300 



MANILLA. 



straw hat, and around the head or neck a many-coloured silk hand- 

 kerchief. They often wear slippers as well as shoes. The Chinese 

 dress, as they have done for centuries, in loose white shirts and 

 trousers. One peculiarity of the common men is their passion for 

 cock-fighting ; and they carry these fowls wherever they go, after a 

 peculiar fashion under their arm. 



Cock-fighting is licensed by the government, and great care is 

 taken in the breeding of game fowls, which ai'e very large and heavy 

 birds. They are armed with a curved double-edged gaff. The 

 exhibitions are usually crowded with half-breeds or mestizoes, who 

 are generally more addicted to gambling than either the higher or 

 lower classes of Spaniards. It would not be an unapt designation to 

 call the middling class cock-fighters, for their whole lives seem to be 



2> - 3fs= 



MANILLA COSTUMES. 



taken up with the breeding and fighting of these birds. On the exit 

 from a cockpit, I was much amused with the mode of giving the 

 return check, which was done by a stamp on the naked arm, and 

 precludes the possibility of its transfer to another person. The dress 

 of the lower order of females is somewhat civilized, yet it bore so 

 strong a resemblance to that, of the Polynesians as to recall the latter 

 to our recollection. A long piece of coloured cotton is wound round 

 the body, like the pareu, and tucked in at the side : this covers the 



