the fiber of the lupi. In this crude manner are obtained the threads
for the celebrated web nipis de [Piña.] Piña, which is considered by
experts the finest in the world. Two shirts of this kind are in the
Berlin Ethnographical Museum (Nos. 291 and 292). Better woven samples
are in the Gewerbe Museum of Trade and Commerce. In the Philippines,
where the fineness of the work is best understood and appreciated,
richly-embroidered costumes of this description have fetched more
than $1,400 each. [102]

[Rain prevents another ascent.] At Buhi, which is not sufficiently
sheltered towards the north-east, it rained almost as much as at
Daraga. I had found out from the Igorots that a path could be forced
through the tall canes up to the summit; but the continual rain
prevented me; so I resolved to cross the Malinao, returning along the
coast to my quarters, and then, freshly equipped, descend the river
Bicol as far as Naga.

[Mountaineers' arrow poison.] Before we parted the Igorots prepared
for me some arrow poison from the bark of two trees. I happened
to see neither the leaves nor the blossoms, but only the bark. A
piece of bark was beaten to pieces, pressed dry, wetted, and again
pressed. This was done with the bare hand, which, however, sustained
no injury. The juice thus extracted looked like pea-soup, and was
warmed in an earthen vessel over a slow fire. During the process it
coagulated at the edges; and the coagulated mass was again dissolved,
by stirring it into the boiling fluid mass. When this had reached
the consistency of syrup, a small quantity was scraped off the inner
surface of a second piece of bark, and its juice squeezed into the
vessel. This juice was a dark brown color. When the mass had attained
the consistency of a thin jelly, it was scraped out of the pot with