288 THE PIvANT WORLD 



On the ledge of the terrace connecting my house and kitchen are 

 Japanese pots filled with ornamental palms, crotons, and other plants. 

 The lovely yellow-flowered Bignonia I brought with me from Honolulu 

 is forming a curtain over a bamboo trellis. My beautiful rosy creeper 

 (^Ayitigonon leptopiis) is ready to bloom. The natives of Guam call 

 it " cadena de amor " (love's chain) because the blossoms look like 

 strings of coral hearts. Hanging by the door is a cage containing four 

 beautiful fruit-doves which I feed on lemoncito berries and other fruits. 

 A pair of pigeons has invaded the house. They come walking up to me 

 and one of them flies onto my foot. Susana throws them some unhulled 

 rice. This attracts my Japanese game chickens and up they come, driv- 

 ing the pigeons from the terrace. Susana is much interested in the 

 courtship of a beautiful white pigeon which wishes to mate with a glossy 

 black one. This morning she told me that she thought the affair was 

 settled. The " novios " (bride and groom), she says, are picking up 

 trash about the yard and are carrying it to their little rancho in the 

 bodega. 



Breakfast is now ready — soft-boiled eggs and excellent bread made 

 with fermenting coconut toddy as yeast, rice and milk, excellent coffee, 

 from berries grown on this island, browned by Susana and ground by 

 her on the stone metate with the stone roller which she uses in making 

 tortillas (a Mexican intrusion), with some delicious custard-apples 

 iAnona squamosa) from the tree just outside my west window. These 

 custard-apples, usually called sugar-apples, or sweet-sop, to distinguish 

 them from the sour-sop iAiw?ia muricata) are immune from the attacks 

 of insects until they are perfectly ripe. Then they burst open, and are 

 soon -infested by ants attracted by the sweet custard-like pulp surround- 

 ing the seeds. 



Before breakfast is over Don Luis de Torres, the justice of the peace 

 of Agafia, comes in to consult me about several matters, one of them a 

 case of indebtedness on the part of a woman who has recently been in a 

 condition of peonage and who owes her former master a considerable 

 sum ot money, which she was to repay him by earning wages at the rate 

 of $2.00 silver per month. The other case was involving the ownership 

 of a few coconut trees. We soon came to an agreement about both matters. 

 Don Luis is the great-grandson of the Sargento Mayor Luis de Torres 

 celebrated by Chamisso and Gaudichaud. He is an intelligent man and 

 tries hard to carry on the duties of his office with justice. 



The bell now strikes eight and as the flag is hoisted before the palace 

 the band plays the Star-spangled Banner. Everybody in the plaza rises 

 and faces the flag, saluting it as it reaches the mast-head. A number 

 of pretty pieces follow : Schubert's Am Meer, selections from Lohen- 

 grin, and Weber's "Invitation to the Dance." Many nationalities 



