The same friar asserts that the Indians have learnt the meaning which the Europeans attach to “horns,” and that the corresponding Tagál word sungayan (horned animal) cannot be used indiscreetly without giving great offence. He is very angry with the nonsense (boberias and disparates) which he says the natives address to their children. A mother will call her babe father, and mother, and aunt, and even king and queen, sir and madam, with other extravagant and unbecoming outbreaks of affection, which he reproves as altogether blameworthy and intolerable.
Though there is some variety in the houses of the Indians, according to their opulence, they preserve a common character, having bamboo floors, nipa roofs, and wooden pillars to support them. A speculation was entered into near Manila to provide more comfortable domestic accommodation for the natives by introducing imported improvements; but the houses were unoccupied, and the adventure proved a losing one. I have seen handsome lamps suspended from the roofs, and pictures hung upon the walls, of some of the Indian dwellings; while among the mestizos many aspire to all the decorations of Spanish luxury, competing with the richest among the European settlers. But religious ornaments are never forgotten, such as images and pictures of the Virgin and her child, vessels for holy water and crucifixes.
The beds of the Indians are merely mats on which the whole family repose indiscriminately. Here they smoke their cigars, chew their betel, and fall asleep. The domestic utensils are “a mortar for grinding rice, bamboos for all purposes, cup and spoons of the cocoa-nut shell, pots and kettles, a knife called a goloc, a bench against the wall, a stool which serves for a table, a Chinese basin for oil, a clay lamp, some cotton wicks, torches of the resin-cane, an image of the Virgin, a crucifix, mats, a jar of betel leaves, some areca nuts and lime ready for use, and sometimes a flute or guitar.”—(Buzeta.)
The Indians have a very vague idea of distance. Tahanan and Bitañgan are the names given to places of rest between different localities. Instead of the Spanish word league, they say “taval,” which is the distance an ordinary burthen can be carried without stoppage.
The forty days’ labour which is exacted every year from the Indians is called atag or bayani. This is in addition to the tributo of a dollar and one-third; but exemption from the atag may be obtained by the payment of three dollars. The tribute is called bovis or buvis. “Buvis aco sa balañgay ni covan’ (I am tributary to such and such a balangay).
A curious illustration of the passion for gaming, so general among the Filipinos, is given by the statistical commission, in the report on Binondo. Among the not prohibited games is that called by the natives Panguingui. It is played with six packs of cards, and five or six persons make a party. This game is most popular among all classes. The authorities prohibit its being played during the hours of labour, but it is permitted from twelve to two P.M., and from sunset to ten P.M., on ordinary days, and there is no restriction on festival days. The commission determined to visit without notice the different tables where the game was played; they found on an average 200 tables occupied, but there were 39 ready for play unoccupied.
| Players | at the 200 tables, | 867 men and | 313 women. | ||||||||||||||
| Spectators |
| 405
| 353
|
This did not include the tables in private houses, to which the commission had no access. It is to be presumed that these visits took place during the authorised hour of play, but this is not stated by the commission.
Though games of hazard are prohibited to the multitude, the great game of the lottery is monthly played for the profit of the government and the perdition of the people. Its existence and its temptations encourage that gambling passion which is one of the greatest plagues of the Filipinos. The newspapers are constantly occupied with long lists of persons condemned to heavy fines and imprisonments for indulging in what may be called the besetting sin of the Indians, from which, however, neither mestizos, Chinese nor Europeans are by any means free.
But the passion for play is most strikingly and universally exhibited in the cock-fights, so characteristic that I can scarcely avoid entering upon some details.