At various times during the year, especially in the month of September, a traveler in the Philippine Islands will notice many of the houses braced with long poles which reach from the four upper corners out to the ground some distance from the house. This is to safeguard the house against being blown down by a baguio (bä'-gï-o). Baguios are terrific cyclones which sweep in from the China Sea or the Pacific Ocean, and rage over the islands for hours and even days, leaving death and destruction in their track. Houses are demolished, crops ruined, trees felled, and boats washed up on shore or dashed to pieces on some of the treacherous coral reefs that fringe the shores of most of the islands. All vessels that have time either hasten to some sheltered port or put out into the open sea until the wind abates. The weather bureau at Manila sends out telegraphic reports whenever a typhoon is known to be approaching the islands, and thus preparations can be made for the storm.
Even if the storm is not severe enough to blow a house over, the thatched roof is sometimes lifted so that the rain pours in, soaking clothing and furniture. While a baguio is in progress the people often gather in one room of their house and pray for safety, chanting their prayer in a most mournful wail that rises and falls with the gusts of wind.
After such a storm has subsided, the sight is a sorry one; acres of abaca beaten down and washed into heaps of useless vegetation,--a most serious loss requiring three years of growth for the plants to replace themselves; fields that were waving with beautiful green rice lying flat, ruined for a season; trees broken off or uprooted; houses roofless or in ruins, and the shores strewn with drift-wood or wreckage. It is most fortunate that tropical nature is so lavish with those who live there, else they could not withstand the loss and devastation that result from the frequent and violent storms.
People who live in volcanic countries may expect earthquakes at any time, and such shocks are very common in the Philippines,--so common, in fact, as to arouse little comment unless the shaking is severe. Francisco was awakened many nights by hearing his bamboo home creak and by feeling the strange swaying motion, or the sudden jerks, that are so terrifying when one is only half awake.