Joy, savage and unrestrained prevailed yesterday in the Filipino reservation at the World's Fair grounds, and the long hall of the Cuartel, in which the natives live their simple lives, was filled with the jubilant hosannas, or their Igorrote equivalent, from warriors and their matrons and maidens.
And the causes of all this riot of rejoicing yelped and howled dismally through the beatings of the ganzas and in the midst of the revelry, for they saw their finish. These causes were six captive dogs tied to the posts of the Igorrote quarters in the Cuartel. After nearly two weeks of enforced fasting from puppy steaks and dog soup the famished head-hunters are at last to be regaled with their cherished viands. Six dogs have been obtained, where or how is kept a dark secret, and the dog-killing time is contingent on how soon the canine victims shall have been fattened for the feast.
But four of the dogs are to be sacrificed to the finicky appetites of the Igorrote gourmands. All six were secured for the purpose of being served at a great feast at which dog shall be the piece de resistance, but the beauty of two of them struck the savage Igorrote breast with pity and admiration and they have been saved to serve as pets. They will be carried back to Bontoc when the head-hunters shake the dust of St. Louis from their bare heels.
The two dogs which possessed the saving gift of good looks are a beautiful marked water spaniel and a fuzzy Skye terrier. The four yelping victims all belong to the great yellow mongrel family. Just now the latter present a gaunt and unappetizing appearance, but with tender care and careful feeding the natives hope to have them ready for the slaughter very soon.
In the meantime the Igorrotes, men and women, old and young, big and little, are all in the seventh heaven of bliss over the promised feast, and at each sidelong glance directed toward their captive meat they lick their chops in unctuous anticipation.
When the dog feast will take place is a matter that governor Hunt will not divulge, but he says that it will certainly happen, whether the Humane Society will or no.
"We are 300 yards outside the city limits," says the Governor, "and consequently the gratification of the Igorrote appetite with the beloved dog-meat is not a matter with which the humane Society has any concern. The natives like their dog morsels as well as the members of the society like their lamb chops and beefsteak, and they shall have it."
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