The Early Missionaries Beneficial to the Natives.
A Wealthy Mestiza of the Upper Class.
The early missionaries from Mexico were of the greatest benefit to the Filipinos, both in the religious and in the practical affairs of life. They introduced the use of wheat and maize, taught the natives how to cultivate these articles of food, and, when ripe, how to make them into bread. But there were many stubborn prejudices to overcome; and for a long time wheat was eaten by the natives only in the holy wafer used in the sacrament of the Church.
Now, wheat-patches are common, and in many districts maize is as much a staple article of food as rice is in others, and roasted ears of corn are sold as a delicacy in the markets. There are three crops of maize grown in a year, but only for family use.
The missionaries also introduced the art of weaving, and all through the islands a primitive bamboo-loom is one of the commoner implements of the smallest hut. Here are woven fabrics of cotton, silk, hemp, bamboo, and piña,—the fibre of the pineapple leaf. The merely well-to-do and poorer classes wear clothes woven of cotton, silk, and piña, or of piña and hemp, or of hemp or bamboo. But the glory of the wealthy, Spaniard or Mestizo, man or woman, are their garments of pure pineapple-leaf fibre, called jusi. This is durable and almost priceless. A small jusi handkerchief is worth $50. So delicate is the thread, that, in weaving, it is protected by gauze from the gentlest breeze. The costliness of the material, therefore, is due to the difficulties of the weaver and to the time and patience necessary to produce even a single inch.
The missionaries, as well, taught the native the arts of living; of being more comfortable in his house, and out of it; of making bricks and tiles, and of building and adorning churches. And thus they stood between an exacting Government and the helpless natives, and were often the only Providence of which the latter were aware.
Herbs and medicinal plants abound in the islands. The bark of the ditá tree greatly resembles that known as Peruvian Bark, and is used by the natives to reduce fever. From it an alkaloid is extracted that is called by Manila chemists, ditaïne. Its effects are like those produced by swallowing quinine, only not so marked.
A perfume called Ylang-Ylang, is made from the flowers of a tree of that name that grows in the Philippines.
Large quantities of wax are found there, and are used in the functions of the Church. Indeed, the poor priests constantly gather candle-ends at the close of each service, and sell them to be remoulded. The small sums of money thus gained are deemed a part of their perquisites.
