[River's importance.] Nearly all the dwellings are built by the water's
edge. The river is a natural self-maintaining highway, on which loads
can be carried to the foot of the mountains. The huts of the people,
built upon piles, are to be seen thickly scattered about its banks,
and particularly about its broad mouths. The appropriateness of
their position is evident, for the stream is at once the very
center of activity and the most convenient spot for the pursuit
of their callings. At each tide the takes of fish are more or less
plentiful, and at low-water the women and children may be seen picking
up shell-fish with their toes, for practice has enabled them to use
their toes as deftly as their fingers, or gathering in the sand-crabs
and eatable seaweed.

[Riverside gaiety.] The riverside is a pretty sight when men, women,
and children are bathing and frolicking in the shade of the palm-trees;
and others are filling their water-vessels, large bamboos, which they
carry on their shoulders, or jars, which they bear on their heads;
and when the boys are standing upright on the broad backs of the
carabaos and riding triumphantly into the water.

[Coco-palms.] It is here too that the coco-palm most flourishes, a tree
that supplies not only their food and drink, but also every material
necessary for the construction of huts and the manufacture of the
various articles which they use. While the greatest care is necessary
to make those growing further inland bear even a little fruit, the
palm-trees close to the shore, even when planted on wretched soil,
grow plentiful crops without the slightest trouble. Has a palm-tree
ever been made to blossom in a hothouse? Thomson [56] mentions that
coco-trees growing by the sea-side are wont to incline their stems over