In their field operations the buffalo is the only animal employed, and is probably the only one domesticated possessing the requisite strength to perform the work, as the country oxen and horses are much too small; and although more active, are too weak to drag the plough through the flooded paddy fields in which they would get entangled and sink, sometimes to their middles; but through land in this state the bulky buffalo delights to wade, and, although slowly, creeps along, and forces himself through.
In the towns the buffalo is still employed in carts and light work, for which it is not so well suited as the active-paced horses or oxen of the country would be, and they no doubt will in time be adopted for these purposes.
In the country the horses are only used for the saddle, and for conveying small packages of goods from one country shopkeeper to another, as the roads they have to traverse are such as to preclude any use of conveyances upon wheels.
CHAPTER XX.
Throughout the islands there is a part of every village set apart for the market-place, where in the early morning, and after sunset in the evening, the utmost activity in buying and selling prevails. At all of these places rice, fish, and butcher meat (generally, but not always), fruit, and merchandise of the most suitable sorts to supply the wants of the people who are likely to purchase it, are exposed for sale. It is a curious scene to walk through such a place for the first time, especially after sunset, when the red glare of the torches or lamps shows to perfection the sparkling eyes, swarthy features, and long hair, which, waving about over the foreheads of the men, gives them a wildness of look, which their sombre dress, consisting of a dark blue shirt and trousers, having nothing to attract the attention from the sparkle of their eyes, makes all the more striking.
In Santa Cruz market-place at Manilla, between the hours of six and eight in the morning and evening, an immense crowd collect to supply their household wants, and innumerable are the articles displayed in the shops;—here the cochineal of Java, there the sago of Borneo, or the earthenware of China. In the Bamboo Islands the more perishable commodities are exposed for sale; and fish being the principal article of the natives’ food (and also a favourite one of the white men), is found exposed for sale in large quantities. But all so offered is dead, even when the vendor is a Chinaman, although in his native country great quantities of it are hawked about the streets by the sellers carrying them alive, in water, so that the purchaser is certain always to have this food fresh and untainted by keeping; for even a few hours is sufficient to spoil it in this climate.
The market is well supplied with all descriptions of fish caught in the Pasig or the bay, most of which are well tasted; the fishermen of the villages in the neighbourhood being the principal suppliers. A small sort is found in the river very much resembling white-bait in taste. Shrimps are also consumed in large quantities. After the rains there may generally be procured, by those who like them, frogs, which are taken from the ditch round the walls in great numbers, and are then fat, and in good condition for eating, making a very favourite curry of some of the Europeans, their flesh being very tender.
The natives principally eat fish, but there is besides a large quantity of beef and pork consumed by them, which are always procurable, except on Fridays, when some little difficulty may be experienced in procuring flesh, as there is only enough killed on the morning of that day to supply the wants of the invalids. The country-fed pork is seldom or never seen at the tables of Europeans, these animals being too frequently allowed to feed in a most disgusting manner; and many pigs may at any time be seen in the suburbs of the town where the Indians dwell roaming about the streets, and efficiently performing the duties of scavengers, by removing the filth and garbage from many of these remote streets.
But notwithstanding their knowing, and in fact daily seeing, this gross and disgusting mode of feeding, it is the most universal and favourite food of the Chinese at Manilla, and is also a favourite with the Indians.
The continued use of pork so fed not unfrequently produces a skin disease called sarnas, something resembling itch.