of the island. The Marianne caper, a low shrub whose seed capsules make good local pickles, grows on the strand with pink flowers of considerable beauty. It is, so far as records prove, an indigenous plant. Indian pennywort has been introduced and is considered, when an infusion of its leaves is drunk hot, to be excellent in reducing fever and settling the stomachs of children. There is a looking-glass tree, so named because of the silvered undercoating of its leaves, whose wood was once used as wheel spokes in the early-day carts. Jack-in-the-Box (nonag tree), a tinder-wooded tree which easily takes fire, was used for the wood hulls of canoes in earlier times, and its bark used as a depilatory by the native women, since it destroys hair painlessly. Inkberry, antidote lily (a white, flowering beach plant whose bulb is used as an emetic), the asthma herb, Spanish needles (a scorpion-bite remedy), zebrawood (for perfume), scorpion weed, maile (its flower bud is used in weaving floral garlands)—all these unusual and interesting plants, to mention but a few, have their definitive uses.
Several jasmines yield fragrant oil, and their hard wood was formerly used for making plows and outrigging native canoes. A physio nut, growing on a small evergreen shrub used for hedges and fences, is a natural cattle repellent and just what its name implies when eaten. Henna and acacia spread their spiced flowers across the island, the hedge variety being similar to the physio nut.
Although the hibiscus is not indigenous to Guam, it is a handsome touch of color all over the island. Finding the climate ideal, it responds by blooming constantly and growing into thick, trained hedges quickly forming a solid mass of green foliage and wide blossoms around sunlit gardens. The flowertree (for it reaches the height of a small tree in many instances) comes in myriad pastel shades, common among them peach, cerise, orange, cardinal red, lemon yellow, near-white, and many shades of pink.
The chocolate tree is an all-time favorite, for blossoms spring forth from the trunk itself, looking like tiny fragrant parasites. As recently as fifty years ago, cacao beans were put into a jar and given to friends departing for either Manila, the United States, or even Spain. Natives have always considered their chocolate the best in the world and have scorned the hermetically sealed, packaged variety until very recently, saying it tasted like medicine. Among the older inhabitants, it is still the custom to drink chocolate, served quite hot in the late afternoon, and offered to visitors in the home as a matter of etiquette, often with a sweet cake or cookie.
The botany of Guam and its ethnological aspects as studied and delineated by William Safford is an endlessly fascinating study, even to the layman, and it is unfortunate that more of it cannot be unfolded at this point. The history of Guam's flora parallels the history of its aboriginal people, and, the two can hardly be divorced at any point. Without its oasis-like botanical lure, the early navigators would have by-passed Guam for the more southerly islands, and its natural beauties would have been lost to early travelers and settlers. But this possible isolation would not have made any difference in the prodigious charm and wonder of its foliaged hillsides, its volcanic rock jungles garlanded with cascading vines, its prehistoric caves mouldering with picture writings, its hidden waterfalls pouring into shrimp-filled pools, its sword-grass savannahs and limestone spurs, or its weird, unearthly bristle of scrub forests spread over the northwestern plateau. They would merely have been preserved a while longer in their natural state, as would have the rich pattern of aboriginal life that disintegrated so rapidly under the yoke of religious colonization. The virgin island might have flourished through such a bonus period as a proud paradise existing on borrowed time; but sooner or later the Western world was bound to discover it and deem its exploitation expedient.
Today, with the island's conservation and restoration a vital issue, the accent throughout the island is on the cultivation of decorative flora rather than food plants, since the tiny world of Guam no longer depends on its home-grown crops for sustenance in times of typhoon, and edible plants are no longer cultivated as a vital necessity. The display of floral life in Guam, both indigenous and imported, dresses the island in ever brighter colors against its perennial green mantle.
It is not an unlikely prediction that with the final execution of the contemporary planting plan of conservation and the civic beautification now projected by the Government of Guam, the queen island of the Marianas will one day take her place as the most beautiful two hundred and twenty-five square miles of United States territory in any climate. With this distinction she will again become what she has been called in the past—the gem of Micronesia.
3
Animals of Guam
For all of the thriving plant life and the wealth of natural products that made Guam the traditional romantic, self-sustaining paradise it was before its invasion by Western explorers, Guam has a singularly small range of animal life. There are no indigenous quadrupeds on the island, and the only prehistoric mammals that naturalists have turned up are two species of native bats.
One of these two species is the large fruit-eating bat (the flying fox), called the fanihi by the Chamorros. In its daylight foraging, besides the fragrant fruit of the screw pine, it seeks several other cultivated and wild fruits (breadfruit drupes, guavas, custard apples, etc.) and has often been a source of real pestilence to the diligent, hard-pressed farmers who have been forced to keep constant vigil at harvest time against its destructiveness. However, its taste for these edible fruits has caused it to spread the seeds over the island. When possible, the fruit bat is caught, caged, fattened, and then eaten. Its fur emits a faintly musty odor, but its flesh does not hold this scent, and is a favorite delicacy of the Chamorros, although rather tough.
The other species of bat, a much smaller insect-eating bat called the payésyes in Chamorro, ventures forth at twilight to forage for food among the hordes of insects in the mountain areas and along the coast. It flutters about much like the common bat, American but in daylight hours it remains in secluded ruins or volcanic hillside caves and may be found there clinging in its sleep to the damp walls of deserted buildings or rough caves. According to Safford, it bears a resemblance to the tropical Samoan bat and seems to possess identical habits.
RODENTS
Rats and mice abound in Guam, despite post-World War II efforts to eradicate them. At one time the rat populace subsisted entirely on seasonal crops such as maize, cacao, and young coconuts, often ascending the trees and making nests in the heart of the palm. Nowadays, with the remnants of imported food more easily accessible in a frequently uncovered state, the rat is the plague of garbage dumps, dooryards, public kitchens, warehouses and restaurants. The innocuous mouse, seldom seen, is rarely responsible for damage and contents itself with living in unused drawers and boxes in habitable buildings.
ISLAND DEER
Before World War II, wild deer abounded in the hill country, causing great damage to tender young crops in the interior. The deer was supposedly brought to Guam by Don Mariano Tobias, an early Spanish governor of Guam, sometime between 1771 and 1774, probably with the idea that it would provide a handy source of food supply. Its flesh does have a fine venison flavor, and for a long time following its introduction it was a favorite meat staple of the islanders. At one period deer were so numerous that during their rutting season the strident cries of ardent bucks were heard at night near almost every island village, especially when the tropical moon hung low and full over the sea. Today the deer have been almost hunted out of existence; war decimated their number when they were sought as one of the few sources of fresh meat. But occasionally even now on passage through the southern mountains a deer will be flushed in the dense jungle thickets and go bounding down a hillside—and a lucky hunter may be able to take it in its flight. It seems logical, however, that deer hunting will one day be outlawed. Perhaps this will occur before the tawny, nimble animals become extinct.
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
Nearly all of the common domestic animals—cattle, horses, water buffalo (carabao), mules, pigs, goats, chickens, cats and dogs—have been introduced into Guam since the time of Magellan. The Filipino carabao, among the work animals, has proven most adaptable, partially because it did not have to undergo a change of climate. Its natural slowness, its strength and docility, make it a good worker, and the tropical humidity and benign temperature of Guam provide it with the moist comfort it must have to survive. Without water over its back and the chance to wallow in a warm mudhole