Winds. It is their opinion that the winds come from the sea, which they base on the fact that the sea swells before the winds begin to blow.
Turtles. In this land are very many turtles, of great size; they are larger than a shield. Here is a marvellous thing: when the male and the female have intercourse, they remain thus joined together for twenty or twenty-five days. They become so stupefied during this act that the Indians dive into the sea, and tie the feet of the turtles without their perceiving it, and draw these creatures ashore. I have even done this myself.
Serpents. There are in this land enormous serpents, as large as palm-trees; they are, however, sluggish.
Crocodiles. There are enormous numbers of crocodiles, which are water-lizards. They live in all the rivers and in the sea, and do much harm.
Civet-cats. In many of these islands are civet-cats.
Tabon birds. In this land there is a kind of bird, smaller than a Castilian fowl; its eggs is larger than that of a goose, and is almost all yolk. This bird lays its eggs in the sand, a braza deep, at the edge of the water. There the young ones are hatched, and come up through the sand, opening a way through it with their little feet; and as soon as they gain the surface they fly away.[1]
Palms. In all these islands are great numbers of
- ↑ The tabon, also called "the mound-builder" (Megapodius cumingi). Its eggs are highly prized by the natives as an article of food; they rob the deposit made by the birds. After each egg is deposited, the parent birds (several pairs of whom often frequent the same spot) scratch earth over it, thus gradually raising a mound of considerable size. See description of this bird in Report of U. S. Philippine Commission for 1900, iii, pp. 314, 315.
