454 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



foot in diameter, close plaited in gray and black 

 intersecting patterns of tough nito or liana fibre ; 

 the circumference tastefully ornamented svith sil- 

 ver bands and flowerets, an excellent and pictu- 

 resque sun-shade, ill exchanged, though happily 

 but seldom, for the European hat of silk or 

 straw. The poorer classes wear a like dress, 

 but of coarser materials, in which red or orange 

 commonly predominates, and on the head a salacot 

 devoid of ornament. But while the men's attire, 

 though national in the main, shows occasional 

 tokens of European influence, the women, wuh 

 wise conservatism, retain their graceful Malay 

 costume unaltered as of old. Wrapped in the 

 many-colored folds of the silken sai/a, or sarong, 

 and over it a second but narrower waist-cloth, 

 also of silk, reaching down to the knees, and 

 dark in hue ; her breast and shoulders covered 

 with delicate piiia texture, wbile the matchless 

 abundance of her raven hair ripples from under 

 a white snooded kerchief far down her back, not 

 seldom to her very heels, a Malay woman could 

 hardly, even did she wish it, improve on the toi- 

 let bequeathed by her ancestors. Silver or gold 

 ornaments are not much in feminine use. It is 

 true that the Malay type of face is generally too flat 

 for regular beauty, and the eye, though larger 

 than the Chinese, is seldom full-sized ; but many 

 of the younger women are decidedly pretty, a few 

 lovely, and an habitual look of smiling good-na- 

 ture goes far to render pleasing the less Nature- 

 favored . faces. Their complexion is a clear 

 brown, sometimes hardly darker than that of an 

 ordinary South European brunette. Children, 

 absolutely naked, or with a light and scanty 

 shirt for sole covering, mix fearlessly but quietly 

 in the throng ; early trained by precept ar.d ex- 

 ample to good manners, they show less disposi- 

 tion to noise and mischief than is ordinary else- 

 where at their age. 



Such are the festival-makers. The church- 

 buildings, including a spacious presbytery, are 

 generally the design and construction of the par- 

 ish priest himself, who has in them maintained a 

 traditional adaptation of the Renaissance style 

 of his own Spanish Peninsula. The frequency 

 of earthquakes in this volcanic region counsels 

 low side-walls, flanked by ponderous buttresses ; 

 a massive octangular bell-tower, with indications 

 of good taste and architectural feeling in its pro- 

 portions and details, is usually the best feature 

 of the whole. 



Within the church the rites and ceremonies 

 of the day — a Malay sermon delivered by one 

 or other of the officiating priests excepted — are 



much what they might be in any small provincial 

 town of Spain itself. But the music, contributed 

 by a native brass band, is not European merely, 

 but, the most of it, operatic. The " Gloria " is 

 accompanied by an inspiriting air of the " Trova- 

 tore," the " Credo " cheered by a melodious adap- 

 tation from the " Barbiere," and the host elevated 

 to a passionate outburst of the " Traviata." But, 

 whatever may be thought of the suitableness of the 

 music to the occasion and place, it meets beyond 

 a c'lubt all the aesthetic requirements of the wor- 

 shipers, and is well executed besides. Not a vil- 

 lage of any importance throughout the length 

 and breadth of the Philippines but has its band 

 of carefully-selected and expensive brass instru- 

 ments, and skilled players to match ; for, next to 

 his fighting-cock, of which more anon, music is 

 the dearest solace of the Philippine Malay ; and 

 the ex-bandmasters of the numerous native regi- 

 ments here maintained by the Spaniards are al- 

 ways ready to hire out their services as profess- 

 ors of the art wherever wanted. Of the origi- 

 nal native music, prior in date to the Spanish 

 conquest, little now remains — its connection 

 with an older paganism, perhaps patriotism, hav- 

 ing caused it to be proscribed and carefully put 

 down by the later clergy ; two such airs I had, 

 however, a chance opportunity of hearing: they 

 were of a sentimental and somewhat pathetic 

 character. 



Inside and without the church decorations 

 testify to Mariolatry, Hagiolatry, and the entire 

 system habitually branded by those who wish to 

 give it a bad name as " idolatry," " man-wor- 

 ship," " creature-worship," and the like, here 

 carried out to its extremest limits, and constitut- 

 ing in practice nine-tenths, or rather more, of the 

 religion of the land. It is a religion admirably 

 adapted to the requirements of the people, and 

 proportionately beneficial. Ancestor-worship in 

 one form or other has ever been, as Mr. Fergus- 

 son correctly remarks, and yet is, the favorite 

 expression of religious feeling among Turanian 

 races ; and the Malays, themselves the southmost 

 branch of the great ethnical tree, are no excep- 

 tions to the rule. Here in the Philippines they 

 have, with the easy pliancy in such matters that 

 once covered the equatorial island-group with 

 Brahmanical temples, and facilitated the spread 

 of Buddhism among their cousins of China and 

 Japan, adopted without questioning the Catholic- 

 Christiah system, and placed its mythico-histori- 

 cal virgins, saints, and martyrs, at the head of the 

 unseen kingdom already tenanted by their own 

 proper ancestors and relatives, till they now re- 



