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Updated: May 7, 2025
Within the town's mediæval loopholed walls everything adds to this picturesque effect, for the streets are laid out in broad boulevards, with here and there a park or plaza, riotous with bloom; the houses are large and well built, there being no nipa shacks within the four walls, and the only church of the place is refreshingly simple in design.
We then came to the delta of the Rejang River, and went up one of its many mouths, which was of great width, though the scenery all the way was monotonous, and consisted of nothing but mangroves, pandanus, the feathery nipa palm and the tall, slender "nibong" palm, with here and there a crocodile lying, out on the mud banks a dismal scene.
The curate was the Pope in the Vatican; the alferez of the Civil Guard, the King of Italy on the Quirinal: all, it must be understood, on a scale of nipa and bamboo. Here, as there, continual quarreling went on, since each wished to be the master and considered the other an intruder. Let us examine the characteristics of each.
They are sewed together with a thread of rattan, overlaying each other, like tiles or shingles, thus shedding the rain. They were in strips or squares, so that they could be readily removed. The sides were sometimes curtained with the same material. The long leaves are taken from the nipa palm, which grows abundantly in the island, and serves a great many useful purposes.
They are furnished and supplied with all that is necessary, and are much finer and more substantial than the others. They are roofed, however, as are the others, with the palm-leaves called nipa. These keep out the water and the sun more than do shingles or tiles, although the danger from fires is greater.
nipa: Swamp palm, with the imbricated leaves of which the roofs and sides of the common native houses are constructed. novena: A devotion consisting of prayers recited for nine consecutive days, asking for some special favor; also, a booklet of these prayers. panguingui: A complicated card-game, generally for small stakes, played with a monte deck.
South of the river is Old Manila, the walled city of the old days of the Spanish conquerors. South of the walled city lie two rather fashionable residence suburbs, Ermita and Malate. But the Thirty-fourth was temporarily stationed in big nipa barracks at Malate. It was in the newer Manila that the two boyish young sergeants found their greatest interest. It was a busy, bustling scene.
Ormoc did not prove interesting enough for a trip ashore in the hot sun, so my only recollection of the place is a white tribunal and a great preponderance of green foliage, toned down by the dull gray-brown of nipa buildings and the dull gray-blue of sky and sea. Then, too, it will always bring to mind the sad experience of a very delightful officer we met there.
Except for homesickness, which cannot, of course, be avoided, they are quite happy, or as happy as any hopelessly sick people can be away from home and friends. Fine concrete dormitories are supplied, but many prefer to build their own native houses of nipa palm and bamboo.
At every corner came new recruits to swell the ranks of our followers. "Merry Christmas," cried everyone in Spanish or Visayan, and "Merry Christmas" we responded, though June skies bending down toward tropical palms and soft winds just rustling the tops of tall bamboos, so that they cast flickering fern-like shadows over thatched nipa roofs, but ill suggested Christmas to an American mind.
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