History of the Philippine Islands Part 21

[227] This custon still exists.--Rizal.

[228] This custom exists also among the married women of j.a.pan, as a sign of their chast.i.ty. It is now falling into disuse.--Rizal.

[229] The Filipinos were careful not to bathe at the hour of the siesta, after eating, during the first two days of a cold, when they have the herpes, and some women during the period of menstruation.--Rizal.

[230] This work, although not laborious, is generally performed now by the men, while the women do only the actual cleaning of the rice.--Rizal.

[231] This custom is still to be seen in some parts.--Rizal.

[232] A name given it by the Spaniards. Its Tagal name is kanin.--Rizal.

[233] The fish mentioned by Morga is not tainted, but is the bagoong.--Rizal.

[234] A term applied to certain plants (Atmaranthus, Celosia, etc.) of which the leaves are boiled and eaten.

[235] From the Tagal tuba, meaning sap or juice.--Rizal.

[236] The Filipinos have reformed in this respect, due perhaps to the wine-monopoly. Colin says that those intoxicated by this wine were seldom disagreeable or dangerous, but rather more witty and sprightly; nor did they show any ill effects from drinking it.--Rizal.

[237] This weapon has been lost, and even its name is gone. A proof of the decline into which the present Filipinos have fallen is the comparison of the weapons that they manufacture now, with those described to us by the historians. The hilts of the talibones now are not of gold or ivory, nor are their scabbards of horn, nor are they admirably wrought.--Rizal.

Balarao, dagger, is a Vissayan word.--Stanley.

[238] The only other people who now practice head-hunting are the Mentenegrins.--Stanley.

[239] A Tagal word meaning oar.--Stanley.

[240] A common device among barbarous or semi-civilized peoples, and even among boatmen in general. These songs often contain many interesting and important bits of history, as well as of legendary lore.

[241] Karang, signifying awnings.--Rizal and Stanley.

[242] The Filipinos, like the inhabitants of the Marianas--who are no less skilful and dexterous in navigation--far from progressing, have retrograded; since, although boats are now built in the islands, we might a.s.sert that they are all after European models. The boats that held one hundred rowers to a side and thirty soldiers have disappeared. The country that once, with primitive methods, built ships of about 2,000 toneladas, today [1890] has to go to foreign ports, as Hong-Kong, to give the gold wrenched from the poor, in exchange for unserviceable cruisers. The rivers are blocked up, and navigation in the interior of the islands is perishing, thanks to the obstacles created by a timid and mistrusting system of government; and there scarcely remains in the memory anything but the name of all that naval architecture. It has vanished, without modern improvements having come to replace it in such proportion as, during the past centuries, has occurred in adjacent countries....--Rizal.

[243] It seems that some species of trees disappeared or became very scarce because of the excessive ship-building that took place later. One of them is the betis.--Rizal.

Blanco states (Flora, ed. 1845, p. 281) that the betis (Azaola betis) was common in Pampanga and other regions.

Delgado describes the various species of trees in the Philippines in the first six treatises of the first part of the fourth book of Historia general de Filipinas (Manila, 1892). He mentions by name more than seventy trees grown on the level plains and near the sh.o.r.es; more than forty fruit-trees; more than twenty-five species grown in the mountains; sixteen that actually grow in the water; and many kinds of palms. See also Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1902), pp. 85-95, and Buzeta and Bravo's Diccionario (Madrid, 1850), i, pp. 29-36.

[244] Sanctor is called santol (Sandoric.u.m indic.u.m--Cavanilles), in Delgado (ut supra, note 71). The tree resembles a walnut-tree. Its leaves are rounded and as large as the palm of the hand, and are dark green in color. Excellent preserves are made from the fruit, which was also eaten raw by the Indians. The leaves of the tree have medicinal properties and were used as poultices. Mabolo (Diospyros discolor--Willd.) signifies in Tagal a thing or fruit enclosed in a soft covering. The tree is not very high. The leaves are large, and incline to a red color when old. The fruit is red and as large as a medium-sized quince, and has several large stones. The inside of the fruit is white, and is sweet and firm, and fragrant, but not very digestible. The wood resembles ebony, is very l.u.s.trous, and is esteemed for its solidity and hardness. The nanca [nangka, nangca; translated by Stanley, jack-fruit] (Artocarpus integrifolia--Willd.), was taken to the Philippines from India, where it was called yaca. The tree is large and wide-spreading, and has long narrow leaves. It bears fruit not only on the branches, but on the trunk and roots. The fruit is gathered when ripe, at which time it exhales an aromatic odor. On opening it a yellowish or whitish meat is found, which is not edible. But in this are found certain yellow stones, with a little kernel inside resembling a large bean; this is sweet, like the date, but has a much stronger odor. It is indigestible, and when eaten should be well masticated. The sh.e.l.ls are used in cooking and resemble chestnuts. The wood is yellow, solid, and especially useful in making certain musical instruments. Buzeta and Bravo (Diccionario, i, p. 35) say that there are more than fifty-seven species of bananas in the Philippines.

[245] Pile (Canarium commune--Linn.). Delgado (ut supra) says that this was one of the most notable and useful fruits of the islands. It was generally confined to mountainous regions and grew wild. The natives used the fruit and extracted a white pitch from the tree. The fruit has a strong, hard sh.e.l.l. The fruit itself resembles an almond, both in shape and taste, although it is larger. The tree is very high, straight, and wide-spreading. Its leaves are larger than those of the almond-tree.

[246] Delgado (ut supra) describes the tree (Cedrela toona--Roxb.) called calanta in Tagal, and lanipga in Visayan. The tree is fragrant and has wood of a reddish color. It was used for making the hulls of vessels, because of its strength and lightness. The same author describes also the asana (Pterocarpus indicus--Willd.) or as it is called in the Visayas, naga or narra--as an aromatic tree, of which there are two varieties, male and female. The wood of the male tree is pinkish, while that of the female tree is inclined to white. They both grow to a great size and are used for work requiring large timber. The wood has good durable qualities and is very impervious to water, for which reason it was largely used as supports for the houses. Water in which pieces of the wood were placed, or the water that stood in vessels made of this wood, had a medicinal value in dropsy and other diseases. In the provinces of Albay and Camarines the natives made curiously-shaped drinking vessels from this wood.

[247] So many cattle were raised that Father Gaspar de San Agustin, when speaking of Dumangas, says: "In this convent we have a large ranch for the larger cattle, of so many cows that they have at times numbered more than thirty, thousand ... and likewise this ranch contains many fine horses."--Rizal.

[248] To the flesh of this fowl, called in Tagal ulikba, are attributed medicinal virtues.--Rizal.

[249] These animals now [1890] exist in the islands, but are held in small esteem.--Rizal.

[250] See chapter on the mammals of the islands, in Report of U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, pp. 307-312. At its end is the statement that but one species of monkey is known, and one other is reported, to exist in the Philippines; and that "the various other species of monkey which have been a.s.signed to the Philippines by different authors are myths pure and simple."

[251] Camalote, for gamalote, a plant like maize, with a leaf a yard long and an inch wide. This plant grows to a height of two yards and a half, and when green serves for food for horses (Caballero's Dictionary, Madrid, 1856).--Stanley.

At that time the name for zacate (hay).--Rizal.

[252] In j.a.panese fimbari, larks (Medhurst's j.a.panese Vocabulary).--Stanley.

[253] Pogos, from the Tagal pugo.--Rizal.

Delgado (ut supra) describes the pogos as certain small gray birds, very similar to the sparrows in Spain. They are very greedy, and if undisturbed would totally destroy the rice-fields. Their scientific name is Excalfactoria chinensis (Linn.).

[254] Stanley conjectures that this word is a misprint for maynelas, a diminutive of maina, a talking bird. Delgado (ut supra) describes a bird called maya (Munia jagori--Cab.; Ploceus baya--Blyth.; and Ploceus hypoxantha--Tand.), which resembles the pogo, being smaller and of a cinnamon color, which pipes and has an agreeable song.

[255] Stanley translates this as "wild ducks." Delgado (ut supra) describes a bird called lapay (Dendrocygna vagans--Eyton.), as similar to the duck in body, but with larger feet, which always lives in the water, and whose flesh is edible.

[256] For descriptions of the birds in the Philippines, see Delgado (ut supra) book v, part i, 1st treatise, pp. 813-853; Report of U.S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, pp. 312-316; and Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1902), pp. 170, 171. There are more than five hundred and ninety species of birds in the islands, of which three hundred and twenty-five are peculiar to the archipelago, and largely land birds. There are thirty-five varieties of doves and pigeons, all edible.

[257] There are now domestic rabbits, and plenty of peac.o.c.ks.--Rizal.

[258] Doubtless the python, which is often domesticated in the Philippines. See VOL. XII, p. 259, note 73.

[259] La Gironiere (Twenty Years in the Philippines--trans. from French, London, 1853) describes an interesting fight with a huge crocodile near his settlement of Jala-Jala. The natives begged for the flesh in order to dry it and use it as a specific against asthma, as they believed that any asthmatic person who lived on the flesh for a certain time would be infallibly cured. Another native wished the fat as an antidote for rheumatic pain. The head of this huge reptile was presented to an American, who in turn presented it to the Boston Museum. Unfortunately La Gironiere's picturesque descriptions must often be taken with a grain of salt. For some information regarding the reptiles of the islands see Report of U.S. Philippine Commission,, 1900, iii, pp. 317-319.

[260] Unless we are mistaken, there is a fish in the Filipinas called Pampano.--Rizal.

[261] For catalogue and scientific description of the mollusks of the Philippines, see the work of Joaquin Gonzalez Hidalgo--now (1904) in course of publication by the Real Academia de Ciencias of Madrid--Estudios preliminares sobre la fauna malacologica de las Islas Filipinas.

[262] The Rio Grande.--Rizal.

[263] No fish is known answering to this description.--Stanley.

[264] The island of Talim.--Rizal.

[265] Retana thinks (Zuniga, ii, p. 545*) that this device was introduced among the Filipinos by the Borneans.

[266] A species of fishing-net. Stanley's conjecture is wrong.

[267] Esparavel is a round fishing-net, which is jerked along by the fisher through rivers and shallow places. Barredera is a net of which the meshes are closer and tighter than those of common nets, so that the smallest fish may not escape it.

[268] Cf. methods of fishing of North American Indians, Jesuit Relations, vi, pp. 309-311, liv, pp. 131, 306-307.

[269] A species of fish in the Mediterranean, about three pulgadas [inches] long. Its color is silver, lightly specked with black.

[270] The fish now called lawlaw is the dry, salted sardine. The author evidently alludes to the tawilis of Batangas, or to the dilis, which is still smaller, and is used as a staple by the natives.--Rizal.

For information regarding the fishes of the Philippines, see Delgado (ut supra), book v, part iv, pp. 909-943; Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands (ut supra), pp. 171-172; and (with description of methods of fishing) Report of U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, pp. 319-324.