A Womans Impression of the Philippines | Page 8

hair about
our faces, and forced us to release our garments, which behaved most
shockingly. I saw a kind of recess in the cliffs to the right under an
overhanging shelf of rock, and, though it was approached by a mud
puddle, made straight for it and in temporary quiet let go my threshing
skirts and braided my hair. I could see our driver in the distance,
pretending to look after his harness, and indulging in hyæna mirth at
the figures we cut. Then, to make matters worse, there came a shout
from the hidden road to the right, and, three abreast, a party of young
civil engineers from our ship charged round the corner.
Most of our party sat down in their tracks, and a stifled but heartfelt
moan escaped from more than one. I waded three inches deeper into the
mud puddle and flattened myself against a wall of oozy rock with an
utterly unfeminine disregard of consequences.

The men were of a thoroughly good sort, however, and, ignoring our
plight, insisted on helping us round the corner. They said that, once we
were out of the gorge and on the other face of the mountain, the strong
draught ceased. So each woman took a frenzied grasp of her skirts, and,
with an able-bodied man steadying her on each side, made the run and
brought up safe on the other side. There did not seem to be much to
see--nothing but the precipitous face of the cliff towering above us, the
road cut out of it, winding steeply down to the right, and the shoulder
of the left-hand peak running up into a cloud-swept sky. Below us was
a floor of mist, swaying to unfelt airs, heaving, gray, and sad.
Just about this time a Chinaman arrived--one of the beast-of-burden
sort--with two immense baskets swung across his shoulders on a
bamboo pole. He made three ineffectual efforts to get round the point,
but had to fall on his knees each time, as the wind threatened to sweep
him too near the cliff. So the philanthropic youths went to his
assistance as they had come to ours, and piloted him safely round the
bend. We became so much interested in this operation and in the
Chinaman's efforts to express his thanks that we quite forgot our
disappointment at the Pali's unkind behavior. A sudden gleam of
sunshine recalled us. The clouds which had been dripping down upon
us were rent apart to reveal a long streamer of blue, and to give passage
to a shaft of sunlight which drove resistlessly through the mist floor.
The fog parted shudderingly, silently, and for a moment we looked
down into a beautiful valley, green and with a thousand other tints and
shades, and set in a great inward curve, beyond which the sea raced up
in frothy billows to the clean white sands. Far beneath us as it was, we
could detect the flashes on wet foliage; indeed, I could think of nothing
but a cup of emerald rimmed with sapphire and studded with brilliants.
For an all too brief space it quivered and shimmered under the sunburst,
and then the mist floor closed relentlessly, the heavens grayed again,
and another downpour set in.
We waited long, but the Pali declined to be wooed into sight again, nor
am I certain that we were the losers thereby. The whole effect was so
brief and vivid that our pleasure in it was greatly intensified. Longer
vision might have brought out details which we missed, but it would

have converted into the memory of a beautiful scene that which has
remained a peep into fairyland.
Our return through the gorge was accompanied by all the original
drawbacks. Our driver had released the check-reins of the horses, but
he ostentatiously checked them up again as we appeared. He had
entirely recovered his good humor, and contemplated our dishevelled
appearance with secret glee.
The Pali has its good features, but it must be admitted there are
drawbacks. Among the military people aboard there was a lady of
uncertain age, and of a mistaken conception of what was becoming to
her fading charms. She was gaunt, and leathery of skin, and she wore
"baby necks" and elbow sleeves, and affected childish simplicity and
perennial youth. On our first night out of Honolulu I happened to come
around the corner of the promenade deck in time to observe one of the
men passengers contemplating this lady, who stood at some distance
from him, attired in a rather _décolleté_ frock. The man's attitude was a
modified edition of that of the Colossus of Rhodes: He steadied a
cigarette between his lips with the third and fourth fingers of his left
hand, while his right hand was thrust into his trousers pocket.