Perhaps the most remarkable talent possessed by the Tagal is his gift for instrumental music.
Each parish has its brass band supplied with European instruments, the musicians generally wearing a quasi-military uniform. If the village is a rich one, there is usually a string band as well. They play excellently, as do the military bands. Each infantry battalion had its band, whilst that of the Peninsular Artillery, of ninety performers, under a band-master holding the rank of lieutenant, was one of the finest bands I have ever heard. There were few countries where more music could be heard gratis than in the Philippines, and for private dances these bands could be hired at moderate rates.
The Tagal is also a good agriculturist. According to his lights, he cultivates paddy with great care. It is all raised in seed-plots, the soil of which is carefully prepared, and fenced about. The fields are ploughed and harrowed whilst covered with water, so that the surface is reduced to soft mud. When the ground is ready for planting, the whole population turns out, and, being supplied with the young shoots in bundles, of which tally is kept, proceed to plant each individual shoot of paddy by hand.
Ankle-deep in the soft mud of the paddy-fields stand long rows of bare-legged men, women and children, each in a stooping position, holding against the body with the left hand a large bundle of rice-plants, incessantly and rapidly seizing a shoot with the right hand, and plunging it into the black slime with the forefinger extended.
Carabao harnessed to native Plough—Ploughman, Village, and Church.
Paddy Field recently planted.
Hour after hour the patient toil goes on, and day after day, in all the glare of the burning sun, reflected and intensified from the surface of the black water, till the whole vast surface has been planted. The matandang-sa-naya, or village elder, then announces how many millions of rice shoots have been put in. The labour is most exhausting, from the stooping position, which is obligatory, and because the eyes become inflamed from the reflection of the sun on the black water. As the paddy is planted during the rainy season, it often happens that the work is done under a tropical downpour instead of a blazing sun.
When driving along a road through paddy-fields in October, it seems incredible that every blade of that luxuriant crop has been transplanted by hand. Yet the people who do this are branded as lazy. I think that they are quite ready to work for a sufficient inducement. Whenever I had works to execute I never experienced any difficulty in obtaining men. I made it a rule to pay every man with my own hands every Saturday his full wages without deductions. On Monday morning, if I wanted 300 men, there would be 500 to pick and choose from. I should like to see some of their depreciators try an hour’s work planting paddy, or poling a casco up stream.