Coral Churches

CORAL CHURCHES

Are Built in Some Parts of Philippines

Prof. J. B. Steere, formerly connected with the university, and who visited the Philippine Islands twice, has many interesting things to relate. Once in his travels in the jungle his party camped after shooting a deer. A native and wife came to their camp and were given a quarter of the deer. They had 110 cooking utensils of any kind with them. The native man carried the customary machete. He stepped to a large bamboo tree and cut it down. He then cut off a section, with a point at each end, cut a slit in it so that a lid could be raised, filled the aperture with water, placed the venison within, closed the lid, and stood the bamboo joint, which was perhaps four feet long, against the fire in a slanting direction, and in the course of time the meat was finely cooked. Prof. Steere has a barn loft filled with highly interesting specimens or coral from the islands. The natives build churches from coral. It is cut out in blocks at low tide and tied to bamboos so that when high tide comes, it can be towed ashore. This coral never loses its fishy smell and on a damp day the odors in a coral church are almost overpowering. -Grand Rapids Herald.