[1] Pintados, or Bisayas, according to a native word denoting the same, must be the inhabitants of the islands between Luzon and Mindanao, and must have been so named by the Spaniards from their practice of tattooing themselves. Crawfurd (“Dict.” 339) thinks these facts not firmly established, and they are certainly not mentioned by Pigafetta; who, however, writes, p. 80:—“He (the king of Zubut) was ... painted in various ways with fire.” Purchas (“Pilgrimage,” fo. i. 603)—“The king of Zubut has his skinne painted with a hot iron pensill;” and Morga, fo. 4—“Traen todo il cuerpo labrado con fuego.” From this they appear to have tattooed themselves in the manner of the Papuas, by burning in spots and stripes into the skin. But Morga states in another place (f. 138)—“They are distinguished from the inhabitants of Luzon by their hair which the men cut into a pigtail after the old Spanish manner, and paint their bodies in many patterns, without touching the face.” The custom of tattooing, which appears to have ceased with the introduction of Christianity, for the clergymen so often quoted (Thevenot, p. 4) describes it as unknown, cannot be regarded as a characteristic of the Bisayans; and the tribes of the northern part of Luzon tattoo at the present day.
[2] Mezzeria (Italian); métayer (French).
[3] In China an oil is procured from the seeds of vernicia montana, which, by the addition of alum, litharge, and steatite, with a gentle heat, easily forms a valuable varnish which, when mixed with resin, is employed in rendering the bottoms of vessels watertight. P. Champion, Indust. Anc. et Mod. de l’Emp. Chinois.” 114.
[4] Petzholdt (“Caucasus,” i. 203) mentions that in Bosslewi the price of a clay vessel is determined by its capacity of maize.
[5] As usual these abuses spring from the non-enforcement of a statute passed in 1848 (Leg. ult., i. 144), which prohibits usurious contracts with servants or assistants, and threatens with heavy penalties all those whom, under the pretext of having advanced money, or of having paid debts or the poll-tax or exemption from service, keep either individual natives or whole families in a continual state of dependence upon them, and always secure the increase of their obligations to them by not allowing them wages sufficient to enable them to satisfy the claims against them.
[6] Formerly it appears to have been different with them. “These Bisayans are a people little disposed to agriculture, but practised in navigation, and eager for war and expeditions by sea, on account of the pillage and prizes, which they call ‘mangubas,’ which is the same as taking to the field in order to steal.”—Morga, f. 138.
[7] Ill-usage prevails to a great extent, although prohibited by a stringent law; the non-enforcement of which by the alcaldes is charged with a penalty of 100 dollars for every single case of neglect. In many provinces the bridegroom pays to the bride’s mother, besides the dower, an indemnity for the rearing (“mother’s milk”) which the bride has enjoyed (bigay susu). According to Colin (“Labor Evangelico,” p. 129) the penhimuyal, the present which the mother received for night-watching and care during the bringing up of the bride, amounted to one-fifth of the dowry.
[8] The Asuang is the ghoul of the Arabian Nights’ tales.—C.
[9] Veritable cannibals are not mentioned by the older authors on the Philippines. Pigafetta (p. 127) heard that a people lived on a river at Cape Benuian (north of Mindanao) who ate only the hearts of their captured enemies, along with lemon-juice; and Dr. Semper (“Philippines,”) in ’62 found the same custom, with the exception of the lemon-juice, on the east coast of Mindanao.