Carabao

“ Each carabao had a strand of twisted rattan through its nose, and by means of a cord fastened to this, it could be led and driven very easily. Filipinos often pull very hard upon these cords, and many carabao have their noses badly torn by careless or cruel drivers. When well treated, however, they are valuable and necessary beasts of burden, strong, patient, and able to endure heavy work in a hot climate. ”

“ A stick of sugar-cane will taste as good to them as our best peppermint or lemon candy. All the boys learn to ride as soon as they learn how to walk. Saddles and bridles are unnecessary, as they ride bareback, and guide the wiry Filipino ponies with a halter made of rope. The carabao is a great friend of Filipino boys and girls. He lets them pull themselves up by his tail, and ride him into town—as many as [145] can make room on his back, allowing them to guide him by a rope run through his nose.
A Carabao
I do not think that many of the children can remember ever having learned to swim. ”

“ Carabao are used for drawing the sleds and for ploughing and harrowing in the lower fields. Should one be seriously injured, it would be killed and eaten; but strong animals are slaughtered only on very rare occasions. Wild carabao are fairly abundant in the mountains. ”

“ Dogs, pigs, chickens, and children tumble in the dust. Dejected Filipino ponies, tethered to the shacks, are waiting for their masters to exhaust the tuba market. Down the lane a panting carabao, with a whole family clinging to its back, is slowly coming into town. Another, covered with the dust of travel, laden with bananas, hemp, and copra from a distant barrio, is being driven by a fellow in a nipa hat, straddling the heavy load. ”

“ These are the wild carabao, which is still to be found in various parts of the archipelago, and the tamarau, a true buffalo of a species which occurs nowhere in the world except on the island of Mindoro.
The wild carabao is a formidable antagonist, hard to stop and a vicious fighter after he is once wounded. Under ordinary circumstances he is very wary and difficult to approach. It is highly important in hunting him to use bullets with great stopping power. A number of men have been killed in the Philippines by wild carabaos which they had severely wounded. ”

“ But those same big feet are the animal's chief stock in trade. They enable him to walk through both sand and deep mud—mud so soft and deep that a horse or a mule would sink to its body. Nothing but the carabao's flatboat-like feet could drag ploughs through the soft mud of the rice-fields. ”

“ The country cart is built something like the carromata and will accommodate four people. Hundreds of these carts come into Manila every day with small stocks of vegetables and fruit for sale at the markets. A few victorias may be seen on the bridge, but what causes most of the congestion is the carabao cart, hauling the heavy freight. The carabao (pronounced carabough, with the accent on the last syllable) , is the water buffalo of the Philippines, a slow, ungainly beast of burden that proves patient and tractable so long as he can enjoy a daily swim. ”

“ The chief occasion for eating carabao merely as a food is when an animal is injured or ill at a time when no ceremonial event is at hand. The animal is then killed and eaten. All is eaten that can be masticated. The animal is neither skinned, singed, nor scraped. All is cut up and cooked together—hide, hair, hoofs, intestines, and head, excepting the horns. Carabao is generally not salted in cooking, and the use of salt in eating the flesh depends on the individual eater. ”

“ As the quarry rushes into the net, the concealed hunters fall upon it and spear it to death, at the same time fighting back the hungry dogs which would quickly devour it. Sometimes an animal escapes from the net, but if wounded, it is almost certain to fall a prey to the pack. Many deer are taken by this method in the course of a year. Sometimes a wild pig is netted, and on exceedingly rare occasions a carabao. However, the wild carabao is a dangerous animal, and hunters will not attack it unless it is so entangled in the nets that it is practically helpless. ”

“ The carabao is killed by spearing and, though also eaten simply as food, it is seldom killed except on ceremonial occasions, such as marriages, funerals, the building of a dwelling, and peace and war feasts whether actual events at the time or feasts in commemoration. ”

“ Fertile fields.Towards the interior the landscape is covered with rice-fields, which yearly receive a fresh layer of fertile soil, washed down from the mountains by the river, and spread over their surface by the overflowing of its waters; and which in consequence never require any fertilizer. The carabao.The carabao, the favorite domestic animal of the Malays, and which they keep especially for agricultural [43] purposes, prefers these regions to all others. It loves to wallow in the mud, and is not fit for work unless permitted to frequent the water. ”

“ From Stereograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York
[22]
A CARABAO TANDEM IN LUZON
Oh, look at these strange animals with such wide-spreading horns! Do you know what they are? They are named “carabaos,” and are sometimes called “water buffaloes” because they are so fond of the water. Often through the day they go into the rivers or lakes and splash about; and if they are kept too long from their bath they are likely to go mad and become dangerous. They are very powerful animals and are used a great deal in the Philippine Islands in place of horses, to do farm work and draw carts. ”

“ Deer and pig are fairly abundant, and a considerable number is killed each year; wild carabao roam the mountain sides and uninhabited valleys, but they are dangerous animals, and can seldom be taken with the primitive weapons of the natives. Wild chickens are plentiful, and many are snared, together with smaller birds. In fact, there is sufficient game and fish to support a considerable population, if the people would turn seriously to their capture, so that the oft repeated statement that the mountaineers of Abra were forced to agriculture is not entirely accurate. ”

“ Sometimes when the master is angry he will pull the poor carabao’s nose, so that he tears the piece of flesh out altogether; not at all an uncommon occurrence, and nothing distressing to a Filipino. [3] In the days of the rebellion against Spain, a few years ago, when the Filipinos caught the hated Spanish friars, they ran a rope through the priests’ noses, tied their hands, and led them about like the carabaos, so that people might spit upon the hated tyrants, and insult them at their own pleasure.
The carabaos are as gentle and amenable as horses with the natives ”

“ Since these highlanders have but little meat to eat, it is the policy of the Government, on the occasion of these annual progresses, to furnish a few carabaos, so that some of the people, at least, while they are the guests of the Government, may have what they are fondest of and most infrequently get. And they have been until recently allowed to slaughter the carabao, according to their own custom, in competition, catch-as-catch-can, so to say. ”

“ Wild carabaos are found not only at various points in Luzón, but abundantly in Mindoro and the Calamianes Islands. They appear in considerable numbers in Masbate, Negros and elsewhere in the archipelago.
To the inexperienced hunters who are inclined to try to bring them down my advice is “Don’t!”
Few indeed are the men who have killed so much as a single specimen of the tamarau of Mindoro. It is a small jungle-inhabiting ruminant. Its color, when adult, is precisely that of the carabao. It is, however, a much smaller and more active animal. ”

“ Scarecrows are built whenever there are any clothes to spare; but as the Filipino even utilizes rags, the scarecrow often has to go in shocking négligée. After the harvest season, when the entire village reaps the rice with bolos, the dry field is given over to the ponies, and the carabaos, and the white storks, who never desert their burly friend, the carabao, but often are seen perching on his back. The work of husking and pounding the crop then occupies the village. ”

“ Quite a number of carabao and horses are to be found in the territory, where they are used as pack and riding animals. Both men and women are excellent riders and take great pride in the decoration of their mounts. The saddle used is carved from wood, in exact duplication of those used by the Spaniards. The copper bits are also copies, but are of native casting. Strings of bells surround the neck of a prized animal, and it is further beautified by an artificial forelock. Rattan whips, wound with braid, and decorated with beads, are also a part of his trappings. ”

“ They can shamble at an amazing pace, and that is their usual gait; but they can gallop, too, as quickly as a horse.
Besides the herds of carabaos, we saw several natives down in the bed of the river, going out to certain spots where the shelve of the sand was more abrupt for their supply of water. These were women, of course, for women do all the household tasks, even the most burdensome, their lords being busy standing about the roads or Plazas, or attending a cock-fight. ”

“ They were barefoot and bare armed, wearing only shifts that but partly enveloped them, meagerly concealing their fine physiques. Sometimes a man, barefoot and wearing only two garments, would be seen following the carabao, the native ox, as it dragged the wooden plow that scratched the soil.
There were fields of abace or native hemp, rice and indigo. Sometimes the pilgrims would pass through groves of mahogany or cashu and see men at work with bolos, felling trees for lumber, or with sierras1 slowly cutting boards from teque or mahogany. ”

“ The flesh of the carabao is not so good as beef. It gives really very little nourishment, and is tough and dry. The mutton which is grown in these islands is not so good as it 42might be if more pains were taken. ”

“ Near the huge Priests’ College, a little way out of Iloilo, we saw some carabaos having a glorious time in various new pools. They looked very picturesque, with their great dark curved horns, standing out against the shining water and the green grass. The greenness is wonderful—too wonderful. There is no beauty of purples and soft blues about a wet day here; it is all grey and green, and even the little lakes in the palm-groves are very garish, and all exactly alike. One longs for a change of colouring, and these crude tints get on one’s nerves like an oleograph in a hotel. ”

“ This fibre is not successfully raised elsewhere except on a few plantations in North Borneo. Practically all the cultivated plants of the South Asian island world are successfully raised, including rice, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cacao, maize, and sweet potatoes.
Fauna. The islands are poor in indigenous mammals. The most important animal is the carabao or water buffalo, which is caught young, tamed, and universally employed as a draught animal, while his tough flesh is valued by the natives as meat. ”

“ In one little pool crossed by a trail which I have had occasion frequently to use in Cagayan province ten persons were pulled down and devoured in three years. Most men who use the rifle sooner or later become interested in putting these vicious reptiles out of the way whenever opportunity offers.
Hunters and fishermen, in search of new and exciting experiences, will not fail to meet with them in the Philippines, and the tourist will find there much that is picturesque, strange or wonderful. [829]
1 Carabao is the Filipino name for water buffalo. ”

“ They wander about continually, and sleep on the ground in the open, or in the hollow of some great tree. Their best shelter is formed of some leaves hastily arranged. They excel in hunting, for deer, wild boars, buffaloes, and mountain carabaos abound in these mountains. ”

“ The carabaos are not at all safe as regards white people, however, for they can smell and detect them at an immense distance; and they will occasionally charge them ferociously, so that they are very dangerous in the open country. I have heard some horrible stories of carabaos killing and trampling on white men in out-of-the-way places. ”

“ There are in the neighborhood of 400 domestic carabaos owned in Bontoc and Samoki. Most of them run half wild in the mountains encircling the pueblos. Such as are in the mountains receive neither herding, attention in breeding, feed, nor salt from their owners. ”

“ Dense growths do occur in some valleys and ravines, and a few of Page 377the mountains, like Posoey, are heavily forested, but for the most part the western slopes of the Cordillera Central are covered with rank cogon grass. In the ravines and on the wooded slopes are deer, pig, wild carabao, and wild chickens, and during the dry season of the year it is no uncommon thing to see a considerable number of men leaving the village at daybreak with their dogs, spears, and nets. The customary method of hunting the larger animals is to stretch long nets across the runway of the game. ”

“ There are many buffaloes, which are called carabaos, which are raised in the fields and are spirited; others are brought tame from China; these are very numerous, and very handsome. These last are used only for milking, and their milk is thicker and more palatable than that of cows. Goats and kids are raised, although their flesh is not savory, because of the humidity of the country. These animals sicken and die for that reason, and because they eat certain poisonous herbs. Ewes and rams, although often brought from Nueva España, never multiply. ”