The Philippine Islands Part 32

_Castor Oil_ is obtained in a few places from the seeds of the _Palma Christi_ or _Ricinus communis_, but the plant is not cultivated, and the oil has not yet become an article of current trade.

_Gogo_ (_Entada pursaetha_), sometimes called _Bayogo_ in Tagalog, is a useful forest product in general demand, on sale at every market-place and native general shop. It is a fibrous bark, taken in strips of 3 or 4 feet long. It looks exactly like cocoa-nut coir, except that its colour is a little lighter and brighter. It is used for cleansing the hair, for which purpose a handful is put to soak in a basin of water overnight, and the next morning it will saponify when rubbed between the hands. The soap which issues therefrom is then rubbed in the hair at the time of bathing. It is in common use among the natives of both s.e.xes and many Europeans. An infusion of _Gogo_ is a purgative. If placed dry in the _tinaja_ jars (Tagalog, _Tapayan_), containing cacao-beans, the insects will not attack the beans.

_Camote_ (_Convolvulus batatas_) is the sweet potato or Yam, the foliage of which quickly spreads out like a carpet over the soil and forms tubers, like the common potato. It is a favourite article of food among the natives, and in nearly every island it is also found wild. In kitchen-gardens it is planted like the potato, the tuber being cut in pieces. Sometimes it is dried (Tagalog, _Pac.u.mbong camote_). It is also preserved whole in mola.s.ses (Tagalog, _Palubog na camote_).

_Gabi_ (_Caladium_) is another kind of esculent root, palatable to the natives, similar to the turnip, and throws up stalks from 1 to 3 feet high, at the end of which is an almost round leaf, dark green, from 3 to 5 inches diameter at maturity.

_Potatoes_ are grown in Cebu Island, but they are rarely any larger than walnuts. With very special care a larger size has been raised in Negros Island; also potatoes of excellent flavour and of a pinkish colour are cultivated in the district of Benguet; in Manila there is a certain demand for this last kind.

_Mani_ (_Arachis hypogaea_), commonly called the "Pea-nut," is a creeping plant, which grows wild in many places. It is much cultivated, however, partly for the sake of the nut or fruit, but princ.i.p.ally for the leaves and stalks, which, when dried, even months old, serve as an excellent and nutritious fodder for ponies. It contains a large quant.i.ty of oil, and in some districts it is preferred to the fresh-cut _zacate_ gra.s.s, with which the ponies and cattle are fed in Manila.

The Philippine pea-nut is about as large as that seen in England. In 1904 the American Bureau of Agriculture brought to the Islands for seed a quant.i.ty of New Orleans pea-nuts two to three times larger.

_Areca Palm_ (_Areca calechu_) (Tagalog, _Bonga_), the nut of which is used to make up the chewing betel when split into slices about one-eighth of an inch thick. This is one of the most beautiful palms. The nuts cl.u.s.ter on stalks under the tuft of leaves at the top of the tall slender stem. It is said that one tree will produce, according to age, situation, and culture, from 200 to 800 nuts yearly. The nut itself is enveloped in a fibrous sh.e.l.l, like the cocoa-nut. In Europe a favourite dentifrice is prepared from the areca-nut.

_Buyo_ (_Piper betle_) (Tagalog, _Igmo_), is cultivated with much care in every province, as its leaf, when coated with lime made from oyster-sh.e.l.ls and folded up, is used to coil round the areca-nut, the whole forming the _buyo_ (betel), which the natives of these Islands, as in British India, are in the habit of chewing. To the chew a quid of tobacco is sometimes added. A native can go a great number of hours without food if he has his betel; it is said to be stomachical. After many years of habit in chewing this nut and leaf it becomes almost a necessity, as is the case with opium, and it is believed that its use cannot, with safety, be suddenly abandoned. To the newly-arrived European, it is very displeasing to have to converse with a native betel-eater, whose teeth and lips appear to be smeared with blood. The _buyo_ plant is set out on raised beds and trained (like hops) straight up on sticks, on which it grows to a height of about 6 feet. The leaf is of a bright green colour, and only slightly pointed. In all market-places, including those of Manila, there is a great sale of this leaf, which is brought fresh every day.

_Cocoanut_ (_Cocos nucifera_) plantations pay very well, and there is a certain demand for the fruit for export to China, besides the constant local sales in the _tianguis_. [143] _Niog_ is the Tagalog name for the cocoanut palm. Some tap the tree by making an incision in the flowering (or fruit-bearing) stalk, under which a bamboo vessel, called a _bombon_, is hung to receive the sap. This liquid, known as _tuba_, is a favourite beverage among the natives. As many as four stalks of the same trunk can be so drained simultaneously without injury to the tree. In the bottom of the _bombon_ is placed about as much as a desert spoonful of pulverized _Tongo_ bark (_Rhizophora longissima_) to give a stronger taste and bright colour to the _tuba_. The incision--renewed each time the _bombon_ is replaced--is made with a very sharp knife, to which a keen edge is given by rubbing it on wood (_Erythrina_) covered with a paste of ashes and oil. The sap-drawing of a stalk continues incessantly for about two months, when the stalk ceases to yield and dries up. The _bombons_ containing the liquid are removed, empty ones being put in their place every twelve hours, about sunrise and sunset, and the seller hastens round to his clients with the morning and evening draught, concluding his trade at the market-place or other known centres of sale. If the _tuba_ is allowed to ferment, it is not so palatable, and becomes an intoxicating drink. From the fermented juice the distilleries manufacture a spirituous liquor, known locally as cocoa-wine. The trees set apart for _tuba_ extraction do not produce nuts, as the fruit-forming elements are taken away.

The man who gets down the _tuba_ has to climb the first tree, on the trunk of which notches are cut to place his toes in. From under the tuft of leaves two bamboos are fastened, leading to the next nearest tree, and so on around the group which is thus connected. The bottom bamboo serves as a bridge, and the top one as a handrail. Occasionally a man falls from the top of a trunk 70 or 80 feet high, and breaks his neck. The occupation of _tuba_ drawing is one of the most dangerous.

When the tree is allowed to produce fruit, instead of yielding _tuba_, the nuts are collected about every four months. They are brought down either by a sickle-shaped knife lashed on to the end of a long pole, or by climbing the tree with the knife in hand. When they are collected for oil-extraction, they are carted on a kind of sleigh, [144] unless there be a river or creek providing a water-way, in which latter case they are tied together, stalk to stalk, and floated in a compact ma.s.s, like a raft, upon which the man in charge stands.

The water or milk found inside a cocoanut is very refreshing to the traveller, and has this advantage over fresh water, that it serves to quench the thirst of a person who is perspiring, or whose blood is highly heated, without doing him any harm.

Well-to-do owners of cocoanut-palm plantations usually farm out to the poorer people the right to extract the _tuba_, allotting to each family a certain number of trees. Others allow the trees to bear fruit, and although the returns are, theoretically, not so good, it pays the owner about the same, as he is less exposed to robbery, being able more closely to watch his own interests. The trees bear fruit in the fifth year, but, meanwhile, care must be taken to defend them from the browsing of cattle. If they survive that period they will live for a century. At seven years' growth the cocoanut palm-tree seldom fails to yield an unvarying average crop of a score of large nuts, giving a nett profit of about one peso per annum.

The cocoanut is largely used for culinary purposes in the Islands. It is an ingredient in the native "curry" (of no resemblance to Indian curry), and is preserved in several ways, the most common being the _Bocayo_, a sort of cocoanut toffee, and the _Matamis na macapuno_, which is the soft, immature nut preserved in mola.s.ses.

In the Provinces of Tayabas, La Laguna, E. Batangas and district of La Infanta, the cocoanut-palm is extensively cultivated, solely for the purpose of extracting the oil from the nut. The cocoanut-oil factories are very rough, primitive establishments, usually consisting of eight or ten posts supporting a nipa palm-leaf roof, and closed in at all sides with split bamboos. The nuts are heaped for a while to dry and concentrate the oil in the fruit. Then they are chopped, more or less, in half. A man sits on a board with his feet on a treadle, from which a rope is pa.s.sed over, and works to and fro a cylindrical block, in the end of which is fixed an iron sc.r.a.per. He picks up the half-nuts one at a time, and on applying them to the sc.r.a.per in motion, the white fruit, or pith, falls out into a vessel underneath. These sc.r.a.pings are then pressed between huge blocks of wood to express the oil, and the ma.s.s is afterwards put into cast-iron cauldrons, of Chinese make, with water, which is allowed to simmer and draw out the remaining fatty particles, which are skimmed off the surface. When cold, it is sent off to market in small, straight-sided kegs, on ponies which carry two kegs--one slung on each side. The average estimated yield of the cocoanuts, by the native process, is as follows, viz.:--250 large nuts give one cwt. of dried coprah, yielding, say, 10 gallons of oil.

Small quant.i.ties of Cocoanut Oil (Tagalog, _Languis ng niog_) are shipped from the Philippines, but in the Colony itself it is an important article of consumption. Every dwelling, rich or poor, consumes a certain amount of this oil nightly for lighting. For this purpose it is poured into a gla.s.s half full of water, on which it floats, and a wick, made of pith, called _tinsin_, introduced by the Chinese, is suspended in the centre of the oil by a strip of tin. As the oil is consumed, the wick is lowered by slightly bending the tin downwards. There are few dwelling-houses, or huts, without a light of some kind burning during the whole night in expectation of a possible earthquake, and the vast majority use cocoanut oil because of the economy.

It is also in use for cooking in some out-of-the-way places, and is not unpalatable when quite fresh. It is largely employed as a lubricant for machinery, for which purpose, however, it is very inferior. Occasionally it finds a medicinal application, and the natives commonly use it as hair-oil. In Europe, cocoa-nut oil is a white solid, and is used in the manufacture of soap and candles; in the tropics it is seldom seen otherwise than in a liquid state, as it fuses a little above 70 Fahr.

It is only in the last few years that Coprah has acquired importance as an article of export. There are large cocoanut plantations on all the princ.i.p.al islands, whence supplies are furnished to meet the foreign demand, which is likely to increase considerably.

For figures of _Coprah_ Shipments, _vide_ Chap. x.x.xi., "Trade Statistics."

Uses are also found for the hard Sh.e.l.l of the nut (Tagalog, _Baoo_). In native dwellings these sh.e.l.ls serve the poor for cups (_tabo _) and a variety of other useful domestic utensils, whilst by all cla.s.ses they are converted into ladles with wooden handles. Also, when carbonized, the sh.e.l.l gives a black, used for dyeing straw hats.

Very little use is made of the Coir (Tagalog, _Bunot_), or outer fibrous skin, which in other countries serves for the manufacture of cocoanut matting, coa.r.s.e brushes, hawsers, etc. It is said that coir rots in fresh water, whereas salt water strengthens it. It would therefore be unsuitable for running rigging, but for ships'

cables it cannot be surpa.s.sed in its qualities of lightness and elasticity. As it floats on water, it ought to be of great value on ships, whilst of late years its employment in the manufacture of light ocean telegraph cables has been seriously considered, showing, as it does, an advantage over other materials by taking a convex curve to the water surface--an important condition in cable-laying. [145]

The Spaniards call this product _Banote_. In this Colony it often serves for cleaning floors and ships' decks, when the nut is cut into two equal parts across the grain of the coir covering, and with it a very high polish can be put on to hardwoods.

The stem of the Cocoanut Palm is attacked by a very large beetle with a single horn at the top of its head. It bores through the bark and slightly injures the tree, but I never heard that any had died in consequence. In some countries this insect is described as the rhinoceros beetle, and is said to belong to the _Dynastidae_ species.

In the Philippines, the poorest soil seems to give nourishment to the cocoanut-palm; indeed, it thrives best on, or near, the sea-sh.o.r.e, as close to the sea as where the beach is fringed by the surf at high tide. The common cocoanut-palm attains a height of about sixty feet, but there is also a dwarf palm with the stem sometimes no taller than four feet at full growth, which also bears fruit, although less plentifully. A grove of these is a pretty sight.

Sir Emerson Tennent, referring to these trees in Ceylon, is reported to have stated [146] that the cocoanut-palm "acts as a conductor in protecting houses from lightning. As many as 500 of these trees were struck in a single _pattoo_ near Pattalam during a succession of thunderstorms in April 1859."--_Colombo Observer_.

_Nipa Palm_ (_Nipa fruticans_) is found in mangrove swamps and flooded marshy lands. It has the appearance of a gigantic fern, and thrives best in those lands which are covered by the sea at high tide. In the same manner as the cocoanut-palm, the sap is extracted by incision made in the fruit-bearing stalk, and is used for distilling a liquid known as nipa wine, which, however, should properly be termed a spirit. The leaves, which are very long, and about three to five inches wide, are of immense value in the country for thatched roofs. Nipa is not to be found everywhere; one may go many miles without seeing it, in districts devoid of marshes and swampy lowlands. In El Abra district (Luzon Is.) nipa is said to be unknown. In such places, another material supplies its want for thatching, viz.:--

_Cogon_ (_Saccharum koenigii_), a sort of tall jungle gra.s.s with a very sharp edge, plentifully abundant precisely where nipa cannot be expected to grow. I have ridden through cogon five feet high, but a fair average would be about three to four feet. It has simply to be cut and sun-dried and is ready for roof thatching.

The _Cotton-tree_ (_Gossypium herbaceum_, Linn. ?), (Tagalog, _Bulac_), is found growing in an uncultivated state in many islands of the Archipelago. Long-staple cotton was formerly extensively cultivated in the Province of Ilocos Norte, whence, many years ago, large quant.i.ties of good cotton-stuffs were exported. This industry still exists. The cultivation of this staple was, however, discouraged by the local governors, in order to urge the planting of tobacco for the Government supplies. It has since become difficult to revive the cotton production, although an essay, in pamphlet form (for which a prize was awarded in Madrid), was gratuitously distributed over the Colony in 1888 with that object. Nevertheless, cotton spinning and weaving are still carried on, on a reduced scale, in the Ilocos provinces (Luzon west coast).

Wild cotton is practically useless for spinning, as the staple is extremely short, but perhaps by hybridization and careful attention its culture might become valuable to the Colony. The pod is elliptical, and the cotton which bursts from it at maturity is snow-white. It is used for stuffing pillows and mattresses. It was a common thing, before the American occupation, to see (wild) cotton-trees planted along the highroad to serve as telegraph-posts; by the time the seed is fully ripe, every leaf has fallen, and nothing but the bursting pods remain hanging to the branches.

The _Buri Palm_ is a handsome species, of tall growth, with fan-like leaves. Its juice serves as a beverage resembling _tuba_. The trunk yields a sago flour. The leaves are beaten on boulder stones to extract a fibre for rope-making, of great strength and in constant demand.

The _Dita Tree_, said to be of the family of the _Apocynese_ and known to botanists as _Alstonia scholaris_, is possibly a species of cinchona. The pulverized bark has a bitter taste like quinine, and is successfully used by the natives to allay fever. A Manila chemist once extracted from the bark a substance which he called _ditane_, the yield of crystallizable alkaloid being 2 per cent.

_Palma Brava_ (_Coripha minor_) (Tagalog, _Banga_), [147] is a species of palm, the trunk of which is of great local value. It is immensely strong, and will resist the action of water for years. These trees are employed as piles for quay and pier making--for bridges, stockades, and in any works where strength, elasticity, and resistance to water are required in combination. When split, a fibrous pith is found in the centre much resembling cocoanut coir, but the ligneous sh.e.l.l of the stem still retains its qualities of strength and flexibility, and is used for vehicle-shafts, coolies' carrying-poles, and a variety of other purposes.

_Bambusa_ (_Bambusa arundinacea_) is a graminifolious plant--one of the most charmingly picturesque and useful adornments of Nature bestowed exuberantly on the Philippine Islands. It grows in thick tufts in the woods and on the banks of rivers. Its uses are innumerable, and it has not only become one of the articles of primary necessity to the native, but of incalculable value to all in the Colony.

There are many kinds of bamboos, distinct in formation and size. The Tagalog generic name for knotted bamboo is _Cauayan_; the Spanish name is _Cana espina_. The most common species grows to a height of about 60 feet, with a diameter varying up to eight inches, and is of wonderful strength, due to its round shape and the regularity of its joints. Each joint is strengthened by a web inside. It is singularly flexible, light, elastic, and of matchless floating power. The fibre is tough, but being perfectly straight, it is easy to split. It has a smooth glazed surface, a perfectly straight grain, and when split on any surface, it takes a high polish by simple friction. Three cuts with the bowie-knife are sufficient to hew down the largest bamboo of this kind, and the green leaves, in case of extreme necessity, serve for horses' fodder.

There is another variety also hollow, but not so large as that just described. It is covered with a natural varnish as hard as steel. It is also used for native cabin-building and many other purposes.

A third species, seldom found more than five inches in diameter, is much more solid, having no cavity in the centre divided by webs. It cannot be applied to so many purposes as the first, but where great strength is required it is incomparable.

When the bamboo-plant is cultivated with the view of rendering it annually productive, the shoots are pruned in the dry season at a height of about seven feet from the ground. In the following wet season, out of the clump germinate a number of young shoots, which, in the course of six or eight months, will have reached their normal height, and will be fit for cutting when required. Bamboo should be felled in the dry season before the sap begins to ascend by capillary attraction. If cut out of season it is prematurely consumed by grub (_gojo_), but this is not much heeded when wanted in haste.

The northern native builds his hut entirely of bamboo with nipa palm-leaf or cogon thatching; in the Province of Yloilo I have seen hundreds of huts made entirely of bamboo, including the roofing. To make bamboo roofing, the hollow canes are split longitudinally, and, after the webbed joints inside have been cut away, they are laid on the bamboo frame-work, and fit into each other, the one convexly, the next one concavely, and so on alternately. In frame-work, no joiner's skill is needed; two-thirds of the bamboo are notched out on one side, and the other third is bent to rectangle. A rural bungalow can be erected in a week. When Don Manuel Montuno, the late Governor of Morong, came with his suite to stay at my up-country bungalow for a shooting expedition, I had a wing added in three days, perfectly roofed and finished.

No nails are ever used, the whole being bound with _bejuco_. The walls of the cabin are made by splitting the bamboo, and, after removing the webbed joints, each half is beaten out flat. Even in houses of certain pretensions I have often seen split-bamboo flooring, which is highly effective, as it is always clean and takes a beautiful polish when rubbed over a few times with plantain-leaves. In the parish church of Las Pinas, near Manila, there was an organ made of bamboo, of excellent tone, extant up to the year of the Revolution.

When the poor village native wants to put up his house he calls a _bayanin_, and his neighbours a.s.semble to give him a hand. The bowie-knife is the only indispensable tool. One cuts the bamboo to lengths, another splits it, a third fits it for making the frame-work, another threads the dried nipa-leaves for the roofing, and thus a modest _bahay_ is erected in a week. The most practicable dwelling is the bamboo and nipa house, the only serious drawback being the risk of fire.

Rafts, furniture of all kinds, scaffolding, spoons, carts, baskets, sledges, fishing-traps, fleams, water-pipes, hats, dry and liquid measures, cups, fencing, canoe-fittings, bridges, carrying-poles for any purpose, pitchforks, and a thousand other articles are made of this unexcelled material. Here it serves all the purposes to which the osier is applied in Europe. It floats in water, serves for fuel, and ropes made of it are immensely strong. Bamboo salad is prepared from the very young shoots, cut as soon as they sprout from the root. The value of bamboo in Manila varies according to the season of the year and length of the bamboo, the diameter of course being proportionate.

_Bojo_ (Tagalog, _Buho_) is a kind of cane, somewhat resembling the bamboo in appearance only. It has very few knots; is brittle, perfectly smooth on the outer and inner surfaces--hollow, and grows to about 25 feet high by 2 inches diameter, and is not nearly so useful as the bamboo. It is used for making light fences, musical instruments, fishing-rods, inner walls of huts, fishing-traps, torches, etc.

_Bejuco_, or Rattan-cane, belonging to the _Calamus_ family (Tagalog, _Hiantoc_, also _Dit-an_), is a forest product commonly found in lengths of, say, 100 feet, with a maximum diameter of half-an-inch. It is of enormous strength and pliancy. Its uses are innumerable. When split longitudinally it takes the place of rope for lashing anything together; indeed, it is just as useful in the regions of its native habitat as cordage is in Europe. It serves for furniture and bedstead-making, and it is a subst.i.tute for nails and bolts. Hemp-bales, sugar-bags, parcels of all kinds are tied up with it, and hats are made of it. The ring through a buffalo's nose is made of whole rattan, to which is often attached a split strip for a guiding-rein. Every joint in a native's hut, his canoe, his fence, his cart, woodwork of any kind--indeed, everything to be made fast, from a bundle of sticks to a broken-down carriage, is lashed together with this split material, which must, when so employed, be bent with the shiny skin outside, otherwise it will infallibly snap. The demand for this article is very large.

_Bush-rope_ (_Calamus maximus_) (Tagalog, _Palasan_) is also a forest product, growing to lengths of about 100 feet, with a maximum diameter of one inch and a quarter. It is immensely strong. It is used for raft cables for crossing rivers, stays for bamboo suspension-bridges, and a few other purposes. It is sometimes found with knots as far apart as 30 feet. It is a species quite distinct from the _Walking-stick Palasan_ (_Calamus gracilis_) (Tagalog, _Tabola_) the appreciated feature of which is the proximity of the knots. I have before me a specimen 34 inches long with 26 knots.

_Gum Mastic_ (_Almaciga_) is an article of minor importance in the Philippine exports, the supply being very limited. It is said that large quant.i.ties exist; but as it is only procurable in almost inaccessible mountainous and uncivilized districts, first-hand collectors in the provinces, princ.i.p.ally Chinese, have to depend upon the services and goodwill of unsubdued tribes. It is chiefly obtained by barter, and is not a trade which can be worked up systematically. The exports of this product fluctuate considerably in consequence. For figures of _Gum Mastic_ shipments, _vide_ Chap, x.x.xi., "Trade Statistics."

_Gutta-percha_ was formerly a more important article of trade in these Islands until the Chinese drove it out of the market by adulteration. A little is shipped from Zamboanga.

_Wax_ (Tagalog, _patquit_) and cinnamon are to be found in much the same way as gum mastic. There is a large consumption of wax in the Islands for candles used at the numerous religious feasts. The cinnamon is very inferior in quality. It is abundant in Mindanao Island, but, like gum mastic, it can only be procured in small quant.i.ties, depending on the caprice or necessities of the mountain-tribes. Going along the seash.o.r.e in Zamboanga Province, on one occasion, I met a mountaineer carrying a bundle of cinnamon to Zamboanga Port--many miles distant--to sell the bark to the Chinese at [Peso}8 per picul. I bought his load, the half of which I sent to Spain, requesting a friend there to satisfy my curiosity by procuring a quotation for the sample in the Barcelona market. He reported that the quality was so low that only a nominal price could be quoted, and that it stood nowhere compared with the carefully cultivated Ceylon product.

_Edible Bird's Nest_ (_Collocalia troglodytes--Coll. nodifica esculenta_ Bonap.) is an article of trade with the Chinese, who readily purchase it at high prices. It is made by a kind of sea-swallow, and in appearance resembles vermicelli, variegated with blood-coloured spots. The nests are found in high cliffs by the sea, and the natives engaged in their collection reach them by climbing up bush-rope or bamboos with the branch-knots left on to support themselves with their toes. It is a very dangerous occupation, as the nests are always built high in almost inaccessible places. The Filipino risks his life in collecting them, whilst the Chinaman does the safe and profitable business of trading in the article. In the Philippines the collection begins in December, and the birds deprived of their nests have then to build a second nest for laying their eggs. These second nests are gathered about the end of January, and so on up to about the fourth collection. Each successive nest decreases in commercial value, and the last one is hardly worth the risk of taking. Even though there might be venturesome collectors who would dislodge the last nests, the wet season fortunately sets in and prevents their being reached, hence the bird is at length able to continue propagation. Bird's-nest soup is a delicacy in great demand in China.

These nests are chiefly found in the Calamities group of islands, particularly in Busuanga Island. The Sulu Archipelago and Palauan Island also furnish a small quant.i.ty of edible birds'-nests.