PEARLS OF SULU
Now and then people comment upon the odd style of a charm which Iwear upon my watch chain. The charm is a plain, gold sphere, and is,I acknowledge, a trifle too large to be in good taste.
If those who ask me about the charm are people whom I care to trust,I sometimes open the globe--it has a secret spring--and show themhidden away inside, a single pearl, so large and perfect that no onewho has ever seen it has failed to marvel at its beauty. If they askme why I wear so regal a gem, and where I got it, I tell them that Iam not quite sure that the jewel is mine, and that if I ever find theperson who seems to have a better right to it than I, I shall give itup. Meanwhile I like to wear the locket where I can sometimes look atthe pearl, since it is a reminder of what I think was the strangestadventure I ever had in the Philippine Islands. And I had many queerexperiences there during the years I have journeyed up and down thearchipelago in one capacity and another.
One summer when I was collecting specimens for a great European museum,I was living on the southeastern shore of the island of Palawan. Orrather I was living above, or beside the shore of the island; I don'tknow which word would best describe the location of my house, which,however, one could hardly say was on the island.
The Moros who live on that side of the island which is washed by theSulu Sea, and who ostensibly depend upon pearl fishing for a living,and really lived by their high-handed deeds of piracy against theirneighbors and mankind in general, inhabit odd houses which are builton stout posts driven into the sand at the edge of the sea. Thewalls of the houses are woven of bamboo, and the roofs are thatched,like those of nearly all the native habitations, but the location isunique. When the tide is high, the surface of the water--fortunatelythe village is built over a sheltered bay--comes to within two feetbeneath the floors of the houses, and the inhabitants go ashore incockle-shell boats. When the tide is low the foundation posts riseout of the mud and sand, and the people go inland on foot, dodgingpiles of seaweed and similar debris, left by the receding waves.
It was one of these houses that I hired, and in it set up my householdbelongings while I was at work in that part of Palawan.
The location had many advantages, for at that time I was principallyengaged in collecting corals, sponges, shell fish and similarsalt-water specimens. The natives brought me boat loads of suchmaterial, for once in their lives, at least, working for honestwages. I sorted over the stuff they brought, on a platform builtout in front of my house, and disposed of the mass of refuse in theeasiest way imaginable, merely by shoving it off the edge of theplatform into the water, where the tide washed it out to sea.
Then, too, this keeping house over the water brought a blessedrelief from the invasion of one's home by snakes, rats, ants andall the vermin of that kind which makes Philippine housekeeping onthe land a burden to the flesh, while I did not foresee at firstthat the very water which protected me from these dangers might makepossible the secret incursions of larger creatures. The disadvantageof this semi-marine style of architecture, as I looked at it, was thatsome night a big tidal wave might come along, chasing a frolicsomeearthquake, and bearing my house and myself along with it, leave ushanging high and dry in the tops of some clump of palm trees half adozen miles inland.
So far as the Moros were concerned, I got along all right withthem. They knew, in the first place, that I had the authority of theSpanish government to do about what I chose in Palawan, and althoughthey cared not one ripple of the Sulu Sea for the authority of Spainwhen it could not be enforced by force of arms, they did respect myarsenal of weapons and the skill with which I one day shot down acrazy "tulisane" of their tribe who had started to run amuck, andby the shot saved the lives of no one knew how many of them. This,and my doctoring back to health two of their number who were ill,made us very good friends, and I could not have asked for more willinghelpers, or more able, especially Poljensio.
It was not for many weeks after I had left Palawan for good, that Icame to understand that Poljensio may have had a double reason forhis willingness, which at the time I little suspected.
I remember very well the first time I saw the fellow. It was theday of the "macasla" festival. Up to that time I had found no Morowho would work steadily as my helper. Whatever men I hired, althoughsatisfactory while they worked, would eventually have something elseto do, either pearl fishing, or hunting, or long trips seaward intheir proas, they said for fishing, but I thought, and found later Ihad thought rightly, for robbery. Even Poljensio used to claim time,now and then, when he said the conditions of the water and weatherwere favorable for finding pearl oysters, to go and dive for thoselottery-ticket-like bivalves.
To tell the truth I did not blame the men so very much for turningpirates, after I came really to understand the conditions connectedwith the pearl fisheries.
The pearl oysters live at the bottom of such deep water, and are sohard to get, that I have often seen a man come up from his search forthem with blood running from his ears and nose, the result of stayingdown so long. Of course such things as divers' suits, and air pumps,were unknown there. The men stripped their slim, brown bodies naked,and went over the side of the boat with no apparatus except theirtwo hands and a sharp knife to use against the sharks. Sometimes themen never came back, and then we knew the knife had not been quickenough. Poljensio had a row of scars on one leg, where a shark hadbitten him, years before, which made the leg look as if it had beenbetween the bars of a giant's broiling iron.
Then, after the forces of nature had been overcome, as if they alonewere not bad enough, the representatives of the government, the"Gobernadorcillo," had to be reckoned with; and he was worse thanall the rest.
The pearl fisheries of Palawan were the property of the Sultanof Sulu. At least up to that time that monarch had been able tomaintain an ownership in them which allowed him to claim all of thepearls above a certain size. All that the divers got for their riskand labor were the small pearls and the shells. Fortunately for themmost of the shells had a market value for cutting into cameos, and forinlay work, and the Chinese dealers who came to Palawan bought them,as well as the pearls.
It was the business of the "Gobernadorcillo" to watch the divers, andtake from them all the pearls large enough to become the perquisiteof the Sultan. The men were allowed to go out to the water over theoyster beds only on certain days, and then the Sultan's representativewent with them, and sat in his boat to keep watch that no shells wereopened there. After the boats had returned to the land every oystershell was opened under his watchful eye, and every large pearl wasclaimed. Of course it was only rarely that an oyster held a pearl,more rarely still that the gem was a large one. When they did find abig one it always made me feel sorry to see the poor fellow, who hadworked so hard for it, have to give the prize up to go, no doubt,to deck some one of the four hundred wives of the ruler who livedacross the Sulu Sea.
Poljensio was one of the best of the divers. It was at the "macasla"festival, as I have said, that I first noticed him. For a month thenatives had talked about "macasla," and this, with what I had heardabout it before, made me anxious to see the performance. So far as Iknew I was the first American who had ever had the opportunity. It isonly rarely that the festival can be kept, because its success dependsupon the possession by the natives of the berries of a certain shrub,which must be in just such a stage of ripeness to have the requisitepower. The plant on which the berries grow is not at all common. Inthis case it was necessary to send a long way into a distant part ofthe island to get the berries.
The "macasla" festival is really a great fishing expedition, in whichevery man, woman and child who lives near the village where it is heldtakes part. The berries are the essential element in a great mass,composed of various ingredients mixed together; just the same as abit of yeast put into a pan of bread leavens the whole lot. One veryold man was said to be the only person near there who understoodjust how to make the mixture. A large log which had been hollowedout and used at one time for a canoe, was util
ized as a trough tomake the mixture in. The mass was mixed up in the afternoon and leftto ferment overnight. When he had it ready the old man covered thecanoe with banana leaves and forbade any one to go near it until thenext morning. I saw several different kinds of vegetable substancescrushed up, to be put into the canoe, besides the berries; and atlast a quantity of wood ashes were added.
The next morning every one was out early, as it was necessary to beginoperations when the tide was at its very lowest point. Every one aboutthe village was on hand, each person bringing a loosely woven wickerbasket, into which was put a small quantity of the mixture from theold log canoe. When all had been provided with this they walked outas far as they could go, to where the tide was just turning. Then,waiting until the incoming water had passed them on its way inland,the natives, formed in a long line parallel with the shore, droppedtheir baskets into the water and shook them to and fro until all ofthe "macasla" had been washed out through the loose wicker work.
In about ten minutes the effect of the mixture began to be seen. Thesmaller fish were affected first, and began to come to the top ofthe water, as if for air. Very soon they were followed by the largerones, and soon the water seemed filled with them. They would cometo the top of the water, turn on one side, flop about a little asif intoxicated, and then sink helplessly to the bottom, where, thewater being nowhere very deep, it was easy to see them and capturethem. The natives secured basket after basket full, getting some solarge that they could not carry them in their baskets. These theywould disable with a "machete" and then tow ashore. The fish did noteat the "macasla." It seemed simply to have impregnated the water,making a solution too powerful for them to withstand. They were notkilled by its effects, but acted as if they were drunk. Those whichthe natives did not capture soon recovered and swam away as briskly asever. Before they were able to do this though, the natives had securedmore than enough food to last them as long as it would remain eatable.
Of course I found the miscellaneous harvest of sea animals which the"macasla" brought in most interesting, and secured a good many valuablespecimens. Inasmuch as I had contributed very materially to the feastwhich was to take place that night, and which lasted all night long,the people let me wade about among the strangely helpless creaturesand have a first pick of such as I wanted. I had noticed Poljensiorunning about, as one of the strongest and most agile of all the menin the water, and when he came near me once, when my basket was heavy,I offered to hire him to help me, although I had little idea thatany one would work for wages at such a time. Quite to my surprise heseemed willing, and joined me in what I was doing. I learned afterwardsthat having no family to provide for he was not so much in need ofprofiting by the fish harvest as most of the men were. He had workedin the water all his life, and knew more about the habits of some ofthe creatures we caught than I did. When we came to go to my house,and he saw the specimens I had preserved there, he seemed to take amore intelligent interest in them than any other man I had ever had,and I was glad to be able to hire him to work for me all of the time,barring the few days he reserved for pearl fishing.
The season which followed proved to be an unusually successful onefor the divers. The crop of oysters was large, and many pearls werefound. The gems which were to go to the Sultan were superb, and therewould be enough of them to make a truly royal necklace.
One night about six months after the "macasla" festival I woke suddenlyfrom a sound sleep, with that strange feeling which sometimes comes toone at night, that I was not alone. While I lay listening and peeringinto the darkness of the room in which I slept, I heard a soft splashin the water beneath me, such as a big fish might have made if he hadcome to the surface, and diving back had struck the water with histail. It had been high tide soon after midnight, and the water wasnot more than three or four feet beneath me. I listened a long time,but could hear nothing more, and finally went to sleep again, decidingthat the splash I had heard had been made by a shark, and that somenoise which he had made before that had been what had roused me.
Any further thought of my disturbance which I might have had wasdriven from my mind in the morning, when I came out and found thecommunity in a state of violent commotion.
The "gobierno," the house in which the "Gobernadorcillo" lived, hadbeen robbed in the night, and a bag containing about half the Sultan'spearls was gone. The government official, along with several otherresidents, lived on shore. The houses which, like mine, were built overthe water, were generally inhabited by the divers and their families.
The voice of the "Gobernadorcillo" was not the only one raised inlamentation that morning, by any means, for he had very promptlybegun a search for the missing jewels by beating his servants andevery one connected with the official residence, within an inch oftheir lives. When this did not produce the pearls he extended theprocess to such other unfortunate residents of the town as fellunder his suspicion. I really think the only thing which kept himfrom killing a few of the wretches was the fear that he might by somechance include the thief in the number, and thus destroy all hope ofgetting back the stolen gems.
No man, woman or child was allowed to leave the village, and sothorough was the system by which one of those deputy tax collectorskept track of his people, that he knew every one by name, and knew justwhere each one should be found. His superiors required a certain sumof money from each tax collector. They did not care in the smallestdegree where or how he got the money, but a certain amount he mustturn in at stated times, or else be put in prison and have otherunpleasant things done to him. So it stood the "Gobernadorcillo"in good stead to know who his people were, and where they were,and how much each person could be made to pay.
As soon as his arm was rested from the beating he had given thesuspected natives the official began a personal search of each housein the village. The native houses are so simple, and their stockof furniture so small, that it was no great task to make a thoroughinspection of the entire place. What little furniture each house hadwas outside of it when the examination of that house was completed. Itwas fortunate for the people who lived in the houses built over thewater that their homes were visited at low tide, for in the stateof the examiner's temper when he visited them I think their effectswould have gone out into the sea just as quickly as they went out onto the sand.
Even my house came under the terms of the universal edict, althoughmy things were not used so harshly as were those of the natives,which was fortunate for me, for I had hundreds of specimens packed,and many more ready to pack, which I should have been very sorryindeed to have had dumped out of doors.
My relations with the Governor had always been pleasant. He really wasquite as good a man as any one in his place could be expected to be. Wehad gotten along very well together, and I was glad now that this wasso. When he came to my house he contented himself with looking throughthe part of the building where the native servant who cooked for meworked and lived. Poljensio slept at home, and spent only the daytimeat my house. The search of that part of the establishment over, theworried official sat down in my work room to rest for a few minutes,cool himself off, and bewail the fate which had brought him such illluck. Poljensio, who was washing sponges on the platform outside,and had for this reason not been at his brother's house, where heslept, when that domicile was searched, was called in, and whilehis official master rested, was made to strip himself stark naked,and turn his few slight garments--the clothing of a Moro is always anuncertain quantity--inside out to show that nothing was hidden therein.
Knowing the place so well as I did, and the means at the command of the"Gobernadorcillo," I could not for the life of me see how any one whohad stolen the pearls could keep them, or hide them, for that matter,unless they had been thrown back into the sea again.
So far as the governor himself was concerned he would not suffer fromthe loss. The yearly crop of pearls was not like the money tax, astated sum, nor could the Sultan enforce his claims as did the Spanishgovernment. His title to the fisheries was too slight for it to
bepolicy for him to make trouble. Besides that, Sulu was so far away thatits ruler might never hear that this year's crop had been larger thanusual. Not all the gems had been taken. The governor could turn overwhat had been left him, and it was not at all likely that any questionswould be asked. In fact, if it had not been for his evident concern,which I did not believe him clever enough to have simulated, I wouldalmost have believed he had stolen the pearls himself. He certainlywas indefatigable in his attempts to find the missing property. Nota native left the village for any purpose that his clothing and hisboat, if he was going out upon the water, were not inspected.
My own stay in Palawan was nearly ended at the time, and it wasnot long after that before I had completed my collections, packedmy specimens, and was ready to go. Poljensio had agreed to go withme as far as Manila, to handle my freight and baggage, and to helpme there about repacking and shipping my specimens. On my going toEurope he was to return to Palawan.
When I was ready to go, and had my luggage in shape to be sent onboard the sail boat which was to take me to a port visited by themonthly steamer to Manila, I wondered if the "Gobernadorcillo" wouldlet me go. He proved very obliging, however, shook hands, and hopedI would have a pleasant voyage. Poljensio, though, had to submit tothe usual ordeal of having his clothing searched. Luggage he had none,so he was not troubled in that respect.
I had planned to stop in Hong Kong a month on my way to Europe. Onthe morning of the day that I was to leave there I was surprised toreceive a package by one of the local English expresses of the city,and more surprised to find that the package contained a small box ofspecimens which had been missing when I had repacked my property atManila. The specimens in this box were particularly choice ones, andtheir loss had been as annoying as it had been unaccountable. Thepleasure which I felt in getting them back, though, was nothingcompared to my amazement when I found along with the package anothersmall one containing a letter from Poljensio.
The letter, if I had chosen to put it among my specimens, wouldhave ranked, I am sure, among the greatest curiosities of the wholecollection. Poljensio was not a scholar. His accomplishments layin the line of diving and swimming; in gathering pearls, and suchthings as that. He never would have wasted his time in strugglingwith pen and paper, now, if the nature of the correspondence hadnot been such that he could not safely entrust it to any one else;and the full comprehension of the remarkable document, written in themingled native and Spanish languages, with which he had favored me,was not vouchsafed to me at the first reading, or the second.
Translated, and made as nearly coherent as possible, it ran aboutlike this:
"I stole the pearls. I only took half, so not too much" (scrimmage,fuss, row, trouble,--the native word he used meant no one of theseexactly, and yet included them all) "would be made. I was tired ofworking so hard, and the sharks, and not getting anything for it butshells. I made up my mind I would do it soon after I went to work foryou. I went diving after that only that I be not suspected. I knewall of us native people would be searched, but I thought he wouldpass you by. So that night, after I had got the pearls, I swam out toyour house, climbed up through the floor, and hid the bag in a placewhere I would know. Then, one day, when I packed a fine big shell,I hid the bag in it, and marked the box. When we got to Manila Istole the box. I sorrow to make you this bad time, but have no otherway. I take good care of box, though, after I take pearls out, tobring it here with me, and now I send it back. I sell all the pearlshere but one, to China merchant, for money enough to make me always arich man. I don't think I go back to Palawan. One pearl I save back,and send you with this letter, to remember by it Poljensio."
That was what was in the package with the letter. The pearl he hadsaved; this one which I wear.
As I said in the first place, I am ready give it up when I can finda man who has a better claim to it than I have. My right of ownershipin the gem is not, I confess, very substantial; but whose is it?
It was not the "Gobernadorcillo's," for he was only an agent; andbesides that he left Palawan not long after I did, as I have foundout by inquiry, and I cannot learn where he now is.
The Sultan of Sulu who reigned then is dead, and if the gem belongedto him it did not belong to his successor; for the friends of thefirst ruler declared that the man who gained the throne after him wasa false claimant. Should I send it to the dead man's heirs? He hadno son, and one can hardly divide one pearl among four hundred widows.
Only Poljensio is left, and his claim, even if I could find him,I fear would be counted hardly legal. Quite likely he would not takeit back, even if I found him; and sometimes, when I reflect upon whatwould probably have happened to me if the bag of stolen pearls hadbeen found by any chance in my house, I am not sure that I shouldfeel like offering the gem to him.