Kite-flying (introduced by the Chinese, among whom it is an amusement both for young and old, and who have made their kites musical by day and illuminated by night) is popular in the Philippines, as are fire-balloons and other pyrotechnic displays.
Except on suitable occasions, the Indian is sober and economical, but he makes great efforts at display when desirous of honouring his guests. On two or three occasions we sat down to meals, which a gastronomer would scarcely have ventured to criticise; a variety of wines, health-drinking, and even speech-making, music and firing of guns, accompanying the festivity. Smoking never fails to form a part of the entertainment; pure cigars of various sizes, and paper cigarritos, being always at hand. St. Andrew’s day, kept in celebration of the delivery of the Philippines from piratical Chinese, is one of great rejoicing.
In religious ceremonies the Indian takes a busy part, and lends a very active co-operation. When they take place after sunset, crowds attend with burning tapers. Gun-firing, music and illuminations are the general accompaniments of the great fiestas. I have more than once mentioned the universality of the musical passion, which is easily trained to excellent performances. An Indian, we heard, was not selected to the band unless he could play for eight hours without cessation. The national music of Spain is generally studied, and, in honour to us, in some places they learnt our “God save the Queen!” We were not hypercritical upon the first attempts, but such tributes from a race, that only sought to do our sovereign, our country, and ourselves all honour, could not but greatly gratify us.
When at Guimbal (Iloilo), we were waited on at table wholly by Indian female children, prettily dressed; whose bright eyes expressed extreme curiosity, and whose anxiety to understand and to administer to every wish was very charming. They were much pleased to exhibit the various garments they wore of the piña cloth. I remarked one who went to the friar, and whispered in his ear, “But where are the golden garments of the general?” meaning me, and the padre had to explain to the children that “golden garments” were only worn on State occasions, which did not seem satisfactory, as the occasion of our arrival in the pueblo was one of unprecedented excitement and display. They crowded round me, however, and looked into my face, and expressed admiration at my long soft hair. Their associating finery with rank reminded me of a visit once paid me by a young Abyssinian prince, who was taken up the narrow staircase by some mistake of the servants, and who (his interpreter told me) afterwards said to him, “You told me I was to see a great man—had ever a great man so small a staircase?” At his next visit, he was conducted through the principal portals up the wide marble steps of the house in which I lived, and he expressed extreme satisfaction, and said, “Ah! this is as it should be.”
A few of the Indians reach the dignity of the priesthood, but they are generally asistentes to the friars. I have heard from the lips of Indian priests as pure Castilian as that spoken in Madrid.
“I have observed,” says Father Diaz, “that the word of an Indian is more to be trusted when he uses one of the ancient forms of speech, such as ‘totoo nang totoo’ (it is as true as truth, or, it is truly true), than when called on to take a solemn oath in the name of God or of the cross.” A youth always seeks to get the promise of his sweetheart made according to the old Tagál usage, and it is held as the best security of veracity in all the relations of life.
Many of the padres complain that, notwithstanding all the religious instruction given, the taint of idolatry still exists among the converted Indians. There is a sort of worship of ancestors which is seen in many forms. They attach to the word nono (forefather) the same spiritual meaning which the Chinese give to Kwei. These nonos are often addressed in prayer, in order to bring down blessings or to avert calamities. If an Indian gather a flower or fruit, he silently asks leave of the nono. Certain spots, woods and rivers, he never passes without an invocation to these departed genii. Pardon is asked for short-comings or actions of doubtful character. There is a disease called pamoao which is attributed to the influence of the nonos, to whom petitions and sacrifices are offered to obtain relief. These idolatries, says one of the friars, are so deeply rooted and so widely spread as to demand the utmost vigilance for their extirpation.
So, again, they have their native devil, in the shape of a little black old man, a wild horse, or monster. As a protection against this fiend, however, they apply to their rosary, which certainly affords evidence that he is an orthodox demon of whom the padres cannot fairly complain.
Witches and witchery are called in to discover thieves and to unbewitch bewitched persons; but scapularies and saints, especially St. Anthony of Padua, are auxiliaries in undoing the mischiefs menaced or done. The cauldrons of the weird sisters in Macbeth would find counterparts among the people of the Philippine Islands, but there must be a mingling of Christian texts and Catholic superstitions to complete the identity. One author says these incantations are used for the attainment of riches, beautiful wives, success in battle, escape from justice, and other objects of desire. Father Ortiz will have it that the secrets of these supernatural influences are treasured up in various manuscript works “which ought to be burned.” Their preservation and publication (if they exist) would be more serviceable, because more instructive, to mankind.
Indian women are seldom seen without some religious ornaments. They have rosaries of corals or pearl beads, medals of copper or gold, having figures of Our Lady of Mexico or Guadalupe. The scapulary is generally found hanging by the rosary. Many of the Indians are associated in the Cofradias, whose different emblems they preserve with great veneration; such as St. Augustine’s string, St. Francis’ cord, St. Thomas’s belt; but they also hang upon their children’s necks crocodiles’ teeth as a preservative against disease.