[17] Cogon (Imperata koenigii) is a species of grass of general natural growth, the young shoots of which afford excellent food for cattle. The grass is used in some localities as a substitute for nipa, where the latter does not grow, in thatching roofs. The name “cogon” is applied to many coarse, rank-growing grasses. See Census of Philippines, iv, p. 118.
[18] We give the verses in the original language with the Spanish translation of Father Pablo Cavallería, and add the English translation of the latter, which is necessarily crude.
[19] An authority among the Moros, after the panglima, and as well a name denoting nobility of race and blood. See Cartas de ... la mision de Filipinas (Manila, 1887), p. 34, note.
[20] The letter occupies pp. 326–349, and is accompanied by an ethnographical map (which we do not reproduce) made by the fathers of the Society of Jesuits. Our extract relates to the ethnology of Mindanao, and occupies pp. 336–349.
[21] Dr. Barrows (Census of Philippines, i, pp. 462, 463), says in speaking of the tribes of Mindanao that the term Indonesian has been applied to some of them to explain their higher stature and finer physique, which means that they are connected with people of mixed Caucasian blood, who were in primitive times distributed across the Malay Archipelago, and who find their purest living type in the Polynesians. He does not accept the evidence, as the perceptible gain in height among such peoples is not apparently accompanied by the other distinguishing marks of the Caucasian or Polynesian, and consequently regards them as Malayan. See also Le Roy’s Philippine Life (New York, 1905), p. 20.
[22] See laws of the Sámal Laút in regard to family and social life in Census of Philippines, i, p. 569.
[23] The root of the plant gabe (Colocasia antiquorum variety) is highly prized and extensively cultivated, the leaves also being used as food. Of the resins and oils mentioned, piayo, also called conferal and galagala (Agathis orantifolia—Salisb.) is used for burning and lighting, and the manufacture of varnish; and balao or malapaho (Dipterocarpus velulinno—Bl.) is used for calking. See Census of Philippines, iv, pp. 121, 202, 221; and Philippine Gazetteer, p. 78.
[24] Cabo Negro (Caryota urens) is a palm from which a kind of starch or sago is extracted. The camagon (Diospyros discolor) is a native persimmon tree 30 to 45 ft. high growing in Luzón and some of the other islands. See Census of Philippines, iv, pp. 139, 143.
[25] Salt is produced by evaporation, from a method taught prior to the coming of the Spaniards by the Chinese. Sea-water, enclosed in a depression surrounded by dykes, is evaporated by the sun’s rays; when the water has disappeared, the salt deposited on the floor of the basin is gathered up and cleaned by filtration. See Census of Philippines, iv, p. 469.
[26] This is the Musa sapientum, which is a variety of banana. This fiber is inferior to abacá. See Census of Philippines, iv, p. 167.