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
102. The wine commonly used among them is either that made from
palms, as it is throughout India, or from sugar-cane, which they call
quilang. The latter is made by extracting the sap from the canes,
and then bringing it to a boil over the fire, so that it becomes like
red wine, although it does not taste so good. The palm wine is made by
extracting the sap or liquor from which the fruit was to be formed. For
as soon as the palm begins to send out the shoot from the end of the
twig, and before the flower is unfolded, that flower-stock is cut,
and a bit of bamboo is fastened to it and is tied to the stalk or
shoot. Since the sap naturally flows to that part, as in the pruned
vine, all the sap that was to be converted into fruit, flows into
that bamboo, and passes through it to vessels, where, somewhat sour
and steeped with the bark of certain trees which give it color, heat,
and bite, they use it as a common drink and call it tuba. But the
real and proper palm-wine is made from the same liquor before it turns
sour, by distilling it in an alembic in ovens that they have prepared
for it. They give it a greater or less strength, as they please;
and they get a brandy as clear as water, although it is not so hot
[as our brandy]. [19] It is of a dry quality, and, when used with
moderation, it is considered even outside Filipinas as healthful and
medicinal for the stomach and a preventive of watery humors and colds.
The Visayans also make a wine, called pañgasi, from rice. The method
of making it is to place in the bottom of a jar of ordinary size
(which is generally of two or three arrobas, with them) a quantity
of yeast made from rice flour and a certain plant. Atop of that they
put clean rice until the jar is half full. Then water is added to it,
and, after it has stood for a few days, it is fermented by the force
of the yeast, and is converted into the strongest kind of wine, which
is not liquid, but thick like gachas. [20] In order to drink it they
pour water into the jar. It is a cause for surprise that even though
water be poured in again and again, the liquor is pure and liquid
wine, until the strength vanishes and is lost, and then they leave
it for the children. The method of drinking it is with a tube, which
they insert clear to the bottom where the yeast is. They use three
or four of those tubes, according to the number of the persons who
can find room around the vessel. They suck up as much as they wish,
and then give place to others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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