456 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



domestic tie, no anticipated home-return to hold 

 him back from identifying himself with those 

 among whom his days are henceforth to be passed, 

 his bones at last to rest, having every interest, 

 the highest as the lowest, in common with the 

 sheep of his pasture, whose fleeces lie cannot but 

 desire to guard against all other shears but his 

 own — and, to do him justice, his own do not 

 shear very close — he commonly becomes, and 

 that in the truest and best sense of the term, a 

 very father to his people, and finds in their rever- 

 ence and affection motive enough to encourage 

 him in continuing to deserve the title. To cleri- 

 cal government, paradoxical as the statement may 

 sound in modern European ears, the Philippine 

 Islands owe, more than to anything else, their in- 

 ternal prosperity, the Malay population its suffi- 

 ciency and happiness. This it is that again and 

 again has stood a barrier of mercy and justice 

 between the weaker and the stronger race, the 

 vanquished and the victor ; this has been the 

 steady protector of the native inhabitants, this 

 their faithful benefactor, their sufficient leader 

 and guide. With the cura for father, and the 

 capitan for his adjutant, a Philippine hamlet feels 

 and knows little of the vexations inseparable 

 from direct and foreign official administration ; 

 and, if under such a rule " progress," as we love- 

 to term it, be rare, disaffection and want are 

 rarer still. 



Occasionally the cura is a native by birth, for 

 though excluded by invariable custom and monas- 

 tic disciplinarianism from the " regular," Malays 

 are admitted readily enough into the ranks of the 

 "secular" priesthood. But, while pointedly re- 

 jecting as the figments of a malevolent imagina- 

 tion the calumnies of Jagor and his like against 

 the morals of the Philippine clergy in general, 

 and the native portion of it in particular, I must 

 admit that the results of Malay ordination are 

 seldom as satisfactory as could be desired. The 

 Malays have, in their authentic condition, no 

 regular priesthood, as we understand the word, 

 of their owm nor is their temperament suited to 

 t£. The office is accordingly best filled among 

 them by foreigners, such at least as religious or- 

 ders and monasticism, nor least those of the 

 Spanish type, can supply. 



But we have almost forgotten our capitan, 

 who, with genuine Malay courtesy and self-re- 

 jj stvaint, has been all this while awaiting in silence 

 and respectful expectation the opportunity of ad- 

 dressing us. This he now does, placing his house 

 at our disposal for the day, and pressingly in- 

 viting us to take share in the promised festivities 



of the evening. Knowing as we do that the house 

 he so liberally offers us will be crowded with 

 visitants of all kinds, on ceremonious compliments 

 or indirect business, we decline the first half of 

 his offer, and request for ourselves some quieter 

 shelter till the evening hour. He complies, and 

 passes us over to one of his wealthier friends, who 

 immediately proceeds to take on himself the du- 

 ties of host, by vacating in our favor all the best 

 rooms of his own abode, and converting himself 

 and his family into extemporized cooks and ser- 

 vants during our stay. 



The house, though ranged in what constitutes 

 the main street of the village, stands by itself; 

 no Malay who can possibly avoid it ever con- 

 structing his home in immediate contact with that 

 of another family. The garden which surrounds 

 it, fenced in with wattle, and thick-set with drag- 

 on's-blood plants, purple-blossomed creepers, red 

 coral-plants, and white star-like flowerets, makes 

 a pretty show ; betel-palms and giant bananas 

 shade the inclosure. Raised on thick pieces of 

 stone or wood to a height of six or eight feet from 

 the ground, the house enjoys an almost free cir- 

 culation of the outside air beneath its inhabited 

 apartments on the first floor ; an arrangement 

 which may possibly be a survival of lacustrine 

 constructions and delta-inhabiting ancestors, but 

 which, now observed throughout the Philippines 

 in the driest up-country heights not less than 

 among the dampest marsh-lands, contributes not 

 a little to popular cleanliness and health. The 

 house itself, that is, the upper story, is entered 

 by a wide staircase leading into a broad sort 

 of open passage, called the cahida, facing the 

 street ; its windows are composed of small square 

 panes of thin mother-of-pearl, produce of the 

 Sooloo seas, arranged in lattice-work horizontally 

 or diagonally ; in this cool veranda-like passage 

 the family usually enjoy their leisure, receive 

 visitors, and exchange gossip with the neighbors. 

 Behind it is a large square central room, all doors 

 and windows, the latter also of mother-of-pearl 

 in sliding frames ; here are massed together the 

 costliest articles of furniture owned by the house- 

 hold — chairs, tables, wardrobes, and the rest. As 

 might be expected of a people whose principal 

 constructive material is wood, the Malays display 

 considerable skill and taste in carved work : even 

 the outside decorations round and between the 

 windows and along the string-courses of their 

 buildings are often of much beauty; while in-doors 

 their cabinets and sideboards, well-proportioned 

 and elaborately intricate in decorative finish, 

 might not rarely furnish models to be copied or 



