63. Inasmuch as any sort of complaint is received, without subjecting the accuser to a penalty in case that he cannot prove his allegations <a href="#my222" class="news_link">222</a> - as ought to be the case, and according to the orders of the Mexican Council - no one's honor is safe. For, if they prove their accusations, they are the gainers, while if they do not prove them they return home as cool as ever, for they always go to gain and never to lose.<a href="#my223" class="news_link">223</a>


64. They are very fond of ceremonial acts and festivals where there is some novelty; and fond of long pilgrimages <a href="#my224" class="news_link">224</a> to images of some new miracle, while they forget about the old.<a href="#my225" class="news_link">225</a>


65. They are especially fond of comedies and farces, and therefore, there is no feast of consequence, unless there is a comedy. <a href="#my226" class="news_link">226</a> If possible they will lose no rehearsal, and in all they pay attention only to the witty fellow who does innumerable foolish and uncouth things, and at each of his actions they burst into hearty laughter. He who plays this part acceptably receives his diploma as an ingenious fellow, and has permission to go and come anywhere, and even to cajole the women before their husbands; and the latter must laugh, even though they have no wish to do so. It is very necessary that these representations be not harmful, for many of them are printed. Accordingly, they receive considerable benefit from these functions and external acts, such as the descent from the cross, and other representations, which are patterned after those called escuitales <a href="#my227" class="news_link">227</a> in Nueva España - in which is verified the truth of the sentence in the Ars Poetica of Horace, verses 18[0-181].<a href="#my228" class="news_link">228</a>


Segnius irritant animos demisa per aures,


Quam quae sunt oculis conspecta fidelibus.

 
 
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&nbsp;




<h4>
Footnotes
</h4>


<div class="source-notes">

 

<a href="#ym162" class="news_link">162</a> See an account of this matter and the trouble caused by it, in VOL. XXXIX. 


<a href="#ym163" class="news_link">163</a> i.e., "Silver and gold have I none" - a reference to Acts III,6. 


<a href="#ym164" class="news_link">164</a> M. and D. read "miners." 


<a href="#ym165" class="news_link">165</a> "When the ship 'Santa Ana' arrived at Manila in the year 1832 with 250 Spanish soldiers, it was rumored among the women of the tobacco factory that those soldiers were coming to take away their children in order to irrigate the mines in España with their blood. All were aroused and fled to their homes, took their children, and began to take refuge in the houses of the Spanish women, and they could not be persuaded that it was all nonsense. The house of Doña Dolores Goyena was filled with them. Also many men armed with spears came out on the streets; but the disorder gradually subsided." (Mas, p. 82.) 


<a href="#ym166" class="news_link">166</a> M. and D. add "for all the ministers cannot free them from this deceit." 


<a href="#ym167" class="news_link">167</a> This is not so in general, says Delgado (p. 311 ), but is true only of some individuals among the various nations. 


<a href="#ym168" class="news_link">168</a> M. reads "respect the Spaniard more." 


<a href="#ym169" class="news_link">169</a> "The truth is that any Spaniard, with rare exceptions, has more penetration, more vivacity, more nobility, more talent, and more courage than a Filipino. This superiority can do no less than have its effect. For the rest, few in Manila have an exact idea of the Filipino character. Their arrogance may be seen in the importance which the gobernadorcillos give to themselves. They go daily to the city hall, but they make two regidors go to their houses to get them. There the regidors wait until the gobernadorcillo is ready to come out, and the latter then goes in solemn state to the city hall, preceded by the regidors and the alguacils, with staffs in hand. When these officers reach the door of the city hall, they stop in order to allow the gobernadorcillo to pass between them; and he enters without noticing the salutes given him by the guards, who take off their hats to him. He immediately takes a seat which is on an elevated platform, and there he thinks himself to be on a throne; and even the Spaniards who enter casually, especially in the villages on the highroad, appear of but little importance to him. This is the place where the auditors of the Audiencia of Manila, and all others who have any share in the government of Filipinas, ought to come incognito, and as if in passing, in order to know the Filipinos - instead of forming an opinion of their character from the servants of their house, or from those who go to the capital with clasped hands and a downcast look in their eyes to ask some favor of them. The strange thing is, that the Indians do not learn from the alcaldes-mayor, who administer justice with the greatest equality, and who do not sit in an elevated place, or even sit down, and go into the street without any following. This aristocratic spirit may be observed in the church. All the principales, who consist of the gobernadorcillos, cabezas de barangay, and all others who have the title `Don' and wear a jacket, seat themselves in the central aisle or nave; and the following order of etiquette is in general scrupulously observed: the gobernadorcillo; the ex-gobernadoralos, who are called past captains, in order of their seniority; the actual first lieutenant, who must be a cabeza de barangay; the two lieutenants; and nine present officials; the ex-cabezas, in order of seniority. If any ex-captain from another village is present, he takes a seat among those of his class, and is given the first place, out of courtesy. When the lieutenants and officials leave their posts, they are not called principales, as are the others, but titulados. (Mas, pp. 83, 84.) 


<a href="#ym170" class="news_link">170</a> D. reads "petty sextons." 


<a href="#ym171" class="news_link">171</a> Delgado says (p. 311 ): "It is a fact that nature always inclines rather to evil than to good. But in order to correct their vices there are fervent and zealous ministers in all parts, who preach to and teach them." 


Mas says (pp: 85-89): "In fact some Indians practice ceremonies in their marriages which date from before the conquest.


"On the birth of an infant, the newborn child is sometimes taken to another house in order to free it from the Patianac; and, when the child is taken out for baptism, aromatic substances and incense are burned for the same reason.


"When a person dies, they celebrate a novena in. his house at night, where the relatives (and sometimes those who are not relatives) assemble. After praying, it is not seldom that they sit down to gamble. On the last day there is a great banquet, and sometimes a dance. These mortuary feasts are practiced even yet, in all their purity, in the mountains, as we have already seen.


"If possible, both men and women bathe daily in the river. The women enter the water wrapped in their tapices, taking care that the bosom is covered. When they are in the water they take that garment off to wash themselves. The men enter the water with wide pantaloons and the body bare. They enter the river at any hour and before everybody; but one must confess that they do it with great decency and modesty. When I was in Santa Cruz de la Laguna, the cura published an edict ordering men and women not to bathe in the same place. That gave rise to many jokes and jests, and it is to be supposed that they continued their old-time customs. They consider us as not overcleanly, because they see us make less use than they of the bath . . . It is also the custom for the families of the country and many Europeans to bathe together. During the outdoor sports of Manila, at the summer houses of Mariquina, or other neighboring towns, the chief diversion is the bath. The women generally enter the water wearing a kind of blouse, and the men with wide pantaloons and the body uncovered. Newcomers from Europa do not consider this amusement at all decent.


"They kiss by bringing the nostril near and drawing in the breath. This is the plain kiss in the mountains, but some Filipinos of the-plains, especially of Manila, have also become accustomed to kiss with the lips; but they always put the nose to the face at the same time, and if they have a sincere affection, they always smell as if they were giving a deep sigh with their mouth closed…When they look at a person from a distance, and desire to express their desire to kiss him, they constrict the nose in the manner of one smelling. A very extreme kind of kiss is given by rubbing the nose on the spot that they wish to feel, and drawing in the breath as long as possible.


"I am greatly surprised that no one of the writers on the Filipinos has spoken of this remarkable fact, which springs from their exquisite sense of smell. It is so great that a servant can tell his master's shirt, after it is cleaned and ironed, even though it lies with ten or twelve other shirts resembling it and belonging to other persons, by simply smelling them. They also assert that if a man be near a woman for whom he experiences a feeling of love, she knows it by the odor of his perspiration, and vice versa. As a pledge of affection, they ask for a shirt that has been worn - which they return after it has lost its odor, and replace by another, just as we beg for a lock of hair.


"They had the custom of circumcision, a customs which they did not acquire from the Arabs, since it is still practiced on the peaks of the independent mountains. They practice it still, and that against the will of the curas. Ancient customs have,very great force. It is to be noted that the manner of operation is not the same as that practiced by the Jews, for the cut is made from the upper to the lower part.


"They had the custom that the suitor for a maiden's hand went to serve in the house of his future father-in-law for three or four years, and did whatever he was asked - in general, the most onerous duties. Then the parents of the bride had to give him a house, clothes, etc., and the marriage was celebrated. In many provinces, as for instance, in Bulacan, there is now no trace of this custom, because of the abuses which were committed. This custom, which we meet in the first pages of the Old Testament, could not have been acquired from the Mussulmans, who by their Koran hold laws diametrically opposed. This custom is still followed in Laguna, although the young man does not live in the house of his loved one, for the cura does not permit it. The friars have done their utmost to destroy this custom.


"They scarify new-born infants in order to draw blood from them; and then apply lighted matches to various parts of the body, which cause them burns, and serve the place of caustics.


"Women in childbirth they suspend by the hair in order to stop the flow; and, after parturition, they compress the abdomen, and press down with great force on both thighs at once, in order to make the organs return to their former position; and they perform other things of like nature, which we consider as injurious and nonsensical. But they hold one of their old women higher than the best Paris physician.


"They consider the balete tree as sacred. At marriage, they carry it dishes of food as an offering; and it is very difficult, or impossible, to make them cut one of them. It has happened that they have begged incense from the cura on various pretexts in order to go immediately and burn it under a balete tree.


"They are very fond of telling tales of love adventures, of witches, and enchantment, and everything else that is rare and marvelous, even though it be nonsense and against common sense.


"They believe that all diseases are cured by drawing out the air that has been introduced into the body; and, consequently, their favorite remedy is to supply a kind of cupping-glass of Chinese origin, which they drag over two palmos on any part of the body, and which leaves a great red streak.


"They respect their fathers and mothers greatly, and even the younger brothers the older. I have seen a married woman, on entering her house, kiss the hand of a sister older than herself.

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Part 2: Letter from Fray Gaspar de San Agustin to a friend who asked him as to the nature of the natives of the Philipinas Islands