Description of Binovido. 291 



trade. Here Europeans, Chinese, Malays, and tlicir endless 

 intermixtures of blood, amounting in all to more than 140,000 

 souls, reside in tlie most perfect harmony with each other ; 

 here are all the warehouses, shops, and manufactories ; here 

 prevails from morning- till night a perpetual whirl of busy, 

 cheerful crowds circulating through the streets, of which that 

 called the Escolta is the most frequented, as it is the hand- 

 somest and most attractive. The houses, on account of the 

 frequency of earthquakes, are usually one storey high, enclos- 

 ing large courts {patios), and very frequently with a sort of 

 terrace on the roof. The interiors of the houses have an un- 

 usually spacious appearance, owing to their almost universally 

 having but little furniture, in many cases simply a number of 

 chairs ranged along the walls. But the most singular aspect 

 of these houses is to be found in the windows, the panes of 

 most of them being made, not of glass, but of the shell of a 

 species of oyster (P lacuna Placenta) , ground dowTi to the re- 

 quisite thinness ! The subdued light which is thus obtained is 

 exceedingly grateful, and these mussel shells have been found 

 to be cheaper and more lasting than panes of glass, which, in 

 a country so frequently visited by earthquakes and hurricanes, 

 could only be replaced when injured at an immense expense. 

 The streets are rather narrow, so much so that linen awnings 

 are stretched across the streets from one row of shops to that 

 opposite, thus secm'ing to the foot-passenger the inestimable 

 boon of being able during the hottest hours of the day to 

 traverse almost every street in Binoudo under shudo. 



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