VENTURELLO] MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF TAGBANUAS 555 
After the harvest there is a period of almost complete inaction. 
They go about from place to place as the spirit moves them either 
along the sea to fish or to the mountains to gather whatever they 
may desire. 
The Batacs of the plains weave the small baskets known as 
baay, but never in quantities sufficient even for their own use. 
_They do not weave the beautiful petates which the Apurahuanos 
and Palawanos make. They are people who are very dirty, uncivil- 
ized and enemies to any kind of toil. They never work unless they 
are hungry. They eat like beasts, each man being able to hold as 
much as two able-bodied men of our kind; a fact which I found out 
upon different occasions when I employed Batacs to work the soil 
and plant the palay during the six years I lived in Caruray. After 
having eaten they want to lie down, for they do not like to work 
when they are filled or satisfied. 
The Batacs trade with the Christians and Tagbanuas. They 
bring from the mountains almaciga, bejuco, and beeswax in ex- 
change for bolos, cooking utensils, etc., which are always paid for 
in advance. They are so very lazy that never do they fully pay, 
with the products brought from the interior, for the articles which 
were advanced to them by the trader. Consequently they are al- 
ways involved in debt. The debtor is converted into a sort of slave. 
Thus he is obliged to go to the mountains to gather the products 
thereof, whenever his creditor desires him to do so. 
They have no weights and measures of their own invention; the 
gantas and weights which they use are those of the Christians. Very 
seldom do they use the chinantanan of the Apurahuanos and Pala- 
wanos. The measure of the arm and palm, of course, is in constant 
use. 
The arms of the Batacs are the bow and arrow, the blow-gun, and 
the lance. The use no guns, krises, or bolos. The darts and ar- 
rows are made of the palma brava. Their form is that of a harpoon. 
This arrow is used only against their enemies. 
There are three kinds of musical instruments which this tribe 
use that merit special mention. 
The codiape is a sort of guitar, six or more feet in length. 
It has only two cords of the fiber of the olango or bancuang. 
The form of this instrument varies. Some are very large and 
shaped like the head of an alligator. It is played either by man 
or woman while the other sings the song known as avellano. 
The budlong is a joint of cafia espino with a hole in its center 
