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The Fifteenth Wife · Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme

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  Speaker 1: Section five of Unting Hunting Stories by Sergeant Kaime. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox coording is in the public domain. The fifteenth Wife Matteo,
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  Speaker 1: my Filipino servant, was helping me sort over specimens one
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  Speaker 1: day under the thatched roof of a shed which I
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  Speaker 1: had hired to use for such work while I was
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  Speaker 1: on the island of Culion, when I was startled to
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  Speaker 1: see him suddenly drop the bird skin he had been
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  Speaker 1: working on and fall upon his knees, bending his body forward,
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  Speaker 1: his face turned toward the road until his forehead touched
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  Speaker 1: the floor. At first I thought he must be having
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  Speaker 1: some new kind of a fit peculiar to the Philippine Islands,
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  Speaker 1: until I happened to glance up the road towards the
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  Speaker 1: town from which my house was a little distance removed,
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  Speaker 1: and saw coming towards us a most remarkable procession. Four
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  Speaker 1: native soldiers walked in front, two carrying long spears and
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  Speaker 1: two carrying antiquated seven foot muskets, relics of a former
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  Speaker 1: era in fire arms. After the soldiers came four Visayan
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  Speaker 1: slaves bearing on their shoulders a sort of platform covered
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  Speaker 1: with rugs and cushions, on which a woman reclined. On
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  Speaker 1: one side of the litter walked another slave holding a
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  Speaker 1: huge umbrella so as to keep the sun's rays off
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  Speaker 1: the woman's face. Two more soldiers walked behind Matteo might
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  Speaker 1: have been a statue or a dead man, for all
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  Speaker 1: the attention he paid to my questions until after the
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  Speaker 1: procession had passed the house. Then, resuming a perpendicular position
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  Speaker 1: once more, he said, that was the Sultana Ameya, the Sultana.
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  Speaker 1: Then he went on to explain that there were thirteen
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  Speaker 1: other sultanas of assorted colors who helped make home happy
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  Speaker 1: for the Sultan of Cullion, who, after all well supplied
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  Speaker 1: as he might at first seem to be, was only
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  Speaker 1: a sort of four class sovereign so far as sultanas
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  Speaker 1: are concerned, since his fellow monarch on a neighboring larger island,
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  Speaker 1: the Sultan of Sulu, is said to have four hundred wives. Ameia,
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  Speaker 1: though Matteo went on to inform me, was the only
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  Speaker 1: one of the fourteen who really counted. She was neither
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  Speaker 1: the oldest nor the youngest of the wives of the
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  Speaker 1: reigning ruler, but she had developed a mind of her
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  Speaker 1: own which had made her supreme in the palace, and besides,
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  Speaker 1: she was the only one of his wives who had
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  Speaker 1: borne a son to the monarch. For her own talents,
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  Speaker 1: and as the mother of the heir, the people did
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  Speaker 1: her willing homage. When I saw the royal cavalcade go
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  Speaker 1: past my door, I had no idea I would ever
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  Speaker 1: have a chance to become more intimately acquainted with her majesty.
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  Speaker 1: But only a little while after that circumstances made it
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  Speaker 1: possible for me to see more of the royal family
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  Speaker 1: than had probably been the privilege of any other white man.
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  Speaker 1: How little thought I had when the acquaintance began of
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  Speaker 1: the strange experiences it would eventually lead to. At that time,
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  Speaker 1: in the course of collecting natural history specimens, most of
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  Speaker 1: my time for three years was spent in the island
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  Speaker 1: of Cullion, having a large stock of drugs for use
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  Speaker 1: in my work, and quite a lot of medicines I
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  Speaker 1: had doctored Matteo and two or three other fellows who
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  Speaker 1: had worked for me when they had been ill. With
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  Speaker 1: the result that I found I had come to have
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  Speaker 1: a reputation for medical skill, which sometimes was inconvenient. I
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  Speaker 1: had no idea how widely my fame had spread, though,
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  Speaker 1: until one morning Mateo came into my room and woke me, and,
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  Speaker 1: with a face which expressed a good deal of anxiety,
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  Speaker 1: informed me that I was sent for to come to
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  Speaker 1: the palace. I confess I felt some concern myself, and
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  Speaker 1: should have felt more if I had had as much
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  Speaker 1: experience then as I had later. For one never knows
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  Speaker 1: what those three quarters said. Savage potentates may take it
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  Speaker 1: into their heads to do. When I found that I
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  Speaker 1: was sent for because the Sultan was ill, ill unto death,
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  Speaker 1: the messenger had made Matteo believe, and I was expected
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  Speaker 1: to doctor him, I did not feel much more comfortable,
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  Speaker 1: for I much doubted if my knowledge of diseases and
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  Speaker 1: my assortment of medicines were equal to coping with a
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  Speaker 1: serious case. If the Sultan died, I would probably be beheaded,
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  Speaker 1: either for not keeping him alive or for killing him.
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  Speaker 1: It was a great relief then, when I reached the palace,
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  Speaker 1: and just before I entered the room where the sick
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  Speaker 1: monarch was, to hear him swearing vigorously in a combination
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  Speaker 1: of the native and Spanish languages, which was as picturesque
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  Speaker 1: as it was expressive. I found the man suffering from
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  Speaker 1: an acute attack of neuralgia. Although he did not know
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  Speaker 1: what was the matter with him, he had not been
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  Speaker 1: able to sleep for three days and nights, and the pain,
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  Speaker 1: all though way up and down one side of his face,
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  Speaker 1: had been so intense that he thought he was going
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  Speaker 1: to die, and almost hoped that he was. His head
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  Speaker 1: was tied up in a lot of cloths not over clean,
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  Speaker 1: in which a dozen native doctor's charms had been folded
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  Speaker 1: until the bundle was as big as foreheads ought to be.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as I found out what was the matter,
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  Speaker 1: I felt relieved, for I reckoned. I could manage an
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  Speaker 1: attack of swelled head, all right. I had doctored the
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  Speaker 1: natives enough already to find out that they had no
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  Speaker 1: respect for remedies which they could not feel. And so
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  Speaker 1: going back to the house, I brought from there some
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  Speaker 1: extra strong liniment, some tincture of red pepper, and a
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  Speaker 1: few powerful morphine pills. I gave my patient one of
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  Speaker 1: the pills the first thing, administering it in a glass
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  Speaker 1: of water with enough of the cayenne added to it
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  Speaker 1: so that the mixture brought tears to his eyes, and
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  Speaker 1: then removing the layers of cloth from his head, and
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  Speaker 1: gathering in as I did so for my collection of
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  Speaker 1: curiosities the various charms which I uncovered. I gave his
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  Speaker 1: head a vigorous shampooing with the lineament, taking pains to
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  Speaker 1: see that the liquor occasionally ran down into the Sultan's eyes.
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  Speaker 1: He squirmed a good deal, but I kept on until
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  Speaker 1: I thought it must be about time for the morphine
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  Speaker 1: to begin to take effect. I kept him on morphine
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  Speaker 1: and red pepper for three days, but when I let
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  Speaker 1: up on him, he was cured, and my reputation was made.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been too great an nuisance to have
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  Speaker 1: been endured had it not been that so high a
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  Speaker 1: degree of royal favor enabled me to pursue my work
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  Speaker 1: with a degree of success which otherwise I could never
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  Speaker 1: have hoped for. After that, I used to see a
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  Speaker 1: good deal of the palace life. Although nominally Mohammedans in religion,
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  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of these more distant islands have little more
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  Speaker 1: than the name of the faith and follow out few
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  Speaker 1: of its injunctions. As a result, I was accorded a
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  Speaker 1: freedom about the Palace which would have been impossible in
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  Speaker 1: such an establishment. In almost any other country. One day,
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  Speaker 1: the Sultan had invited me to dine with him after
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  Speaker 1: the meal. While we were smoking, reclining in some cocoanut
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  Speaker 1: fiber hammocks swung in the shade of the palace courtyard,
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  Speaker 1: I saw a man servant laid a dog through the
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  Speaker 1: square and down a narrow passageway through the rear of
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  Speaker 1: the palace. Would you like to see the green devil eat?
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  Speaker 1: My host? Asked? I have translated the native words he
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  Speaker 1: used by the term green devil, because that represents the
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  Speaker 1: idea of the original better than any other words I
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  Speaker 1: know of. I had not the slightest conception as to
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  Speaker 1: who or what the individual referred to might be, but
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  Speaker 1: I said at once that I would be very glad
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  Speaker 1: indeed to see him eat. My host swung out of
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  Speaker 1: the hammock. He was a superbly strong and vigorous man,
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  Speaker 1: now that he was in health again, and led the
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  Speaker 1: way through the passage. Following him, I found myself in
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  Speaker 1: another courtyard, larger than the first, and with more trees
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  Speaker 1: in it. Beneath one of these trees, in a sout
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  Speaker 1: cage of bamboo, was the biggest python I ever saw.
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  Speaker 1: He must have been fully twenty five feet long. The
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  Speaker 1: cage was large enough to give the snake a chance
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  Speaker 1: to move about in it, and when we came in sight,
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  Speaker 1: he was rolling from one end to the other, with
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  Speaker 1: head erect, eyes glistening, and the light shimmering on his
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  Speaker 1: glossy scales in the way which made it easy to
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  Speaker 1: see why he had been given his name. I learned
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  Speaker 1: later that he had not been fed for a month,
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  Speaker 1: and that he would not be fed again until another
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  Speaker 1: month had passed. Like all of his kind, he would
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  Speaker 1: touch none but live food. The wretched dog, who seemed
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  Speaker 1: to guess the fate in store for him, hung back
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  Speaker 1: in the rope, tied about his neck, and crouched flat
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  Speaker 1: to the ground, Too frightened even to whine, the servant
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  Speaker 1: unlocked a door in the side of the cage and
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  Speaker 1: thrust the poor beast in. I am not ashamed to
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  Speaker 1: say that I had turned my head away. It was
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  Speaker 1: only a dog, but it might have been a human being,
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  Speaker 1: so far as the reptile or the half savage man
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  Speaker 1: at my side would have cared. When I looked again,
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  Speaker 1: the dog was only a crushed mass of bones and flesh,
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  Speaker 1: about which the snake was still winding and tightening, coil
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  Speaker 1: after coil. We need not wait, the Sultan said, it
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  Speaker 1: will be an hour before he will swallow the food.
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  Speaker 1: You can come out again. I did as he suggested.
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  Speaker 1: It was a wonder to me, as it is to everyone,
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  Speaker 1: how a snake's throat can be distended enough to swallow
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  Speaker 1: whole an object so large as this dog. But in
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  Speaker 1: some way the reptile had accomplished defeat the meal over.
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  Speaker 1: The huge creature had coiled down as still, almost as
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  Speaker 1: if dead. He would lie in that way now, they
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  Speaker 1: told me, for days. It was while I stood watching
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  Speaker 1: the snake that Ameia came through the square, leading her
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  Speaker 1: boy by the hand. The apartments of the royal wives
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  Speaker 1: were built around this inner yard. This was the first
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  Speaker 1: time I had seen the heir to the throne. He
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  Speaker 1: was a handsome boy and looked like his mother. Ameia
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  Speaker 1: was tall for a native woman, and carried herself with
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  Speaker 1: the dignity, which showed that she felt the honor of
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  Speaker 1: her position. Mattheo had told me that she had a
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  Speaker 1: decided will of her own, and so the palace, gossip said,
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  Speaker 1: ruled the establishment and her associate sultanas with an unbending hand.
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  Speaker 1: It was not very long after I had seen the
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  Speaker 1: Green Devil eat that Matthea told me there had been
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  Speaker 1: another wedding at the palace. Mattheo was an indefatigable news
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  Speaker 1: gatherer and an incorrigible goasis. As the society papers would
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  Speaker 1: have expressed it, this wedding had been a very quiet affair.
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  Speaker 1: The Sultan had happened to see a Visian girl of
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  Speaker 1: uncommon beauty on one of the smaller islands one day,
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  Speaker 1: had bought her of her father for two water buffaloes,
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  Speaker 1: and had installed her at the palace as wife number
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  Speaker 1: fifteen for the time being. The newcomer was said to
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  Speaker 1: be the royal favorite, a condition of affairs which caused
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  Speaker 1: the other fourteen wives as little concerned as their objections,
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  Speaker 1: if they had expressed any, would probably have caused their
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  Speaker 1: royal husband. So far as Amea was concerned, she never
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  Speaker 1: minded a little thing like that, but included the last
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  Speaker 1: arrival in the same indifferent toleration which she had extended
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  Speaker 1: to her predecessors. I saw the new wife only once.
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  Speaker 1: I mean yes, I mean that I saw her as
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  Speaker 1: the King's wife only once. She was a handsome woman
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  Speaker 1: with a certain insolent disdain of those about her, which
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  Speaker 1: indicated that she knew her own charms and perhaps counted
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  Speaker 1: too much on their being permanent. That summer, my work
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  Speaker 1: took me away from the island. I went to Manila
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  Speaker 1: and eventually to America. When I finally returned to Coollyon
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  Speaker 1: a year had passed. I had engaged Matteo before I left,
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  Speaker 1: to look out for such property as I left behind,
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  Speaker 1: and had retained my old house. I found him waiting
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  Speaker 1: for me, and with everything in good order. That is
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  Speaker 1: one good thing to be said about the natives, and
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  Speaker 1: imagined wrong or insult may rankle in their minds for
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  Speaker 1: months until they have a chance to stab you in
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  Speaker 1: the back. They will lie to you at times with
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  Speaker 1: the most unblushing nerve, often when the truth would have
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  Speaker 1: served their ends so much better than it seems, as
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  Speaker 1: if they must have been doing mendacious gymnastics simply to
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  Speaker 1: keep themselves in practice. But they will hardly ever steal.
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  Speaker 1: If they do, it will be some time when you
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  Speaker 1: are looking so squarely at them carrying a thing off
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  Speaker 1: from under your very nose, with the cleverness which they
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  Speaker 1: seem to think, and you can hardly help feel yourself
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  Speaker 1: makes them deserve praise instead of blame. I have repeatedly
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  Speaker 1: left much valuable property with them, as I did in
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  Speaker 1: this case with Mateo, and have come back to find
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  Speaker 1: every article just as I had left it. Mateo was
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  Speaker 1: glad to see me, Monseignor. He began before my clothes
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  Speaker 1: were fairly changed, and while he was settling my things
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  Speaker 1: in my bedroom. There is so much to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: I knew he would be bursting with news of what
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  Speaker 1: had happened during my absence such goings on. He continued
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  Speaker 1: folding my traveling clothes into a tin trunk where the
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  Speaker 1: white ants could not get at them. You never heard
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  Speaker 1: the likes of it. I am translating very freely, for
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  Speaker 1: I have noticed that the thoughts expressed by the Philippine
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  Speaker 1: gossip are very similar to those of his fellow in America,
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  Speaker 1: or Europe or anywhere else, no matter how much the
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  Speaker 1: words may differ. The new Sultana, the handsome Visayan girl,
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  Speaker 1: has given birth to a son, and has so bewitched
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  Speaker 1: the Sultan by her good looks and craftiness that he
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  Speaker 1: has decreed her son, and not AMEA's, to be the
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  Speaker 1: heir to the throne. She rules the palace now, and
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  Speaker 1: when her servants bear her through the streets, the people
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  Speaker 1: bow down to her, he added, with a look behind him,
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  Speaker 1: to see that no one overheard, because they dare not
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  Speaker 1: do otherwise. In their hearts. They love Ameya and hate
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  Speaker 1: this vain woman. How does Ameya take it, i asked, hardly.
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  Speaker 1: People think, although she makes no cry, she goes not
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  Speaker 1: through the streets of the town now, but stays shot
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  Speaker 1: in her own rooms with her women and the boy.
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  Speaker 1: A furious beating against the bamboo walls of my sleeping
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  Speaker 1: room and wild cries from some one on the ground
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  Speaker 1: outside awoke me one morning, when I had been back
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  Speaker 1: in Gullion less than a week. The house in which
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  Speaker 1: I slept, like most of the native houses in the Philippines,
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  Speaker 1: was built on posts several feet above the ground, for
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  Speaker 1: the sake of coolness and as a protection against snakes
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  Speaker 1: and such vermin. It was very early, not yet sunrise.
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  Speaker 1: A servant of the sultans, gray with fright, was pounding
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  Speaker 1: on the walls of the house with a long spear
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  Speaker 1: to wake me, begging me when I opened the lattice
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  Speaker 1: to come to the palace at once, I thought the
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  Speaker 1: monarch must have had some terrible attack, and wondered what
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  Speaker 1: it could be. But while we were hurrying up the street,
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  Speaker 1: the messenger managed to make me understand that the Sultan
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  Speaker 1: was not at the palace at all, but gone the
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  Speaker 1: day before on board the royal proa for a state
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  Speaker 1: visit to a neighboring island, from which he exacted yearly tribute.
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  Speaker 1: Later I learned that he had tried to have the
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  Speaker 1: Visayan woman go with him, but that she had wilfully
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  Speaker 1: refused to go. What was the matter at the palace,
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  Speaker 1: the ruler being gone? I could not make out. When
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  Speaker 1: I asked this of the man who had come for me,
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  Speaker 1: he fell into such a palsy of fear that he
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  Speaker 1: could say nothing. When I came to know later that
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  Speaker 1: he was the night guard at the palace, and remembered
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  Speaker 1: what he must have seen, I did not wonder. At
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  Speaker 1: the palace, no one was astir The man had come
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  Speaker 1: straight for me, stopping to rouse no one else. I
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  Speaker 1: had saved the Sultan's life, at least, he thought, so,
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  Speaker 1: might I not do even more? My guide took me
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  Speaker 1: straight through the first courtyard and down the narrow passage
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  Speaker 1: into the inner yard, around which were built the apartments
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  Speaker 1: of the woman Ameia I knew lived in the rooms
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  Speaker 1: at one end of the square. The man led me
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  Speaker 1: towards the opposite end of the enclosure, beside an open door.
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  Speaker 1: He stood aside for me to enter, saying, as he
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  Speaker 1: did so, senor help us. The sun had risen now,
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  Speaker 1: and shining full upon a lattice in the upper wall,
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  Speaker 1: flooded the room with a soft, clear light. The body
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  Speaker 1: of the Visayan woman, or rather what had been a body,
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  Speaker 1: lay on the floor in the center of the room,
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  Speaker 1: a shapeless mass of crushed bones and flesh. An enormous
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  Speaker 1: python lay coiled in one corner. His mottled skin glistened
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  Speaker 1: in the morning light. But he did not move, and
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  Speaker 1: his eyes were tight shut, as were those of the
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  Speaker 1: green devil. After I had seen him feed, I looked
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  Speaker 1: backward across the courtyard. The door of the big bamboo
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  Speaker 1: cage beneath the trees was open. I turned to the
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  Speaker 1: room again and looked once more. I knew now why
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  Speaker 1: the night guard's face was ash colored, and why he
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  Speaker 1: could not speak. For the child of the Visayan woman
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  Speaker 1: I could not see. End of section five. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: maricel qui