Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/124

112 petticoat reaching to the ankles, a brightcoloured sash rolled round the waist, and tiny slippers that leave the feet almost bare. A cigar is always between their lips, the smoke of which makes their ardent eyes seem more ardent still as seen through it.

"Yes, this was the place I preferred; good-bye to Manilla and bravo to Bedondo. I only returned to Manilla to fetch my baggage and have it transferred to Bedondo. My friend, the Chinese captain's correspondent, approved of my resolve, which he declared was that of a man of sense; he had himself a house at Bedondo, whither he used to come on Sundays to recover from the boredom of the preceding week. He even made me an offer of a sort of cottage, attached to this house, but with a separate entrance on the quay; this, however, I would not accept except as a tenant, and it was agreed that, for the sum of thirty rupees a year, I should have the use and enjoyment of the same, as our lawyers at home put it, with all its conveniences and appurtenances.

"After three days' observation I had learned that the main business and chief occupation of your Tagal is cock-fighting. You cannot go from end to end of the quay of Bedondo without coming across ten, fifteen, twenty circles of spectators gathered about two feathered champions with whose destiny are bound up those of two, three, four, or five Tagal families. Not only does a native family that owns a fighting-cock live by its winnings, but, moreover, relatives and neighbours gain a livehhood by backing the same bird. From that source come the wife's tortoiseshell combs, gold rosaries, and glass-bead necklaces, the husband's pocket-money and the cigar he smokes; so the cock is the spoilt child of the house. A Tagal mother neglects her brats to look after her cock; she trims his feathers and sharpens his spurs. As for the master of the house, he will not intrust the bird to anybody when away from home, not even to his wife; he tucks it under his arm and takes it with him when he sallies forth on business and pleasure. If he meets another fancier by the way, challenges are exchanged and bets laid, and the two owners squat down face to face. Each puts up his bird, and at once a ring is formed, in which the two fiercest passions of mankind find scope—gambling and fighting. Upon my life, you can live a merry life at Bedondo.

"Another branch of industry is in vogue among the Tagals bearing a strong resemblance to the quest of the philosopher's stone, that of the bezoar hunters. Nature, which has made the Philippines the emporium of all the poisons in the world, has given the same islands the bezoarstone, which is the general and universal antidote."

"By the Lord!" I exclaimed, breaking in on the flow of Père Olifus' story, " now you have let drop the word bezoar, I should be glad to know what to think of the matter. I have heard much talk of it, particularly in the Arabian Nights; I have seen the rarest gems—the balais, or straw-coloured ruby, the garnet in the rough, the carbuncle, but, search as I might, I have never seen a a bezoar; no dealer has ever been able to show me the smallest sample."

"Well, sir," Père Olifus replied, "I have. I have seen, touched and even swallowed one, else, as you shall see, I should not be enjoying at the present moment the honour of drinking a glass of liquor to your very good health."

So saying, the worthy man tossed off a glass of punch at one gulp, bowing his compliments to Biard and myself.

"Well, I must tell you," he resumed, "that not only does the bezoar exist, but that there are three different kinds of it—the bezoar found in the intestines of the cow, in those of the goat, and those of the monkey. The stone of the first kind is the least valuable; twenty carats of this is not so precious as seven of the second, and seven of this as one of the last.

"It is chiefly in the kingdom of Golconda that the goats are found which produce the bezoar. Are they a distinct species? It cannot be so, for of two kids by the same mother one will give bezoar and the other not. The goatherds have only to touch their goats in a particular spot and in a particular way to know how things stand; they can count through the hide the number of stones the intestines contain and calculate their value to a nicety. Thus the bezoar can be, and often is, bought whilst the animal is still alive.

"All the same a trader of Goa had a curious and unfortunate experience whilst I w^as living on the Malabar coast. He bought in the mountains of Golconda four