Their customs at marriage were very peculiar. They married only one woman. The chiefs however, had several concubines, who were commonly slaves. They generally married their nearest relative, provided she were not a sister, for they could not contract marriage with sisters. When they grew tired of their wife, they returned her to her parents. It was unnecessary to give cause for the divorce, for it was sufficient to give up the dowry which he himself had given when he was married. That dowry was of two kinds and was always paid by the bridegroom. One kind was called bigay suso, and was the payment for the milk which the mother had given to the damsel, by which he obtained her completely. The other was called bigay caya and was the real dowry. It was given to those recently married for their support. At times, however, the expense of the wedding was discounted from it, as well as the clothes, so that very little or nothing at all remained for the recently married couple. Besides the bridegroom giving that dowry, he had to serve the parents of the bride for some years; to feast them on certain days; to assist in the sowing of the rice and the harvest, and to carry food to the laborers. All the relatives of the bridegroom had to be obsequious to the bride, to her parents, and to all her relatives, so long as those years of service lasted. If they failed in any point, the marriage was dissolved, a thing which was very agreeable to the parents of the woman, for then a new suitor appeared, and they began to suck his blood again. In retaliation for what the bridegroom suffered before marriage, he treated his wife like a slave after marriage. She had to find the sustenance for the family, while her husband was off enjoying himself, and she considered herself fortunate if after that he did not beat her. The self-interest of the parents in their daughters in which this pernicious custom is observed, has been the reason why it has been impossible to uproot this hitherto, notwithstanding the royal cedulas and the decrees of the bishops which prohibit it. The ceremony of the marriage was performed with the sacrifice of a hog, which a priestess killed after going through a thousand gestures. She blessed the couple abundantly, and afterward the old women gave them food in a dish and gave vent to many obscenities, after which the couple were pronounced married. Then followed dances according to their custom, and drunken revels for all the days that the function lasted. The number of days were regulated according to the wealth of the contracting parties. He who went to the feast gave something to the couple, and note was made of it so that they could do the same in a like case.
In regard to religion, they had neither idols nor temples, but they offered sacrifices in shady bowers that they had for that purpose. There were priestesses whom they called babailanes or catalonas. They attended to the sacrifices, and taking a lance in the hand and foaming at the mouth with ridiculous and extraordinary gestures, they prophesied on the point for which the sacrifice was offered and killed a hog with the lance. Then they immediately divided the hog among those present and the function was finished with dances and drunken revelries. Those sacrifices were offered to the demons or to the souls of their ancestors, which they thought lived in the large trees, in the crags which they met in isolated places, or in anything out of the common which was found in the fields. They thought that the nono or their forbears lived in all those places, and they never passed by them without asking permission of them—a thing which some of them do even yet. When anyone was dangerously sick they offered in those places rice, wine, and meat, and afterward gave that to the sick man to eat, so that he might be cured, a custom still observed by some of them.
They had many other superstitions such as that of the patianac, which they say hinders childbirth by its tongue which is very fine and long, and which reaches even to the womb of the woman, where it restrains and whence it does not allow the infant to issue. In order that the patianac may have no effect, the husband tightly bars the portal of the house, lights the fire, and completely naked holds a sword and cuts the wind with it in a furious manner until his wife brings forth. The tigbalang is another of the things of which they are greatly afraid. It is a kind of ghost which they say appears to them in the form of an animal or of some unknown monster and forces them to do things contrary to the laws of our religion. These and other superstitions, which they held in former times, they still observe at times, when the charlatans who are maintained at the cost of simpletons persuade them that they will get better from some dangerous illness or will find the jewel that they have lost, if they will practice them. And so powerful is self-interest or the love of life that although they believe that it is evil to observe those superstitions and not give entire assent to those deceits, they carry them out, for they say that perhaps it will be so. That is a proof that they have very little root in the faith.
All their religion was rather a servile fear than true worship. They had no external adoration or any formula of prayers to God or idols; they believed in neither reward nor recompense for the good, nor punishment for the wicked. For although they knew of the immortality of the soul and believed that they could do wrong, that belief was so filled with errors that they thought that the souls had need of sustenance, and all other things that we mortals need. Consequently, at their funerals they placed clothing, weapons, and food in the coffins; and on the fourth day when they generally celebrated the funeral honors, they left an unoccupied seat at table for the deceased, and they believed that he really occupied it, although they could not see him. In order to be sure of that they scattered ashes in the house, in which they at times found the impress of the tracks of the deceased, either through the deceit of the devil or of some other Indian, who left the impress of his feet there to fool the others. Persuaded of that they offered them food so that they should do no harm. Their religion was always directed to that—a circumstance quite in keeping with their natural cowardice and timorousness.
Jolo and the Sulus
[The following is taken from vol. v, pp. 343–390 (mainly verbatim) of Charles Wilkes’s[16] Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842 (Philadelphia, 1844). It is one of the earliest accounts written by an American of the island of Joló and its vicinity, and the Joloans. Although containing considerable matter that is descriptive rather than ethnological in character, it has been deemed advisable not to endeavor to separate the matter, in view of its value. Wilkes writes mainly as an eyewitness.]
Plan of the bay and city of Manila; photographic facsimile of map 58 in Aprés de Mannevillette’s Le Neptune oriental (Paris, 1745)
[From copy of original map in Library of Congress]