Buyo and cigars.The luxuries of the Filipinos are buyo[8] and cigars—a cigar costing half a centavo, and a buyo much less. Cigars are rarely smoked, but are cut up into pieces, and chewed with the buyo. The women also chew buyo and tobacco, but, as a rule, very moderately; but they do not also stain their teeth black, like the Malays; and the young and pretty adorn themselves assiduously with veils made of the areca-nut tree, whose stiff and closely packed parallel fibers, when cut crosswise, form excellent tooth-brushes. They bathe several times daily, and surpass the majority of Europeans in cleanliness. Every native, above all things, keeps a fighting-cock; even when he has nothing to eat, he finds money for cock-fighting.
Household affairs.The details of domestic economy may be summarized as follows:
For cooking purposes an earthen pot is used, costing between 3 and 10 cuartos; which, in cooking rice, is closed firmly with a banana-leaf, so that the steam of a very small quantity of water is sufficient. No other cooking utensils are used by the poorer classes; but those better off have a few cast-iron pans and dishes. In the smaller houses, the hearth consists of a portable earthen pan or a flat chest, frequently of an old cigar-chest full of sand, with three stones which serve as a tripod. In the larger houses it is in the form of a bedstead, filled with sand or ashes, instead of a mattress. The water in small households is carried and preserved in thick bamboos. In his bolo (forest-knife), moreover, every one has an universal instrument, which he carries in a wooden sheath made by himself, suspended by a cord of loosely-twisted bast fibers tied round his body. This, and the rice-mortar (a block of wood with a suitable cavity), together with pestles and a few baskets, constitute the whole of the household Furniture.furniture of a poor family; sometimes a large snail, with a rush wick, is also to be found as a lamp. They sleep on a mat of pandanus (fan-palm, Corypha), when they possess one; if not, on the splittings of bamboo, with which the house is floored. By the poor oil for lighting is rarely used; but torches of resin, which last a couple of days, are bought in the market for half a cuarto.
Clothing.Their clothing requirements I ascertained to be these: A woman wears a camisa de guinára (a short shift of abacá fiber), a patadíon (a gown reaching from the hip to the ancles), a cloth, and a comb. A piece of guinára, costing 1 real, gives two shifts; the coarsest patadíon costs 3 reals; a cloth, at the highest, 1 real; and a comb, 2 cuartos; making altogether 4 reals, 12 cuartos. Women of the better class wear a camisa, costing between 1 and 2 r., a patadíon 6 r., cloth between 2 and 3 r., and a comb 2 cu. The men wear a shirt, 1 r., hose, 3 r., hat (tararura) of Spanish cane, 10 cu., or a salacot (a large rain-hat, frequently decorated), at least 2 r.—often, when ornamented with silver, as much as $50. At least three, but more commonly four, suits are worn out yearly; the women, however, taking care to weave almost the whole quantity for the family themselves.
Wages.The daily wages of the common laborer are 1 real, without food; and his hours of work are from 6 to 12, and from 2 to 6 o’clock. The women, as a rule, perform no field labor, but plant out the rice and assist in the reaping; their wages on both occasions being equal to those of the men. Wood and stone-cutters receive 1.5 r. per day, and calkers 1.75 r.
Land leases.The Tercio is a pretty general contract in the cultivation of the land. The owner simply lets arable land for the third part of the crop. Some mestizos possess several pieces of ground; but they are seldom connected together, as they generally acquire them as mortgages for sums bearing but a small proportion to their real value.
Family income.Under the head of earnings I give the income of a small family. The man earns daily one real, and the woman, if she weaves coarse stuff, one-fourth real, and her food (thus a piece of guinára, occupying the labor of two days, costs half a real in weavers’ wages). The most skilful female weaver of the finer stuffs obtains twelve reals per piece; but it takes a month to weave; and the month, on account of the numerous holy-days, must be calculated at the most as equal to twenty-four working days; she consequently earns one-fourth real per day and her food. For the knitting of the fibers of the ananas for the piña web (called sugot) she gets only an eighth of a real and her food.
Schools.In all the pueblos there are schools. The schoolmaster is paid by the Government, and generally obtains two dollars per month, without board or lodging. In large pueblos the salary amounts to three dollars and a half; out of which an assistant must be paid. The schools are under the supervision of the ecclesiastics of the place. Reading and writing are taught, the writing copies being Spanish. The teacher, who has to teach his scholars Spanish exactly, does not understand it himself, while the Spanish officers, on the other hand, do not understand the language of the country; and the priests have no inclination to alter this state of things, which is very useful to them as a means of influence. Almost the only Filipinos who speak Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans. A kind of religious horn-book is the first that is read in the language of the country (Bicol); and after that comes the Christian Doctrine, the reading-book called Casayayan. On an average, half of all the children go to school, generally from the seventh to the tenth year. They learn to read a little; a few even write a little: but they soon forget it again. Only those who are afterwards employed as clerks write fluently; and of these most write well.
Some priests do not permit boys and girls to attend the same school; and in this case they pay a second teacher, a female, a dollar a month. The Filipinos learn arithmetic very quickly, generally aiding themselves by the use of mussels or stones, which they pile in little heaps before them and then count through.
Marriage age.The women seldom marry before the fourteenth year, twelve years being the legal limit. In the church-register of Polángui I found a marriage recorded (January, 1837) between a Filipino and a Filipina having the ominous name of Hilaria Concepción, who at the time of the performance of the marriage ceremony was, according to a note in the margin, only nine years and ten months old. Frequently people live together unmarried, because they cannot pay the expenses of the ceremony.[9]