While visiting the Paseo de Susana in Agana recently, I was startled when someone approached me from behind and placed his left hand on my shoulder. Without saying a word, he rubbed my chin with the fingers of his right hand. At that moment, I realized that the stranger was obviously aware of the significance of what he was doing. Just the same, I reminded him that in my youth, touching a person's chin was tantamount to a declaration of war. I cautioned him that if that was his intention, it would be to his advantage to make the sign of the cross.

After a few seconds, I spun around and there was this fellow, a senior citizen like me, in a boxer's stance which I was doing myself. He startled me further when he said, "Hey, brown, do you want to fight?" Although I had not heard that voice in fifty years I recognized it immediately as belonging to a boyhood pal from grade school. I pointed to his missing front teeth and he pointed to my thick lenses and we laughed and laughed until our bellies ached. We both realized instantly that it was time to make peace. And, over chicken soup and rice pudding in a nearby Senior Citizens Center, we did.

Fighting just for the fun of it, was not an unpopular way of spending free time during my childhood on Guam. There were no radios, TV, basketball, nintendo games, football, nor amusement parks. With so much time on our hands, fighting was at least an energy burner and much more exciting than pitching pennies, shooting marbles, and flying home-made kites glued together with steamed rice.

Interestingly enough, however, there are those who now argue that even if we had had athletic and recreational facilities available to us, we would have found time to fight anyway because it was in our nature. They call attention to the fact that diarists and journalists who accompanied early explorers alluded to men of great strength and physique in the Marianas.

Folklore tells us that there were frequent tests of strength and endurance among the chiefs of various villages and islands in the archipelago. Since no sophisticated weapons were available, confrontations involved physical strength and, as a consequence, the strongest survived. It would be hundreds of years later when Charles Darwin published his theory on survival of the fittest.

One of the most renowned of the Chamorro chiefs was Gadao of the village of Inarajan. This artistic rendition reflects his reputed size and stamina. One story told of his ability to husk a coconut with two fingers of one hand in just two seconds. When I heard this, I picked up this large coconut and tried for months to husk it with only two fingers. As you can see, the coconut has begun to sprout and I haven't even made a dent. Finally, I conceded defeat.

I then decided to visit Gadao's cave in a remote area at the edge of his old village. Small wonder that not too many people have attempted to visit the cave for it is situated precariously in a very hazardous cliffline. Footpaths are narrow and the jagged coral rocks are razor sharp. At the entrance to the cave are these multiple lusongs on a very large rock beneath an overhanging stone near the entrance.

Looking about the area, it was very easy to imagine an entire family sitting around the numerous lusongs at mealtime. Up to this point, I was familiar only with those carved out of stone that were portable such as the ones we saw at the original Latte sites we visited where we found these lusongs just as they were left in the jungle centuries ago.

During the first half of this century, lusongs were used on Guam, as shown here in this picture of two women pounding rice. This is a replica of a lommok which is used with the lusong. They are known as pestle and mortar in English. This method of preparing food and medicine is used in cultures world-wide. This modern version is prominently used as an international pharmaceutical symbol.

Entering Gadao's cave was the most thrilling part of the sojourn intended to learn more about this great fighter. These pictographs on the inner walls of the cave are still in remarkably good condition. It is my understanding that there is general agreement among archaeologists that the pictographs are authentic; however,there is no consensus on their meaning. Legend has it that it was Chief Gadao's way of keeping records of his conquests both by actual combat and through intimidation.

After leaving the cave, I felt that I had to try once more to husk a coconut. But this time I decided to use a technique I learned from my father. Using the traditional hegao, a sharpened hard piece of wood anchored in the ground and standing about three feet high, I did my best and succeeded in husking and cracking it. I am sorry to say, however, that I had to concede defeat to Gadao once more. He husked his coconut in two seconds but I simply could not do it faster than three!