

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 41 1 



may have been strongly impregnated with various volcanic 

 gases and salts. 



The upper slopes of the mountains of Camiguin Island were 

 thickly wooded. The lower slopes were cleared and planted 

 with Manila hemp. A Manila hemp plantation is not at all 

 pleasant or easy to traverse. The large trees, a species of 

 Banana (Musa texiilis) from the stems of which the fibres known 

 as Manila hemp are obtained by maceration, are planted closely 

 together. The plantations are full of fallen stems, which block 

 the way, and are in a half decayed condition, nasty pasty masses 

 which it is very unpleasant to handle and climb over, or crawl 

 beneath. 



The ship stopped three days at the town of Ilo Ilo, the 

 head-quarters of the manufacture of a sort of fine muslin, made 

 out of the fibre of pine-apples, and which is known as " pifia." 

 This fabric is highly prized by the native Malay and miscella- 

 neous half-caste beauties, but apparently does not find much 

 favour in Europe, because of its always having a dusky tint. A 

 similar fabric is woven in some parts of India. 



Manila, November 5th to 12th, 1814, January 11th to 14th, 1815. 



— As we entered the Bay of Manila, there greeted us the cow- 

 like moan of an American-built steamer, so different from the 

 English whistle, and I felt at once that we had, as it were, 

 turned the corner of the world in our long voyage. 



The dress of the Bisayan and Tagalese and half-caste 

 men is very ludicrous. They wear an ordinary shirt without 

 tucking the flaps in. The flaps hang over their trousers, 

 reminding one of the Australian Black's description of a 

 clergyman, as "white fellow belong Sunday, wear shirt over 

 trousers." Men who are well to do wear elaborately em- 

 broidered and very transparent shirts of piiia.* The shirt is the 

 article of dress on which the wearer prides himself most, and 

 especially is he gratified by the beauty of its front. 



The dress of the children at Ilo Ilo and Zamboanga was 

 interesting. It was evidently put on them in many cases by the 



* The men similarly in Nicaragua wear their shirts over their trousers. 

 See Thos. Belt, F.L.S., " The Naturalist in Nicaragua," p. 63. London, 

 John Murray, 1874. 



