506 GUAM AND ITS PEOPLE. 



people. Some of the changes brought a)>out ])y Spanish occupancy 

 are shown in the accompanying iHustrations. Navigation is scarcely 

 practiced by them. The wonderful flying praos have been replaced 

 by small canoes of inferior type, which arc now used by the natives 

 only for tishing. There are scarcely more than a dozen native boats 

 in the whole island. For years what traffic was carried on between the 

 islands of the group was by means of large canoes from the Caroline 

 Islands. 



Another ligure shows the manner in which corn is spread out to dry 

 in the streets upon mats of Pandanus leaves. The cast net shown in 

 the figure of the lisherman is make of thi'ead twisted by hand from 

 pineapple fiber; and the hide in process of tanning has been treated 

 with an infusion of the bark of Plthecolohium dulct\ which, like the 

 source of the leather itself, is an intrusion from America. 



With the exception of a few families living in rancherias, the natives 

 inhaliit villages and go to their ranchos, or country places, for the 

 purpose of feeding and watering their stock or for cultivating their 

 fields. The town houses are well constructed; the}^ are raised from the 

 ground on substantial, durable posts, or built of masonry with a base- 

 ment or ""bodega," which is used as a storeroom, taking up the 

 ground floor. Some of them are surrounded by balconies inclosed hy 

 shutters or by windows with translucent bivalve shells for panes. The 

 roofs are either of thatch or tile, the best thatch being that made of 

 the leaflets of nipa palm. Many of the houses are provided with gar- 

 dens, in which grow perennial eggplants, red peppers, bananas, plan- 

 tains, ^'arious kinds of beans, squashes, and ornamental and useful 

 shru))s and trees, including lemons, limes, pomegranates, sour sops, and 

 sugar apples {Anona squiunosa). Frecjuently under the eaves, so as to 

 receive the drippings from the roofs, are planted rows of bright-colored 

 foliage plants; and among the fragrant-flowered species are the mil- 

 leguas," the Egyptian henna ^' — a great bush covered with flowers which 

 bear a general resenil)lance to and have the odor of mignonette — and 

 the llangilang tree,'' from which the celebrated perfume is made. 



liancbos, as the country houses are called, may be constructed for 

 the use of one or two persons or for a whole family. Many of them 

 are intended oidy for temporary occupancy, the adjoining ground 

 being allowed to lie fallow after crops have been raised on it for four 

 or five years in succession. The usual form of a small rancho is that 

 of a shed, with walls of cocoaiuit matting or wo\'en reeds and a roof of 

 cocoanut thatch. Half of the hut is taken up by a split-])amboo plat- 

 form, raised about 2 feet from the ground. This is the famil}^ ))ed. 

 Beneath it are penned up each night the 3'oungest broods of chickens 

 with their mothers, to protect them from rats, cats, and lizards. The 

 larger fowls fly to the spreading limbs of a neighboring tree (the site 



(I Pertjniaria vduratisainia. b jMirmnla alba. c CatUKjd odoratn. 



