THE MODERN INHABITANTS. 125 



and everybody knows how to prepare coconut leaves for thatching 

 and pandanus leaves for lashing together the parts of a house or rancho. 

 Some of the natives are remarkably versatile, being called upon to 

 practice various callings, as occasion may require. One of the Spanish 

 governors, who elsewhere speaks somewhat disparagingly of the 

 Chamorros, writes as follows: 



The late master armorer of the post, Don Vicente Pangelinan, worked with greater 

 or less perfection as armorer, locksmith, blacksmith, wood carver, cabinetmaker, 

 carpenter, silversmith, lathe turner. He was well fitted to perform clerical work, 

 having been employed as clerk in the treasury, assisting with the local accounts as 

 well as with the college fund in cases of urgency; speaks and writes Spanish fairly 

 well and speaks English, and remaining after all these accomplishments a person of 

 simple life and modest bearing. 



The successor and son-in-law of Don Vicente, the present armorer, 

 also works as gunsmith, locksmith, blacksmith, silversmith, turner, 

 carver, inlayer, clock repairer, and tortoise-shell worker. He is also 

 a thrifty rice grower, and attends personally to his plantations. One 

 of the most interesting sights is to see him take a condemned musket 

 and convert a portion of its barrel into a knife blade, welding in the 

 steel spring for the edge and fitting to it a handle of buffalo horn 

 inlaid with mosaic designs of silver, mother-of-pearl, or tortoise shell. 

 All of this he does with most primitive appliances. With equal skill 

 and apparent pleasure in his work he converts an old piece of iron 

 into a fosino or scuffle hoe or into a plowpoint. The husband of one 

 of Don Vicente's granddaughters is the principal silversmith of the 

 island. He makes spoons, forks, ladles, cups, or bowls well shaped 

 and finely finished, and he imitates models furnished him remarkably 

 well, melting up worn coin and silver pesos for his material. 



The principal cabinetmaker, a Filipino by birth, is also a rice 

 planter. He makes beautiful wardrobes of ifilwood, carving them in 

 designs of his own invention and finishing them beautifully. Not 

 many chairs are made in Guam, as the natives prefer benches or 

 settees. The ordinary tables, benches, and other furniture bear a 

 close resemblance to the forms now popular in the United States 

 known as " mission furniture." Canopies for beds and tops of ward- 

 robes are often carved, and show Philippine influence, the forms 

 resembling those used by the Malayan people. The beds are usually 

 provided with woven bottoms of rattan, like our cane-bottom chairs. 

 There are men in Guam who make these bottoms, but they get their 

 "behuko," as they call the rattan, from the Philippines. 



Boards for the sides of houses and for floors are sawed by hand 

 with large two-handled ripsaws, the logs being inclined against a 

 raised platform, so that one man ma}^ stand on a stage above and the 

 other on the ground. Serviceable carts are made with tough elastic 



