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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS.

BY LUCY M. J. GARNETT.

BOTH the great island possessionsin the West and East Indies respectively-which are now the seats of war between Spain and the United States, were, for a time during last century, possessions of the British Empire. Havana and Manila were both captured by Great Britain in 1762, and Cuba and the Philippines occupied. A very rare and interesting "Plain Narrative" of the capture of Manila was published by Rear-Admiral Cornish and Brigadier-General Draper in reply to accusations of infringement of the Capitulations made against these officers by the Spaniards. Their own allegations are sufficiently strong: "Through the whole of the above transactions the Spaniards, by evasions, avoided complying with the Capitulations in every one respect, except in bringing the money from the Misericordia and Ordentacara [ships], which it was out of their power to secrete. They basefully and ungratefully took up arins against us after having their lives given them. They preached publicly in their churches rebellion," etc. At the Peace of Paris, however (1763), which concluded the Seven Years' War, Canada, Louisiana, and various islands in the West Indies having been ceded by France, and Florida and Minorca by Spain, Great Britain on her part ceded to the latter power Cuba and the Philippines. Yet there is still to be seen

or was during my residence at Manila—at the mouth of the Pasig, and under the ramparts, a dilapidated brick and stucco monument with an inscription celebrating the expulsion of the invading British by the noble and patriotic Don Simon de Anda-an inscription which afforded great amusement to British naval officers visiting the port.

Few island clusters are so uniformly beautiful as the Philippine group, nor among these can any vie with its chief island, Luzon, in verdure-clad, cloudcapped mountains, fertile plains and

valleys, wide fresh-water rivers, placid inland lakes, and sparkling waterfalls. Discovered by the great Magellan in 1521, and named twenty-one years later by Villalobos in honor of Phillip II., then Prince of Asturia, this archipelago was finally won for the Spanish Crown by the intrepid Miguel de Legaspi. First obtaining a footing in Cebu, he, in 1564, subdued part of Luzon, and founded Manila, gradually extending the Spanish Dominion into the rest of the islands forming this group.

The Philippine islanders comprise many races and tribes, presenting varied characteristics. They may, however, be classed generally into three chief groups: Ilocan Malays in the north of the archipelago, Tagals in the centre, and Bisayans in the south. In the north more particularly there is an infusion of Chinese, Formosan, and Japanese blood; on the eastern shores are traces of Polynesian or Papuan admixture; while part of the population of the large southern island of Mindanao resemble the Dyaks of the opposite Bornean coast. But though the Philippines have been for over three centuries a Spanish possession, it is computed that, at the present day, onefifth of the population of Luzon, and one-fourth of that of the southern Bisayas islands are still unsubjected to Spain, while in Mindanao only small portions of the coast districts are occupied by the Spaniards. The only section of the native inhabitants which has been completely subdued, converted to Christianity, and domesticated are the Tagals, and some of the Bisayans of the southern islands.

The Tagals are of a markedly Malay type, having smooth black hair, prominent cheek bones, large lively eyes, and flattish noses with dilated nostrils. They are, as a rule, of rather low stature, slightly built, and of a copper color, more or less dark. The absence of beard in the men gives them

a juvenile appearance even when middle aged, and their features generally are smooth, smiling, and unworn.

Whatever may have been the original character of the Tagals, it has doubtless been greatly modified by their subjection to Spanish rule, and equally so by their conversion to Christianity; and they now present such a strange compound of contradictory qualities that their moral portrait is difficult to depict. The character of the domesticated native is, indeed, a series of surprises. Those who take the trouble to study him are every year led to some new conclusion. Perhaps it is best summed up in the words of one of their priests: "They are big children, whom one must treat as little ones." The Tagal's leading characteristics, however, doubtless depend less on himself than on natural laws he is what his environment has made him. The old tribal customs, which had the good of the community for their aim, and constituted his primitive morality, are now, when not altogether forgotten, reserved, for native intercourse; and the Tagal has no moral code to direct his dealings with his Spanish master, save that which he has himself taught his servant. Before entering the palmleaf hut of a friend, he will spend fully three minutes in the interchange of courteous phrases; but he enters a European house without ceremony. Tagal keeps his word, and yet he is a liar. Anger he holds in horror, he compares it to madness, and prefers to it drunkenness, which he also greatly despises. Insult and injustice he cannot brook, and will unhesitatingly use the knife to avenge either. He will never willingly confess a fault, but lie to hide it; yet he receives a flogging for it without a murmur. Debt he considers rather as an inconvenience than a calamity; when in pecuniary difficulties he will spend all his ready cash on a feast to his friends, to keep up appearances; and he never thinks of returning a loan unsolicited. He, on the other hand, never repudiates his debts, but transmits them to his heirs if, at his death, they remain unpaid. Misfortune he bears with stoical

and fatalist indifference; concerned only with his immediate necessities, he is apt to let the morrow take care of itself. Under the eye of a master he is the most tractable of beings, and will go without food for hours, without complaint, if supplied with betel-nut to chew. He gives himself no airs as a servant, and if hired as a coachman will raise no objection to being employed as cook, carpenter, or boatman, being ready to turn his hand to anything. He has a profound respect for the elders of his family, treats his children kindly, and extends his aid and protection to every one claiming relationship, however remote. When, in the interior, he is called upon to offer hospitality to strangers, he not only refuses to accept payment from them in return, but places at their disposal his ponies, vehicles, and gun, and shows them every attention in his power. An intrepid climber and rider, he mounts the tall forest trees like a monkey, using feet and hands equally; he rides bare-backed the most spirited pony, plunges, without hesitation, into shark-infested waters, and dives into alligator-haunted lakes to attack their occupants. Endowed himself with courage of this description, he has the greatest admiration for bravery in others, and an equal contempt for cowardice. Under a leader in whom he has confidence he makes an excellent soldier; but, losing him, he becomes at once demoralized. Incapable of organization on any considerable scale, no revolt, if confined exclusively to the Tagals, would have a chance of suc

cess.

Brigandage, which has long been common in these islands, first came into prominence about the middle of the eighteenth century. This profession has a great attraction for the Tagal, not so much on account of the pain he may derive from it, as of the life of freedom it offers him, and escape from payment of the tributo which, though by no means a heavy tax, he much disliked he much disliked paying in years before its repeal. I have heard of cases when the only reason for a native's taking to the mountains has

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been his unreadiness with the few shillings demanded of him, probably lost in the cock-pit on the preceding day. These outlaws are occasionally arrested by the Guardia Civile, and lodged in prison; but by the connivance of the legal functionaries, who fear the vengeance of their comrades, they are either set free, allowed to escape, or are comfortably established in some penal settlement. The more ignorant Tagals of this class believe that certain persons are endowed with an uncanny power, called by them anting-anting, which renders its possessor invulnerable. Brigands, when captured, are often found wearing a medallion with the image of the Virgin, or some saint, as a symbol of anting. The neighborhood of the famous shrine of Antipolo, to which I shall have occasion again to refer, and the hills of San Mateo, are favorite haunts of these marauders, though we certainly saw nothing of them during a delightful excursion made to the latter region. Another class of outlaws, known as remontados, are to be met with in the hills. As their name implies, they are natives who, weary of the thraldom of civilization, have cast it aside to return to the wild, free life of their remote ancestors, with no taxes to pay, no forced labor to perform, their wants satisfied with game from the hills, fish from the streams, berries and wild honey from the woods.

Gambling may be said to be the one vice of the Philippine Islander, and takes chiefly the form of cockfighting more ruinous for him in its effects than the earthquakes and cyclones by which his home is occasionally devastated. With the Tagal, even more than with the Malay generally, this pastime is a passion pushed to the extreme. In every native hut, in every craft floating on the Pasig, a cock is to be found undergoing training as careful as that bestowed in the West on a race-horse-though perhaps to perish on its first appearance in the lists. A native at leisure is seldom seen without his game-cock, a pretty creature, not much larger than a bantam, which he carries under his arm; and should his hut take fire, his first thought is

this favorite, which, having secured, he leaves the rest to fate. Cock-fights are held regularly on Sundays and festivals, and in Manila, on one day in the week as well; and the laws regulating them, which contain as many as a hundred clauses, are very strict. The spectators stand, or squat on their heels-the favorite native posture-on a sloping floor, at the foot of which are the lists. The maximum stake is fifty dollars, and one spur only is allowed to each cock. The Chinaman, who farms the gallera, collects the bets, which, relatively to the wealth of the company, are enormous, Tagals of the poorest class often staking from three to four dollars, and going supperless to bed in consequence. Meantime the owners of the first combatants are arming their champions with a sharp steel spur some two and a half inches long, with as much care as is given to saddling a horse for the Derby. When all the bets have been collected, the cocks are faced. Should one run away without being injured, which does not often occur, he is declared beaten, and a new antagonist brought to face the victor. This time the combatants are probably more equally matched, and the excitement of the reeking crowd of Tagals and Chinamen increases. The cocks fly at one another, meeting breast to breast, their uplifted claws directing the points of their spurs at the adversary, again and again endeavoring to strike a fell blow, chance generally determining the victory according to the vulnerability of the part penetrated by the blade. At last one of the cocks reels, falls, and expires, and the victor executes a triumphant dance over the bleeding corpse of his vanquished foe, while the shouts and exclamations in Tagoloc and Chinese, which have accompanied the struggle, increase to a perfect babel.

Another form of gambling, to which the women are almost as partial as the men, is the purchase of tickets in the Government lotteries. These tickets are divided and subdivided until a share may be bought for a peseta (6d.), and much of the spare cash of the natives thus finds its way into the cof

fers of the Hacienda. This gambling propensity of the Tagals is occasionally exploited in various ways. During my residence in Manila a bazaar was organized for the benefit of the General Hospital, but instead of the articles collected being sold in the usual way, they were piled into a pyramid in the centre of the temporary construction erected for the purpose, the lottery tickets disposing of them being sold in the numerous stalls held by the leading ladies of the Spanish and foreign communities. A five-dollar packet of tickets contained one prize only, it might be of the value of a shilling or two, or of several pounds, and a single ticket at the price of a peseta had as much chance of winning one of the latter as a five-dollar packet one of the former. Accordingly, all ranks of natives, on three successive evenings, thronged to the bazaar, and spent their money liberally, patronizing, in preference, the stalls held by foreigners, apparently having more faith in the bona fides of these than of the Spaniards, with the result that at the combined British and American stall, at which I assisted, several hundred pounds were taken.

sists of forty days' road mending and other municipal work, and some days' service as cuadrilleros, a kind of municipal and cantonal gendarmerie commanded by the Gobernadorcillo. Such, in brief, is the internal organization of these islands, instituted at the conquest, and perpetuated till the present day, to the great advantage of their rulers. The mass of the population were probably not long in coming to regard favorably a religion and government which abolished slavery, and replaced by exact laws the former somewhat arbitrary rule of their datos. The latter, finding themselves abandoned. by their vassals, were naturally glad to secure what honors and power were left to them by the conquerors through the exercise of these new functions. Though nominally no longer hereditary, but elective, these offices probably continued for some time to be the appanage of the feudal lords. At the present day there are living in Manila descendants of these former sovereigns of the archipelago, who enjoy a certain consideration, and have been invariably loyal to their Spanish rulers.

The Philippine laws relating to the property of married persons are ex

The sixteenth-century colonizers of ceed ouaint and interesting, being

the Philippines had the wisdom to allow the natives they domesticated to retain, to a great extent, their own tribal government, the only change of any importance made in the existing system being the total abolition of the form of slavery practised. While the Spanish Governor-General took the place of the Sultans and greater chiefs, the datos, or feudal lords, were appointed gobernadorcillos, or petty governors of the villages and townships, which were termed, according to their importance, pueblos and risitas, or retained their native appellation of barangay. To these petty governors and their lieutenants and cabezas, as the headmen are termed, were entrusted the duties of mayor, magistrate, and tax-collector respectively. They were made responsible for the poll-tax, levied, until 1884, under the name of tributo, on every adult native; for the proper performance of the statute labor, which con

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entirely in favor of the wife. The property of a bride is never settled on the husband. If a man is poor, and his wife well-to-do, so they remain throughout their married life, he becoming simply the administrator of her possessions, but having no right to them. If a husband becomes bankrupt in a business in which he has invested some of his wife's fortune, she ranks as a second-class creditor under the Commercial Code. Even on her death, the husband cannot, save under a deed executed by her in the presence of a notary, derive any benefit from her estate, as her children, if she have any, and if not, her nearest blood relatives, are her heirs. Thus it not unfrequently happens that the father of wealthy children is himself impecunious, and dependent on their generosity for support; though at the same time he is compelled by law to manage their affairs while minors, and, at their major

ity, to render a strict account of his stewardship. A married woman continues to use her maiden name, to which she adds her husband's with the prefix de. This she abandons when left a widow, save for purposes of business or convenience. Children also bear the names of both father and mother; that of the mother comes last, and is consequently the more prominent. It is, however, only since 1844 that the mass of the natives have adopted family designations. In that year a list of Spanish surnames was sent to the priest of every parish, from which the head of each household chose the cognomen which best pleased him. Thus one may find such noble names as Legaspi, de Salceda, Lopez de Vega, etc., borne by the dusky-hued natives of the interior of Luzon.

Such being the legal status of women in these islands, it naturally follows that they enjoy a considerable degree of personal independence, which in some localities, economic conditions tend to increase, especially among the working classes. The chief of these economic conditions has been the almost exclusive employment in the Government cigar factories of women. The staple industry of the city being thus debarred from men, various occupations and industries, usually performed by women, fall to their share. Into male hands has fallen to a great extent the manufacture and embroidery of the gauze made from the long silky fibres of the pineapple plant. By the men are also woven, on primitive handlooms, the dainty jusi-striped gauzes made from Chinese silk, and the hempen abaca. In their homes, too, while the wife is earning the family breador rather rice, their staple food-the husband looks after the children, and cooks the dinner. It is also very difficult to get women to act as nurses and maids in European families. And more than one English family of my acquaintance found themselves under the necessity of drafting into the nursery one or more of the muchachos, or "boys" of the household, often finding these male nurses more satisfactory in many respects than the women.

This approximate "equality of the sexes" in the Philippines, not accorded to them by Christianity, but to a great extent merely a survival of their own ancient tribal customs, affords further evidence of the untruth of the assumption by the Mill School of the immemorial and world-wide "subjection of women."

Marriages, among the Tagals, are usually arranged not by the principals but by their parents. The father and mother of a marriageable youth visit the relatives of the maiden selected, and, in conventionally flowery and allegorical language, hint at the possibility of a matrimonial alliance between their respective families. The replies of the maiden's parents are equally vague and circumlocutory, and plain-speaking is only resorted to when it has become evident that the parties are mutually agreed. Tagal mothers are mercenary to a degree, and when both parties are native, if a hitch occurs, it is usually owing to a disagreement about dollars. If, however, the suitor is a half-breed, or European, he is unconditionally accepted, ambition and vanity getting the better of avarice. These preliminaries settled, the donations propter nuptias are paid by the youth's father to the bride's parents to defray the expenses connected with the wedding, and a settlement, termed in Tagaloc vigaycaya, is often made by him on the bride. The young couple then present themselves to the priest, though not necessarily together, kiss his hand, and inform him. of their intention to marry. The cleric appoints the day for the wedding and publishes the banns in the church. The religious ceremony takes place at the conclusion of the first mass, between five and six o'clock in the morning. When the eucharist has been administered to the wedding party, an acolyte places a kind of mantle on the shoulders of the couple. The officiating. priest recites a formula, puts certain questions, receives the customary replies, and in five minutes the nuptial knot is tied. As they leave the church, a bowl of coin is presented to the bridegroom from which he takes a handful, and passes it to the bride, who returns

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