The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 1670-1700 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Unknown

[7] Literally “shields.” That is, the rice was measured into the shield.

[8] i.e., So so, or, just as it was.

[9] On the Moros, see Census of Philippines, i, pp. 465–467, 561–585.

[10] The Yakan are a primitive Malayan tribe of the same type and general culture as the Subanon of the Mindanao mainland, who live in Basilan, and who, some generations ago, accepted the Mahometan faith and are fanatical adherents thereof. They live scattered over the island cultivating a little maize, rice, and tapioca, bringing out some jungle product, but living as a whole miserably and in poverty. Some of them have migrated to the peninsula of Zamboanga and the islands adjacent to this coast. See Census of Philippines, i, pp. 465, 466.

[11] According to Census of Philippines, the population of the comandancia of Basilan is 30,179, of whom 28,848 are uncivilized.

[12] Among the Sámal Laút boys are trained for the priesthood by making their homes with priests, where they remain for several years in the capacity of servant and pupil. Occasionally, when grown they are sent to Singapore for continuous study, but such cases are rare. If a man goes to Mekka he is given the honorable title of pilgrim and is held in high consideration. See Census of Philippines, i, p. 571.

[13] i.e., A distance of two palm-lengths.

[14] A dish made in the Philippines from the inner and harder shell of the cocoanut.—See Echegaray’s Diccionario etimológico, and Noceda and Sanlucar’s Vocabulario de la lengua tagala.

[15] See beliefs and superstitions of the North American Indians in regard to eclipses in Jesuit Relations (Cleveland reissue), vi, p. 223, xii, pp. 31, 73, xxii, p. 295.

[16] The principal articles of food are rice, for which corn is sometimes substituted, fish, chickens, vegetables, wild fruits, and cocoanut oil. The natives are fond of chickens and eggs, and most families raise poultry for the table. Pork is forbidden by their faith, and the use of venison, or the flesh of the carabao, ox, sheep, or goat, is limited, the Moros being apparently not fond of meat. See Census of Philippines, i, p. 564.