MALAY LIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



453 



ward and outward turn, the straight dark hair, 

 smooth skin, and small extremities, hands and 

 feet, are not less distinctly the physical counter- 

 signs of Turanian origin, than are the tenacious 

 purpose, the organizing and yet more the cohe- 

 sive power, the limited inventiveness, and the 

 more than conservative immutability, its mental 

 characteristics. Add to these a concentrated, 

 never-absent self-respect, with — its natural re- 

 sult — an habitual self-restraint in word and deed, 

 then only, and that very rarely, broken through 

 when extreme provocation induces the transitory 

 but fatal frenzy known as amok, and in one dead- 

 ly hour the Malay cast3 to the winds every feel- 

 ing, every thought except that of bloody, indis- 

 criminating revenge ; add an inbred courtesy, 

 equably diffused through all classes low or high, 

 unfailing decorum, prudence, caution, quiet cheer- 

 fulness, ready hospitality, a correct though not 

 an inventive taste, and a marked tendency to an- 

 cestral worship — such are, as described by the 

 keenest of observers and most truthfu^ of narra- 

 tors, in his " Malay Archipelago," the general at- 

 tributes of the Malay race; and such are abun- 

 dantly shared in by the inhabitants of the Philip- 

 pines, though here they have undergone certain 

 modifications, some favorable, some the reverse. 



These modifications are, as might be antici- 

 pated, due principally to two important circum- 

 stances : the one, that the Philippine Malays have 

 for now three full centuries been subject to 

 European, i. e., Spanish rule; the second, that 

 they have for an equal length of time followed the 

 religion of their conquerors, the Pioman Catholic 

 form of Christianity. Other things, climate, trade, 

 wars, immigrations, and the like, have no doubt 

 had their effect, but in subordinate measure ; the 

 climate differing little from that of the not distant 

 equatorial islands and peninsula, while the iso- 

 lated and isolating character of Spanish colonial 

 policy has left comparatively little play to the ac- 

 tion of trade or war ; immigration has been con- 

 sidered already. 



How far, then, has Malay nationality submitted 

 to be modified by Spanish influence and institu- 

 tions ; how far has it, instinctively or deliberately, 

 declined them ? A visit to any one of the large 

 villages or pueblos in the populous provinces of 

 Pampangas, Laguna, or Batangas, all of them 

 within easy reach of the government centre, 

 Manila, will best help us to decide. 



It is the morning — needless to say in a cli- 

 mate like this a clear and bright one — of the 

 village patronal fiesta ; each village from Taal, 

 with its sixty thousand inhabitants, down to 



the smallest hamlet of half a dozen families, has 

 its fiesta, one at least, not rarely two, in the 

 course of the year, over and above the stated 

 holiday-making of Sundays and the many other 

 days marked for idleness and pleasure in the 

 Philippine calendar. The open space, corre- 

 sponding to our own village green, and here al- 

 ways in front of the church, is thronged with 

 people, men, women, and children ; while a num- 

 ber of the light, native-constructed jaunting-cars 

 or caramatas, not unlike our own market-carts, 

 but canopied, and of slighter build, that have 

 brought hither the more distant sharers in the 

 day's festivity, are waiting beside by scores, jum- 

 bled up with wicker-work wagons, wheelless 

 bamboo trucks, and two or three shabby open 

 carriages of European construction, in which 

 some wealthier native, or mestizo, i. e., half-caste, 

 family has arrived, in careless confusion. 



A word about these mestizos. Not often the 

 result of Spanish intermarriage, they are very 

 commonly of semi-Chinese origin ; a complexion 

 fairer than the average, a greater breadth of 

 forehead and feature, and a marked tendency to 

 obesity, are their most ordinary distinctive 

 marks. Intellectually they are generally some- 

 what the superiors of the unmixed natives 

 around them. Their number, taken in compari- 

 son with that of the entire population, is not 

 great ; but their wealth and influence go far to 

 make up this deficiency. I return to the Malays 

 proper. 



Thickly grouped before the church-porch and 

 around the building the men, lithe, middle-sized, 

 and ruddy-brown of various shades, are dressed, 

 if of the better sort, in loose shirts or blouses, 

 home-manufactured from the finest fibre of the 

 abaca, or Manila hemp, as the plant (really a ster- 

 ile variety of the ordinary fruit-bearing banana) 

 is called ; or, more delicate yet, from pina, the 

 pineapple-leaf texture, airy as the choicest lace, 

 the peculiar workmanship of the Philippines. 

 White, or light yellow, and interwoven some- 

 times with flower-patterns, more generally with 

 brilliant stripes of Chinese silk, red, yellow, 

 green, or blue, the baro, or 'blouse, is an essen- 

 tially national dress, though in the neighborhood 

 of Manila modified too often into an uncouth 

 resemblance of a European shirt. Beneath it a 

 pair of white or light-colored trousers are belted 

 round the waist ; the feet, usually bare, or pro- 

 tected by sandals at most, are on occasions like 

 this not seldom incased in patent-leather boots 

 of Spanish fashion ; the head is protected by the 

 salacot, a round, mushroom-like hat, of about a 



