  Speaker 1: broiling iron. Then, after the forces of nature had been overcome,
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  Speaker 1: as if they alone were not bad enough, the representatives
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  Speaker 1: of the government, the Gobernador Cilio, had to be reckoned with,
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  Speaker 1: and he was worse than all the rest. The pearl
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  Speaker 1: fisheries of Palawan were the property of the Sultan of Sulu.
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  Speaker 1: At least up to that time. That monarch had been
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  Speaker 1: able to maintain an ownership in them, which allowed him
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  Speaker 1: to claim all of the pearls above a certain size.
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  Speaker 1: All that the divers got for their risk and labor
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  Speaker 1: were the small pearls and the shells. Fortunately for them,
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  Speaker 1: most of the shells had a market value for cutting
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  Speaker 1: into cameos and for inlay work, and the Chinese dealers
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  Speaker 1: who came to Palawan bought them as well as the pearls.
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  Speaker 1: It was the business of the Gobana door Celia to
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  Speaker 1: watch the divers and take from them all the pearls
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  Speaker 1: large enough to become the perquisite of the Sultan. The
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  Speaker 1: men were allowed to go out to the water over
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  Speaker 1: the oyster beds only on certain days, and then the
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  Speaker 1: Sultan's representative went with them and sat in his boat
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  Speaker 1: to keep watch that no shells were opened. There After
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  Speaker 1: the boats had returned to the land, every oyster shell
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  Speaker 1: was opened under his watchful eye, and every large pearl
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  Speaker 1: was claimed. Of course, it was only rarely that an
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  Speaker 1: oyster held the pearl, more rarely still that the gem
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  Speaker 1: was a large one. When they did find a big one,
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  Speaker 1: it always made me feel sorry to see the poor
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  Speaker 1: fellow who had worked so hard for it, have to
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  Speaker 1: give the prize up to go, no doubt to deck
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  Speaker 1: some one of the four hundred wives of the ruler
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  Speaker 1: who lived across the Sulu Sea. Pol Henshaw was one
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  Speaker 1: of the best of the divers. It was at the
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  Speaker 1: Maksilla Festival, as I have said, that I first noticed him.
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  Speaker 1: For a month the natives had talked about Macasla, and this,
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  Speaker 1: with what I heard about it before, made me anxious
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  Speaker 1: to see the performance. So far as I knew, I
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  Speaker 1: was the first American who had ever had the opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: It is only rarely that the festival can be kept,
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  Speaker 1: because its success depends upon the possession by the natives
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  Speaker 1: of the berries of a certain shrub, which must be
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  Speaker 1: in just such a stage of ripeness to have the
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  Speaker 1: requisite power. The plant on which the berries grow is
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  Speaker 1: not at all common. In this case, it was necessary
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  Speaker 1: to send a long way into the distant part of
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  Speaker 1: the island to get the berries. The Macasla Festival is
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  Speaker 1: really a great fishing expedition in which every man, woman
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  Speaker 1: and child who lives near the village where it is
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  Speaker 1: held takes part. The berries are the essential element in
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  Speaker 1: a great mass composed of various ingredients mixed together, just
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  Speaker 1: the same as a bit of yeast put into a
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  Speaker 1: pan of bread leavens the whole lot. One very old
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  Speaker 1: man was said to be the only person near there
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  Speaker 1: who understood just how to make the mixture. A large
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  Speaker 1: log which had been hollowed out and used at one
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  Speaker 1: time for a canoe, was utilized as a trough to
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  Speaker 1: make the mixture in The mass was mixed up in
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  Speaker 1: the afternoon and left to ferment overnight. When he had
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  Speaker 1: it ready, the old man covered the canoe with banana
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  Speaker 1: leaves and forbade any one to go near it until
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  Speaker 1: the next morning. I saw several different kinds of vegetable
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  Speaker 1: substances crushed up to be put into the canoe besides
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  Speaker 1: the berries, and at last a quantity of wood ashes
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  Speaker 1: were added. The next morning, every one was out early,
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  Speaker 1: as it was necessary to begin operations when the tide
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  Speaker 1: was at its very lowest point. Every one about the
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  Speaker 1: village was on hand, each person bringing a loosely woven
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  Speaker 1: wicker basket into which was put a small quantity of
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  Speaker 1: the mixture from the old log canoe. When all had
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  Speaker 1: been provided with this, they walked out as far as
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  Speaker 1: they could go to where the tide was just turning,
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  Speaker 1: then waiting until the incoming water had passed them on
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  Speaker 1: its way inland. The natives formed in a long line
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  Speaker 1: parallel with the shore, dropped their baskets into the water,
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  Speaker 1: and shook them to and fro until all the macasla
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  Speaker 1: had been washed out through the loose wicker work. In
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  Speaker 1: about ten minutes, the effect of the mixture began to
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  Speaker 1: be seen. The smaller fish were affected first and began
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  Speaker 1: to come to the top of the water as if
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  Speaker 1: for air. Very soon they were followed by the larger ones,
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  Speaker 1: and soon the water seemed filled with them. They would
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  Speaker 1: come to the top of the water, turn on one side,
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  Speaker 1: flop about a little, as if intoxicated, and then sink
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  Speaker 1: helplessly to the bottom, where the water, being nowhere very deep,
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  Speaker 1: it was easy to see them and capture them. The
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  Speaker 1: natives secured basket after basket full, getting some so large
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  Speaker 1: that they could not carry them in their baskets. These
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  Speaker 1: they would disable with amachette and then tow ashore. The
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  Speaker 1: fish did not eat the macasla. It seemed simply to
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  Speaker 1: have impregnated the water, making a solution too powerful for
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  Speaker 1: them to withstand. They were not killed by its effects,
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  Speaker 1: but acted as if they were drunk. Those which the
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  Speaker 1: natives did not capture, soon recovered and swam away as
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  Speaker 1: briskly as ever before they were able to do this,
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  Speaker 1: though the natives had secured more than enough food to
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  Speaker 1: last them as long as it would remain eatable. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: I found the miscellaneous harvest of sea animals which the
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  Speaker 1: Macasla brought in most interesting, and secured a good many
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  Speaker 1: valuable specimens. Inasmuch as I had contributed very materially to
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  Speaker 1: the feast which was to take place that night, and
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  Speaker 1: which lasted all night long, the people let me wade
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  Speaker 1: about among the strangely helpless creatures and have a first
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  Speaker 1: pick of such as I wanted. I had noticed poltenshow
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  Speaker 1: running about as one of the strongest and most agile
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  Speaker 1: of all the men in the water, and when he
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  Speaker 1: came near me once when my basket was heavy, I
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  Speaker 1: offered to hire him to help me, although I had
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  Speaker 1: little idea that any one would work for wages at
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  Speaker 1: such a time. Quite to my surprise, he seemed willing
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  Speaker 1: and joined me in what I was doing. I learned
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  Speaker 1: afterwards that having no family to provide for, he was
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  Speaker 1: not so much in need of profiting by the fish
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  Speaker 1: harvest as most of the men were. He had worked
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  Speaker 1: in the water all his life and knew more about
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  Speaker 1: the habits of some of the creatures we caught than
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  Speaker 1: I did. When we came to go to my house
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  Speaker 1: and he saw the specimens I had preserved there, he
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  Speaker 1: seemed to take a more intelligent interest in them than
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  Speaker 1: any other man I had ever had, and I was
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  Speaker 1: glad to be able to hire him to work for
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  Speaker 1: me all of the time, barring the few days he
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  Speaker 1: reserved for pearl fishing. The season which followed proved to
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  Speaker 1: be an unusually successful one for the divers. The crop
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  Speaker 1: of oysters was large, and many pearls were found. The
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  Speaker 1: gems which were to go to the Sultan were superb,
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  Speaker 1: and there would be enough of them to make a
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  Speaker 1: truly royal necklace. One night, about six months after the
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  Speaker 1: Macasla festival, I awoke suddenly from a sound sleep with
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  Speaker 1: that strange feeling which sometimes come to one at night
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  Speaker 1: that I was not alone. While I lay listening and
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  Speaker 1: peering into the darkness of the room in which I slept,
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  Speaker 1: I heard a soft splash in the water beneath me,
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  Speaker 1: such as a big fish might have made if he
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  Speaker 1: had come to the surface. And diving back, had struck
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  Speaker 1: the water with his tail. It had been high tide
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  Speaker 1: soon after midnight, and the water was not more than
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  Speaker 1: three or four feet beneath me. I listened a long time,
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  Speaker 1: but could hear nothing more, and finally went to sleep again,
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  Speaker 1: deciding that the splash I had heard had been made
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  Speaker 1: by a shark, and that some noise which he had
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  Speaker 1: made before that had been what had roused me. Any
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  Speaker 1: further thought of my disturbance, which I might have had,
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  Speaker 1: was driven from my mind in the morning, when I
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  Speaker 1: came out and found the community in a state of
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  Speaker 1: violent commotion. The gobierno, the house in which the Gobernadorsilio, lived,
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  Speaker 1: had been robbed in the night, and a bag containing
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  Speaker 1: about half the Sultan's pearls was gone. The government official,
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  Speaker 1: along with several other residents, lived on shore. The houses,
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  Speaker 1: which like mine, were built over the water, were generally
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  Speaker 1: inhabited by the divers and their families. The voice of
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  Speaker 1: the Gobernadorsilo was not the only one raised in lamentation
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  Speaker 1: that morning by any means, for he had very promptly
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  Speaker 1: begun a search for the missing jewels by beating his
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  Speaker 1: servants and every one connected with the official residence within
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  Speaker 1: an inch of their lives. When this did not produce
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  Speaker 1: the pearls, he extended the process to such other unfortunate
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  Speaker 1: residents of the town as fell under his suspicion. I
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  Speaker 1: really think the only thing which kept him from killing
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  Speaker 1: a few of the wretches was the fear that he
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  Speaker 1: might by some chance include the thief in the number
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  Speaker 1: and thus destroy all hope of getting back the stolen gems.
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  Speaker 1: No man, woman or child was allowed to leave the village.
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  Speaker 1: And so thorough was the system by which one of
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  Speaker 1: those deputy tax collectors kept track of his people, that
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  Speaker 1: he knew every one by name, and knew just where
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  Speaker 1: each one should be found. His superiors required a certain
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: sum of money from each tax collector. They did not
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  Speaker 1: care in the smallest degree where or how he got
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the money, but a certain amount he must turn in
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  Speaker 1: at stated times, or else be put in prison and
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: have other unpleasant things done to him. So it stood
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  Speaker 1: the Gobernadorosilio in goodstead to know who his people were,
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  Speaker 1: and where they were, and how much each person and
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  Speaker 1: could be made to pay. As soon as his arm
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  Speaker 1: was wrested from the beating, he had given the suspected natives,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the official began a personal search of each house in
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  Speaker 1: the village. The native houses are so simple, and their
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  Speaker 1: stock of furniture so small, that it was no great
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  Speaker 1: task to make a thorough inspection of the entire place.
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  Speaker 1: What little furniture each house had was outside of it
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  Speaker 1: when the examination of that house was completed. It was
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  Speaker 1: fortunate for the people who lived in the houses built
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  Speaker 1: over the water that their homes were visited at low tide,
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  Speaker 1: For in the state of the examiner's temper when he
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: visited them, I think their effects would have gone out
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  Speaker 1: into the sea just as quickly as they went out
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  Speaker 1: on to the sand. Even my house came under the
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: terms of the universal edict, although my things were not
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  Speaker 1: used so harshly as were those of the natives, which
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  Speaker 1: was fortunate for me, for I had hundreds of specimens packed,
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  Speaker 1: and many more ready to pack, which I should have
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  Speaker 1: been very sorry, indeed, to have had dumped out of doors.
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  Speaker 1: My relations with the governor had always been pleasant. He
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  Speaker 1: really was quite as good a man as any one
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  Speaker 1: in his place could be expected to be. We had
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  Speaker 1: gotten along very well together, and I was glad now
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  Speaker 1: that this was so. When he came to my house,
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  Speaker 1: he contented himself with looking through the part of the
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  Speaker 1: building where the native servant who cooked for me worked
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  Speaker 1: and lived. Polhnsho slept at home and spent only the
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  Speaker 1: daytime at my house. The search of that part of
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  Speaker 1: the establishment over, the worried official sat down in my
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  Speaker 1: work room to rest for a few minutes, cool himself off,
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  Speaker 1: and bewail the fate which had brought him such ill luck. Polhnsho,
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  Speaker 1: who was washing sponges on the platform outside, and had
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  Speaker 1: for this reason not been at his brother's house where
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: he slept when that domicile was searched, was called in,
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  Speaker 1: and while his official master rested, was made to strip
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  Speaker 1: himself stark naked, and turn his few slight garments the
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  Speaker 1: clothing of if a moto is always an uncertain quantity
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  Speaker 1: inside out, to show that nothing was hidden Therein knowing
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  Speaker 1: the place so well as I did and the means
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  Speaker 1: at the command of the Gobernador Cilio, I could not,
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  Speaker 1: for the life of me see how any one who
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  Speaker 1: had stolen the pearls could keep them, or hide them,
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  Speaker 1: for that matter, unless they had been thrown back into
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the sea again so far as the governor himself was concerned,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: he would not suffer from the loss. The yearly crop
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of pearls was not like the money tax a stated sum.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Nor could the sultan enforce his claims as did the
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Spanish government. His title to the fisheries was too slight
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: for it to be policy for him to make trouble.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Besides that Sulu was so far away that its ruler
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: might never hear that this year's crop had been larger
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: than usual. Not all the gems had been taken. The
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: governor could turn over what had been left him, and
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: it was not at all likely that any questions would
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: be asked. In fact, if it had not been for
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: his evident concern, which I did not believe him clever
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: enough to have simulated, I would almost have believed he
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: had stolen the pearse himself. He certainly was indefatigable in
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: his attempts to find the missing property. Not a native
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: left the village for any purpose that his clothing and
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: his boat, if he was going out upon the water,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: were not inspected. My own stay in Palawan was nearly
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: ended at the time, and it was not long after
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: that before I had completed my collections, packed my specimens,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and was ready to go. Polhnshaw had agreed to go
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: with me as far as Manila, to handle my freight
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and baggage, and to help me there about repacking and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: shipping my specimens on my going to Europe. He was
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to return to Pallawan when I was ready to go
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and had my luggage in shape to be sent on
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: board the sailboat which was to take me to a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: port visited by the monthly steamer to Manila. I wondered
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: if the Gobanadrsilia would let me go. He proved very obliging, however,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: shook hands and hoped I would have a pleasant voyage.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Pol Henshaw, though had to submit to the usual ordeal
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: of having his clothing searched luggage he had none, so
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: he was not troubled in that respect. I had planned
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: to stop in Hong Kong a month on my way
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to Europe. On the morning of the day that I
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: was to leave there, I was surprised to receive a
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: package by one of the local English expresses of the city,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: and more surprised to find that the package contained a
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: small box of specimens which had been missing when I
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: had repacked my property at Manila. The specimens in this
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: box were particularly choice ones, and their loss had been
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: as annoying as it had been unaccountable. The pleasure which
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I felt in getting them back, though, was nothing compared
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to my amazement when I found, along with the package
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: another small one containing a letter from pol Henshow. The letter,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: if I had chosen to put it among my specimens,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: would have ranked, I am sure, among the greatest curiosities
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of the whole collection. Poalnshaw was not a scholar. His
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: accomplishments lay in the line of diving and swimming, in
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: gathering pearls, and such things as that. He never would
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: have wasted his time in struggling with pen and paper
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: now if the nature of the correspondence had not been
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: such that he could not safely entrust it to any
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: one else. And the full comprehension of the remarkable document,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: written in the mingled Native and Spanish languages with which
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: he had favored me, was not vouchsafed to me at
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the first reading or the second. Translated and made as
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: nearly coherent as possible, it ran about like this, I
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: stole the pearls. I only took half, so not too
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: much scrimmage. Fuss wrote trouble. The native word he used
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: meant no one of these exactly, and yet included them.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: All would be made. I was tired of working so
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: hard and the sharks and not getting anything for it
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: but shells. I made up my mind I would do it.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Soon after I went to work for you, I went
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: diving after that, only that I be not suspected. I
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: knew all of us native people would be searched, but
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I thought he would pass you by. So that night,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: after I had got the pearls, I swam out to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: your house, climbed up through the floor, and hid the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: bag in a place where I would know. Then one day,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: when I packed a fine, big shell, I hid the
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: bag in it and marked the box. When we got
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: to Manila, I stole the box. I sorrow to make
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: you this bad time, but have no other way. I
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: take good care of box, though, after I take pearls
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: out to bring it here with me, and now I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: send it back. I sell all the pearls here but
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: one to China merchant for money enough to make me
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: always a rich man. I don't think I go back
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: to Palawan. One pearl I save back and send you
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: with this letter to remember by it. Pol hen Show
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: that was what was in the package with the letter,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the pearl he had saved, this one which I wear.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: As I said in the first place, I am ready
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: to give it up when I can find a man
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: who has a better claim to it than I have.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: My right of ownership in the gem is not, I confess,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: very substantial. But whose is it? It was not the Gobernadorsilios,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: for he was only an agent. And besides that, he
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: left Palawa not long after I did, as I have
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: found out by inquiry, and I cannot learn where he
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: now is. The Sultan of Sulu, who reigned then is dead,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and if the gem belonged to him, it did not
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: belong to his successor, for the friends of the first
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: ruler declared that the man who gained the throne after
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: him was a false claimant. Should I send it to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the dead man's heirs, He had no son, and one
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: can hardly divide one pearl among four hundred widows. Only
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Polhenchho is left, and his claim, even if I could
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: find him, I fear, would be counted hardly legal. Quite
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: likely he would not take it back even if I
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: found him, And sometimes times when I reflect upon what
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: would probably have happened to me if the bag of
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: stolen pearls had been found by any chance in my house,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I am not sure that I should feel like offering
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the gem to him. End of section eleven recording by
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: maricel Qui. End of Anti Hunting Stories and Other Strange
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Tales of the Filipinos by Sergeant Kaim. Thank you for listening.