Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/125

Rh goats containing bezoars: he carried them a hundred and fifty miles from their birthplace, opened two of them directly and found the bezoars inside them, but considerably diminished in size. Ten days later he killed a third; when the carcase came to be examined, it was evident there had been a bezoar once, but this had disappeared. Finally in another month he killed the fourth, and it showed no trace whatever of the precious stone, which had utterly and entirely vanished. This would seem to prove there is some special tree or special herb grows in the mountains of Golconda to which cows and goats owe the formation of the bezoar.

"One of the native industries of the Philippines, as we have said, is hunting the monkeys which give the bezoar. The monkey bezoar is as precious compared to the inferior sorts as the diamond is to paste, pebble or rock crystal. A single stone is worth a thousand, two thousand, ten thousand livres. One pinch of this bezoar, powdered and dissolved in a glass of water, is an effectual antidote against the most terrible poisons of the Philippines or even the upas of Java.

"It is incredible how largely poisons are employed from Luzon to Mindanao, especially in times of cholera, for the symptoms being the same, advantage is taken of the prevalence of the disease for husbands to get rid of their wives, wives of their husbands, nephews of their uncles, debtors of their creditors, and so on, and so on.

"But the race which is most in evidence at Bedondo is the Chinese. They occupy the best quarter of the town on the banks of the Passig. Their houses are built, half of stone, half of bamboo; these are handsome buildings, well ventilated and sometimes adorned with paintings outside, having stores and shops on the ground floor. And what stores! what shops they are! It is enough, look you, to make a man's mouth water, to say nothing of a heap of quaint little Chinese figures that squat in front of the doors and wag their heads and make eyes askance at the passers-by.

"As I had saved the life of a Chinese captain, and rescued a Chinese crew and a Chinese junk, I found myself well received at Bedondo. Besides, the correspondent of Captain Tsing-Fong, the same from whom I rented the cottage I lived in, traded more especially with the subjects of the Sublime Emperor.

"The first Sunday he came to spend at Bedondo he gave up entirely to me. He asked me if I was a sportsman, and I made bold to say I was. Thereupon he told me he had arranged a shooting party for the following Sunday, and if I would join it I need not trouble my head about preparations, as on reaching his friend's country house I should find a complete outfit ready for me. I accepted gladly. We were to go up the Passig river and shoot near a charming little lake in the interior, called the Laguna.

"The following Saturday we started from Bedondo in a boat with six sturdy rowers, and it wanted all that number, I can tell you, to make headway against the current. It was a delightful journey; not only were the two banks of the stream charmingly diversified, but also, to the right and left of us, the pirogues, passing up and down the waterway, presented as pretty a spectacle as you could wish to see.

"After three hours rowing we halted at a pretty fishing village, the inhabitants of which go down to Bedondo every evening to sell their day's catch. It is prettily reflected in the placid water, with its rice-fields waving in the wind, its clusters of palms and bamboos, and its high-roofed huts that look like great bird-cages hanging from the trees. We had stopped in order to rest our men and dine ourselves. The meal over and the oarsmen refreshed, we set out again. Eventually, just as the sun was setting, we saw the Lake of Laguna, which is thirty leagues round, glittering in front of us like an immense mirror. By seven o'clock we entered the lake, and two hours later reached the house of our host's friend. He was a Frenchman, Monsieur de La éronnière by name, who had lived for the last fifteen years on the banks of the Laguna lake, on a charming property known as Hala-Hala. He welcomed us with truly Oriental hospitality; but when he learned that I was a European, of French origin, when we had exchanged a few words in a language which, except in the bosom of his family, he did not have occasion to speak once a year, he could not make enough of me.

"He was all the better pleased because I assumed no airs of grandeur or superiority. 'You do me too much