FILIPINO HOUSES
The well-to-do Filipinos live in houses modeled after those built by the Spaniards, but the great majority of the people live in what are called nipa huts—light structures made with bamboo frames and with sides and roofs of nipa palm leaves. The houses are several feet above the ground and are reached by a ladder or steps. As the temperature at midday does not change much the year round, the main objects in building are to secure protection from rain and an abundance of air, and the nipa hut meets these requirements. The Filipino house is not only light and airy, but it is inexpensive; we saw a school house at Santa Barbara built for five hundred pupils at an expense of five hundred pesos, or $250 in gold. At some of the military camps, which we visited, the Filipino style of building has been adopted.
GENERAL EMILIO AGUINALDO.
The Filipino dress is quite like that worn in Europe and America; among the educated men it is identical. The men of the middle class wear a shirt of a gauzy material outside the trousers. The women wear a dress skirt with a long narrow train and a low-necked, wide-sleeved waist made of jusi (pronounced hoose), or pina (penya) cloth. A kerchief of the same material folded about the neck completes the toilet. All the thin fabrics worn by the women are manufactured on hand looms kept in the homes.
Iloilo is the center of the jusi cloth manufacture, of which we saw many beautiful samples during our tour of the islands. The pina cloth is made from the fibre of a leaf resembling that of the pineapple. In the province of Balacan a fine quality of silk is made on hand-looms—the weaving of fabrics being an accomplishment in which the women take pride. There is a coarser cloth made of hemp which is used for ordinary wear, and this is also produced in the home and sold on market days.
FILIPINO BOYS WITH BLOW-GUNS.