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The Cave in the Side of Coron · Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme

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  Speaker 1: Section two of Hunting Hunting Stories by Sergeant Kaimh. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The cave in
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  Speaker 1: the side of kron a baron is a Moro native's
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  Speaker 1: favorite weapon. With one deft whirl and then a downward
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  Speaker 1: slash of the keen steel blade, he can cleave the
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  Speaker 1: skull of an opponent from crown to teeth, or cut
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  Speaker 1: an arm clean from the shoulder socket. When I was
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  Speaker 1: sent with a squad of brave men from my company
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  Speaker 1: to reconnoiter from Mount Halcon in the island of Mendoro
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  Speaker 1: and the force was ambushed, the way I saw the
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  Speaker 1: men meet death will always make me hate Amoro. Why
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  Speaker 1: I was spared then and bound instead of being killed
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  Speaker 1: like the men, I could not imagine. Later, I knew
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  Speaker 1: the Moros had no business to be on Mindoro anyway.
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  Speaker 1: Their home was in Mindanao, far to the south. But
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  Speaker 1: three hundred years of Spanish attempt to rule them had
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  Speaker 1: left them still an untamed people, and the war between
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  Speaker 1: the two races had been endless. Each year, when the
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  Speaker 1: southwest monsoons had blown, the Morrow War proess had gone northward,
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  Speaker 1: carrying murder and pillage wherever They had appeared when the
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  Speaker 1: Spanish were not too much occupied elsewhere. They fitted out
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  Speaker 1: retaliatory expeditions, which left effects of little permanence. That year,
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  Speaker 1: the Moros had found not Spaniards but a small force
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  Speaker 1: of American troops sent south from Manila, and from them
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  Speaker 1: had cut off my little scouting squad. It made no
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  Speaker 1: difference to them that we were of another nation. They
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  Speaker 1: cared nothing for a change in rulers. We were white
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  Speaker 1: and Christians. That was enough. We were to be slain.
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  Speaker 1: The leader of the Moros was a tall, old man
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  Speaker 1: with glittering eyes set in a gloomy face. I watched
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  Speaker 1: him as I lay bound on the deck of one
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  Speaker 1: of the war proas for fearing attack. I suppose soon
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  Speaker 1: after my capture, the sails had been spread and the
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  Speaker 1: fleet of boats turned to the south feed him. The
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  Speaker 1: chief had said, when night came on and pointed to
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  Speaker 1: me with his foot. I thought then I had been
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  Speaker 1: saved from death for slavery, and deemed that the worst
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  Speaker 1: faith possible. I did not know the moral nature. On
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  Speaker 1: the afternoon of the fifth day out we passed Buswanga
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  Speaker 1: and approached a small rocky island, which I afterwards learned
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  Speaker 1: was korn. So far as could be seen, no human
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  Speaker 1: habitation was near, and far to the south stretched the
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  Speaker 1: unbroken waters of the Sulu Sea. The Chief gave an
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  Speaker 1: order in the Morotang, and a black and yellow flag
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  Speaker 1: was run up to the mast head. In response to
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  Speaker 1: the signal, all the proas of the fleet joined us
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  Speaker 1: in a little bay at the end of the island
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  Speaker 1: and dropped anchor at one side of the bay. It
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  Speaker 1: would be possible to land and climb from there to
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  Speaker 1: the top of the island, from which everywhere else as
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  Speaker 1: far as I could see, A sheer cliff came down
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  Speaker 1: three hundred feet to where the waves beat against the
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  Speaker 1: jagged rocks at its base. The smaller boats, which had
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  Speaker 1: been towed behind the larger craft, were cast off and
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  Speaker 1: brought alongside the chief's proa. I was lifted into one
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  Speaker 1: and rowed to a place where we could land. My
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  Speaker 1: feet had been untied, but my hands were still fastened
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  Speaker 1: behind my back. Two moros grasped me by the arms
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  Speaker 1: and guided me between them. They would not let me
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  Speaker 1: turn my head, but I could hear the voices of
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  Speaker 1: men following us. The chief led the way. He did
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  Speaker 1: not speak or pause until we had reached the level
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  Speaker 1: summit of the island. When he did speak, it was
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  Speaker 1: in Spanish, which he had learned, earned that I understood.
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  Speaker 1: We were halted on the very edge of the precipice.
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  Speaker 1: Far down below. The little fleet of warperals floated lightly
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  Speaker 1: on the water, the black and yellow signal still fluttering
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  Speaker 1: from the flagship. I could see now that the men
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  Speaker 1: that had come up the path behind me had brought
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  Speaker 1: a quantity of ropes. Perhaps there were thirty men in all.
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  Speaker 1: I wondered what they were going to do with me,
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  Speaker 1: but had decided that any fate was better than to
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  Speaker 1: be a moral slave. Men of MINDA now said the chief.
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  Speaker 1: You know our errand you know how often men of
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  Speaker 1: our band have been captured by the white men of
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  Speaker 1: the north to lie in prisons there where death comes
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  Speaker 1: so slowly that a barren blow would be paradise. The
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  Speaker 1: few that have crept back to us, weak, hollow eyed,
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  Speaker 1: and trembling, have only come to show us what it
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  Speaker 1: meant to starve, and then have died. The sky is
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  Speaker 1: just and gives us once and again a white man
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  Speaker 1: to whom we may show that the prophet's words an
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  Speaker 1: eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
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  Speaker 1: are just give the white dog his jew Two men
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  Speaker 1: grasped me and wound a stout rope, coil after coil
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  Speaker 1: about me from my neck to my feet, until I
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  Speaker 1: was as helpless as a swath Egyptian mummy. One end
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  Speaker 1: of another rope was fastened in a slip noos about
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  Speaker 1: my body, and a dozen of the men, sitting well
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  Speaker 1: back from the edge of the cliff and bracing themselves
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  Speaker 1: one against another, paid out the rope. The chief himself,
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  Speaker 1: touching me with his foot as he would have touched
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  Speaker 1: some unclean thing, rolled me over the brink of the precipice.
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  Speaker 1: The sharp rocks cut my face until the blood came,
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  Speaker 1: but that meant little to a man who expected to
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  Speaker 1: be dropped upon rocks just as sharp three hundred feet
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  Speaker 1: beneath him. Slowly I was lowered down the face of
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  Speaker 1: the cliff, until perhaps twenty feet down I found, to
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  Speaker 1: my surprise that my descent had ceased, and that I
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  Speaker 1: was dangling before the mouth of a cave of considerable size.
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  Speaker 1: While I swung there, wondering what would happen next, the
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  Speaker 1: end of a rope ladder flung down from above dropped
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  Speaker 1: across the opening in the side of the cliff, and
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  Speaker 1: a moment later two agile moros climbed down the ladder
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  Speaker 1: and from it entered the cave. From where they stood,
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  Speaker 1: it was easy for them to reach out and haul
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  Speaker 1: me in after them, as a bale of merchandise swinging
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  Speaker 1: from a hoisting pulley is hauled in through a window.
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  Speaker 1: Loosening the slip knot, they fastened into it the rope
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  Speaker 1: which had been coiled about my body, and giving it
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  Speaker 1: a jerk as a signal, the hole was drawn up
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  Speaker 1: out of sight. Then binding my feet again, they laid
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  Speaker 1: me on the hard rock near the mouth of the
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  Speaker 1: cave and climbed nimbly back as they had come. The
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  Speaker 1: rope ladder was drawn up, and I was left alone.
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  Speaker 1: I was to be left there to starve. That was
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  Speaker 1: what the chief's eye for an eye and a tooth
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  Speaker 1: for a tooth had meant. From where they had left me,
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  Speaker 1: I could see the proas at anchor, and see the
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  Speaker 1: rocky point on which we had landed. That night, they
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  Speaker 1: built a fire on the rocks where I could see it,
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  Speaker 1: and feasted there with songs and dancing whenever the wind freshened,
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  Speaker 1: the smell of the broiling fish came up to where
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  Speaker 1: I was, and I understood then why it was that
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  Speaker 1: I had not been fed that day as usual. On
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  Speaker 1: the deck of the war proa, I began to realize
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  Speaker 1: something of the depths, of the cruelty of the moral
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  Speaker 1: nature began, I say, for I found out later that
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  Speaker 1: even then I did not measure it all. In the morning,
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  Speaker 1: the proas were still at anchor, and during the day
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  Speaker 1: and night there was more feasting. Some time that day
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  Speaker 1: I freed my hands. I found that the thongs had
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  Speaker 1: been nearly cut. Evidently the men who left me had
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  Speaker 1: meant that I should free myself. It was easy then
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  Speaker 1: to untie the rope which bound my ankles, but weak
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  Speaker 1: as I was from hunger and cramped from being so
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  Speaker 1: long bound, it was some time before I could bear
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  Speaker 1: my weight upon my feet. When I could, it was
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  Speaker 1: the morning of the second day of my imprisonment, and
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  Speaker 1: the third that I had been without food. The men
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  Speaker 1: below were sleeping after their carous stretched out on the
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  Speaker 1: decks of the prowess. A sentinel on the rocky point
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  Speaker 1: poked the smoldering embers of the fire and raking out
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  Speaker 1: some overdone fragments of fish, made a breakfast from them,
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  Speaker 1: and pitched the bones into the sea. Only those who
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  Speaker 1: have lived three days without food can understand how delicious
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  Speaker 1: even those cast of fish bones looked to me. I
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  Speaker 1: walked away from the mouth of the cave to be
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  Speaker 1: where I could not see the man eat. The daylight
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  Speaker 1: enabled me to explore the interior of the cave more
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  Speaker 1: thoroughly than I had been able to do before. From
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  Speaker 1: a crevice far within, a tiny thread of water trickled
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  Speaker 1: down the rock. It was too thin to be called
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  Speaker 1: a stream, and was dried up entirely by the air
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  Speaker 1: before it reached the mouth of the cave. But I
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  Speaker 1: found that I could press my hand against the rock
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  Speaker 1: and after a long time, gather water enough to moisten
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  Speaker 1: my lips and throat. For even that, I was thankful
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  Speaker 1: at least I should not die of thirst. Still farther
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  Speaker 1: in the cave, I found a pile of something lying
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  Speaker 1: on the floor. I could not see in the dark
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  Speaker 1: there what it was, but brought a double handful out
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  Speaker 1: to the light. It was a fragment of a military
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  Speaker 1: uniform wrapped loosely around some human bones. Dangling from the
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  Speaker 1: cloth was a corroded button, on which I could still
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  Speaker 1: discern the insignia of Spain. I flung the horrid relics
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  Speaker 1: as far out from the cave as my weak strength
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  Speaker 1: would let me, and sank down, wondering how long it
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  Speaker 1: would be until the bones and uniform of a soldier
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  Speaker 1: of the United States would lie rotting there beside those
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  Speaker 1: of a soldier of Spain. A shout from below aroused me.
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  Speaker 1: A morrow had seen the fragments of cloth fluttering down
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  Speaker 1: and had greeted them. The men had landed on the
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  Speaker 1: rocky point again, and a party of them were coming
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  Speaker 1: up the path. Slung on a pole, carried over the
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  Speaker 1: shoulders of two of them, was a piece of fish net,
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  Speaker 1: through the meshes of which I could see a dozen cocoanuts.
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  Speaker 1: There was food, delicious food, and they were bringing it
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  Speaker 1: to me. I understood it all now. They had not
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  Speaker 1: meant to starve me, but only to torture me before
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  Speaker 1: they took me on to slavery. How good that was.
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  Speaker 1: Slavery did not seem hard to me. Now, slavery was
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  Speaker 1: better than starvation. Oh, I would work gladly enough, no
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  Speaker 1: matter how hard the task if I could only have food.
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  Speaker 1: The men had passed out of sight, now climbing upward
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  Speaker 1: and by and by, I heard them talking above me.
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  Speaker 1: I leaned as far out from the mouth of the
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  Speaker 1: cave as in my weakness, I dared and looked up. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I was right. The bag of cocoanuts was being lowered
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  Speaker 1: to me. I could see the black face of the
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  Speaker 1: mortal who was directing the operation, peering over the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the cliff. I sank down, too weak to stand,
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  Speaker 1: I thought I must save what little strength I had
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  Speaker 1: to break a knot against the rock. When they reached me,
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  Speaker 1: I could see the bottom of the fish net bag.
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  Speaker 1: Now it was even with the cave. I could reach it.
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  Speaker 1: If it was only a little nearer. Why did not
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  Speaker 1: those foolish moros swing it nearer? I leaned out from
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  Speaker 1: the cave again to try and signal to them. What
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  Speaker 1: was this? I saw not one but twenty black faces
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  Speaker 1: grinning down at me with devilish cruelty, and the bag
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  Speaker 1: of food that I had waited for, hung by a
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  Speaker 1: rope from the end of the pole, pushed out from
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  Speaker 1: the rock above, swung lazily around and a round, and
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  Speaker 1: just beyond my reach. I made a frantic effort to
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  Speaker 1: grasp it, and barely saved myself from falling headlong. The
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  Speaker 1: fiendish laughter of the men above was answered by a
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  Speaker 1: chorus of shouts from below. I looked down from the
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  Speaker 1: decks of the prowess, and from about the fire on shore,
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  Speaker 1: where another feast was beginning. The morrow men were watching me.
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  Speaker 1: Then I understood for the first time the depths of
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  Speaker 1: moral cruelty. I was to be baited there until, crazed
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  Speaker 1: by hunger, I flung myself to an awful death upon
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  Speaker 1: the rocks below. I wondered how many men, perhaps braver
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  Speaker 1: soldiers than I, had gone down there before me. I
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  Speaker 1: would not if die, I must, I would at least
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  Speaker 1: cheat those gibbering fiends of their show. I would die
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  Speaker 1: as that other man had done. Far in the cave
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  Speaker 1: and out of sight. I dragged myself in, drank from
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  Speaker 1: the little stream of war, and lay down. I must
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  Speaker 1: have slept or lain in a stupor for several hours,
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  Speaker 1: since when I recovered myself it was late afternoon. From
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  Speaker 1: where I lay, I could see the bag of cocoanuts
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  Speaker 1: swing in the breeze. Perhaps it had blown nearer and
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  Speaker 1: I could reach it. I dragged myself out to the
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  Speaker 1: mouth of the cave again. It was just as far
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  Speaker 1: away as ever, and I too weak now to try
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  Speaker 1: to reach it. After a time, I began to realize
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  Speaker 1: that there was no noise from the revelers below. I
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  Speaker 1: looked down. The bay was empty. The prowess had gone,
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  Speaker 1: the men gone with them, and not a breath of
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  Speaker 1: smoke rising from the ashes showed where their fires had been.
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  Speaker 1: They must have put out their fires. Dimly, I wondered
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  Speaker 1: why anyway I had cheated them of their game. They
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  Speaker 1: had become discouraged, waiting to see me die, and had gone.
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  Speaker 1: These thought were passing weakly through my mind when suddenly
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  Speaker 1: I saw something which made me stand up weak. As
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  Speaker 1: I was far out across the strait of Mindoro, a
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  Speaker 1: streamer of black smoke showed against the sky. My eyes
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  Speaker 1: followed it to where a gray hull rested on the water.
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  Speaker 1: It was one of our gunboats, bound from Iloilo back
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  Speaker 1: to Manila. I shouted faintly, forgetting that miles of space
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  Speaker 1: lay between her and myself. I knew when I stopped
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  Speaker 1: to think, that she was going from me. Even if
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  Speaker 1: she had come near Coron. She had passed while I
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: lay asleep. That was why the provas had gone. They
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  Speaker 1: had seen the streak of smoke and slipping behind the
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  Speaker 1: island of Coron, had gone around Coolion and so on home.
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  Speaker 1: I must have slept for some time after that, for
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: when I was next conscious of anything, it was the
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  Speaker 1: forenoon of another day, and the cave was flooded with
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  Speaker 1: the bright light of noon. I did not suffer anything
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: now that seemed to have passed. I lay quite easy
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  Speaker 1: and wondered what it was that had aroused me. After
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  Speaker 1: a while I could tell it was the ceaseless twittering
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  Speaker 1: of a flock of birds which were flying in and
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  Speaker 1: out of the cave. They had not been there before,
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  Speaker 1: nor had I seen them about. They must have come
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  Speaker 1: during the night. I thought if I could catch one,
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  Speaker 1: I would eat it, but I decided it was useless
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  Speaker 1: to try to catch them. They darted about so swiftly.
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  Speaker 1: By and by. I felt sure that this was so,
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  Speaker 1: for I could see that the birds were swallows. And
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: there came into my mind a vivid picture of the
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: high beams of my father's barn away in Vermont, when
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I was a boy, and the barn swallows flashing like
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: arrows through the star shaped openings. Far up in the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: gable ends. Two of the birds had lighted on the
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  Speaker 1: wall opposite me clinging to the rock. I wondered what
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  Speaker 1: they were doing there. Perhaps I could catch them. I
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: would try. I found that I could rise, and that
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: I was much stronger than I had thought. Even a
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: hope of food seemed to give me strength. I crept
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  Speaker 1: towards the birds and put out my hand. The birds flew, and,
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  Speaker 1: dodging me, swept out into the sunlight. I was near
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  Speaker 1: enough the side of the cave now to see what
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  Speaker 1: they had been doing. Fastened to the rock was the
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: beginning of what was to be a nest. Once years
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: before that, I had been the guest of honor at
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: a ten course Chinese dinner. After the tiny china cups
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: of fiery liquor, which was the first course, had been drunk,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: the servant brought on what looked to me like fine
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: white sponges boiled in chicken broth. My host told me
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: that this was bird's nest soup, the most famous dish
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: of China, made of material worth its weight in gold.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: It came back to me now that he had added
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: that the best nest were gathered in the Philippine Islands.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Little did I imagine then, what that scrap of table
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  Speaker 1: conversation might one day mean to me. I pulled the
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  Speaker 1: nest down and ate it. It looked like white glue
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: and tasted like beef jelly. I looked for another and
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: found it and ate it. There were no more. I
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: drank my fill of water when I could get it,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: which took some time, and then I lay down and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: went to sleep. I felt as if I had eaten
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  Speaker 1: a full meal. When I woke, I could almost have danced.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I felt so strong and well again in my new strength,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I even tried to reach the bag of cocoanuts, but
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: they hung just as far off as ever, And that
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: was so far. No breeze quite swung them within my reach.
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  Speaker 1: No matter. While I had slept, the birds had been
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  Speaker 1: at work, and half a dozen half formed nests were
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: glued to the rocks in easy reach. They grew like
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  Speaker 1: mushrooms in the night. I pulled down too and ate them.
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  Speaker 1: For dinner. I had two more, and one for supper.
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  Speaker 1: After that, I had no cause to suffer, so far
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: as food and water were concerned. When the birds built
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  Speaker 1: faster than my immediate wants required. I tore the completed
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  Speaker 1: nests down before the builders could spoil them, and stored
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: them away. The birds twittered and scolded, but began to
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: build again. How long this would have lasted I do
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  Speaker 1: not know. But one morning, when I woke and came
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: to the mouth of the cave to look out, I
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: saw that in the night a Chinese junk with broad
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: lateen sails had dropped anchor in the bay below. The
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: shout of joy I gave came near being my ruin
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: for when the Chinese sailors heard it and looked up
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to see a white faced figure gesticulating wildly in a
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: hole in the front of the cliff so far above them,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: they thought, quite reasonably enough that they had discovered the
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  Speaker 1: door to the home of the Evil One himself, and
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  Speaker 1: that one of his ministers was trying to entice them
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  Speaker 1: to enter. Fortunately, they could not flee until the anchor
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  Speaker 1: was raised and the sails unfurled, and before this was done,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: their curiosity and common sense combined had conquered their fear.
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  Speaker 1: The leader of the expedition, I learned later, had been
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: to Koron before, and now lighting a few jos sticks
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: as a precaution in case I did prove to be
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: an evil spirit. He climbed to the top of the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: cliff where he could talk with me. He had seen
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: more of fish nets and proa masts before, and he
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: knew the moral nature, so it did not take long
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to make him understand my story, nor much longer for
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: him to effect my release. For these Chinese nest hunting
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: expeditions go fitted with all manner of rock scaling machinery
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: in the way of rope, ladders, slings, and baskets. I
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: was very kindly treated on board the junk through all
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: the month the party stayed there gathering nests. But when
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the men came to know my story and learned how
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: for two weeks I had lived on nothing but swallows
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: nests worth their weight in gold. Remember, they used to
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: look at me, some of them in a way which
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: made me almost wonder if some time, when I was asleep,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: they might not kill me, as the farmer's wife killed
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the goose that laid the golden egg. End of section two.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Recording by Marise el Que