dollars on the spot, can be manufactured in six days' uninterrupted
labor. Cigar-cases of exceptionally intricate workmanship, made to
order for a connoisseur, frequently cost upwards of fifty dollars.

[Volcanic stone quarries.] Following the Quingua from Baliwag up its
stream, we passed several quarries, where we saw the thickly-packed
strata of volcanic stone which is used as a building material. The
banks of the river are thickly studded with prickly bamboos from
ten to twelve feet high. The water overflows in the rainy season,
and floods the plain for a great distance. Hence the many shells of
large freshwater mussels which are to be seen lying on the earth which
covers the volcanic deposit. The country begins to get hilly in the
neighborhood of Tobog, a small place with no church of its own, and
dependent for its services upon the priest of the next parish. The
gentle slopes of the hills are, as in Java, cut into terraces and
used for the cultivation of rice. Except at Lucban I have never
observed similar sawas anywhere else in the Philippines. Several small
sugar-fields, which, however, the people do not as yet understand
how to manage properly, show that the rudiments of agricultural
prosperity are already in existence. The roads are partly covered
with awnings, beneath which benches are placed affording repose to
the weary traveller. I never saw these out of this province. One
might fancy oneself in one of the most fertile and thickly-populated
districts of Java.

[A convento and the parish priest.] I passed the night in a convento,
as the dwelling of the parish priest is called in the Philippines. It
was extremely dirty, and the priest, an Augustinian, was full of
proselytish ardor. I had to undergo a long geographical examination
about the difference between Prussia and Russia; was asked whether