The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes Part 34

[105] Gemelli Careri has already mentioned them.

[106] I discovered similar formations, of extraordinary beauty and extent, in the great silicious beds of Steamboat Springs in Nevada.

[107] Arenas thinks that the ancient annals of the Chinese probably contain information relative to the settlement of the present inhabitants of Manila, as that people had early intercourse with the Archipelago.

[108] Probably the Anodonta Purpurea, according to V. Martens.

[109] 1 ganta = 3 liters. 1 quinon = 100 loanes = 2.79495 hectares = 6.89 acres. 1 caban = 25 gantas.

[110] Scherzer, Miscellaneous Information.

[111] More than one hundred years later, Father Taillandier writes:--"The Spaniards have brought cows, horses, and sheep from America; but these animals cannot live there on account of the dampness and inundations."--(Letters from Father Taillandier to Father Willard.)

[112] At the present time the Chinese horses are plump, large-headed, hairy, and with bushy tails and manes; and the j.a.panese, elegant and enduring, similar to the Arabian. Good Manila horses are of the latter type, and are much prized by the Europeans in Chinese seaport towns.

[113] Compare Hernandez, Opera Omnia; Torquemada, Monarchia Indica.

[114] Buyo is the name given in the Philippines to the preparation of betel suitable for chewing. A leaf of betel pepper (Chavica betel), of the form and size of a bean-leaf, is smeared over with a small piece of burnt lime of the size of a pea, and rolled together from both ends to the middle; when, one end of the roll being inserted into the other, a ring is formed, into which a smooth piece of areca nut of corresponding size is introduced.

[115] Twelve lines are omitted here.--C.

[116] 4 lines are omitted.--C.

[117] In the country it is believed that swine's flesh often causes this malady. A friend, a physiologist, conjectures the cause to be the free use of very fat pork; but the natives commonly eat but little flesh, and the pigs are very seldom fat.

[118] Compare A. Erman, Journey Round the Earth Through Northern Asia, vol. iii, sec i, p. 191.

[119] According to Semper, p. 69, in Zamboanga and Basilan.

[120] The fear of waking sleeping persons really refers to the widely-spread superst.i.tion that during sleep the soul leaves the body; numerous instances of which occur in Bastian's work. Amongst the Tinguianes (North Luzon) the worst of all curses is to this effect: "May'st thou die sleeping!"--Informe, i. 14.

[121] Lewin ("Chittagong Hill Tracks," 1869, p. 46) relates of the mountain people at that place: "Their manner of kissing is peculiar. Instead of pressing lip to lip, they place the mouth and nose upon the cheek, and inhale the breath strongly. Their form of speech is not 'Give me a kiss,' but 'Smell me.' "

[122] Probably pot-stone, which is employed in China in the manufacture of cheap ornaments. Gypseous refers probably only to the degree of hardness.

[123] In the Christy collection, in London, I saw a stone of this kind from the Schiffer Islands, employed in a contrivance for the purpose of protection against rats and mice. A string being drawn through the stone, one end of it is suspended from the ceiling of the room, and the objects to be preserved hang from the other. A knot in the middle of the string prevents its sliding below that point, and, every touch drawing it from its equilibrium, it is impossible for rats to climb upon it. A similar contrivance used in the Viti Islands, but of wood, is figured in the Atlas to Dumont D'Urville's "Voyage to the South Pole," (i. 95).

[124] "Carletti's Voyages," ii. 11.

[125] "Life in the Forests of the Far East," i. 300.

[126] According to Father Camel ("Philisoph. Trans. London," vol. xxvi, p. 246), hantu means black ants the size of a wasp; amtig, smaller black; and hantic, red ants.

[127] According to Dr. Gerstaecker, probably Phrynus Grayi Walck Gerv., bringing forth alive. "S. Sitzungsb. Ges. Naturf. Freunde, Berl." March 18, 1862, and portrayed and described in G. H. Bronn, "Ord. Cla.s.s.," vol. v. 184.

[128] Calapnit, Tagal and Bicol, the bat; calapnitan, consequently, lord of the bats.

[129] In only one out of several experiments made in the Berlin Mining College did gold-sand contain 0.014 gold; and, in one experiment on the heavy sand remaining on a mud-board, no gold was found.

[130] The Gogo is a climbing Mimosa (Entada purseta) with large pods, very abundant in the Philippines; the pounded stem of which is employed in washing, like the soap-bark of Chili (Quillaja saponaria); and for many purposes, such as baths and washing the hair of the head, is preferred to soap.

[131] A small gold nugget obtained in this manner, tested at the Berlin Mining College, consisted of--

Gold 77.4 Silver 19.0 Iron 0.5 Flint earth 3.

Loss 0.1 100.

[132] The nest and bird are figured in Gray's "Genera of Birds"; but the nest does not correspond with those found here. These are hemispherical in form, and consist for the most part of coir (coco fibers); and, as if prepared by the hand of man, the whole interior is covered with an irregular net-work of fine threads of the glutinous edible substance, as well as the upper edge, which swells gently outwards from the center towards the sides, and expands into two wing-shaped prolongations, resting on one another, by which the nest is fixed to the wall. Dr. v. Martens conjectures that the designation salangane comes from langayah, bird, and the Malay prefix sa, and signifies especially the nest as something coming from the bird.--("Journal of Ornith.," Jan., 1866.)

[133] Spanish Catalogue of the Paris Exhibition, 1867.

[134] "Informe sobre las Minas de Cobre," Manila, 1862.

[135] According to the Catalogue, the following ores are found:--Variegated copper ore (cobre gris abigarrado), a.r.s.enious copper (c. gris a.r.s.enical), vitreous copper (c. vitreo), copper pyrites (pirita de cobre), solid copper (mata cobriza), and black copper (c. negro). The ores of most frequent occurrence have the following composition--A, according to an a.n.a.lyzed specimen in the School of Mines at Madrid; B, according to the a.n.a.lysis of Santos, the mean of several specimens taken from different places:--

A B Silicious Acid 25.800 47.06 Sulphur 31.715 44.44 Copper 24.640 16.64 Antimony 8.206 5.12 a.r.s.enic 7.539 4.65 Iron 1.837 1.84 Lime in traces -- Loss 0.263 0.25 ------- ------ 100.000 100.00

[136] According to the prices current with us, the value would be calculated at about $12; the value of the a.n.a.lyzed specimen, to which we have before referred, $14.50.

[137] In Daet at that season six nuts cost one cuarto; and in Nags, only fifteen leagues away by water, they expected to sell two nuts for nine cuartos (twenty-sevenfold). The fact was that in Naga, at that time, one nut fetched two cuartos--twelve times as much as in Daet.

[138] N. Loney a.s.serts, in one of his excellent reports, that there never is a deficiency of suitable laborers. As an example, at the unloading of a ship in Iloilo, many were brought together at one time, induced by the small rise of wages from one to one and one-half reales; even more hands than could be employed. The Belgian consul, too, reports that in the provinces where the abaca grows the whole of the male population is engaged in its cultivation, in consequence of a small rise of wages.

[139] An unfinished ca.n.a.l, to run from the Bicol to the Pasacao River, was once dug, as is thought, by the Chinese, who carried on commerce in great numbers.--Arenas, p. 140.

[140] La Situation Economique de l'Espagne.

[141] Lesage, "Coup d'Oeil," in Journal des Economistes, September, 1868.

[142] From barometrical observations--

m.

Goa, on the northern slope of the Isarog 32 Uacloy, a settlement of Igorots 161 Ravine of Baira 1,134 Summit of the Isarog 1,966

[143] The skull of a slain Igorot, as shown by Professor Virchow's investigation, has a certain similarity to Malay skulls of the adjoining Islands of Sunda, especially to the skulls of the Dyaks.

[144] Pigafetta found Amboyna inhabited by Moors (Mohammedans) and heathens; "but the first possessed the seash.o.r.e, the latter the interior." In the harbor of Brune (Borneo) he saw two towns; one inhabited by Moors, and the other, larger than that, and standing entirely in the salt-water, by heathen. The editor remarks that Sonnerat ("Voyage aux Irides") subsequently found that the heathen had been driven from the sea, and had retired into the mountains.

[145] On Coello's map these proportions are wrongly stated.

[146] "Java, seine Gestalt (its formation)" II. 125.

[147] An intelligent mestizo frequently visited me during my sickness. According to his statements, besides the copper already mentioned, coal is found in three places, and even gold and iron were to be had. To the same man I am indebted for Professor Virchow's skull of Caramuan, referred to before, which was said to have come from a cavern in Umang, one league from Caramuan. Similar skulls are also said to be found at the Visita Paniniman, and on a small island close to the Visita Guialo.