Dress and Manners.
The men are usually of medium height, lithe, and of a rich brown color, with large cheek-bones, bright eyes and immobile countenances. The better kind dress in loose shirts, or blouses, worn outside the trousers and of native manufacture, made of abacá, or Manila hemp; or of the airy, delicate, and almost transparent piña,—a texture of pine-apple leaf, as choice as the finest lace.
This is of white, or light yellow, and often interwoven with red, green or blue silk, or embroidered with flowers. The white or light-colored trousers are fastened round the waist with a belt. The feet are sometimes bare, or protected by sandals or patent-leather shoes. On the head is usually worn a salacot—a large round hat, strongly plaited with gray-and-black intersecting patterns of nito or liana fibre, the brim ornamented with a band of embroidered cloth or silver.
The dress of the poorer class is very similar—the material being coarser, the colors red and orange predominating.
Full-blooded Native Girl in Reception Attire.
The woman wears a flowing skirt of gay colors—bright red, green or white—with a silken saya or sarong of many colors. Over this is a narrower waist-cloth usually of silk and of a darker color. Over the breast and shoulders is generally thrown a starched neckcloth of beautiful embroidered piña—folded triangularly, the points fitting in the hollow of the V-shaped chemisette. On the head is worn a white mantle, from which the rippling cataract of raven hair falls in massy folds almost to the ground. The toes of the naked feet are enveloped in chinelas,—a heelless slipper, which is shuffled with languorous grace.
Many of the women are pretty, and all are good-natured and smiling. Their complexion, of light brown, is usually clear and smooth; their eyes are large and lustrous, full of the sleeping passion of the Orient. The figures of the women are usually erect and stately, and many are models of grace and beauty.
The women of every class are far more industrious than the men, and also more cheerful and devout. Adultery is almost unheard of. The men, however, are exceedingly jealous. The natives believe that during sleep the soul is absent from the body, and they say that if one be suddenly wakened they fear the soul may not be able to return. Therefore, they are extremely careful not to waken anyone rudely or suddenly, but always call with softly-rising and falling tones, to bring the sleeper gradually to consciousness.
The preceding observations concerning the Tagalogs, the natives of the north, are also, in the main, true of the Visayos, their southern brethren. The latter, however, are not so cheerful or so hospitable, and are more ostentatious and aggressive. Their women, too, are more vain and avaricious. These slight differences are perhaps due to the fact that they have far less intercourse with the civilized world than the Tagalogs.