THE MODERN INHABITANTS. 131 



demonstration of grief for the dead, yet the family is soon comforted, 

 firmly believing in the immortality of the soul and of the ultimate 

 happiness of the departed. The body is accompanied to the church 

 and to the cemetery by the men, who go on foot, the women remaining 

 at home. As a rule the coffin is carried by four bearers, four others 

 walking behind them to relieve them. At the cemetery the body is 

 either placed in a boveda, or vault, the entrance to which is closed By 

 a stone and sealed with mortar, or it is buried in consecrated ground. 

 Usually the niche in the boveda is i-ented for a certain period of time, 

 at the expiration of which the bones are removed and buried. 



Sports and pastimes. — Sunday is observed by all as a holiday. 

 Nearly everybody attends mass in the morning. Before the arrival 

 of the Americans it was customary to have cockfights in the after- 

 noon, and the government received a regular income for its share of 

 the receijjts of the cockpit. Sunday cockfights were abolished by 

 a general order of the governor, and thus a check was given to the 

 passion of gambling, which with some of the natives amounted to a 

 vice. The natives have no other sports except hunting for deer with 

 dogs and guns. The boys amuse themselves with various games of 

 Philippine origin. Kiteflying is popular, especially in the trade-wind 

 season. In this sport some of them are experts, causing their kites to 

 fight one another in the air, like fighting cocks. 



INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM. 



Manner of securing livelihood. — The people of Guam are essen- 

 tially agricultural. There are few masters and few servants on the 

 island. As a rule the farms are not too extensive to be cultivated by 

 the family, all of whom, even the little children, lend a hand. Often 

 the owners of neighboring farms work together in communal fashion, 

 one day on A's corn, the next on B's, and so on, laughing, singing, and 

 skylarking at their work, and stopping whenever they feel so inclined 

 to take a drink of tuba from a bamboo vessel hanging to a neighbor- 

 ing coconut tree. Each does his share without constraint, nor will he 

 indulge so freely in tuba as to incapacitate himself for work; for 

 experience has taught the necessity of temperance, and everyone must 

 do his share if the services r.re to be reciprocal. In the evening they 

 separate, each going to his own rancho to feed his bullock, pigs, and 

 chickens. After a good supper they lie down for the night on a 

 pandanus mat spread over an elastic platform of split bamboo. 



None of the natives depends for his livelihood on his handiwork or 

 on trade alone. There are men who can make shoes, tan leather, and 

 cut stone for building purposes; but such a thing as a Chamorro 

 shoemaker, tanner, stone mason, or merchant, who supports his family 

 by his trade is unknown. In the midst of ])uilding a stone wall the 

 man who has consented to help do the work will probably say: " Excuse 

 me, SeHor, but I must go to my rancho for three or four days; the 



