The Inhabitants of the PhilippinesSawyer, Frederic H.
History
The Inhabitants of the Philippines
Sawyer, Frederic H.
Ethnology -- Philippines; Philippines -- Social life and customs
On the following Sunday, these girls came to Mass at the Inagáhuan
Church, completely dressed like Tagal women, and although they passed
in front of me, I did not recognize them until I was told, for they
looked much shorter.
When the missionary accompanied me to visit any of these people,
I observed that as we approached a house the people were hurriedly
putting on their clothes to receive us, but they were evidently more
at ease in the garb of Adam before the fall.
The Tagbanúas have no strong religious convictions, and can be easily
persuaded to allow their children to be baptised. The population of
Inagáhuan and Abortan at the time of my visit was, according to the
missionary, 1080, of whom 616 were baptised. But from this number
many had been taken away by their half-caste or Chinese creditors
to Lanúgan, a visita of Trinitian, to collect wax and almáciga--the
forests near Inagáhuan and Yuáhit being entirely exhausted. The
heathen Tagbanúas believe in future rewards and punishment, and call
the infernal regions basaud. They believe in a Great Spirit, the
creator and preserver, who presides over all the important acts of
life. They call him Maguindose, and make offerings to him of rice and
fish. Polygamy is allowed amongst them, but from what I saw is not
much practised. When a Tagbanúa proposes marriage to the object of
his affections, he leaves at the door of her hut the fresh trunk of
a banana plant. If she delays answering till the trunk has withered,
he understands this as a negative, and the damsel is spared the pain
of verbally refusing; but if she approves of his suit, she sends him
her answer in good time.
The lover then conveys to the house of the bride's parents, where
all her relations are assembled, large baskets of boiled rice. He
takes a morsel of this and places it in the mouth of the girl, she
then does the same to him, and by this symbolic act they assume the
responsibilities of matrimony. This particular ceremony is common to
many Philippine tribes. The remainder of the cooked rice furnishes
the basis of the marriage feast.
They are said to cruelly punish adultery; on the other hand, divorce
is easily obtained.
When one of their number is very ill, they get up a concert (?) of
gongs and drums with the hope of curing him, and during the performance
nobody must approach the patient's couch. I could not learn whether
the music was intended to cheer up the sick person, or to frighten
away the evil spirit, which they look upon as the cause of his malady;
but I incline to the latter belief, because the so-called music is
calculated to frighten away any living thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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