The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes Part 7

[Rain prevents another ascent.] At Buhi, which is not sufficiently sheltered towards the north-east, it rained almost as much as at Daraga. I had found out from the Igorots that a path could be forced through the tall canes up to the summit; but the continual rain prevented me; so I resolved to cross the Malinao, returning along the coast to my quarters, and then, freshly equipped, descend the river Bicol as far as Naga.

[Mountaineers' arrow poison.] Before we parted the Igorots prepared for me some arrow poison from the bark of two trees. I happened to see neither the leaves nor the blossoms, but only the bark. A piece of bark was beaten to pieces, pressed dry, wetted, and again pressed. This was done with the bare hand, which, however, sustained no injury. The juice thus extracted looked like pea-soup, and was warmed in an earthen vessel over a slow fire. During the process it coagulated at the edges; and the coagulated ma.s.s was again dissolved, by stirring it into the boiling fluid ma.s.s. When this had reached the consistency of syrup, a small quant.i.ty was sc.r.a.ped off the inner surface of a second piece of bark, and its juice squeezed into the vessel. This juice was a dark brown color. When the ma.s.s had attained the consistency of a thin jelly, it was sc.r.a.ped out of the pot with a chip and preserved on a leaf sprinkled with ashes. For poisoning an arrow they use a piece of the size of a hazel-nut, which, after being warmed, is distributed uniformly over the broad iron point; and the poisoned arrow serves for repeated use.

[Sapa river.] At the end of November I left the beautiful lake of Buhi, and proceeded from its eastern angle for a short distance up the little river Sapa [103], the alluvial deposits of which form a considerable feature in the configuration of the lake. Across a marshy meadow we reached the base of the Malinao or Buhi mountain, the slippery clay of the lower slope merging higher up into volcanic sand. [Leeches.] The damp undergrowth swarmed with small leeches; I never before met with them in such numbers. These little animals, no stouter when streched out than a linen thread, are extraordinarily active. They attach themselves firmly to every part of the body, penetrating even into the nose, the ears, and the eyelids, where, if, they remain un.o.bserved, they gorge themselves to such excess that they become as round as b.a.l.l.s and look like small cherries. While they are sucking no pain is felt; but afterwards the spots attacked often itch the whole day long. [104] [Fig-trees.] In one place the wood consisted for the most part of fig-trees, with bunches of fruit quite six feet in length hanging from the stems and the thicker branches; and between the trees grew ferns, aroids, and orchids. After nearly six hours' toil we reached the pa.s.s (841 meters above the sea level), and descended the eastern slope. The forest on the eastern side of the mountain is still more magnificent than that on the west. From a clearing we obtained a fine view of the sea, the Island of Catanduanes, and the plain of Tabaco. [Prison as hotel.] At sunset we reached Tibi, where I quartered myself in the prison. This, a tolerably clean place, enclosed with strong bamboos, was the most habitable part of a long shed which supplied the place of the tribunal destroyed in a storm two years before. At Tibi I had an opportunity of sketching Mount Malinao (called also Buhi and Takit), which from this side has the appearance of a large volcano with a distinct crater. From the lake of Buhi it is not so clearly distinguishable.

[Igabo hot spring.] Not far from Tibi, exactly north-east of Malinao, we found a small hot spring called Igabo. In the middle of a plot of turf encircled by trees was a bare spot of oval form, nearly a hundred paces long and seventy wide. The whole s.p.a.ce was covered with stones, rounded by attrition, as large as a man's head and larger. Here and there hot water bubbled out of the ground and discharged into a little brook; beside it some women were engaged in cooking their food, which they suspended in nets in the hottest parts of the water. On the lower surfaces of some of the stones a little sulphur was sublimated; of alum hardly a trace was perceptible. In a cavity some caolin had acc.u.mulated, and was used as a stain.

[Naglegbeng silicious springs.] From here I visited the stalact.i.te springs, not far distant, of Naglegbeng. [105] I had expected to see a calcareous fountain, but found the most magnificent ma.s.ses of silica of infinite variety of form; shallow cones with cylindrical summits, pyramidal flights of steps, round basins with ribbed margins, and ponds of boiling water. One spot, denuded of trees, from two to three hundred paces in breadth and about five hundred in length, was, with the exception of a few places overgrown with turf, covered with a crust of silicious dross, which here and there formed large connected areas, but was generally broken up into flaky plates by the vertical springs which pierced it. In numerous localities boiling hot mineral water containing silica was forcing itself out of the ground, spreading itself over the surface and depositing a crust, the thickness of which depended on its distance from the center point. In this manner, in the course of time, a very flat cone is formed, with a basin of boiling water in the middle. The continuous deposit of dross contracts the channel, and a less quant.i.ty of water overflows, while that close to the edge of the basin evaporates and deposits a quant.i.ty of fine silicious earth; whence the upper portion of the cone not only is steeper than its base, but frequently a.s.sumes a more cylindrical form, the external surface of which on account of the want of uniformity in the overflow, is ribbed in the form of stalact.i.tes. When the channel becomes so much obstructed that the efflux is less than the evaporation, the water ceases to flow over the edge, and the mineral dross, during the continual cooling of the water, is then deposited, with the greatest uniformity, over the inner area of the basin. When, however, the surface of the water sinks, this formation ceases at the upper portion of the basin; the interior wall thickens; and, if the channel be completely stopped up and all the water evaporated, there remains a bell-shaped basin as even as if excavated by the hand of man. The water now seeks a fresh outlet, and bursts forth where it meets with the least obstruction, without destroying the beautiful cone it has already erected. Many such examples exist. In the largest cones, however, the vapors generated acquire such power that, when the outlet is completely stopped up, they break up the overlying crust in concentrically radiating flakes; and the water, issuing anew copiously from the center, deposits a fresh crust, which again, by the process we have just described is broken up into a superimposed layer of flakes. In this manner are formed annular layers, which in turn are gradually covered by fresh deposits from the overflowing water. After the pyramid of layers is complete and the outlet stopped up, the water sometimes breaks forth on the slope of the same cone; a second cone is then formed near the first, on the same base. In the vicinity of the silicious springs are seen deposits of white, yellow, red, and bluish-grey clays, overlaying one another in narrow strata-like variegated marl, manifestly the disintegrated produce of volcanic rocks transported hither by rain and stained with oxide of iron. These clays perhaps come from the same rocks from the disintegration of which the silicious earth has been formed. Similar examples occur in Iceland and in New Zealand; but the products of the springs of Tibi are more varied, finer, and more beautiful than those of the Iceland Geysers.

[A world wonder.] The wonderful conformations of the red cone are indeed astonishing, and hardly to be paralleled in any other quarter of the world. [106]

CHAPTER XIV

[Quinali river.] On my second journey in Camarines, which I undertook in February, I went by water from Polangui, past Batu, as far as Naga. The Quinali, which runs into the south-eastern corner of the lake of Batu, runs out again on the north side as the Bicol River, and flows in a north-westerly direction as far as the Bay of San Miguel. It forms the medium of a not inconsiderable trade between Albay and Camarines, particularly in rice; of which the supply grown in the former province does not suffice for the population, who consume the superfluity of Camarines. The rice is conveyed in large boats up the river as far as Quinali, and thence transported further on in carabao carts; and the boats return empty. During the dry season of the year, the breadth of the very tortuous Bicol, at its mouth, is a little over sixty feet, and increases but very gradually. There is considerable variety of vegetation upon its banks, and in animal life it is highly attractive. I was particularly struck with its numerous monkeys and water-fowl. [Plotus water-fowl.] Of the latter the Plotus variety was most abundant, but difficult to shoot. They sit motionless on the trees on the bank, only their thin heads and necks, like those of tree-snakes, overtopping the leaves. On the approach of the boat they precipitate themselves hastily into the water; and it is not until after many minutes that the thin neck is seen rising up again at some distance from the spot where the bird disappeared. The Plotus appears to be as rapid on the wing as it is in swimming and diving.

[Naga.] In Naga, the chief city of South Camarines, I alighted at the tribunal, from which, however, I was immediately invited by the princ.i.p.al official of the district--who is famed for his hospitality far beyond the limits of his province--to his house, where I was loaded with civilities and favors. This universally beloved gentleman put everybody under contribution in order to enrich my collections, and did all in his power to render my stay agreeable and to further my designs.

[Nueva Caceres.] Naga is the seat of a bishopric and of the provincial government. In official doc.u.ments it is called Nueva Caceres, in honor of the Captain-General, D. Fr. de Sande, a native of Caceres, who about 1578 founded Naga (the Spanish town) close to the Filipino village. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it numbered nearly one hundred Spanish inhabitants; at the present time it hardly boasts a dozen. Murillo Velarde remarks (xiii, 272), in contrast to the state of things in America, that of all the towns founded in the Philippines, with the exception of Manila, only the skeletons, the names without the substance, have been preserved. The reason is, as has been frequently shown, that up to the present time plantations, and consequently proper settlers, have been wanting. Formerly Naga was the princ.i.p.al town of the whole of that district of Luzon lying to the east of Tayabas, which, on account of the increased population, was divided into the three provinces of North and South Camarines and Albay. The boundaries of these governmental districts, those between Albay and South Camarines more especially, have been drawn very arbitrarily; although, the whole of the territory, as is shown by the map, geographically is very well defined. [Land of the Bicols.] The country is named Camarines; but it might more suitably be called the country of the Bicols, for the whole of it is inhabited by one race, the Bicol-Filipinos, who are distinguished by their speech and many other peculiarities from their neighbors, the Tagals on the west, and the Bisayans on the islands to the south and east.

[The Bicols.] The Bicols are found only in this district and in a few islands lying immediately in front of it. Of their coming hither no information is to be obtained from the comprehensive but confused histories of the Spanish monks. Morga considers them to be natives of the island; on the other hand, it is a.s.serted by tradition that the inhabitants of Manila and its vicinity are descended from Malays who have migrated thither, and from the inhabitants of other islands and more distant provinces. [107] Their speech is midway between that of the Tagalogs and the Bisayans, and they themselves appear, in both their manners and customs, to be a half-breed between these two races. Physically and mentally they are inferior to the Tagalogs, and superior to the inhabitants of the eastern Bisayan Islands. [Bicol language.] Bicol is spoken only in the two Camarines, Albay, Luzon, the Islands of Masbate, Burias, Ticao, and Catanduanes, and in the smaller adjoining islands. The inhabitants of the volcanic mountain Isarog and its immediate neighborhood speak it in the greatest purity. Thence towards the west the Bicol dialect becomes more and more like Tagalog, and towards the east like Bisayan, until by degrees, even before reaching the boundaries of their ethnographical districts, it merges into these two kindred languages.

[Rice cultivation.] In South Camarines the sowing of the rice in beds begins in June or July, always at the commencement of the rainy season; but in fields artificially watered, earlier, because thus the fruit ripens at a time when, the store in the country being small, its price is high. Although the rice fields could very well give two crops yearly, they are tilled only once. It is planted out in August, with intervals of a hand's-breadth between each row and each individual plant; and within four months the rice is ripe. The fields are never fertilized, and but seldom ploughed; the weeds and the stubble being generally trodden into the already soaked ground by a dozen carabaos, and the soil afterwards simply rolled with a cylinder furnished with sharp points, or loosened with the harrow (sorod). Besides the agricultural implements named above, there are the Spanish hatchet (azadon) and a rake of bamboo (kag-kag) in use. The harvest is effected in a peculiar manner. The rice which is soonest ripe is cut for ten per cent, that is, the laborer receives for his toil the tenth bundle for himself. At this time of year rice is very scarce, want is imminent, and labor reasonable. The more fields, however, that ripen, the higher become the reapers' wages, rising to twenty, thirty, forty, even fifty per cent; indeed, the executive sometimes consider it to be necessary to force the people to do harvest by corporal punishment and imprisonment, in order to prevent a large portion of the crop from rotting on the stalk. Nevertheless, in very fruitful years a part of the harvest is lost. The rice is cut halm by halm (as in Java) with a peculiarly-formed knife, or, failing such, with the sharp-edged flap of a mussel [108] found in the ditches of the rice-fields, which one has only to stoop to pick up.

[Rice land production.] A quinon of the best rice land is worth from sixty to one hundred dollars ($5.50 to $9 per acre). Rice fields on rising grounds are dearest, as they are not exposed to devastating floods as are those in the plain, and may be treated so as to insure the ripening of the fruit at the time when the highest price is to be obtained.

[The harvest.] A ganta of rice is sufficient to plant four topones (1 topon = 1 loan); from which 100 manojos (bundles) are gathered, each of which yields half a ganta of rice. The old ganta of Naga, however, being equal to a modern ganta and a half, the produce may be calculated at 75 cavanes per quinon, about 9 3/4 bushels per acre. [109] In books 250 cavanes are usually stated to be the average produce of a quinon; but that is an exaggeration. The fertility of the fields certainly varies very much; but, when it is considered that the land in the Philippines is never fertilized, but depends, for the maintenance of its vitality, exclusively upon the overflowing of the mud which is washed down from the mountains, it may be believed that the first numbers better express the true average. In Java the harvest, in many provinces, amounts to only 50 cavanes per quinon; in some, indeed, to three times this amount; and in China, with the most careful culture and abundant manure, to 180 cabanes. [110]

[Sweet potatoes.] Besides rice, they cultivate the camote (sweet potato, Convolvulus batatas). This flourishes like a weed; indeed, it is sometimes planted for the purpose of eradicating the weeds from soil intended for coffee or cacao. It spreads out into a thick carpet, and is an inexhaustible storehouse to its owner, who, the whole year through, can supply his wants from his field. Gabi (Caladium), Ubi (Dioscorea), maize, and other kinds of grain, are likewise cultivated.

[Cattle and horses.] After the rice harvest the carabaos, horses, and bullocks, are allowed to graze in the fields. During the rice culture they remain in the gogonales, cane-fields which arise in places once cultivated for mountain-rice and afterwards abandoned. (Gogo is the name of a cane 7 to 8 feet high, Saccharum sp.). Transport then is almost impossible, because during the rainy season the roads are impa.s.sable, and the cattle find nothing to eat. The native does not feed his beast, but allows it to die when it cannot support itself. In the wet season of the year it frequently happens that a carabao falls down from starvation whilst drawing a cart. A carabao costs from $7 to $10; a horse $10 to $20; and a cow $6 to $8. Very fine horses are valued at from $30 to $50, and occasionally as much as $80; but the native horses are not esteemed in Manila, because they have no stamina. The bad water, the bad hay, and the great heat of the place at once point out the reason; otherwise it would be profitable to export horses in favorable seasons to Manila, where they would fetch twice their value. According to Morga, there were neither horses nor a.s.ses on the Island until the Spaniards imported them from China and New Spain. [111] They were at first small and vicious. Horses were imported also from j.a.pan, "not swift but powerful, with large heads and thick manes, looking like Friesland horses;" [112] and the breed improved rapidly. Those born in the country, mostly cross-breeds, drive well.

[Black cattle.] Black cattle are generally in the hands of a few individuals; some of whom in Camarines possess from 1000 to 3000 head; but they are hardly saleable in the province, although they have been exported profitably for some years past to Manila. The black cattle of the province are small but make good beef. They are never employed for labor, and the cows are not milked. The Filipinos, who generally feed on fish, crabs, mussels, and wild herbs together with rice, prefer the flesh of the carabao to that of the ox; but they eat it only on feastdays.

[Sheep.] The old race of sheep, imported by the Spaniards previous to this century, still flourishes and is easily propagated. Those occasionally brought from Shanghai and Australia are considered to be deficient in endurance, unfruitful, and generally short-lived. Mutton is procurable every day in Manila; in the interior, however, at least in the eastern provinces, very rarely; although the rearing of sheep might there be carried on without difficulty, and in many places most profitably; the people being too idle to take care of the young lambs, which they complain are torn to pieces by the dogs when they wander about free. The sheep appear to have been acclimatized with difficulty. Morga says that they were brought several times from New Spain, but did not multiply; so that in his time this kind of domestic animal did not exist. [Swine.] Pork is eaten by wealthy Europeans only when the hog has been brought up from the litter at home. In order to prevent its wandering away, it is usually enclosed in a wide meshed cylindrical hamper of bamboo, upon filling which it is slaughtered. The native hogs are too nauseous for food, the animals maintaining themselves almost entirely on ordure.

[Guesses at history from language.] Crawfurd observes that the names of all the domestic animals in the Philippines belong to foreign languages, Those of the dog, swine, goat, carabao, cat, even of the fowl and the duck, are Malay or Javanese; while those of the horse, ox, and sheep, are Spanish. Until these animals were first imported from Malaysia, the aborigines were less fortunate in this respect than the Americans, who at least had the alpaca, llamanda, vicuna. The names likewise of most of the cultivated plants, such as rice, yams, sugar-cane, cacao and indigo, are said to be Malay, as well as those for silver, copper, and tin. Of the words relating to commerce, one-third are Malay; to which belong most of the terms used in trades, as well as the denominations for weights and measures, for the calendar--so far as it exists--and for numbers, besides the words for writing, reading, speaking, and narrative. On the other hand, only a small number of terms which refer to war are borrowed from the Malay.

[Ancient Filipino civilization.] Referring to the degree of civilization which the Philippines possessed previous to their intercourse with the Malays, Crawfurd concludes from the purely domestic words that they cultivated no corn, their vegetable food consisting of batata(?) and banana. They had not a single domestic animal; they were acquainted with iron and gold, but with no other metal, and were clothed in stuffs of cotton and alpaca, woven by themselves. They had invented a peculiar phonetic alphabet; and their religion consisted in the belief in good and evil spirits and witches, in circ.u.mcision, and in somewhat of divination by the stars. They therefore were superior to the inhabitants of the South Sea, inasmuch as they possessed gold, iron, and woven fabrics, and inferior to them in that they had neither dog, pig, nor fowl.

[Progress under Spain.] a.s.suming the truth of the above sketch of pre-Christian culture, which has been put together only with the help of defective linguistic sources, and comparing it with the present, we find, as the result, a considerable progress, for which the Philippines are indebted to the Spaniards. The influence of social relations has been already exhibited in the text. The Spaniards have imported the horse, the bullock, and the sheep; maize, coffee, sugar-cane, cacao, sesame, tobacco, indigo, many fruits, and probably the batata, which they met with in Mexico under the name of camotli. [113] From this circ.u.mstance the term camote, universal in the Philippines, appears to have had its origin, Crawfurd, indeed, erroneously considering it a native term. According to a communication from Dr. Witmack, the opinion has lately been conceived that the batata is indigenous not only to America, but also to the East Indies, as it has two names in Sanscrit, sharkarakanda and ruktaloo.

[Slight industrial progress.] With the exception of embroidery, the natives have made but little progress in industries, in the weaving and the plaiting of mats; and the handicrafts are entirely carried on by the Chinese.

[Rice and abaca exported.] The exports consist of rice and abaca. The province exports about twice as much rice as it consumes; a large quant.i.ty to Albay, which, less adapted for the cultivation of rice, produces only abaca; and a fair share to North Camarines, which is very mountainous, and little fertile. The rice can hardly be shipped to Manila, as there is no high road to the south side of the province, near to the princ.i.p.al town, and the transport by water from the north side, and from the whole of the eastern portion of Luzon, would immediately enhance the price of the product. [Chinese monopolize trade.] The imports are confined to the little that is imported by Chinese traders. The traders are almost all Chinese who alone possess shops in which clothing materials and woolen stuffs, partly of native and partly of European manufacture, women's embroidered slippers, and imitation jewelry, may be obtained. The whole amount of capital invested in these shops certainly does not exceed $200,000. In the remaining pueblos of Camarines there are no Chinese merchants; and the inhabitants are consequently obliged to get their supplies from Naga.

[Land for everybody.] The land belongs to the State, but is let to any one who will build upon it. The usufruct pa.s.ses to the children, and ceases only when the land remains unemployed for two whole years; after which it is competent for the executive to dispose of it to another person.

[Homes.] Every family possesses its own house; and the young husband generally builds with the a.s.sistance of his friends. In many places it does not cost more than four or five dollars, as he can, if necessary, build it himself free of expense, with the simple aid of the forest-knife (bolo), and of the materials to his hand, bamboo, Spanish cane, and palm-leaves. These houses, which are always built on piles on account of the humidity of the soil, often consist of a single shed, which serves for all the uses of a dwelling, and are the cause of great laxity and of filthy habits, the whole family sleeping therein in common, and every pa.s.ser-by being a welcome guest. A fine house of boards for the family of a cabeza perhaps costs nearly $100; and the possessions of such a family in stock, furniture, ornaments, etc. (of which they are obliged to furnish an annual inventory), would range in value between $100 and $1,000. Some reach even as much as $10,000, while the richest family of the whole province is a.s.sessed at $40,000.

[People not travellers.] In general it may be said that every pueblo supplies travellers, its own necessaries, and produces little more. To the indolent native, especially to him of the eastern provinces, the village in which he was born is the world; and he leaves it only under the most pressing circ.u.mstances. Were it otherwise even, the strictness of the poll-tax would place great obstacles in the way of gratifying the desire for travel, generated by that oppressive impost.

[Meals.] The Filipino eats three times a day--about 7 a.m., 12, and at 7 or 8 in the evening. Those engaged in severe labor consume at each meal a chupa of rice; the common people, half a chupa at breakfast, one at mid-day, and half again in the evening, altogether two chupas. Each family reaps its own supply of rice, and preserves it in barns, or buys it winnowed at the market; in the latter case purchasing only the quant.i.ty for one day or for the individual meals. The average retail price is 3 cuartos for 2 chupas (14 chupas for 1 real). To free it from the husk, the quant.i.ty for each single meal is rubbed in a mortar by the women. This is in accordance with an ancient custom; but it is also due to the fear lest, otherwise, the store should be too quickly consumed. The rice, however, is but half cooked; and it would seem that this occurs in all places where it const.i.tutes an essential part of the sustenance of the people, as may be seen, indeed, in Spain and Italy. Salt and much Spanish pepper (capsic.u.m) are eaten as condiments; the latter, originally imported from America, growing all round the houses. To the common cooking-salt the natives prefer a so-called rock-salt, which they obtain by evaporation from sea-water previously filtered through ashes; and of which one chinanta (12 lbs. German) costs from one and one-half to two reals. The consumption of salt is extremely small.

[Buyo and cigars.] The luxuries of the Filipinos are buyo [114] and cigars--a cigar costing half a centavo, and a buyo much less. Cigars are rarely smoked, but are cut up into pieces, and chewed with the buyo. The women also chew buyo and tobacco, but, as a rule, very moderately; but they do not also stain their teeth black, like the Malays; and the young and pretty adorn themselves a.s.siduously with veils made of the areca-nut tree, whose stiff and closely packed parallel fibers, when cut crosswise, form excellent tooth-brushes. They bathe several times daily, and surpa.s.s the majority of Europeans in cleanliness. Every native, above all things, keeps a fighting-c.o.c.k; even when he has nothing to eat, he finds money for c.o.c.k-fighting.

[Household affairs.] The details of domestic economy may be summarized as follows:

For cooking purposes an earthen pot is used, costing between 3 and 10 cuartos; which, in cooking rice, is closed firmly with a banana-leaf, so that the steam of a very small quant.i.ty of water is sufficient. No other cooking utensils are used by the poorer cla.s.ses; but those better off have a few cast-iron pans and dishes. In the smaller houses, the hearth consists of a portable earthen pan or a flat chest, frequently of an old cigar-* chest full of sand, with three stones which serve as a tripod. In the larger houses it is in the form of a bedstead, filled with sand or ashes, instead of a mattress. The water in small households is carried and preserved in thick bamboos. In his bolo (forest-knife), moreover, every one has an universal instrument, which he carries in a wooden sheath made by himself, suspended by a cord of loosely-twisted bast fibers tied round his body. This, and the rice-mortar (a block of wood with a suitable cavity), together with pestles and a few baskets, const.i.tute the whole of the household [Furniture.] furniture of a poor family; sometimes a large snail, with a rush wick, is also to be found as a lamp. They sleep on a mat of panda.n.u.s (fan-palm, Corypha), when they possess one; if not, on the splittings of bamboo, with which the house is floored. By the poor oil for lighting is rarely used; but torches of resin, which last a couple of days, are bought in the market for half a cuarto.

[Clothing.] Their clothing requirements I ascertained to be these: A woman wears a camisa de guinara (a short shift of abaca fiber), a patadion (a gown reaching from the hip to the ancles), a cloth, and a comb. A piece of guinara, costing 1 real, gives two shifts; the coa.r.s.est patadion costs 3 reals; a cloth, at the highest, 1 real; and a comb, 2 cuartos; making altogether 4 reals, 12 cuartos. Women of the better cla.s.s wear a camisa, costing between 1 and 2 r., a patadion 6 r., cloth between 2 and 3 r., and a comb 2 cu. The men wear a shirt, 1 r., hose, 3 r., hat (tararura) of Spanish cane, 10 cu., or a salacot (a large rain-hat, frequently decorated), at least 2 r.--often, when ornamented with silver, as much as $50. At least three, but more commonly four, suits are worn out yearly; the women, however, taking care to weave almost the whole quant.i.ty for the family themselves.

[Wages.] The daily wages of the common laborer are 1 real, without food; and his hours of work are from 6 to 12, and from 2 to 6 o'clock. The women, as a rule, perform no field labor, but plant out the rice and a.s.sist in the reaping; their wages on both occasions being equal to those of the men. Wood and stone-cutters receive 1.5 r. per day, and calkers 1.75 r.

[Land leases.] The Tercio is a pretty general contract in the cultivation of the land. The owner simply lets arable land for the third part of the crop. Some mestizos possess several pieces of ground; but they are seldom connected together, as they generally acquire them as mortgages for sums bearing but a small proportion to their real value.

[Family income.] Under the head of earnings I give the income of a small family. The man earns daily one real, and the woman, if she weaves coa.r.s.e stuff, one-fourth real, and her food (thus a piece of guinara, occupying the labor of two days, costs half a real in weavers' wages). The most skilful female weaver of the finer stuffs obtains twelve reals per piece; but it takes a month to weave; and the month, on account of the numerous holy-days, must be calculated at the most as equal to twenty-four working days; she consequently earns one-fourth real per day and her food. For the knitting of the fibers of the ananas for the pina web (called sugot) she gets only an eighth of a real and her food.

[Schools.] In all the pueblos there are schools. The schoolmaster is paid by the Government, and generally obtains two dollars per month, without board or lodging. In large pueblos the salary amounts to three dollars and a half; out of which an a.s.sistant must be paid. The schools are under the supervision of the ecclesiastics of the place. Reading and writing are taught, the writing copies being Spanish. The teacher, who has to teach his scholars Spanish exactly, does not understand it himself, while the Spanish officers, on the other hand, do not understand the language of the country; and the priests have no inclination to alter this state of things, which is very useful to them as a means of influence. Almost the only Filipinos who speak Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans. A kind of religious horn-book is the first that is read in the language of the country (Bicol); and after that comes the Christian Doctrine, the reading-book called Casayayan. On an average, half of all the children go to school, generally from the seventh to the tenth year. They learn to read a little; a few even write a little: but they soon forget it again. Only those who are afterwards employed as clerks write fluently; and of these most write well.

Some priests do not permit boys and girls to attend the same school; and in this case they pay a second teacher, a female, a dollar a month. The Filipinos learn arithmetic very quickly, generally aiding themselves by the use of mussels or stones, which they pile in little heaps before them and then count through.

[Marriage age.] The women seldom marry before the fourteenth year, twelve years being the legal limit. In the church-register of Polangui I found a marriage recorded (January, 1837) between a Filipino and a Filipina having the ominous name of Hilaria Concepcion, who at the time of the performance of the marriage ceremony was, according to a note in the margin, only nine years and ten months old. Frequently people live together unmarried, because they cannot pay the expenses of the ceremony. [115]

[Woman's work.] European females, and even mestizas, never seek husbands amongst the natives. The women generally are well treated, doing only light work, such as sewing, weaving, embroidery, and managing the household; while all the heavy labor, with the exception of the beating of the rice, falls to the men. [116]

[A patriarch.] Instances of longevity are frequent amongst the Filipinos, particularly in Camarines. The Diario de Manila, of March 13th, 1866, mentions an old man in Daraga (Albay) whom I knew well--Juan Jacob, born in 1744, married in 1764, and a widower in 1845. He held many public posts up to 1840, and had thirteen children, of whom five are living. He has one hundred and seventy direct descendants, and now, at one hundred and twenty-two years of age, is still vigorous, with good eyes and teeth. Extreme unction was administered to him seven times!

[Snake bite and rabies remedy.] The first excretion of a new-born child is carefully preserved, and under the name of triaca (theriac.u.m) is held to be a highly efficacious and universal remedy for the bites of snakes and mad dogs. It is applied to the wound externally, and at the same time is taken internally.

[Infant mortality.] A large number of children die in the first two weeks after birth. Statistical data are wanting; but, according to the opinion of one of the first physicians in Manila, at least one-fourth die. This mortality must arise from great uncleanliness and impure air; since in the chambers of the sick, and of women lying-in, the doors and windows are so closely shut that the healthy become sick from the stench and heat, and the sick recover with difficulty. Every aperture of the house is closed up by the husband early during travail, in order that Patianac may not break in--an evil spirit who brings mischief to lying-in women, and endeavors to hinder the birth. The custom has been further maintained even amongst many who attach no belief to the superst.i.tion, but who, from fear of a draught of air through a hole, have discovered a new explanation for an old custom--namely, that instances of such practices occur amongst all people. [The itch.] One very widely-spread malady is the itch, although, according to the a.s.surance of the physician above referred to, it may be easily subdued; and, according to the judgment of those who are not physicians and who employ that term for any eruptions of the skin, the natives generally live on much too low a diet; the Bicols even more than the Tagalogs. [117] Under certain conditions, which the physicians, on being questioned, could not define more precisely, the natives can support neither hunger nor thirst; of which fact I have on many occasions been a witness. It is reported of them, when forced into such a situation as to suffer from unappeased wants, that they become critically ill; and thus they often die.

[Imitation mania.] Hence arises the morbid mania for imitation, which is called in Java Sakit-latar, and here Mali-mali. In Java many believe that the sickness is only a.s.sumed, because those who pretend to be afflicted with it find it to their advantage to be seen by newly arrived Europeans. Here, however, I saw one instance where indeed no simulation could be suspected. My companions availed themselves of the diseased condition of a poor old woman who met us in the highway, to practice some rough jokes upon her. The old woman imitated every motion as if impelled by an irresistible impulse, and expressed at the same time the most extreme indignation against those who abused her infirmity.

[The sickness in Siberia.] In R. Maak's "Journey to the Amour," it is recorded:--"It is not unusual for the Maniagri to suffer also from a nervous malady of the most peculiar kind, with which we had already been made acquainted by the descriptions of several travellers. [118]

This malady is met with, for the most part, amongst the wild people of Siberia, as well as amongst the Russians settled there. In the district of the Jakutes, where this affliction very frequently occurs, those affected by it, both Russians and Jakutes, are known by the name of 'Emiura;' but here (that is, in that part of Siberia where the Maniagri live) the same malady is called by the Maniagri 'Olon,'

and by the Argurian Cossacks 'Olgandshi.' The attacks of the malady which I am now mentioning consist in this, that a man suffering from it will, if under the influence of terror or consternation, unconsciously, and often without the smallest sense of shame, imitate everything that pa.s.ses before him. Should he be offended, he falls into a rage, which manifests itself by wild shrieks and raving; and he precipitates himself at the same time, with a knife or any other object which may fall to his hand, upon those who have placed him in this predicament. Amongst the Maniagri, women, especially the very aged, are the chief sufferers from this malady; and instances, moreover, of men who were affected by it are likewise known to me. It is worthy of remark that those women who returned home on account of this sickness were notwithstanding strong, and in all other respects enjoyed good health."

[Running amuck.] Probably it is only an accidental coincidence that in the Malay countries Sakit-latar and Amok exist together, if not in the same individual, yet amongst the same people. Instances of Amok seem to occur also in the Philippines. [119] I find the following account in the Diario de Manila of February 21, 1866: In Cavite, on February 18, a soldier rushed into the house of a school-teacher, and, struggling with him, stabbed him with a dagger, and then killed the teacher's son with a second stab. Plunging into the street, he stabbed two young girls of ten and twelve years of age and wounded a woman in the side, a boy aged nine in the arm, a coachman (mortally) in the abdomen, and, besides another woman, a sailor and three soldiers; and arriving at his barracks, where he was stopped by the sentry, he plunged the dagger into his own breast.

[Regard for the sleeping.] It is one of the greatest insults to stride over a sleeping native, or to awaken him suddenly. They rouse one another, when necessity requires, with the greatest circ.u.mspection and by the slowest degrees. [120]

[Sense of smell.] The sense of smell is developed amongst the natives to so great a degree that they are able, by smelling at the pocket-handkerchiefs, to tell to which persons they belong ("Reisesk.,"

p. 39); and lovers at parting exchange pieces of the linen they may be wearing, and during their separation inhale the odor of the beloved being, besides smothering the relics with kisses. [121]

CHAPTER XV