Courtship.
Courtship is sometimes a long business amongst the Tagals. It is still customary in the country districts for the impecunious candidate for matrimony to serve the father of the damsel he desires to wed for a period which may extend to a couple of years or more. He is called a Catipado, and is expected to make himself generally useful, and to take a hand in any labour that may be going on, sowing or reaping, mending the roof, or patching the canoe.
It is his privilege to assist the girl of his choice in her labours. The girls of a household are expected to husk the rice for the next day’s use. This is done in the cool of the evening, out of doors, a wooden mortar and long heavy pestle being used. It is a well-recognised occasion for the lover to assist and entertain his sweetheart.
Very pretty do the village maidens look, as, lightly clothed in almost diaphanous garments, they stand beside the mortars plying the pestle, alternately rising on tiptoe, stretching the lithe figure to its full height and reach, then bending swiftly to give force to the blow.
No attitude could display to more advantage the symmetry of form which is the Tagal maiden’s heritage, and few sights are more pleasing than a group of these tawny damsels husking paddy midst chat and laughter, while a tropical full moon pours its effulgence on their glistening tresses and rounded arms.