A Visit to the Philippine Islands

by John Bowring

The ancient Indian name for God was Bathala, to whom they attributed the creation of the world. Remnants of the old idolatry remain among the people, and the names of some of the idols are preserved. A few phrases are still retained, especially in the remoter parts, as, for example, “Magpabathala ca” (Let the will of Bathala be done), and the priests have been generally willing to recognize the name as not objectionable in substitution for Dios. The Tagál word adopted for idolatry is Pagaanito, but to the worship of images they give the term Anito. I find among the records reference to an idol called Lacambui, probably the god of eating, as the Spaniards call him Abogado de la Garganta (the throat-advocate). The idol Lacanpate was the god of the harvest, and was equally male and female; “an hermaphrodite devil,” he is called by one of the friars. Linga was the god who cured diseases. Lachan bacor protected the growing crops. Aman Sinaya was the fisherman’s god, and was appealed to when the nets were cast. Ama ni Caable was the protector of huntsmen. An ill-famed idol named Tumano was believed to wander about at night among human habitations; the Indians threw ashes upon him, and calling out, “Iri, iri,” he fled, being “a cowardly devil.” Mancucutor was the patron of a particular class of Indians, but the traditions are very obscure.

There is a bird called by the natives Tigmamanoquin, and if, when they are going to a festival, this bird flies from the right to the left, it is considered of auspicious augury, but disastrous if it fly from the left to the right. The bird (I know not its classical name) is never killed by the Indians, but if caught it is set free with the words, “Hayona tigmamanoquin, lunchan mo nang halinging” (Be gone, bird! and sing sweetly for me).

The Indians believe that a guardian angel is born at the birth of every Christian child, to whose special care through life the infant is confided. In some parts this angel is called Catotobo, in others Tagatanor. But the Tagáls habitually employ the Castilian words angel and angeles in the Catholic sense. I remember to have heard a clever Dutchman say that Java was well governed by knowing how to use properly two Arabic words—Islam (faith), which was never to be interfered with; and Kismet (fate), under whose influence Mussulmans cheerfully submit to their destiny. The Santa Iglesia madre is the charm by which the Philippines are ruled.

The Indian women are generally cleanly in their persons, using the bath very frequently, and constantly cleaning and brightening their black and abundant hair, which they are fond of perfuming and tying in a knot behind, called the pusód, which is kept together by a small comb and gilded needles, and is adorned with a fragrant flower. They are proud of their small foot, which the Chinese call golden lily, and which has a slipper, often embroidered with gold or silver, just supported by the toes. Their walk is graceful and somewhat coquettish; they smoke, eat betel, and are rather given to display a languid, liquid eye, for which they have an Indian expression, “Mapuñgay na mata.”

The dress of the Filipinos is simple enough. It consists of a shirt worn outside a pair of pantaloons; but the shirt is sometimes of considerable value, woven of the piña, handsomely embroidered, and of various colours, bright red being predominant. I asked an opulent Indian to show me his wardrobe, and he brought out twenty-five shirts, exhibiting them with great pride; there were among them some which may have been worth a hundred dollars each. It is difficult to fix a limit to the money value of the more exquisite specimens of weaving and embroidery. A small pocket handkerchief sent to the Queen of Spain is said to have cost five hundred dollars. One or two doubloons (onzas) of gold are asked for the pañuelos (kerchiefs) usually sold in the shops of the capital. The finest qualities are woven in the neighbourhood of Iloilo. The loom is of the rudest and simplest construction; one woman throws the shuttle, another looks after the threads. The cloth is sent to Manila to be embroidered. The women wear gowns of the fabrics of the country, into which, of late, the silks of China and the coloured yarns of Lancashire have been introduced. The better-conditioned wear an embroidered shawl or kerchief of piña. This is the representative of female vanity or ambition. When we passed through the towns and villages of the interior, a handsomely adorned piña handkerchief was the flag that often welcomed us from the windows of the native huts, and sometimes the children bore them about and waved them before us in the processions with which they were wont to show their pleasure at our presence.

The dress of the Indians is nearly the same throughout the islands; the pantaloons of cotton or silk, white or striped with various colours, girded round the waist with a kerchief, whose folds serve for pockets, and a shirt over the pantaloons of cotton. Sinamay (a native cloth), or piña for the more opulent, is universally employed. Straw hat or kerchief round the head; but the favourite covering is a huge circular cap like a large inverted punch-bowl, made generally of bamboo, but sometimes of tortoise-shell, and having a metal spike or other ornament at the top; it is fitted to the head by an internal frame, and fastened by a ribbon under the chin. This salacot is used by many as a protection against sun and rain; it appeared to me too heavy to be convenient.

Among the Indian women the opulent wear costly embroidered garments of piña, and many of them possess valuable jewels, and are decorated on occasions of festivity with earrings, necklaces and bracelets of pearls, diamonds and other precious stones. A few of them speak Spanish, and during our visits became the interpreters for the others, as the Indian women generally took a part in the graceful but simple ceremonials which marked our progress; sometimes forming a line through the towns and villages, and waving many-coloured flags over us as we passed, escorted by the native bands of music. In some families the garments which were worn a century ago are still preserved. Many of the petty authorities are the hereditary possessors of local rank, and on grand occasions make displays of the costumes of their forefathers. There is some variety in the mode of dressing the hair. The Tagálas clean it with lemon juice, and employ cocoa-nut oil made fragrant by infusions of odoriferous flowers. They clean their hands with pumice-stone. In many parts the thumbnail of the right hand is allowed by both sexes to grow to a great length, which assists playing on the guitar, and divers domestic operations. The under garments of the women are tightened at the waist, and their camisas have long and wide sleeves, which are turned back upon the arms, and embroidered in more or less costly taste. They all chew the areca, and, as age advances, they blacken their eyebrows and wear false hair like their patrician mistresses. They sometimes paint their nails with vermilion, and to be entitled a Castila, which means European, is recognized as a great compliment.

Rice is the ordinary food of the Indians. It is boiled for half an hour, and then called canin. The capsicum, or chile, is used for a condiment. They eat three meals a day, out of a large dish, helping themselves with their fingers, and sometimes using a plantain leaf for a plate. They also have sauces round the central dish, into which they dip the canin. They introduce the thumb first into the mouth, and very dexterously employ the fingers to push forward the food. The luxuries of the native are pretty nearly reduced to the cigar and the betel-nut. Indeed these can scarcely be called luxuries; they are more necessary to him than his simple food, which consists generally of boiled rice, sometimes flavoured with fish or vegetables, and his sweetmeat the sugar-cane. As he obtains his cigarritos at the estanco for less than two cuertos a dozen, and can make them, or buy them from a contrabandista, at not even half that price, and as the cost of the areca is extremely small, his wants and his enjoyments are easily and cheaply supplied. His garments are few and economical, and such as in most parts of the islands are supplied by the rude family loom; but the source of his ruin is in his gallo and his passion for play, to which nine-tenths of the miseries of the Indian are to be traced. Out of his embarrassments the Chinaman makes his profit, buying the labour of the indebted and extorting its maximum with coarse and often cruel tyranny. The Chinese have a proverb that the Indian must be led with rice in the left hand of his master and a bamboo in the right.

There is in some of the islands abundance of deer and wild boars; they are killed by arrows of two kinds—one barbed with a clove from the wild palm, shot direct; another with an iron head, shot upwards and falling down upon the animal. The Indians make a dry venison (called tapa) of the flesh and send it to the Manila market. Much wild fowl is found in the forest, especially of the gallinaceous species. The Bisayan caves are frequented by the swallows which produce the edible bird’s-nests, and which are collected by the natives for exportation to China.

Multitudes of Indians get their living by the fisheries. The fish most esteemed is the sabalo, which is only found in the Taal Lake, whose water is fresh and flows into the sea. In the centre of the lake is an island, with its always burning volcano. At the season when the sabalo quit the lake for the sea, an estocade of bamboos is erected across the river, the top of which does not reach the surface of the water; three or four yards below, another estocade is placed, raised five or six feet above the surface, and the two estocades are united by a bamboo platform. The fish leap over the first barrier, and fall on the platform, where they are caught: some of them are as large as salmon. The Bay Lake is celebrated for the curbina, an excellent fish. By the banks of the river enormous nets are seen, which are sunk and raised by a machinery of bamboo, and the devices employed for the capture of fish are various and singular. In the Bisayans the Indians make faggots, which they kindle, and, walking on the banks with a spear in their right hand, the fish approach the light and are harpooned and flung upon the shore. I understand the sea-slug, which the Indians call balate, is thus captured. It is a well-known delicacy among the Chinese. Turtle are caught by watching their approach (the watcher being concealed) and simply turning them on their backs when they are at a certain distance from the water. Native divers bring up the mother-of-pearl oyster, but the pearl fishery is not of much importance. These divers also discover the enormous shell-fish which serve as receptacles for holy water in the churches.