I have no doubt, whatever the present popular mawkish sentimental-mongers may write to the contrary, that these exhibitions, when happening rarely, tend, in a great measure, to restrain the passions of the evil-disposed, although some of them may think it bold, among their hardened associates, to turn the spectacle into a farce. I firmly believe that no human being can in cold blood look upon another’s death by violent means without being forced to think about it for some time, greater or less, according to his or her temperament.
For minor offences criminals are sometimes flogged through the town. They are mounted on horseback, with their legs manacled or bound under the horse’s belly, and a portion of their punishment is administered at several of the most public places in the town, by an executioner dressed in red, and with a veil over his face. Thus, supposing a thief sentenced to receive a hundred lashes or blows, they would most probably be administered by twenty at a time, in five different places throughout the capital, proclamation being made at each place, previous to the punishment, of the offence and of the name of the offender, who is dressed in the ordinary mode, with a shirt and pair of trousers, and exposed to the full view of the attending crowd.
Confinement in the jail at night, with labour in irons on the public roads during the day, is also a usual punishment; criminals being generally linked in pairs by a chain round the leg of each, and taken out, under a guard, to work on the streets or roads at Manilla, Cavite, or Zamboanga, at sunrise, and led back to jail at sunset. But as they are not forced by the soldiers to work much harder than they like, they take care not to injure themselves by overtasking their powers of labour, and are not apparently much discontented with their condition, from which I have seldom or never heard of their attempting to escape, although neither their food nor their lodgings in jail are very enticing; the former being bad black-looking rice and water, and the jail generally swarming with vermin.
They appear to prefer the partial liberty of getting out of jail, and of working in the streets in chains, to the monotony of a residence within the walls of the prison, and the sedentary labour they might be forced to pursue there.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Among the amusements of the Indians the greatest is cock-fighting, for which they have a passion; and nearly every native throughout the islands gratifies this taste by keeping a fighting cock, which may be seen carried about with him perched on an arm or a shoulder, in all the pride of a favourite of its master.
During Sundays and feast-days, when no work is allowed to be done, nearly the half of the native population, if able to muster a few rials, repair to the village cockpit, to arrange some match for their favorite fowl, on which they will sometimes stake large amounts, or to see the sport of their neighbours.
The privilege of opening a cockpit is an important source of revenue to the Government, which farms it out to the highest bidder, who, I believe, has the power to stop fighting for money at any place within the limits of his district other than the privileged arena, for an admission to which he exacts a small charge from each person, which is the mode of reimbursing himself for the amount paid to the Government.
This place is generally a large house, constructed of cana, wattled like a coarse basket, and surrounded by a high paling of the same description, which forms a sort of court-yard, where the cocks are kept waiting their turns to come upon the stage, should their owners have succeeded in arranging a satisfactory match. Passing across the yard, the door of the house, within which the matches come off, stands open: after entering and ascending the steps, the arena is before us, surrounded by seats sloping down from the wall towards it, so that every one may be able distinctly to witness the event.
After the owners of the contending cocks have walked into the ring and displayed them, each armed with a long and sharp steel spur, many critical opinions are expressed by the Indians; and the judgments of the old men, who are keen upon the sport, are worth hearing by a visitor.