They speak a dialect of their own, which, according to Jagor, is midway between Tagal and Visay, which dialect is spoken in its greatest purity by the inhabitants of the Isarog volcano and its immediate neighbourhood, and that thence towards the west the dialect becomes more and more like the Tagal, and towards the east like the Visay until by degrees, before reaching the ethnographical boundary, it merges into those kindred languages.
In manners and customs they appear to be half-bred between these two races, yet, according to F. Blumentritt, they preceded the Tagals, and were in fact the first Malays to arrive in Luzon. They show signs of intermixture with Polynesian or Papuan stock.
They are physically inferior to the Tagals, nor do they possess the proud warlike spirit of the dwellers in north Luzon. They are less cleanly, and live in poorer houses.
The men dress like the Tagals, but the women wear the patadion instead of a saya, and a shirt of guinára.
Blumentritt says the men carry the Malay kris instead of the bolo, but I did not see a kris carried by any one when I visited the province.
In fact, the regulations enforced at that time by the Guardia Civil were against carrying such a weapon. The bolo, on the other hand, is a necessary tool.
I visited the province of Camarines Sur, going from Manila to Pasacao by sea, and from there travelled by road to an affluent of the River Vicol, and then by canoe on a moonlit night to Nueva Cáceres, the capital of the province.
Here I met a remarkable man, the late Bishop Gainza, and was much impressed by his keen intellect and great knowledge of the country.
He was said to be a man of great ambition, and I can quite believe it. Originally a Dominican monk, it was intended that he should have been made Archbishop of Manila, but, somehow, Father Pedro Paya, at that time Procurator of the Order in Madrid, got himself nominated instead, and Gainza had to content himself with the bishopric of Nueva Cáceres.
He was a model of self-denial, living most frugally on a small part of his revenue, contributing a thousand dollars a year to the funds of the Holy Father, and spending the remainder in building or repairing churches and schools in his diocese, or in assisting undertakings he thought likely to benefit the province.