[129] Salt is produced by evaporation, from a method taught prior to the coming of the Spaniards by the Chinese. Sea-water, enclosed in a depression surrounded by dykes, is evaporated by the sun's rays; when the water has disappeared, the salt deposited on the floor of the basin is gathered up and cleaned by filtration. See Census of Philippines, iv, p. 469. [130] This is the Musa sapientum, which is a variety of banana. This fiber is inferior to abacá. See Census of Philippines, iv, p. 167. [131] See Census of Philippines, i, pp. 566, 567, for the industrial life of the Moros. The occupation of smith is especially honorable. [132] The Coripha minor. Its trunk is black and very straight, and the wood is very hard. It is also used for making stockades and for conducting water. See Blanco, p. 161. [133] Blanco describes a shrub called tubli, the fruit of which is very small, and which he does not believe to belong to the species Galactia under which he describes it. The lagtan or lactang (Anamirta cocculus) is a coarse woody plant whose stems are used for tying and binding. The wood is of a yellow color. It like the preceding plant makes the fish that eat mixtures containing it exhibit the appearance of intoxication so that they can be caught by the hand. The fruit is called bayati by the natives. See Census of Philippines, iv, p. 155; Blanco, pp. 411, 557, 558. [134] The claims often put forward by many writers that some of the peoples of the Philippines arise from a mixture of Chinese and Japanese blood with the Malay have no foundation. The Chinese have, it is true, mingled with almost every tribe in the archipelago, but they have not given rise to a new tribe or race. [135] i.e., They are a Negrito tribe. [136] This is the Calamus maximus, a very large species of rattan. See Blanco, pp. 185, 186; and Census of Philippines, iv, p. 159. [137] See ante, p. 241, note 106. [138] Throughout the friar chronicles and accounts the words "reduce" and "reduction" are frequently employed. As used the words have a rather wide application. The primary meaning is of course "conversion" to the Christian faith, but along with this idea must be understood the settlement of the converts in villages in a civilized manner, where they could be under the immediate eye of their spiritual directors. Hence the words bear in a sense a two-fold meaning--the one religious, and the other civil. [139] An allusion to Joseph Montano's Rapport à M. le ministre de l'instruction publique sur une Mission aux Îles Philippines et en Malaise (Paris, 1885). Of him Pardo de Tavera says (Biblioteca filipino, p. 270): "Doctor Montano is a French anthropologist and physician.... This book is very important and the author divides it into five parts, namely, geology, meteorology, anthropology, pathology, and dialects and political geography, with a few notices regarding agriculture and commerce. The most important chapters are those relating to anthropology and linguistics."