302 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Ch. XVIII. 



usually also have a string attached to them), from whence 

 they look abroad complacently, and apparently in search of 

 some other cock with which they may be permitted to fight. 

 Occasionally two cocks thus meeting are placed upon the 

 ground and allowed to have a little spar with one another. 

 But restraints are placed upon cock-fighting by the Govern- 

 ment, and it is only under licence that they are allowed to 

 make war to the knife upon one another ; but in the regular 

 cock-fighting estabhshments great excitement and high 

 gambling are often the order of the day. In unlicensed 

 places the indulgence in their favourite sport is punishable ; 

 and were it not so the whole population would, I believe, 

 practise it in every street of the town. 



The river Pasig flows out of a considerable lake, situated 

 at no great distance from the city, which it divides into 

 two parts, connected by several bridges, the best of which 

 was destroyed by the earthquake. A long mole on either 

 side converts the entrance of this river into a harbour for 

 small vessels — aU ships of a larger burthen being obliged 

 to anchor out in the roads, and those with considerable 

 draught, a long way out. The tide flows in and out of 

 this harbour with great strength and rapidity, and at the 

 ebb always carries out vast quantities of water-cabbage 

 (Pistia stratiotes), which is brought down from the lake. 

 Into some parts of the town the river penetrates and rami- 

 fies into innumerable canals, among which it is easy for a 

 stranger to lose his way — as I did, in searching for the resi- 

 dence of a friend. Large quantities of produce from the 

 interior are brought down the river in barges, which are 

 poled against the stream with an amount of labour I never 

 saw human beings exert before. Placing the rounded end 

 of the pole in the hollow of the clavicle, the men crawl 



