The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55, 1690-1691: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55, 1690-1691: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
children, relatives, and families, although I believe that the
affection that they feel for one another has very little reality.
424. The "Don" of the Castilians is being rapidly introduced among the
Indian chiefs, both men and women, of these islands. In olden times
they did not lack a term proper to their own language by which they
expressed it, as Lacan or Gat for the men, and Dayang for the women.
CHAPTER XLII
Of the physical features and clothing of these Indians
425. According to the differences in climate we find certain
differences in the lines of the body and faces of the Indians, as has
been stated above. But this difference amounts to but little. All
of them are sufficiently corpulent, well-built, and well-featured,
except that they are all flat-nosed; for the cartilage of the bridge
of the nose does not come to a point as among Europeans. Consequently,
there are no sharp noses among the full-blooded Indians. Some have
tried to explain the color by saying that it is the color of cooked
quinces, or brown, or an olive color. But it appears much stranger
to me, and I have been unable to find a legitimate color to which
to compare it; for it is a brown color, but flushed with red. [346]
It is generally clearer in the women, and still lighter in all of the
Visayans. The hair is black and lank, as is that of the Scythians,
Getas [i.e., Getæ], and Turks, and is carefully tended with washings,
and very fragrant oils, as was that of the Lycians. They assert that
they do this in order to free it from grease (which is considerable),
but a great part of it consists in vanity. Among the Tagálogs it is
allowed to grow to the shoulders, among the Ilocans somewhat longer,
and among the Visayans slightly longer or shorter, and done up; but the
Cagayans leave it loose and hanging upon the shoulders. This custom
must have appeared well to all of them, since everywhere they envy
the one who has the longest and heaviest hair; and the same thing is
seen among the women. It is indeed considered as an affront to cut
the hair for any crime. The Zambals alone shave the head from the
middle forward; and from the middle back, as far as the occiput, they
wear a large shock of loose hair. Ribbons are never used to tie it,
but with the hair itself men, women, and children make a knot near
the crown of the head or the occiput, as do the Turks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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