The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 1670-1700: 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 43, 1670-1700: 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
When speaking of the dwellings of these heathens, one must distinguish
between those who live in settlements and those who live in the
woods. The former build their houses well spread out and comfortably,
it being indispensable for them to have a projecting wing joined to
the house itself in the manner of a gallery, open to the air on all
sides except that by which it communicates with the interior. To this
gallery is fitted the stairway, generally of wood, very simple in form
and generally without balustrades. The materials employed are not
always bamboo and nipa. I have seen the houses of Buquidnons which
have board walls excellently constructed, very strong, but needing
no nails, hammers, or saws. How is that? I will tell something about
it. Here is the crucial point, as one generally says; for some boards
are simply sewn to others. And I must tell another marvel so that
with one surprise we are relieved of another. All the boards have six
holes along their length three on one side and three on the other,
and joining the boards by the edges they pass a bit of very fine and
tough rattan through the said holes, and they are so tightly bound
together that nails are not missed at all. Those who live scattered
in the interior of the woods build their houses low, but raised very
far above the ground through their fear of the spears of their enemies.
Very great is the respect that all these heathens show for their
deceased. Accordingly, they generally bury them in their fields
and with them the spear, bolo, and other precious things which they
especially used during their lifetime. Along the place that the corpse
occupies they heap up the earth, and form a small mound, and at short
intervals in the ground they fasten certain tree trunks in the form
of an X, on top of which they place the bark of a tree, which serves
as a roof for the earth mound, which they consider as sacred. Never
do they forget to suspend from the upper end of a large pole, a small
sack of rice, on which the deceased supports himself until his soul
takes according to them the long road to Mount Bolotucan. Bolotucan
is the highest peak which dominates all the region comprehended
between Jasaán and Lagónlong. When the deceased reaches the summit
of the same he gets into heaven by jumping up, reaching a higher or
lesser point according to the probity of his life, and there he will
remain forever. All the relatives of the deceased, both men and women,
make great demonstrations of grief when death occurs. They let their
hair hang loose as a sign of mourning, and do not bind it up again
until after a greater or less period, according to the love which
they professed for the deceased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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