19,2 Smith: Ancient Cave Dwellers of Batwaan 237 
to the surface; usually swallows and various insects are found 
living in these cylindrical holes. The writer is at a loss to 
explain their origin as there is no indication of water having 
percolated through from the surface and dissolved the material. 
These holes are very symmetrical, very much resembling giant 
drill holes. 
This cave is very dry, and anything found in it might have 
endured through many hundreds of years, as far as decomposi- 
tion is concerned. The floor is somewhat sandy and is made 
up of loose blocks of limestone and fragments of pottery. It 
is quite evident from the amount of material on the surface that 
it would be easy to obtain many kilograms of broken pottery. 
On digging into the floor one comes across bits of charcoal from 
ancient fires, and many marine shells of species of Area and 
Turritella which evidently formed one of the principal articles 
of diet of the people who inhabited the cave. These, being sea 
shells, of course, were brought from the ocean, probably from 
the nearest point, which is known as Nin Bay, about 15 kilo- 
meters to the sputhwest. There are also many deer teeth and 
broken jawbones of deer, indicating that these people were not 
only fishermen but hunters as well; in fact, this whole cave is 
one great kitchen midden. 
Adjoining the great living cave, and virtually a part of it, is a 
second large chamber in which the floor slopes downward to a 
small outlet on the side of the hill. At the upper end of this 
slope there is a great flat block of limestone which forms a 
natural platform. There is a tradition among the Filipinos 
living in the neighborhood of this hill, one of whom accompanied 
the writer’s party in their exploration, that this chamber was 
used in former times for a ceremony connected with marriage. 
There is also a tradition that the bride-to-be had to go into this 
chamber, where she would secure her trousseau from a shelf near 
the top of the cave. The people living in the valley at the pres- 
ent time have never taken part in these rites, but this story has 
been handed down to them with reference to this place. 
The roof of this cave has a great hole open to the sky which 
lights up the whole place and has been instrumental in keeping 
the bats out of this and the living cave. Directly beneath this 
great natural skylight there are some trees growing in the 
center of the cave ; the largest of these is not more than 6 centi- 
meters in diameter and about 10 meters high. These indicate 
that probably the time necessary for them to grow, however 
much that might be, has elapsed since the cave was used. 
