The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes Part 35

[148] They are made of bamboo.

[149] The fruit of the wild pili is unfit for food.

[150] 17.375 Cent. or 63 Far.--C.

[151] 15.6 Cent. or 60 Far.--C.

[152] Sor Inspector por S. M.

Nosotros dos Capnes actuales de Rancherias de Lalud y Uacloy comprension del pueblo de Goa prov. a de Camarines Sur. Ante los pies de vmd postramos y decimos. Que por tan deplorable estado en que nos hallabamos de la infedelidad recienpoblados esta visitas de Rancherias ya nos Contentamos bastantemente en su felis llegada y suvida de este eminente monte de Isarog loque havia con quiztado industriamente de V. bajo mis consuelos, y alibios para poder con seguir a doce ponos (i.e. arboles) de cocales de mananguiteria para Nuestro uso y alogacion a los demas Igorotes, o montesinos q. no quieren vendirnos; eta utilidad publica y reconocer a Dios y a la soberana Reyna y Sofa Dona Isabel 2a (que Dios Gue) Y por intento.

A. V. pedimos, y suplicamos con humildad secirva proveer y mandar, si es gracia segun lo q. imploramos, etc. Domingo Tales?. Jose Laurenciano?.

[153] Dendrobium ceraula, Reichenbach.

[154] Rafflesia c.u.mingii R. Brown, according to Dr. Kuhn.

[155] According to E. Bernaldez ("Guerra al Sur") the number of Spaniards and Filipinos kidnapped and killed within thirty years amounted to twenty thousand.

[156] The richly laden Nao (Mexican galleon) acted in this way.

[157] Extract from a letter of the alcalde to the captain-general, June 20, '60:--"For ten days past ten pirate vessels have been lying undisturbed at the island of San Miguel, two leagues from Tabaco, and interrupt the communication with the island of Catanduanes and the eastern part of Albay. * * * They have committed several robberies, and carried off six men. Nothing can be done to resist them as there are no fire-arms in the villages, and the only two faluas have been detained in the roads of San Bernardino by stress of weather."

Letter of June 25:--"Besides the above private ships four large pancos and four small vintas have made their appearance in the straits of San Bernardino. * * * Their force amounts from four hundred and fifty to five hundred men. * * * Already they have killed sixteen men, kidnapped ten, and captured one ship."

[158] In Chamisso's time it was even worse. "The expeditions in armed vessels, which were sent from Manila to cruise against the enemy (the pirates) * * * serve only to promote smuggling, and Christians and Moros avoid one another with equal diligence on such occasions." ("Observations and Views," p. 73.) * * * Mas (i. iv. 43) reports to the same effect, according to notices from the secretary-general's office at Manila, and adds that the cruisers sold even the royal arms and ammunition, which had been entrusted to them, whence much pa.s.sed into the hands of the Moros. The alcaldes were said to influence the commanders of the cruisers, and the latter to overreach the alcaldes; but both usually made common cause. La Perouse also relates (ii., p. 357), that the alcaldes bought a very large number of persons who had been made slaves by the pirates (in the Philippines); so that the latter were not usually brought to Batavia where they were of much less value.

[159] According to the Diario de Manila, March 14, 1866, piracy on the seas had diminished, but had not ceased. Paragua, Calamianes, Mindoro, Mindanao, and the Bisayas still suffer from it. Robberies and kidnapping are frequently carried on as opportunity favors; and such casual pirates are to be extirpated only by extreme severity. According to my latest accounts, piracy is again on the increase.

[160] The Spaniards attempted the conquest of the Sulu Islands in 1628, 1629, 1637, 1731, and 1746; and frequent expeditions have since taken place by way of reprisals. A great expedition was likewise sent out in October, 1871, against Sulu, in order to restrain the piracy which recently was getting the upper hand; indeed, a year or two ago, the pirates had ventured as far as the neighborhood of Manila; but in April of this year (1872) the fleet returned to Manila without having effected its object. The Spaniards employed in this expedition almost the whole marine force of the colony, fourteen ships, mostly steam gunboats; and they bombarded the chief town without inflicting any particular damage, while the Moros withdrew into the interior, and awaited the Spaniards (who, indeed, did not venture to land) in a well-equipped body of five thousand men. After months of inactivity the Spaniards burnt down an unarmed place on the coast, committing many barbarities on the occasion, but drew back when the warriors advanced to the combat. The ports of the Sulu archipelago are closed to trade by a decree, although it is questionable whether all navigators will pay any regard to it. Not long since the sovereignty of his district was offered by the Sultan of Sulu to the King of Prussia; but the offer was declined.

[161] The Diario de Manila of June 4, 1866, states:--"Yesterday the military commission, established by ordinance of the 3rd August, 1865, discontinued its functions. The ordinary tribunals are again in force. The numerous bands of thirty, forty, and more individuals, armed to the teeth, which have left behind them their traces of blood and fire at the doors of Manila and in so many other places, are annihilated. * * * More than fifty robbers have expiated their crimes on the gallows, and one hundred and forty have been condemned to presidio (forced labor) or to other punishments."

[162] According to Arenas ("Memorias," 21) Albay was formerly called Ibalon; Tayabas, Calilaya; Batangas, Comintan; Negros, Buglas; Cebu, Sogbu; Mindoro, Mait; Samar, Ibabao; and Basilan, Taguima. Mindanao is called Cesarea by B. de la Torre, and Samar, by R. Dudleo "Arcano del Mare" (Florence, 1761), Camlaia. In Hondiv's map of the Indian islands (Purchas, 605) Luzon is Luconia; Samar, Achan; Leyte, Sabura; Camarines, Nebui. In Albo's "Journal," Cebu is called Suba; and Leyte, Seilani. Pigafetta describes a city called Cingapola in Zubu, and Leyte, on his map, is in the north called Baybay, and in the south Ceylon.

[163] No mention is made of it in the Estado geografico of the Franciscans, published at Manila in 1855.

[164] Small ships which have no cannon should be provided with pitchers filled with water and the fruit of the sacchariferous arenga, for the purpose of be sprinkling the pirates, in the event of an attack, with the corrosive mixture, which causes a burning heat. Dumont d'Urville mentions that the inhabitants of Solo had, during his visit, poisoned the wells with the same fruit. The kernels preserved in sugar are an agreeable confection.

[165] There were also elected a teniente mayor (deputy of the gobernadorcillo, a juez mayor (superior judge) for the fields, who is always an ex-captain; a second judge for the police; a third judge for disputes relating to cattle; a second and third teniente; and first and second policemen; and finally, in addition, a teniente, a judge, and a policeman for each visita. All three of the judges can be ex-capitanes, but no ex-capitan can be teniente. The first teniente must be taken from the higher cla.s.s, the others may belong either to that or to the common people. The policemen (alguacils) are always of the latter cla.s.s.

[166] G. Squier ("States of Central America," 192) mentions a block of mahogany, seventeen feet in length, which, at its lowest section, measured five feet six, inches square, and contained altogether five hundred fifty cubic feet.

[167] According to Dr. V. Martens, Modiola striatula, Hanley, who found the same bivalve at Singapore, in brackish water, but considerably larger. Reeve also delineates the species collected by c.u.mming in the Philippines, without precise mention of the locality, as being larger (38 mm.), that from Catarman being 17 mm.

[168] In Sumatra Wallace saw, in the twilight, a lemur run up the trunk of a tree, and then glide obliquely through the air to another trunk, by which he nearly reached the ground. The distance between the two trees amounted to 210 feet, and the difference of height was not above 35 or 40 feet; consequently, less than l:5.--("Malay Archipelago,"

i. 211).

[169] According to W. Peters, Tropidolaenus Philippinensis, Gray.

[170] V. Martens identified amongst the tertiary mussels of the banks of clay the following species, which still live in the Indian Ocean:--Venus (Hemitapes) hiantina, Lam.; V. squamosa, L.; Arca cecillei, Phil.; A. inaequivalvis, Brug.; A. chalcanthum, Rv., and the genera Yoldia, Pleurotoma, Cuvieria, Dentalium, without being able to a.s.sert their ident.i.ty with living species.

[171] Tarsius spectrum, Tem.; in the language of the country--mago.

[172] Father Camel mentions that the little animal is said to live only on coal, but that it was an error, for he ate the ficus Indica (by which we here understand him to mean the banana) and other fruits. (Camel de quadruped. Phil. Trans., 1706-7. London.) Camel also gives (p. 194) an interesting account of the kaguang, which is accurate at the present day.--Ibid., ii. S. 2197.

[173] The following communication appeared for the first time in the reports of a session of the Anthropological Society of Berlin; but my visitors were there denominated Palaos islanders. But, as Prof. Semper, who spent a long time on the true Palaos (Pelew) islands, correctly shows in the "Corresp.-Bl. f. Anthropol.," 1871, No. 2, that Uliai belongs to the group of the Carolinas, I have here retained the more common expression, Micronesian, although those men, respecting whose arrival from Uliai no doubt existed, did not call themselves Caroline islanders, but Palaos. As communicated to me by Dr. Graeffe, who lived many years in Micronesia, Palaos is a loose expression like Kanaka and many others, and does not, at all events, apply exclusively to the inhabitants of the Pelew group.

[174] Dumont d'Urville, Voyage to the South Pole, v. 206, remarks that the natives call their island Gouap or Ouap, but never Yap; and that the husbandry in that place was superior to anything he had seen in the South Sea.

[175] The voyages of the Polynesians were also caused by the tyranny of the victorious parties, which compelled the vanquished to emigrate.

[176] Pigafetta, p. 51.

[177] Morga, f. 127.

[178] "The Bisayans cover their teeth with a shining varnish, which is either black, or of the color of fire, and thus their teeth become either black, or red like cinnabar; and they make a small hole in the upper row, which they fill with gold, the latter shining all the more on the black or red ground."--(Thevenot, Religieux, 54.) Of a king of Mindanao, visited by Magellan at Ma.s.sana, it is written:--"In every tooth he had three machie (spots?) of gold, so that they had the appearance of being tied together with gold;" which Ramusio interprets--"On each finger he had three rings of gold."--Pigafetta, p. 66; and compare also Carletti, Voyages, i. 153.

[179] 42 and 30 Cent. or 108 and 86 Fahr.--C.

[180] In one of these cliffs, sixty feet above the sea, beds of mussels were found: ostrea, pinna, chama; according to Dr. V. M.--O. denticula, Bron.; O. cornucopiae, Chemn.; O. rosacea, Desh.; Chama sulfurea, Reeve; Pinna Nigrina, Lam. (?).

[181] In the Athenaeum of January 7, 1871, Captain Ullmann describes a funeral ceremony (tiwa) of the Dyaks, which corresponds in many points with that of the ancient Bisayans. The coffin is cut out of the branch of a tree by the nearest male kinsman, and it is so narrow that the body has to be pressed down into it, lest another member of the family should die immediately after to fill up the gap. As many as possible of his effects must be heaped on the dead person, in order to prove his wealth and to raise him in the estimation of the spirit world; and under the coffin are placed two vessels, one containing rice and the other water.

One of the princ.i.p.al ceremonies of the tiwa consisted formerly (and does still in some places) in human sacrifices. Where the Dutch Government extended these were not permitted; but sometimes carabaos or pigs were killed in a cruel manner, with the blood of which the high priest smeared the forehead, breast, and arms of the head of the family. Similar sacrifices of slaves or pigs were practised amongst the ancient Filipinos, with peculiar ceremonies by female priests (Catalonas).

[182] In the chapter De monstris et quasi monstris * * * of Father Camel, London Philos. Trans., p. 2259, it is stated that in the mountains between Guiuan and Borongan, footsteps, three times as large as those of ordinary men, have been found. Probably the skulls of Lauang, which are pressed out in breadth, and covered with a thick crust of calcareous sinter, the gigantic skulls (skulls of giants) have given rise to the fable of the giants' footsteps.

[183] Hemiramphus viviparus, W. Peters (Berlin Monatsb., March 16, 1865).

[184] Lehrbuch der Pharmakognosie des Pflanzenreichs (Compendium of the "Pharmacopoeia of the Vegetable Kingdom,") p. 698.

[185] Philos. Trans. 1699, No. 249, pages 44, 87.

[186] At Borongan the tinaja of 12 gantas cost six reals (one quart about two pesetas), the pot two reals, the freight to Manila three reals, or, if the product is carried as cargo (matrose), two and one-half reals. The price at Manila refers to the tinaja of sixteen gantas.

[187] Newly prepared coconut oil serves for cooking, but quickly becomes rancid. It is very generally used for lighting. In Europe, where it seldom appears in a fluid state, as it does not dissolve until 16 R., (20 C. or 68 Fahr.) it is used in the manufacture of tapers, but especially for soap, for which it is peculiarly adapted. Coconut soap is very hard, and brilliantly white, and is dissolved in salt water more easily than any other soap. The oily nut has lately been imported from Brazil into England under the name of "copperah,"

(copra) and pressed after heating.

[188] On Pigafetta's map Leyte is divided into two parts, the north being called Baibay, and the south Ceylon. When Magellan in Ma.s.sana (Limasana) inquired after the most considerable places of business, Ceylon (i.e. Leyte), Calagan (Caraga), and Zubu (Cebu) were named to him. Pigaf., 70.

[189] According to Dr. Gerstaecker: Oedipoda subfasciata, Haan, Acridium Manilense, Meyen. The designation of Meyen which the systemists must have overlooked, has the priority of Haan's; but it requires to be altered to Oedipoda Manilensis, as the species does not belong to the genus acridium in the modern sense. It occurs also in Luzon and in Timor, and is closely allied to our European migratory locusts Oedipoda migratoria.

[190] After the king had withdrawn * * * "sweetmeats and cakes in abundance were brought, and also roasted locusts, which were pressed upon the guests as great delicacies."--"Col. Fytche's Mission to Mandalay Parliament," Papers, June, 1869.

[191] The names of these two localities, on Coello's map, are confounded. Burauen lies south of Dagami.

[192] 62.5 Cent. or 144.5 Fahr.--C.