Before leaving, I took an opportunity of presenting the missing bottle at a time when the owner of it was not by, and fancied, from the blush which gave additional beauty to her cheek as I did so, that with the natural quickness of a woman and a beauty, she had read the stratagem played off on poor Adam; so she frankly offered me the same reward, by presenting her blooming lips to be kissed, even by so very recent an acquaintance. On making arrangements for a shooting party, it is quite necessary to hire beaters to drive the game, which there would be little chance otherwise of sighting, without undergoing more walking than most people find pleasant under a tropical sun. Having had the precaution to bring our own saddles with us, some miserable-looking ponies were procured, and started with a guide at an early hour in the morning, along a path formed for the most part, up and down thickly wooded hills, the road being sometimes a dry watercourse, or mountain stream. However, we got over the ground, passing through a beautiful country, and arrived at the meet after a four hours' ride, the place appointed being a hut belonging to the huntsman, and surrounded by three paddy fields, which he tilled, with his family, but did not live there, except at planting and reaping time, or for about six weeks of the year, from fear of the tulisanes, who, he said, frequented this wild and uninhabited neighbourhood. This is a frequent effect of the bad police of the Philippines, as much of the country that might be most advantageously cultivated, is abandoned to the jungle, solely from fear of these robbers, who sometimes add to their plundering propensities crimes of a more atrocious dye. After some good sport with deer and pigs, which constituted the supper of ourselves and all the beaters, night was very welcome, and seldom, indeed, did either of us enjoy repose more than in this hut, although through the holes in the grass walls of it the wind was whistling, and near us the beaters were noisily carousing, miscellaneously, upon sherry, cognac, and beer, it mattered not which to them, for we had presented some bottles of each, in order to celebrate the good day's sport. Next morning we heard of a wild cimmarone (or buffalo) having been seen in the neighbourhood some days previously, and endeavoured to find out his whereabouts, but none of the scouts could get a trace of him. Although these splendid animals are occasionally found in the country, they are not very common, and their reputation for savage ferocity is so great, that few of the Indians like to shoot them, because, if merely wounded without being disabled, they are certain to charge the hunter, which is more than Oriental nerves are fond of. Monkeys chattering in the trees are very common; but I never shot any of them, having, in truth, an antipathy to kill a brute with a shape so nearly human.