Ilocanos (5).
This hard-working and industrious race occupies the northern and western shores of Luzon, from Point Lacatacay on the 121st meridian, east from Greenwich, to San Fabian, on the Gulf of Lingayen. This includes the three provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and La Union. The Ilocanos have also pushed into the north-eastern part of Pangasinan, where they occupy seven towns, and they inhabit the town of Alcalá in the province of Cagayan, several villages in Benguet, parts of the towns of Capas and O’Donnell in the provinces of Tarlac, and some towns in Zambales and Nueva Écija. They are all civilised and have been Christians for three centuries. Amongst them dwell many converted Tinguianes and Igorrotes, who speak the Ilocan dialect.
Blumentritt attributes the energy and activity of the Ilocanos to an admixture, even though it be small, of these brave and hardy races. In dress and appearance they are similar to the Tagals, and like them carry the indispensable bolo. They cultivate tobacco, cotton, rice, maize, indigo, sugar-cane, and a little cacao and coffee. They also grow the pita (Agave Americana), which gives the fibre for the nipis textiles, ajonjoli (Sesamum indicum, L.), from which they extract oil, which is used in medicine and for the hair, and they even grow some wheat. They extract a black resin from the Antong (Canarum Pimela), which is used as incense or for making torches; another resin from the Bangad, which is used as a varnish, another from the Cajel (Citrus Aurantium), and many others used either in medicine, for torches, for varnishing, or for paying the seams of wooden vessels. They get gum from the Balete (Ficus Urostigma), and from the Lucban, or orange tree (Citrus decumana, L.), oil from the Palomaria (Calophyllum inophyllum, L.), and from a large number of other trees, some only known by the native name, and the use of which is uncertain. They obtain dyes from many trees growing wild in the forests, amongst others from the Tabungao (Jatropha Curcas, L.), the Lomboy (Eugenia Lambolana, Lam.), the sibucao (Coesalpinia Sappan, L.). Their cultivation of indigo is declining, partly because the demand has diminished in consequence of the introduction of chemical substitutes, and also because the Chinese, into whose hands the whole produce of these provinces found its way, adulterated it so abominably as to discredit it altogether. Yet so great is the facility of Ilocan territory for growing indigo, that Gregorio Sy Quia of Vigan exhibited in Madrid in 1887 no less than seventy-five different kinds of indigo, and seventy-five different seeds corresponding to the samples. At the same exhibition, no less than twenty-four different kinds of rice were exhibited from Ilocos, and this by no means exhausts the list. Every kind has a distinctive name. The textile industry flourishes amongst these industrious people. The Local Committee of Namagpacan, in the province of La Union, sent to Madrid for the above-mentioned exhibition, no less than 145 different textiles, whilst other towns sent looms and other implements. Amongst the articles woven are quilts, cotton blankets (the celebrated Mantos de Ilocos), napkins and towels, and a great variety of material for coats, trousers, women’s dresses and other uses. Guingon (called by sailors dungaree), a blue stuff for clothing, costs from $0.50 to $0.31, 2s. 8d. per vara (2 feet 9 inches), a mixture of cotton and silk, for men’s wear, $1.25 per vara, silk handkerchiefs $0.25 each.
The Ilocans also make nets for fish, and for deer and pigs; baskets of all sorts, salacots or hats.
They grow two kinds of cotton for textiles, the white and the Coyote. Another kind, a tree cotton from the Boboy (Eriodendron anfractuosum, D.C.), is only used for stuffing pillows. They extract oil from the seeds of all three kinds.
Like the other civilized natives they live principally on rice and fish, which they capture in large quantities. Blumentritt mentions two kinds, the “Ipon” and the “Dolon,” which they salt or pickle.
They have fine cattle, which they sell to the Igorrotes. It will be noted that the Tinguianes, on the other hand, sell cattle to the Ilocanos. The ponies of Ilocos are highly valued in Manila, where there is a great demand for them. They are smaller than the ponies of other provinces, but are very hardy and spirited, and go at a great pace. Tulisanes formerly infested these provinces and found a ready refuge in the mountains, when pursued by the cuadrilleros, or village constables, who were only armed with bolos, lances, and a few old muskets. But the creation of the Civil Guard, formed of picked officers and men, who were armed with Remingtons and revolvers, and whose orders were, “Do not hesitate to shoot,” made this business very dangerous, and the three provinces suffer little from brigandage. When Juan Salcedo conquered the Ilocos, he found a caste of nobles amongst them who possessed all the riches of the country, and treated the cailanes, or serfs, with great rigour. Their tyranny caused several bloody rebellions, and although at present matters in this respect have improved, there is still room for complaint that the people who do the work do not get a fair remuneration for it, the rich man always endeavouring to keep the poor man in permanent indebtedness. In consequence of this, the Ilocanos are ever ready to emigrate, and besides the places I have mentioned, there are thousands of them in Manila and other parts of the islands. They easily obtain employment either as servants, cultivators, or labourers, for they are superior in stamina to most of the civilised races, and in industry superior to them all.
I have no doubt that there is a great future before this hardy, enterprising, and industrious people.