86 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
used by every Philippine people to flavor their daily 
diet. It may be added that not only is there always a 
full set of names for each of the many varieties of rice, 
but that rice in the husk or on the stalk is invariably 
known by a different name from cooked rice, precisely 
as we distinguish wheat and flour or cattle and beef. 
Various Food Plants. While rice is the represen- 
tative food of the Philippines and the only one that has 
impressed native imagination, it is far from being con- 
sumed in such preponderance as its leading place and 
high estimation might suggest. In fact, rice seems to 
constitute rather less than half the total food eaten in 
the archipelago. In Mindanao, where irrigation was 
slightly developed but the equatorial climate provided 
an unusual variety of other useful plants, the first 
Spaniards reported that comparatively little rice was 
grown; and this condition has been maintained, at 
least relatively, to most the islands. It is however true 
that the other food plants are of many kinds, and that 
any one of them alone is usually eaten to a less 
extent than rice. 
The one crop that as regards quantity is a rival of 
rice, and in certain districts surpasses it, is the camote 
or sweet potato, Batatas edulis. A century or so after 
their arrival, some of the Spaniards got it into their 
heads that this plant had been imported by them from 
Mexico, and the statement is still sometimes repeated. 
But the first explorers distinctly mention the camote, 
and there can be no doubt that it had long been one of 
the principal objects of cultivation. It requires much 
less care than rice, and can be grown, for a few years at 
least, on soil that would not yield the latter crop. 
Among the irrigating tribes that prize their rice ter- 
races as their most valuable possessions, sweet potato 
fields are sold only for nominal sums such as the value 

