The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes
by
Fedor Jagor; Tomas de Comyn; Chas. Wilkes; Rudolf Virchow.
Part 3 out of 11
progress. Here the Igorots abandoned me, and the low-landers refused
to bivouac in order to pursue the journey on the following day; so I
was obliged to return. Late in the evening, after passing through a
coco plantation, we reached the foot of the mountain and found shelter
from a tempest with a kind old woman; to whom my servants lied so
shamelessly that, when the rain had abated, we were, in spite of
our failure, conducted with torches to Tambong, where we found the
palm-grove round the little hamlet magically illuminated with bright
bonfires of dry coconut-leaves in honor of the Conquistadores del
Iriga; and where I was obliged to remain for the night, as the people
were too timorous or too lazy to cross the rough water of the lake.
[Pineapple fiber preparations.] Here I saw them preparing the fiber
of the pine-apple for weaving. The fruit of the plants selected
for this purpose is generally removed early; a process which causes
the leaves to increase considerably both in length and in breadth. A
woman places a board on the ground, and upon it a pine-apple-leaf with
the hollow side upwards. Sitting at one end of the board, she holds
the leaf firmly with her toes, and scrapes its outer surface with a
potsherd; not with the sharp fractured edge but with the blunt side
of the rim; and thus the leaf is reduced to rags. In this manner a
stratum of coarse longitudinal fiber is disclosed, and the operator,
placing her thumb-nail beneath it, lifts it up, and draws it away
in a compact strip; after which she scrapes again until a second
fine layer of fiber is laid bare. Then, turning the leaf round, she
scrapes its back, which now lies upwards, down to the layer of fiber,
which she seizes with her hand and draws at once, to its full length,
away from the back of the leaf. When the fiber has been washed, it is
dried in the sun. It is afterwards combed, with a suitable comb, like
women's hair, sorted into four classes, tied together, and treated like
the fiber of the lupi. In this crude manner are obtained the threads
for the celebrated web nipis de [Pina.] Pina, which is considered by
experts the finest in the world. Two shirts of this kind are in the
Berlin Ethnographical Museum (Nos. 291 and 292). Better woven samples
are in the Gewerbe Museum of Trade and Commerce. In the Philippines,
where the fineness of the work is best understood and appreciated,
richly-embroidered costumes of this description have fetched more
than $1,400 each. [102]
[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 mass was again dissolved,
by stirring it into the boiling fluid mass. When this had reached
the consistency of syrup, a small quantity was scraped 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 mass had attained
the consistency of a thin jelly, it was scraped 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 unobserved, they gorge themselves to such excess that
they become as round as balls 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 pass (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 space 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
accumulated, and was used as a stain.
[Naglegbeng silicious springs.] From here I visited the stalactite
springs, not far distant, of Naglegbeng. [105] I had expected to
see a calcareous fountain, but found the most magnificent masses 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 quantity of water
overflows, while that close to the edge of the basin evaporates and
deposits a quantity of fine silicious earth; whence the upper portion
of the cone not only is steeper than its base, but frequently assumes
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 stalactites. 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
principal 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 documents 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 principal 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 asserted 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
impassable, 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 asses
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 Japan, "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 circumcision, 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.] Assuming 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
circumstance 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
quantity 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 principal 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 passes 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 assistance 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 passer-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
assessed 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 circumstances. 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 quantity 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 quantity 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 constitutes
an essential part of the sustenance of the people, as may be seen,
indeed, in Spain and Italy. Salt and much Spanish pepper (capsicum)
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 assiduously 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 surpass the majority of Europeans in
cleanliness. Every native, above all things, keeps a fighting-cock;
even when he has nothing to eat, he finds money for cock-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 quantity of water is sufficient. No
other cooking utensils are used by the poorer classes; 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, constitute 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 pandanus (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 coarsest 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 class 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 quantity 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 assist 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 coarse 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 assistant 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 (theriacum)
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 superstition, 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 assurance 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 assumed, 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 passes 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 circumspection
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
[A scientific priest-poet.] From Naga I visited the parish priest
of Libmanan (Ligmanan), who, possessing poetical talent, and having
the reputation of a natural philosopher, collected and named pretty
beetles and shells, and dedicated the most elegant little sonnets. He
favored me with the following narrative:--
[Prehistoric remains] In 1851, during the construction of a road a
little beyond Libmanan, at a place called Poro, a bed of shells was
dug up under four feet of mould, one hundred feet distant from the
river. It consisted of Cyrenae (C. suborbicularis, Busch.), a species
of bivalve belonging to the family of Cyclades which occurs only in
warm waters, and is extraordinarily abundant in the brackish waters of
the Philippines. On the same occasion, at the depth of from one and
a half to three and a half feet, were found numerous remains of the
early inhabitants--skulls, ribs, bones of men and animals, a child's
thighbone inserted in a spiral of brass wire, several stags' horns,
beautifully-formed dishes and vessels, some of them painted, probably
of Chinese origin; striped bracelets, of a soft, gypseous, copper-red
rock, gleaming as if they were varnished; [122] small copper knives,
but no iron utensils; and several broad flat stones bored through
the middle; [123] besides a wedge of petrified wood, embedded in a
cleft branch of a tree. The place, which to this day may be easily
recognized in a hollow, might, by excavation systematically carried on,
yield many more interesting results. What was not immediately useful
was then and there destroyed, and the remainder dispersed. In spite of
every endeavor, I could obtain, through the kindness of Senor Focinos
in Naga, only one small vessel. Similar remains of more primitive
inhabitants have been found at the mouth of the Bigajo, not far from
Libmanan, in a shell-bed of the same kind; and an urn, with a human
skeleton, was found at the mouth of the Perlos, west of Sitio de Poro,
in 1840. At the time when I wrote down these statements of the priest,
neither of us was familiar with the discoveries made within the last
few years relating to the lake dwellings (pile villages); or these
notes might have been more exact, although probably they would not
have been so easy and natural.
[Ancient Chinese jar.] Mr. W. A. Franks, who had the kindness to
examine the vessel, inclines to the opinion that it is Chinese, and
pronounces it to be of very great antiquity, without however, being
able to determine its age more exactly; and a learned Chinese of the
Burlingame Embassy expressed himself to the same effect. He knew only
of one article, now in the British Museum, which was brought from Japan
by Kaempfer, the color, glazing, and cracks in the glazing, of which
(craqueles) corresponded precisely with mine. According to Kaempfer,
the Japanese found similar vessels in the sea; and they value them
very highly for the purpose of preserving their tea in them.
Morga writes:--
[Used as tea canisters.] "On this island, Luzon, particularly in
the provinces of Manila, Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Ilocos, very
ancient clay vessels of a dark brown color are found by the natives,
of a sorry appearance; some of a middling size, and others smaller;
marked with characters and stamps. They are unable to say either when
or where they obtained them; but they are no longer to be acquired, nor
are they manufactured in the islands. The Japanese prize them highly,
for they have found that the root of a herb which they call Tscha
(tea), and which when drunk hot is considered as a great delicacy
and of medicinal efficacy by the kings and lords in Japan, cannot be
effectively preserved except in these vessels; which are so highly
esteemed all over Japan that they form the most costly articles of
their show-rooms and cabinets. Indeed, so highly do they value them
that they overlay them externally with fine gold embossed with great
skill, and enclose them in cases of brocade; and some of these vessels
are valued at and fetch from two thousand tael to eleven reals. The
natives of these islands purchase them from the Japanese at very high
rates, and take much pains in the search for them on account of their
value, though but few are now found on account of the eagerness with
which they have been sought for."
[Strict search in Japan.] When Carletti, in 1597, went from the
Philippines to Japan, all the passengers on board were examined
carefully, by order of the governor, and threatened with capital
punishment if they endeavored to conceal "certain earthen vessels
which were wont to be brought from the Philippines and other islands
of that sea," as the king wished to buy them all.
[Prized by Japanese.] "These vessels were worth as much as five,
six, and even ten thousand scudi each; but they were not permitted
to demand for them more then one Giulio (about a half Paolo)." In
1615 Carletti met with a Franciscan who was sent as ambassador from
Japan to Rome, who assured him that he had seen one hundred and
thirty thousand scudi paid by the King of Japan for such a vessel;
and his companions confirmed the statement. Carletti also alleges,
as the reason for the high price, "that the leaf cia or tea, the
quality of which improves with age, is preserved better in those
vessels than in all others. The Japanese besides know these vessels by
certain characters and stamps. They are of great age and very rare,
and come only from Cambodia, Siam, Cochin-China, the Philippines,
and other neighboring islands. From their external appearance they
would be estimated at three or four quatrini (two dreier).... It is
perfectly true that the king and the princes of that kingdom possess
a very large number of these vessels, and prize them as their most
valuable treasure and above all other rarities .... and that they boast
of their acquisitions, and from motives of vanity strive to outvie one
another in the multitude of pretty vessels which they possess. [124]
[Found in Borneo.] Many travellers mention vessels found likewise
amongst the Dyaks and the Malays in Borneo, which, from superstitious
motives, were estimated at most exaggerated figures, amounting
sometimes to many thousand dollars.
[$3,500 for a jar] St. John [125] relates that the Datu of Tamparuli
(Borneo) gave rice to the value of almost $3,500 for a jar, and that he
possessed a second jar of almost fabulous value, which was about two
feet high, and of a dark olive green. The Datu fills both jars with
water, which, after adding plants and flowers to it, he dispenses
[A speaking jar.] to all the sick persons in the country. But the
most famous jar in Borneo is that of the Sultan of Brunei, which
not only possesses all the valuable properties of the other jars
but can also speak. St. John did not see it, as it is always kept
in the women's apartment; but the sultan, a credible man, related to
him that the jar howled dolefully the night before the death of his
first wife, and that it emitted similar tones in the event of impending
misfortunes. St. John is inclined to explain the mysterious phenomenon
by a probably peculiar form of the mouth of the vessel, in passing over
which the air-draught is thrown into resonant verberations, like the
Aeolian harp. The vessel is generally enveloped in gold brocade, and
is uncovered only when it is to be consulted; and hence, of course,
it happens that it speaks only on solemn occasions. St. John states
further that the Bisayans used formerly to bring presents to the
sultan; in recognition of which they received some water from the
sacred jar to sprinkle over their fields and thereby ensure plentiful
harvests. When the sultan was asked whether he would sell his jar for
$100,000, he answered that no offer in the world could tempt him to
part with it.
[Morga's description.] Morga's description suits neither the vessel
of Libmanan nor the jar of the British Museum, but rather a vessel
brought from Japan a short time ago to our Ethnographical Museum. This
is of brown clay, small but of graceful shape, and composed of many
pieces cemented together; the joints being gilt and forming a kind of
network on the dark ground. How highly ancient pots of a similar kind,
even of native origin, are esteemed in Japan down to the present day,
is shown by the following certificate translated by the interpreter
of the German Consulate:--
[A consecrated jar.] "This earthen vessel was found in the porcelain
factory of Tschisuka in the province of Odori, in South Idzumi,
and is an object belonging to the thousand graves.... It was made
by Giogiboosat (a celebrated Buddhist priest), and after it had been
consecrated to heaven was buried by him. According to the traditions
of the people, this place held grave mounds with memorial stones. That
is more than a thousand years ago. ....In the pursuit of my studies,
I remained many years in the temple Sookuk, of that village, and
found the vessel. I carried it to the high priest Shakudjo, who
was much delighted therewith and always bore it about with him as
a treasure. When he died it fell to me, although I could not find
it. Recently, when Honkai was chief priest, I saw it again, and
it was as if I had again met the spirit of Shakudjo. Great was my
commotion, and I clapped my hands with astonishment; and, as often
as I look upon the treasure, I think it is a sign that the spirit of
Shakudjo is returned to life. Therefore I have written the history,
and taken care, of this treasure.--Fudji Kuz Dodjin."
Baron Alexander von Siebold communicates the following:--
[Tea societies.] The value which the Japanese attach to vessels of this
kind rests upon the use which is made of them by the mysterious tea
societies called Cha-no-yu. Respecting the origin of these societies,
which still are almost entirely unknown to Europeans, different legends
exist. They flourished, however, principally during the reign of the
emperor Taikosama, who, in the year 1588, furnished the society of
Cha-no-yu at Kitano near Myako with new laws. In consequence of the
religious and civil wars, the whole of the people had deteriorated
and become ungovernable, having lost all taste for art and knowledge,
and holding only rude force in any esteem; brute strength ruling in the
place of the laws. The observant Taikosama perceived that, in order to
tame these rough natures, he must accustom them to the arts of peace,
and thus secure prosperity to the country, and safety for himself and
his successors. With this in view he recalled the Cha-no-yu society
anew into life, and assembled its masters and those acquainted with
its customs around him.
[Their object.] The object of the Cha-no-yu is to draw man away
from the influences of the terrestrial forces which surround him,
to plant within him the feeling of complete repose, and to dispose
him to self-contemplation. All the exercises of the Cha-no-yu are
directed to this object.
[Ceremonies.] Clothed in light white garments, and without weapons,
the members of the Cha-no-yu assemble round the master's house, and,
after resting some time in the ante-room, are conducted into a pavilion
appropriated exclusively to these assemblies. This consists of the
most costly kinds of wood, but is without any ornament which could
possibly be abstracted from it; without color, and without varnish,
dimly lighted by small windows thickly overgrown with plants, and
so low that it is impossible to stand upright. The guests tread the
apartment with solemn measured steps, and, having been received by
him according to the prescribed formulas, arrange themselves in
a half-circle on both sides of him. All distinctions of rank are
abolished. The ancient vessels are now removed with solemn ceremonies
from their wrappings, saluted and admired; and, with the same solemn
and rigidly prescribed formulas, the water is heated on the hearth
appropriated to the purpose, and the tea taken from the vessels and
prepared in cups. The tea consists of the young green leaves of the
tea-shrub rubbed to powder, and is very stimulating in its effect. The
beverage is taken amidst deep silence, while incense is burning on
the elevated pedestal of honor, toko; and, after the thoughts have
thus been collected, conversation begins. It is confined to abstract
subjects; but politics are not always excluded.
[Reward of valor.] The value of the vessels employed in these
assemblages is very considerable; indeed, they do not fall short of the
value of our most costly paintings; and Taikosama often rewarded his
generals with vessels of the kind, instead of land, as was formerly the
practice. After the last revolution some of the more eminent Daimios
(princes) of the Mikado were rewarded with similar Cha-no-yu vessels,
in acknowledgment of the aid rendered to him in regaining the throne
of his ancestors. The best of them which I have seen were far from
beautiful, simply being old, weather-worn, black or dark-brown jars,
with pretty broad necks, for storing the tea in; tall cups of cracked
Craquele, either porcelain or earthenware, for drinking the infusion;
and deep, broad cisterns; besides rusty old iron kettles with rings,
for heating the water: but they were enwrapped in the most costly
silken stuffs, and preserved in chests lacquered with gold. Similar
old vessels are preserved amongst the treasures of the Mikado and the
Tycoon, as well as in some of the temples, with all the care due to the
most costly jewels, together with documents relating to their history.
[Yamtik and Visita Bicul.] From Libmanan I visited the mountain,
Yamtik (Amtik, Hantu), [126] which consists of lime, and contains
many caverns. Six hours westward by water, and one hour S.S.W. on
foot, brought us to the Visita Bicul, surrounded by a thousand little
limestone hills; from which we ascended by a staircase of sinter in the
bed of a brook, to a small cavern tenanted by multitudes of bats, and
great long-armed spiders of the species Phrynus, known to be poisonous.
[127]
[Ant activities.] A thick branch of a tree lying across the road was
perforated from end to end by a small ant. Many of the natives did
not venture to enter the cave; and those who did enter it were in a
state of great agitation, and were careful first to enjoin upon each
other the respect to be observed by them towards Calapnitan. [128]
[Superstitions.] One of the principal rules was to name no object in
the cave without adding "Lord Calapnitan's." Thus they did not bluntly
refer to either gun or torch, but devoutly said "Lord C.'s gun," or
"Lord C.'s torch." At a thousand paces from this lies another cave,
"San Vicente," which contains the same insects, but another kind
of bat. Both caves are only of small extent; but in Libmanan a very
large stalactite cave was mentioned to me, the description of which,
notwithstanding the fables mixed up with it, could not but have a true
foundation. Our guides feigned ignorance of it; and it was not till
after two days' wandering about, and after many debates, that they came
to the decision, since I adhered to my purpose, to encounter the risk;
when, to my great astonishment, they conducted me back to Calapnitan's
cave; from which a narrow fissure, hidden by a projection of rock,
led into one of the most gorgeous stalactite caves in the world. Its
floor was everywhere firm and easy to the tread, and mostly dry; and
it ran out into several branches, the entire length of which probably
exceeds a mile; and the whole series of royal chambers and cathedrals,
with the columns, pulpits, and altars which it contained, reflected
no discredit upon its description. No bones or other remains were to
be found in it. My intention to return subsequently with laborers,
for the purpose of systematic excavation, was not carried out.
[Unsuccessful climb.] I was not lucky enough to reach the summit of the
mountain, upon which was to be found a lake, "from where else should
the water come?" For two days we labored strenuously at different
points to penetrate the thick forest; but the guide, who had assured
the priest in Libmanan that he knew the road, now expressed himself
to the contrary effect. I therefore made the fellow, who had hitherto
been unburdened, now carry a part of the baggage as a punishment;
but he threw it off at the next turning of the road and escaped,
so that we were compelled to return. Stags and wild boars are very
numerous in these forests; and they formed the principal portion of
our meals, at which, at the commencement of our expedition, we had
as many as thirty individuals; who, in the intervals between them,
affected to search for snails and insects for me, but with success
not proportionate to their zeal.
[A clever pilfering servant.] Upon my departure from Daraga I took
with me a lively little boy, who had a taste for the calling of a
naturalist. In Libmanan he was suddenly lost, and with him, at the
same time, a bundle of keys; and we looked for him in vain. The
fact was, as I afterwards came to learn, that he went straight to
Naga, and, identifying himself by showing the stolen keys, got the
majordomo of my host to deliver to him a white felt hat; with which he
disappeared. I had once seen him, with the hat on his head, standing
before a looking-glass and admiring himself; and he could not resist
the temptation to steal it.
[Trip with Internal Revenue Collector.] In the beginning of March
I had the pleasure of accompanying the Collector (Administrador) of
Camarines and a Spanish head-man, who were travelling across Daet and
Mauban to the chief town. At five p.m. we left Butungan on the Bicol
River, two leagues below Naga, in a falua of twelve oars, equipped
with one 6-pounder and two 4-pounders, and reinforced by armed men;
and about six we reached Cabusao, at the mouth of the Bicol, whence we
put to sea about nine. The falua belonged to the collector of taxes,
and had, in conjunction with another under the command of the alcalde,
to protect the north coast of the province against smugglers and
pirates, who at this time of the year are accustomed to frequent
the hiding-places of the bay of San Miguel. Two similar gun-boats
performed the duty on the south coast of the province.
[Four volcanos.] Both the banks of the Bicol River are flat, and
expand into broad fields of rice; and to the east are simultaneously
visible the beautiful volcanos of Mayon, Iriga, Malina, and Isarog.
At daybreak we reached the bar of Daet, and, after two hours'
travelling, the similarly named chief city of the province of North
Camarines, where we found an excellent reception at the house of
the alcalde, a polished Navarrese; marred only by the tame monkey,
who should have welcomed the guests of his master, turning his
back towards them with studiously discourteous gestures, and going
towards the door. However, upon the majordomo placing a spirit flask
preserving a small harmless snake on the threshold, the monkey sprang
quickly back and concealed himself, trembling, behind his master. [A
danceless ball.] In the evening there was a ball, but there were no
dancers present. Some Filipinas, who had been invited, sat bashfully
at one end of the apartment and danced with one another when called
upon, without being noticed by the Spaniards, who conversed together
at the other end.
[Spanish prejudice against bathing.] Our departure hence was delayed
by festivities and sudden showers for about two days, after which the
spirited horses of the alcalde carried us within an hour on a level
road north-west, to Talisay, and in another hour to Indang, where
a bath and breakfast were ready. Up to this time I had never seen
a bath-room in the house of a Spaniard; whereas with the Northern
Europeans it is never wanting. The Spaniards appear to regard
the bath as a species of medicine, to be used only with caution;
many, even to the present day, look upon it as an institution not
quite Christian. At the time of the Inquisition frequent bathing,
it is known, was a characteristic of the Moors, and certainly was not
wholly free from danger. In Manila, only those who live near the Pasig
are the exceptions to the rule; and there the good or bad practice
prevails of whole families bathing, in the company of their friends,
in the open air.
[An unfortified fort.] The road ends at Indang. In two boats we went
down the river till stopped by a bar, and there at a well-supplied
table prepared for us by the kindness of the alcalde we awaited
the horses which were being brought thither along a bad road by our
servants. In the waste of Barre a tower, surrounded by two or three
fishermen's huts and as many camarines, has been erected against the
Moros, who, untempted by the same, seldom go so far westward, for
it consists only of an open hut covered with palm-leaves--a kind of
parasol--supported on stakes as thick as one's arm and fifteen feet
high; and the two cannons belonging to it ought, for security, to be
buried. We followed the sea-shore, which is composed of silicious sand,
and covered with a carpet of creeping shore plants in full bloom. On
the edge of the wood, to the left, were many flowering shrubs and
pandanus with large scarlet-red flowers. After an hour we crossed the
river Longos in a ferry, and soon came to the spur of a crystalline
chain of mountains, which barred our road and extended itself into
the sea as Point Longos. The horses climbed it with difficulty, and
we found the stream on the other side already risen so high that we
rode knee-deep in the water. After sunset we crossed singly, with
great loss of time, in a miserable ferry-boat, over the broad mouth
of the Pulundaga, where a pleasant road through a forest led us,
in fifteen minutes, over the mountain-spur, Malanguit, which again
projected itself right across our path into the sea, to the mouth
of the Paracale. The long bridge here was so rotten that we were
obliged to lead the horses over at wide intervals apart; and on the
further side lies the place called Paracale, from which my companions
continued their journey across Mauban to Manila.
[Red lead.] Paracale and Mambulao are two localities well known to
all mineralogists, from the red lead ore occurring there. On the
following morning I returned to Longos; which consists of only a few
miserable huts inhabited by gold-washers, who go about almost naked,
probably because they are laboring during the greater part of the
day in the water; but they are also very poor.
[Gold mining.] The soil is composed of rubbish, decomposed fragments of
crystalline rock, rich in broken pieces of quartz. The workmen make
holes in the ground two and one-half feet long, two and one-half
broad, and to thirty feet deep. At three feet below the surface
the rock is generally found to contain gold, the value increasing
down to eighteen feet of depth, and then again diminishing, though
these proportions are very uncertain, and there is much fruitless
search. The rock is carried out of the holes in baskets, on ladders
of bamboo, and the water in small pails; but in the rainy season the
holes cannot possibly be kept free from water, as they are situated
on the slope of the mountain, and are filled quicker than they can
be emptied. The want of apparatus for discharging water also accounts
for the fact that the pits are not dug deeper.
[A primitive rock breaker.] The breaking of the auriferous rock is
effected with two stones; of which one serves as anvil, and the other
as hammer. The former, which is slightly hollowed in the center, is
laid flat upon the ground; and the latter, four by eight by eight
inches in dimensions, and therefore of about twenty-five pounds
weight, is made fast with rattan to the top of a slender young tree,
which lies in a sloping position in a fork, and at its opposite end is
firmly fixed in the ground. The workman with a jerk forces the stone
that serves for hammer down upon the auriferous rock, and allows it
to be again carried upwards by the elasticity of the young tree.
[An arrastre.] The crushing of the broken rock is effected with
an apparatus equally crude. A thick stake rises from the center
of a circular support of rough-hewn stones (which is enclosed in
a circle of exactly similar stones) having an iron pin at its top,
to which a tree, bent horizontally in the middle, and downwards at
the two ends, is fixed. Being set in motion by two carabaos attached
in front, it drags several heavy stones, which are bound firmly to
it with rattans, round the circle, and in this manner crushes the
broken rock, which has been previously mixed with water, to a fine
mud. The same apparatus is employed by the Mexican gold-washers,
under the name of Rastra. [Gold-washing.] The washing-out of the mud
is done by women. They kneel before a small wooden gutter filled with
water up to the brim, and provided with boards, sloping downwards,
in front of the space assigned to each woman; the gutter being cut
out at these places in a corresponding manner, so that a very slender
stream of water flows evenly across its whole breadth downwards over
the board. With her hand the work-woman distributes the auriferous
mud over the board, which, at the lower edge, is provided with a
cross-piece; and, when the light sand is washed away, there remains a
stratum consisting chiefly of iron, flint, and ore, which is taken up
from time to time with a flat piece of board, and laid on one side;
and at the end of the day's work, it is washed out in a flat wooden
dish (batea), and, for the last time, in a coco-shell; when, if they
are lucky, a fine yellow dust shows itself on the edge. [129] During
the last washing the slimy juice of the Gogo is added to the water,
the fine heavy sand remaining suspended therein for a longer time
than in pure water, and thus being more easily separated from the
gold-dust. [130]
[The clean-up.] It is further to be mentioned that the refuse from
the pits is washed at the upper end of the water-gutter, so that
the sand adhering to the stones intended for pounding may deposit
its gold in the gutter or on the washing-board. In order to melt
the gold thus obtained into a lump, in which form it is bought by
the dealers, it is poured into a small heart-shell (cardium), and,
after being covered with a handful of charcoal, placed in a potsherd;
when a woman blows through a narrow bamboo-cane on the kindled coals,
and in one minute the work is completed. [131]
The result of many inquiries shows the profit per head to average
not more than one and one-half reals daily. Further to the south-west
from here, on the mountain Malaguit, are seen the ruins of a Spanish
mining company; a heap of rubbish, a pit fifty feet deep, a large
house fallen to ruin, and a stream-work four feet broad and six feet
high. The mountain consists of gneiss much decomposed, with quartz
veins in the stream-work, with the exception of the bands of quartz,
which are of almost pure clay earth with sand.
[Edible bird's nests.] On the sides hung some edible nests of the
salangane, but not of the same kind as those found in the caverns
on the south coast of Java. These, which are of much less value than
the latter, are only occasionally collected by the Chinese dealers,
who reckon them nominally at five cents each. We also found a few of
the nest-building birds (Collocalia troglodytes, Gray). [132]
[Abandoned workings.] Around lay so large a number of workings,
and there were so many little abandoned pits, wholly or half fallen
to ruin, and more or less grown over, that it was necessary to step
between with great caution. Some of them were still being worked after
the mode followed at Longos, but with a few slight improvements. The
pits are twice as large as those excavated there, and the rock is
lifted, up by a pulley to a cylindrical framework of bamboo, which
is worked by the feet of a lad who sits on a bank higher up.
[Lead and mica.] Ten minutes north of the village of Malaguit is
a mountain in which lead-glance and red lead have been obtained;
the rock consisting of micaceous gneiss much decomposed. There is
a stream-work over one hundred feet in length. The rock appears to
have been very poor.
The highly prized red-lead ores have been found on the top of this same
hill, N. 30 deg. W. from the village. The quarry was fallen to ruin and
flooded with rain, so that only a shallow hollow in the ground remained
visible; and after a long search amongst the bushes growing there a few
small fragments were found, on which [Chrome-lead ore.] chrome-lead
ore was still clearly to be recognized. Captain Sabino, the former
governor of Paracale, a well-informed Filipino, who, at the suggestion
of the alcalde, accompanied me, had for some years caused excavations
to be carried on, in order to find specimens for a speculator who had
in view the establishment of a new mining company in Spain; but the
specimens which were found had not been removed, as speculation in
mines in the Philippines had, in the interval, fallen into discredit
on the Exchange of Madrid; and as yet only a little box full of sand,
out of a few small drusy cavities, has been fixed upon and pounded,
to be sold as variegated writing-sand, after being carefully sifted.
[A pretty fan-palm.] A peculiarly beautiful fan-palm grows on this
hill. Its stem is from thirty to forty feet high, cylindrical and
dark-brown, with white rings a quarter of an inch broad at distances of
four inches, and, at similar intervals, crown-shaped bands of thorns
two inches long. Near the crown-leaf the stem passes into the richest
brown of burnt sienna.
[Rooming in a powder-magazine.] Notwithstanding a very bad road, a
pleasant ride carried us from Paracale to the sea-shore, and, through
a beautiful wood, to Mambulao, which lies W. by N. I alighted at the
tribunal, and took up my lodgings in the room where the ammunition was
kept, as being the only one that could be locked. For greater security,
the powder was stored in a corner and covered with carabao-hide;
but such were my arrangements that my servant carried about a burning
tallow light, and his assistant a torch in the hand. When I visited
the Filipino priest, I was received in a friendly manner by a young
girl who, when I offered my hand, thanked me with a bow, saying,
"Tengo las sarnas" ("I have the itch"). The malady, which is very
common in the Philippines, appears to have its focus in this locality.
[Gneiss and crystalline rock.] A quarter of a league N.N.E. we came
upon the ruins of another mining undertaking, the Ancla de Oro. Shaft
and water-cutting had fallen in, and were thickly grown over; and
only a few of the considerable buildings were still standing; and
even those were ready to fall. In a circle some natives were busily
employed, in their manner, collecting grains of gold. The rock is
gneiss, weathered so much that it cannot be recognized; and at a
thousand paces on the other side is a similar one, clearly crystalline.
[Hornblende and hornblende slate.] Half a league N. by E. from Mambulao
is the lead-mountain of Dinianan. Here also all the works were fallen
in, choked with mud and grown over. Only after a long search were
a few fragments found with traces of red-lead ore. This mountain
consists of hornblende rock; in one place, of hornblende slate,
with very beautiful large crystals.
[Copper.] A league and a half S. from Mambulao a shallow hollow in
the ground marks the site of an old copper-mine, which must have
been eighty-four feet deep. Copper ores are found in several places
in Luzon; and specimens of solid copper were obtained by me at the
Bay of Luyang, N. of the Ensenada de Patag, in Caramuan.
[Unsuccessful copper-mining.] Very considerable beds of copper ore
occur in Mancayan, in the district of Lepanto, and in the central
mountain-range of Luzon between Cagayan and Ilocos, which have been
worked by a mining company in Manila since 1850; but the operations
seem to have been most unsuccessful. In 1867 the society expended a
considerable capital in the erection of smelting furnaces and hydraulic
machinery; but until a very recent date, owing to local difficulties,
particularly the want of roads, it has not produced any copper. [133]
[Paying minus dividends.] In 1869 I heard, in London, that the
undertaking had been given up. According to my latest information,
however, it is certainly in progress; but the management have never,
I believe, secured a dividend. The statement of 1872, in fact, shows
a loss, or, as the Spaniards elegantly say, a dividendo pasivo.
[Igorot-mining successful.] What Europeans yet appear unable to
accomplish, the wild Igorots, who inhabit that trackless range of
mountains, have carried on successfully for centuries, and to a
proportionally larger extent; and this is the more remarkable as
the metal in that district occurs only in the form of flints, which
even in Europe can be made profitable only by particular management,
and not without expense.
[Long-established and considerable.] The copper introduced into
commerce by the Igorots from 1840 to 1855, partly in a raw state,
partly manufactured, is estimated at three hundred piculs yearly. The
extent of their excavations, and the large existing masses of slag,
also indicate the activity of their operations for a long period
of time.
[Copper kettles attributed to Negritos.] In the Ethnographical Museum
at Berlin is a copper kettle made by those wild tribes. Meyer,
who brought it, states that it was made by the Negritos in the
interior of the island, and certainly with hammers of porphyry, as
they have no iron; and that he further found, in the collection of
the Captain General of the Philippines, a large shallow kettle of
three and one-half feet in diameter, which had been bought for only
three dollars; whence it may be inferred that, in the interior of
the island, the copper occurs in large masses, and probably solid;
for how could those rude, uncultivated negritos understand the art
of smelting copper?
[Copper-working a pre-Spanish art.] The locality of these rich
quarries was still unknown to the Governor, although the copper
implements brought thence had, according to an official statement
of his in 1833, been in use in Manila over two centuries. It is
now known that the copper-smiths are not Negritos but Igorots; and
there can be no question that they practiced this art, and the still
more difficult one of obtaining copper from flint, for a long period
perhaps previous to the arrival of the Spaniards. They may possibly
have learnt them from the Chinese or Japanese. The chief engineer,
Santos [134], and many others with him, are of opinion that this
race is descended from the Chinese or Japanese, from whom he insists
that it acquired not only its features (several travellers mention
the obliquely placed eyes of the Igorots), its idols, and some of
its customs, but also the art of working in copper. At all events,
the fact that a wild people, living isolated in the mountains,
should have made such progress in the science of smelting, is of
so great interest that a description of their procedure by Santos
(essentially only a repetition of an earlier account by Hernandez,
in the Revista Minera, i. 112) will certainly be acceptable.
[The Igorots' Method.] The present mining district acquired by the
society mentioned, the Sociedad Minero-metalurgica Cantabrofilipina
de Mancayan, was divided amongst the Igorots into larger or smaller
parcels strictly according to the number of the population of the
adjacent villages, whose boundaries were jealously watched; and
the possessions of each separate village were again divided between
certain families; whence it is that those mountain districts exhibit,
at the present day, the appearance of a honeycomb. To obtain the ore,
they made cavities, in which they lighted fires in suitable spots,
for the purpose of breaking the rock into pieces by means of the
elasticity of the heated water contained in the crevices, with the
additional assistance of iron implements. The first breaking-up of
the ore was done in the stream-work itself, and the dead heaps lay
piled up on the ground, so that, in subsequent fires, the flame of
the pieces of wood always reached the summit; and by reason of the
quality of the rock, and the imperfection of the mode of procedure,
very considerable down-falls frequently occurred. The ores were divided
into rich and quartziferous; the former not being again melted, but
the latter being subjected to a powerful and persistent roasting,
during which, after a part of the sulphur, antimony, and arsenic
had been exhaled, a kind of distillation of sulphate of copper and
sulphate of iron took place, which appeared as "stone," or in balls
on the surface of the quartz, and could be easily detached. [135]
[The Smelter.] The furnace or smelting apparatus consisted of a round
hollow in clayey gound, thirty centimeters in diameter and fifteen
deep; with which was connected a conical funnel of fire-proof stone,
inclined at an angle of 30 deg., carrying up two bamboo-canes, which were
fitted into the lower ends of two notched pine-stems; in these two
slips, covered all over with dry grass or feathers, moved alternately
up and down, and produced the current required for the smelting.
[Smelting.] When the Igorots obtained black copper or native copper by
blasting, they prevented loss (by oxidation) by setting up a crucible
of good fire-proof clay in the form of a still; by which means it was
easier for them to pour the metal into the forms which it would acquire
from the same clay. The furnace being arranged, they supplied it
with from eighteen to twenty kilograms of rich or roasted ore, which,
according to the repeated experiments of Hernandez, contained twenty
per cent of copper; and they proceeded quite scientifically, always
exposing the ore at the mouth of the funnel, and consequently to the
air-drafts, and placing the coals at the sides of the furnace, which
consisted of loose stones piled one over another to the height of fifty
centimeters. The fire having been kindled and the blowing apparatus,
already described, in operation, thick clouds of white, yellow, and
orange-yellow smoke were evolved from the partial volatilization of the
sulphur, arsenic, and antimony, for the space of an hour; but as soon
as only sulphurous acid was formed, and the heat by this procedure
had attained its highest degree, the blowing was discontinued and
the product taken out. This consisted of a dross, or, rather, of the
collected pieces of ore themselves, which, on account of the flinty
contents of the stones composing the funnel, were transformed by the
decomposition of the sulphurous metal into a porous mass, and which
could not be converted into dross nor form combinations with silicious
acid, being deficient in the base as well as in the requisite heat;
and also of a very impure "stone," of from four to five kilograms
weight, and containing from fifty to sixty per cent of copper.
[The copper "stone".] Several of these "stones" were melted down
together for the space of about fifteen hours, in a powerful fire;
and by this means a great portion of the three volatile substances
above named was again evolved; after which they placed them, now heated
red-hot, in an upright position, but so as to be in contact with the
draught; the coals, however, being at the sides of the furnace. After
blowing for an hour or half-an-hour, they thus obtained, as residuum,
a silicate of iron with antimony and traces of arsenic, a "stone"
containing from seventy to seventy-five per cent of copper, which they
took off in very thin strips, at the same time using refrigerating
vessels; and at the bottom of the hollow there remained, according
as the mass was more or less freed from sulphur, a larger or smaller
quantity (always, however, impure) of black copper.
[Purifying the product.] The purified stones obtained by this second
process were again made red-hot by placing them between rows of wood,
in order that they might not melt into one another before the fire
had freed them from impurities.
The black copper obtained from the second operation, and the stones
which were re-melted at the same time, were then subjected to a
third process in the same furnace (narrowed by quarry stones and
provided with a crucible); which produced a residuum of silicious
iron and black copper, which was poured out into clay moulds, and
in this shape came into commerce. This black copper contained from
ninety-two to ninety-four per cent of copper, and was tinged by a
carbonaceous compound of the same metal known by its yellow color,
and the oxide on the surface arising from the slow cooling, which will
occur notwithstanding every precaution; and the surface so exposed
to oxidation they beat with green twigs. When the copper, which had
been thus extracted with so much skill and patience by the Igorots,
was to be employed in the manufacture of kettles, pipes, and other
domestic articles, or for ornament, it was submitted to another
process of purification, which differed from the preceding only in
one particular, that the quantity of coals was diminished and the
air-draught increased according as the process of smelting drew near
to its termination, which involved the removal of the carbonaceous
compound by oxidation. Santos found, by repeated experiment, that even
from ores of the mean standard of twenty per cent, only from eight to
ten per cent of black copper was extracted by the third operation; so
that between eight to twelve per cent still remained in the residuum
or porous quartz of the operation.
[Tagalog women traders.] It was difficult to procure the necessary
means of transport for my baggage on the return journey to Paracale,
the roads being so soaked by the continuous rains that no one would
venture his cattle for the purpose. In Mambulao the influence of
the province on its western border is very perceptible, and Tagalog
is understood almost better than Bicol; the Tagalog element being
introduced amongst the population by women, who with their families
come here, from Lucban and Mauban, in the pursuit of trade. They buy up
gold, and import stuffs and other wares in exchange. The gold acquired
is commonly from fifteen to sixteen carats, and a mark determines
its quality. The dealers pay on the average $11 per ounce; but when,
as is usually the case, it is [Miners uncertain returns.] offered in
smaller quantities than one ounce, only $10. [136] They weigh with
small Roman scales, and have no great reputation for honesty.
North Camarines is thinly inhabited, the population of the mining
districts having removed after the many undertakings which were
artificially called into existence by the mining mania had been
ruined. The goldwashers are mostly dissolute and involved in debt,
and continually expecting rich findings which but very seldom occur,
and which, when they do occur, are forthwith dissipated;--a fact
which will account for champagne and other articles of luxury being
found in the shops of the very poor villagers.
Malaguit and Matango, during the dry season, are said to be connected
by an extremely good road; but, when we passed, the two places were
separated by a quagmire into which the horses sank up to their middle.
[Labo.] In Labo, a little village on the right bank of the river Labo
(which rises in the mountain of the same name), the conditions to
which we have adverted are repeated--vestiges of the works of former
mining companies fast disappearing, and, in the midst, little pits
being worked by the natives. Red lead has not been found here, but
gold has been, and especially "platinum," which some experiments
have proved to be lead-glance. The mountain Labo appears from its
bell-shape and the strata exposed in the river bed to consist of
trachytic hornblende. Half a league W.S.W., after wading through mud
a foot deep, we reached the mountain Dallas where lead-glance and
gold were formerly obtained by a mining company; and to the present
day gold is obtained by a few natives in the usual mode.
[Wild Cat Mining.] Neither in the latter province, nor in Manila, could
I acquire more precise information respecting the histories of the
numerous unfortunate mining enterprises. Thus much, however, appears
certain, that they were originated only by speculators, and never
properly worked with sufficient means. They therefore, of necessity,
collapsed so soon as the speculators ceased from their operations.
[Small output.] North Camarines yields no metal with the exception
of the little gold obtained by the natives in so unprofitable a
manner. The king of Spain at first received a fifth, and then a
tenth, of the produce; but the tax subsequently ceased. In Morga's
time the tenth amounted on an average to $10,000 ("which was kept
quite secret"); the profit, consequently, to above $100,000. Gemelli
Carreri was informed by the governor of Manila that gold to the value
of $200,000 was collected annually without the help of either fire or
quicksilver, and that Paracale, in particular, was rich in gold. No
data exist from which I could estimate the actual rate of produce; and
the answers to several inquiries deserve no mention. The produce is,
at all events, very small, as well on account of the incompleteness
of the mode of procedure as of the irregularity of labor, for the
natives work only when they are compelled by necessity.
[Indang.] I returned down the stream in a boat to Indang, a
comparatively flourishing place, of smaller population but more
considerable trade than Daet; the export consisting principally of
abaca, and the import of rice.
[Storms.] An old mariner, who had navigated this coast for many
years, informed me that the same winds prevail from Daet as far as
Cape Engano, the north-east point of Luzon. From October to March
the north-east wind prevails, the monsoon here beginning with north
winds, which are of short duration and soon pass into the north-east;
and in January and February the east winds begin and terminate
the monsoon. The heaviest rains fall from October to January, and
in October typhoons sometimes occur. Beginning from the north or
north-east, they pass to the north-west, where they are most violent;
and then to the north and east, sometimes as far as to the south-east,
and even to the south. In March and April, and sometimes in the
beginning of May, shifting winds blow, which bring in the south-west
monsoon; but the dry season, of which April and May are the driest
months, is uninterrupted by rain. Thunder storms occur from June to
November; most frequently in August. During the south-west monsoon
the sea is very calm; but in the middle of the north-east monsoon all
navigation ceases on the east coast. In the outskirts of Baler rice
is sown in October, and reaped in March and April. Mountain rice is
not cultivated.
CHAPTER XVI
[On foot to San Miguel bay.] Sending my baggage from Daet to Cabusao
in a schooner, I proceeded on foot, by the road to that place, to
the coast on the west side of the Bay of San Miguel. We crossed the
mouth of the river in a boat, which the horses swam after; but they
were soon abandoned from unfitness. At the mouth of the next river,
Sacavin, the water was so high that the bearers stripped themselves
naked and carried the baggage over on their heads. In simple jacket
and cotton hose, I found this precaution needless; indeed, according
to my experience, it is both refreshing and salutary to wear wet
clothes, during an uniformly high temperature; besides which, one
is thereby spared many a spring over ditches, and many a roundabout
course to avoid puddles, which, being already wet through, we no longer
fear. After having waded over eight other little rivers we were obliged
to leave the shore and pursue the road to Colasi along steep, slippery,
forest paths, the place lying right in the middle of the west side of
the bay. The sea-shore was very beautiful. Instead of a continuous and,
at the ebb, ill-smelling border of mangroves, which is never wanting in
those places where the land extends into the sea, the waves here reach
the foot of the old trees of the forest, many of which were washed
underneath. Amongst the most remarkable was a fringe of stately old
Barringtoni, covered with orchids and other epiphytes--gorgeous trees
when in flower; the red stamens, five inches long, with golden yellow
anthers like tassels, depending from the boughs; and their fruit, of
the size of the fist, is doubly useful to the fisherman, who employs
them, on account of their specific gravity, in floating his nets, and
beats them to pieces to stupefy the fish. The foremost trees stood bent
towards the sea, and have been so deflected probably for a long time,
like many others whose remains still projected out of the water. The
destruction of this coast appears to be very considerable. Amongst
the climbing palms one peculiar kind was very abundant, the stem of
which, as thick as the arm, either dragged itself, leafless, along
the ground, or hung in arches above the branches, carrying a crown
of leaves only at its extremity; while another, from its habitat the
common calamus, had caryota leaves. Wild boars are very plentiful here;
a hunter offered us two at one real each.
[Colasi.] The direction of the flat coast which extends N.N.W. to
S.S.E. from the point of Daet is here interrupted by the little peak
of Colasi, which projects to the east, and has grown so rapidly
that all old people remember it to have been lower. In the Visita
Colasi, on the northern slope of the mountain, the sea is so rough
that no boat can live in it. The inhabitants carry on fishing; their
fishing-grounds lie, however, on the southern slope of the mountain,
in the sheltered bay of Lalauigan, which we reached after thee hours'
journey over the ridge.
[By sea to Cabusao.] A four-oared baroto, hired at this place,
as the weather was favorable, was to have conveyed us in two hours
to Cabusao, the port of Naga; but the wind swung round, and a storm
ensued. Thoroughly wet and not without loss, we ran to Barceloneta,
a visita situated at a third of the distance. The intelligent Teniente
of Colasi, whom we met here, also confirmed the fact of the rapid
growth of the little peak.
[Unreliable excuses.] In opposition to my wish to ascend the mountain,
great obstacles were said to exist when every one would be occupied
in preparations for the Easter festival, which would hardly occur
during the succeeding weeks. As these objections did not convince me,
a more substantial reason was discovered the next morning. Inland
shoes are excellent for the mud, and particularly for horseback;
but for climbing mountains, or rough ground, they would not last a
day; and the one remaining pair of strong European shoes, which I
reserved for particular purposes, had been given away by my servant,
who did not like climbing mountains, on the pretext they were very
much too heavy for me.
[A shipwrecked family.] The shore from Barceloneta to Cabusao is of
the same character as the Daet-Colasi but running north and south;
the ground, sandy clay, is covered with a thick stratum of broken
bivalves. The road was very difficult, as the high tide forced us to
climb between the trees and thick underwood. On the way we met an
enterprising family who had left Daet with a cargo of coconuts for
Naga, and had been wrecked here; saving only one out of five tinajas
of oil, but recovering all the nuts. [137] They were living in a
small hastily-run-up hut, upon coconuts, rice, fish, and mussels,
in expectation of a favorable wind to return. There were several
varieties of shore-birds; but my gun would not go off, although
my servant, in expectation of a hunt, had cleaned it with especial
care. As he had lost the ramrod whilst cleaning it, the charge was
not withdrawn before we reached Cabusao, when it was discovered that
both barrels were full of sand to above the touchhole.
[Making palm-sugar.] The coast was still more beautiful than on the
preceding day, particularly in one place where the surge beat against a
wood of fan-palms (Corypha sp.). On the side facing the sea, in groups
or rows stood the trees, bereft of their crowns, or lying overthrown
like columns amid the vast ruins of temples (one of them was three feet
in diameter); and the sight immediately reminded me of Pompeii. I could
not account for the bareness of the trunks, until I discovered a hut in
the midst of the palms, in which two men were endeavoring to anticipate
the waves in their work of destruction by the preparation of sugar
(tunguleh). For this purpose, after stripping off the leaves (this
palm flowering at the top), the upper end of the stem is cut across,
the surface of the incision being inclined about five degrees towards
the horizon, and, near its lower edge, hollowed out to a very shallow
gutter. The juice exudes over the whole surface of the cut, with the
exception of the intersected exterior petioles, and, being collected
in the shallow channel, is conducted by a piece of banana-leaf,
two inches broad, and four inches long, into a bamboo-cane attached
to the trunk. In order to avert the rain from the saccharine issue,
which has a faint, pleasantly aromatic flavor as of barley-sugar,
all the trees which have been tapped are provided with caps formed of
bent and folded palm-leaves. The average daily produce of each tree is
four bamboos, the interior of which is about three inches and a half
in diameter. When removed, they are full to about eighteen inches;
which gives somewhat more than ten quarts daily.
[The money side.] The produce of each tree of course is very
unequal. Always intermittent, it ceases completely after two months--at
the utmost, three months; but, the proportion of those newly cut to
those cut at an earlier date being the same, the yield of the incisions
is about equal. The juice of thirty-three palms, after evaporation in
an iron pan immediately upon each collection, produces one ganta, or
(there being four such collections) four gantas, daily; the weekly
result being twenty gantas, or two tinajas of sugar, each worth two
dollars and a half on the spot. This statement, derived from the people
themselves, probably shows the proportion somewhat more unfavorable
than it really is; still, according to the opinion of an experienced
mestizo, the difference cannot be very considerable. Assuming the above
figures as correct, however, one of these magnificent trees would give
about one dollar and two-thirds, or, after deducting the laborers'
wages one real per diem, about a thaler and two-thirds; not a large
sum truly; but it is some consolation to know that, even if man did
not interfere, these trees would in process of time fall victims to
the breakers, and that, even if protected against external ravages,
they are doomed to natural extinction after once producing fruit.
[Neglected roads.] Cabusao lies in the southern angle of San Miguel
Bay which is, almost on every side, surrounded by high mountains, and
affords good anchorage for ships. From here I repaired across Naga to
the south coast. Four leagues from Naga, in the heart of Ragay, on the
southern border of Luzon, is the small but deep harbor of Pasacao; and
two hours by water conducted us to the intermediate Visita Pamplona,
whence the route is pursued by land. The still-existing remnant of the
old road was in a miserable condition, and even at that dry season
of the year scarcely passable; the bridges over the numerous little
ditches were broken down, and in many places, right across the road,
lay large stones and branches of trees which had been brought there
years before to repair the bridges, and, having been unused, have
ever since continued to obstruct the road.
[A French planter.] In Quitang, between Pamplona and Pasacao, where two
brooks unite themselves into one little river debouching at the latter
place, a young Frenchman had established a hacienda. He was contented
and hopeful, and loudly praised the industry and friendliness of his
people. Probably because they make fewer exactions, foreigners, as a
rule, seem to agree better with the natives than Spaniards. Of these
exactions, the bitterest complaints are rife of the injustice of the
demands made upon the lower classes in the settlement of their wages;
which, if they do not immediately find the necessary hands for every
employment, do not correspond with the enhanced value of the products;
and, according to them, the natives must even be driven from public
employments, to labor in their service. [138]
[The Filipino as a laborer.] The Filipino certainly is more independent
than the European laborer, because he has fewer wants and, as a native
landowner, is not compelled to earn his bread as the daily laborer of
another; yet, with reference to wages, it may be questioned whether
any colony whatever offers more favorable conditions to the planter
than the Philippines. In Dutch India, where the prevalence of monopoly
almost excludes private industry, free laborers obtain one-third of a
guilder--somewhat more than one real, the usual wages in the wealthy
provinces of the Philippines (in the poorer it amounts to only the
half); and the Javanese are not the equals of the Filipinos, either
in strength, or intelligence, or skill; and the rate of wages in all
the older Slave States is well known. For the cultivation of sugar and
coffee, Mauritius and Ceylon are obliged to import foreign laborers
at great expense, and to pay them highly; and yet they are successful.
[Pasacao.] From Quitang to Pasacao the road was far worse than
it had heretofore been; and this is the most important road in
the province! Before reaching Pasacao, evident signs are visible,
on the denuded sides of the limestone, of its having been formerly
washed by the sea. Pasacao is picturesquely situated at the end of the
valley which is intersected by the Itulan, and extends from Pamplona,
between wooded mountains of limestone, as far as the sea. The ebb tides
here are extremely irregular. From noon to evening no difference was
observable, and, when the decrease just became visible, the tide rose
again. Immediately to the south, and facing the district, the side of a
mountain, two thousand feet high and above one thousand feet broad, had
two years ago given way to the subterranean action of the waves. The
rock consists of a tough calcareous breccia, full of fragments of
mussels and corals; but, being shoeless, I could not remain on the
sharp rock sufficiently long to make a closer examination.
[A beautiful coast.] For the same reason, I was obliged to leave
the ascent of the Yamtik, which I had before vainly attempted from
Libmanan, unaccomplished from this point, although I had the advantage
of the company of an obliging French planter in a boat excursion in a
north-westerly direction along the coast. Here our boat floated along
over gardens of coral, swarming with magnificently colored fishes;
and after two hours we reached a cavern in the limestone, Suminabang,
so low that one could stir in it only by creeping; which contained a
few swallows and bats. On the Calebayan river, on the further side of
Point Tanaun, we came upon a solitary shed, our night-quarters. Here
the limestone range is interrupted by an isolated cliff on the left
bank of the little river, consisting of a crystalline rock chiefly
composed of hornblende; which moreover, on the side exposed to the
water, is surrounded completely by limestone.
[Cattle.] The surrounding mountains must swarm with wild boars. Under
the thatched roof of our hut, which serves as a shelter to occasional
hunters, more than a hundred and fifty lower jaw-bones were set
up as hunting trophies. The place appeared as if created for the
breeding of cattle. Soft with fodder grass, and covered with a few
groups of trees, with slopes intersected by rustling brooks, it rose
up out of the sea, and was encompassed by a steep wall of rock in
the form of a semicircle; and here cattle would find grass, water,
shade, and the protection of an enclosing rampart. While travelling
along the coast, we had remarked a succession of similar localities,
which however, from lack of enterprise and from the dread of pirates,
were not utilized. As soon as our supper was prepared, we carefully
extinguished our fire, that it might not serve as a signal to the
vagabonds of the sea, and kept night watches.
[A delusive cave.] On the following morning we intended to visit
a cave never before entered; but, to our astonishment, we found
no proper cavern, but only an entrance to a cavern a few feet in
depth. Visible from a distance, it must often have been passed by
the hunters, although, as we were assured by our companions--who
were astonished at the delusion---no one had ventured to enter it
from stress of superstitious terror.
[Isolation of fertile regions.] The north coast of Camarines,
as I have frequently mentioned, is, during the north-east monsoon,
almost unapproachable; while the south coast, screened by the outlying
islands, remains always accessible. The most fertile districts of the
eastern provinces, which during summer export their produce by the
northern ports, in the winter often remain for months cut off from
all communication with the chief town, because there is no road over
the small strip of land to the south coast. How much has been done by
Nature, and how little by man, to facilitate this intercourse, is very
evident when we reflect upon the condition of the road to Pasacao,
lately described, in connection with the condition of matters in the
east, as shown by the map.
[River highways.] Two rivers, one coming from the north-west,
and the other from the south-east, and both navigable before they
reach the borders of the province, flow through the middle of it in
a line parallel with the coast (taking no account of its windings),
and, after their junction, send their waters together through the
estuary of Cabusao into the Bay of San Miguel. The whole province,
therefore, is traversed through its center by two navigable rivers,
which, as regards commerce, form only one.
[Cabusao and Pasacao harbors.] But the harbor of Cabusao, at the bottom
of the Bay of San Miguel, is not accessible during the north-east
monsoon, and has this further disadvantage, that the intercourse of
the whole of the eastern part of Luzon with Manila can be carried
on only by a very circuitous route. On the south coast, on the other
hand, is the harbor of Pasacao, into which a navigable little river,
above a mile in width, discharges itself; so that the distance between
this river highway and the nearest point of the Bicol River amounts to
a little more than a mile. The road connecting the two seas, laid out
by an active alcalde in 1847, and maintained up to 1852, was however,
at the date of my inquiry, in so bad a condition that a picul of abaca
paid two reals freight for this short distance, in the dry season; and
in the wet season it could not be forwarded for double the price. [139]
[Bad roads raise freights.] Many similar instances may be brought
forward. In 1861 the English vice-consul reported that in Iloilo a
picul of sugar had risen more than 2 r. in price (as much as the cost
of freight from Iloilo to Manila), in consequence of the bad state
of the road between the two places, which are only one league asunder.
[Social and political reasons for bad roads.] If, without reference to
transport by sea, the islands were not favored in so extraordinary a
manner by innumerable rivers with navigable mouths, a still greater
proportion of their produce would not have been convertible into
money. The people, as well as the local authorities, have no desire
for roads, which they themselves construct by forced labor, and,
when completed, must maintain by the same method; for, when no roads
are made, the laborers are so much more easily employed in private
operations. Even the parish priests, generally, are as little favorable
to the planning of commercial intercourse, by means of which trade,
prosperity, and enlightenment would be introduced into the country,
and their authority undermined. Indeed the Government itself, up
to within a short time since, favored such a state of affairs; for
bad roads belong to the essence of the old Spanish colonial policy,
which was always directed to effect the isolation of the separate
provinces of their great transmarine possessions, and to prevent the
growth of a sense of national interest, in order to facilitate their
government by the distant mother country.
[Spanish economic backwardness.] Besides, in Spain itself matters
are no better. The means of communication there are so very deficient
that, as an instance, merchandise is sent from Santander to Barcelona,
round the whole Iberian peninsula, in preference to the direct route,
which is partly accomplished by railway. [140] In Estremadura the hogs
were fed with wheat (live animals can be transported without roads),
while at the same time the seaports were importing foreign grain. [141]
The cause of this condition of affairs in that country is to be sought
less in a disordered state of finance, than in the enforcement of
the Government maxim which enjoins the isolation of separate provinces.
CHAPTER XVII
[Mt. Isarog.] The Isarog (pronounced Issaro) rises up in the middle
of Camarines, between San Miguel and Lagonoy bays. While its eastern
slope almost reaches the sea, it is separated on its western side by
a broad strip of inundated land from San Miguel Bay. In circumference
it is at least twelve leagues; and its height 1,966 meters. [142]
Very flat at its base, it swells gradually to 16 deg., and higher up
to 21 deg. of inclination, and extends itself, in its western aspect,
into a flat dome-shaped summit. But, if viewed from the eastern side,
it has the appearance of a circular chain of mountains rent asunder
by a great ravine. On Coello's map this ravine is erroneously laid
down as extending from south to north; its bearing really is west to
east. Right in front of its opening, and half a league south from Goa,
lies the pretty little village of Rungus, by which it is known. The
exterior sides of the mountain and the fragments of its large crater
are covered with impenetrable wood. Respecting its volcanic eruptions
tradition says nothing.
[Primitive mountaineers.] The higher slopes form the dwelling-place
of a small race of people, whose independence and the customs
of a primitive age have almost entirely separated them from the
inhabitants of the plain. One or two Cimarrons might occasionally
have been attracted hither, but no such instance is remembered. The
inhabitants of the Isarog are commonly, though mistakenly, called
Igorots; and I retain the name, since their tribal relationship has not
yet been accurately determined; they themselves maintaining that their
ancestors always dwelt in that locality. There are some who, in the
opinion of the parish priest of Camarines, speak the Bicol language
in the purest manner. Their manners and customs are very similar,
in many respects, to what they were on the arrival of the Spaniards;
and sometimes they also remind one of those prevailing among the Dyaks
of Borneo at the present day. [143] These circumstances give rise to
the conjecture that they may be the last of a race which maintained
its independence against the Spanish rule, and probably also against
the little tyrants who ruled over the plain before the arrival of the
Europeans. When Juan de Salcedo undertook his triumphal march round
North Luzon he found everywhere, at the mouths of the rivers, seafaring
tribes living under many chieftains who, after a short struggle, were
slain by the superior discipline and better arms of the Spaniards,
or submitted voluntarily to the superior race; but he did not succeed
in subduing the independent tribes in the interior; and these are
still to be found in all the larger islands of the Philippine group.
[Similarity to Indian Archipelago conditions.] Similar conditions are
found in many places in the Indian Archipelago. The Malays, carrying
on trade and piracy, possess the shore, and their language prevails
there; the natives being either subdued by them, or driven into the
forests, the inaccessibility of which ensures to them a miserable
but independent existence. [144]
[Policy of non-intercourse with heathens.] In order to break down
the opposition of the wild races, the Spanish Government forbade
its subjects, under the penalty of one hundred blows and two years
of forced labor, "to trade or to have any intercourse with the
heathens in the mountains who pay no tribute to his Catholic Majesty,
for although they would exchange their gold, wax, etc., for other
necessaries, they will never change for the better." Probably this
law has for centuries directly contributed to save the barbarians,
notwithstanding their small numbers, from complete extermination;
for free intercourse between a people existing by agriculture,
and another living principally by the chase, speedily leads to the
destruction of the latter.
[Christian Mountaineers' villages.] The number of the Igorots of the
Isarog however, been much diminished by deadly battles between the
different ranchos, and by the marauding expeditions which, until
a short time since, were annually undertaken by the commissioners
of taxes, in the interest of the Government monopoly, against
the tobacco fields of the Igorots. Some few have been "pacified"
(converted to Christianity and tribute); in which case they are obliged
to establish themselves in little villages of scattered huts, where
they can be occasionally visited by the priest of the nearest place;
and, in order to render the change easier to them, a smaller tax than
usual is temporarily imposed upon such newly-obtained subjects.
[Tobacco monopoly wars.] I had deferred the ascent of the mountain
until the beginning of the dry season of the year; but I learned in
Naga that my wish was hardly practicable, because the expeditions
against the ranchos of the mountain, which I have already mentioned,
usually occurred about this time. As the wild people could not
understand why they should not cultivate on their own fields a plant
which had become a necessity to them, they saw in the Cuadrilleros,
not functionaries of a civilized State, but robbers, against whom
they were obliged to defend themselves by force; and appearances
contributed no less to confirm them in their error; for these did
not content themselves with destroying the plantations of tobacco,
but the huts were burnt to the ground, the fruit-trees hewn down, and
the fields laid waste. Such forays never occurred without bloodshed,
and often developed into a little war which was carried on by the
mountaineers for a long time afterwards, even against people who were
entirely uninterested in it--Filipinos and Europeans. The expedition
this year was to take place in the beginning of April; the Igorots
consequently were in a state of great agitation, and had, a few
days previously, murdered a young unarmed Spaniard in the vicinity
of Mabotoboto, at the foot of the mountain, by bringing him to the
ground with a poisoned arrow, and afterwards inflicting twenty-one
wounds with the wood-knife (bolo).
[A policy of peace.] Fortunately there arrived soon after a countermand
from Manila, where the authorities seemed to have been gradually
convinced of the harmful tendency of such violent measures. It could
not be doubted that this intelligence would quickly spread amongst the
ranchos; and, acting upon the advice of the commandant (upon whom,
very much against his inclination, the conduct of the expedition
had devolved), I lost no time in availing myself of the anticipated
season of quiet. The Government have since adopted the prudent method
of purchasing the tobacco, which is voluntarily cultivated by the
Igorots, at the ordinary rate, and, where practicable, encouraging
them to lay out new fields, instead of destroying those in existence.
[A populous fertile district.] The next day at noon I left Naga on
horseback. The pueblos of Mogarao, Canaman, Quipayo, and Calabanga, in
this fertile district follow so thickly upon one another that they form
an almost uninterrupted succession of houses and gardens. Calabanga
lies half a league from the sea, between the mouths of two rivers,
the more southerly of which is sixty feet broad and sufficiently deep
for large trading vessels. [145]
[A bare plain and wretched village.] The road winds round the foot
of the Isarog first to the north-east and then to the east. Soon the
blooming hedges cease, and are succeeded by a great bare plain, out of
which numerous flat hillocks raise themselves. Both hills and plain,
when we passed, served for pasturage; but from August to January they
are sown with rice; and fields of batata are occasionally seen. After
four hours we arrived at the little village of Maguiring (Manguirin),
the church of which, a tumble-down shed, stood on an equally naked
hillock; and from its neglected condition one might have guessed that
the priest was a native.
[Many mountain water courses.] This hillock, as well as the others
which I examined, consisted of the debris of the Isarog, the more
or less decomposed trachytic fragments of hornblende rock, the
spaces between which were filled up with red sand. The number of
streams sent down by the Isarog, into San Miguel and Lagonoy bays,
is extraordinarily large. On the tract behind Maguiring I counted, in
three-quarters of an hour, five considerable estuaries, that is to say,
above twenty feet broad; and then, as far as Goa, twenty-six more;
altogether, thirty-one: but there are more, as I did not include
the smallest; and yet the distance between Maguiring and Goa, in
a straight line, does not exceed three miles. This accounts for
the enormous quantity of steam with which this mighty condenser is
fed. I have not met with this phenomenon on any other mountain in so
striking a manner. One very remarkable circumstance is the rapidity
with which the brimming rivulets pass in the estuaries, enabling them
to carry the trading vessels, sometimes even ships, into a main stream
(if the expression may be allowed), while the scanty contributions
of their kindred streams on the northern side have scarcely acquired
the importance of a mill-brook. These waters, from their breadth, look
like little rivers, although in reality they consist of only a brook,
up to the foot of the mountain, and of a river's mouth in the plain;
the intermediate part being absent.
[Comparison with Javan Mountain district.] The country here is
strikingly similar to the remarkable mountain district of the
Gelungung, described by Junghuhn; [146] yet the origin of these
rising grounds differs in some degree from that of those in Java. The
latter were due to the eruption of 1822, and the great fissure in the
wall of the crater of the Gelungung, which is turned towards them,
shows unmistakably whence the materials for their formation were
derived; but the great chasm of the Isarog opens towards the east,
and therefore has no relation to the numberless hillocks on the
north-west of the mountain. Behind Maguiring they run more closely
together, their summits are flatter, and their sides steeper; and they
pass gradually into a gently inclined slope, rent into innumerable
clefts, in the hollows of which as many brooks are actively employed
in converting the angular outlines of the little islands into these
rounded hillocks. The third river behind Maguiring is larger than
those preceding it; on the sixth lies the large Visita of Borobod;
and on the tenth, that of Ragay. The rice fields cease with the hill
country, and on the slope, which is well drained by deep channels,
only wild cane and a few groups of trees grow. Passing by many
villages, whose huts were so isolated and concealed that they might
remain unobserved, we arrived at five o'clock at Tagunton; from which
a road, practicable for carabao carts, and used for the transport of
the abaca grown in the district, leads to Goa; and here, detained by
sickness, I hired a little house, in which I lay for nearly four weeks,
no other remedies offering themselves to me but hunger and repose.
[Useful friends.] During this time I made the acquaintance of some
newly-converted Igorots, and won their confidence. Without them I would
have had great difficulty in ascending the mountains as well as to
visit their tribe in its farms without any danger. [147] When, at last,
I was able to quit Goa, my friends conducted me, as the first step,
to their settlement; where, having been previously recommended and
expected, I easily obtained the requisite number of attendants to take
into their charge the animals and plants which were collected for me.
[A heathen Mountaineers' settlement.] On the following morning the
ascent was commenced. Even before we arrived at the first rancho,
I was convinced of the good report that had preceded me. The master
of the house came towards us and conducted us by a narrow path to his
hut, after having removed the foot-lances, which projected obliquely
out of the ground, but were dexterously concealed by brushwood and
leaves. [148] A woman employed in weaving, at my desire, continued
her occupation. The loom was of the simplest kind. The upper end,
the chain-beam, which consists of a piece of bamboo, is fixed to
two bars or posts; and the weaver sits on the ground, and to the two
notched ends of a small lath, which supplies the place of the weaving
beam, hooks on a wooden bow, in the arch of which the back of the
lath is fitted. Placing her feet against two pegs in the ground and
bending her back, she, by means of the bow, stretches the material
out straight. A netting-needle, longer than the breadth of the web,
serves instead of the weaver's shuttle, but it can be pushed through
only by considerable friction, and not always without breaking the
chains of threads. A lath of hard wood (caryota), sharpened like a
knife, represents the trestle, and after every stroke it is placed
upon the edge; after which the comb is pushed forward, a thread put
through, and struck fast, and so forth. The web consisted of threads
of the abaca, which were not spun, but tied one to another.
[A giant fern hedge.] The huts I visited deserve no special
description. Composed of bamboos and palm-leaves, they are not
essentially different from the dwellings of poor Filipinos; and in
their neighborhood were small fields planted with batata, maize,
caladium and sugar-cane, and enclosed by magnificent polypody
ferns. One of the highest of these, which I caused to be felled for
the purpose, measured in the stem nine meters, thirty centimeters;
in the crown, two meters, twelve centimeters; and its total length
was eleven meters, forty-two centimeters or over thirty-six feet.
[Simple stringed instruments.] A young lad produced music on a kind of
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