PHILIPPINE HATS. 
99 
to the two towns in the southeastern corner of Laguna, Majaijai and 
Luisiana. At the former, it has been used for about two hundred years, 
at the latter about fifty. At both there is an extension of the buntal 
work from Lucban, in Tayabas, but this is of recent date, at Luisiana 
this began in 1900, at Majaijai the first teaching commenced in Sep- 
tember, 1904. The result of the latter is the most conspicuous success 
of the school work in the Islands, as the town not only supplies all its 
own wants, but exports hats to the value of 400 pesos per week. At 
Lucban, the buntal work is of long standing, but I have been unable to 
obtain estimates. 
The quotation already cited from Ca'vanilles gives the earliest data procured 
for the southern provinces. Tomas de Comyn, in a work written abput 1810 
and published in 1820, mentions “Sombreros de nito superfinos Albay y Cama- 
rines” and “Sombreros de bejuco de colores Pangasinan,” 20 the latter doubtless 
from Calasiao. 
Buzeta’s dictionary, the materials for which were largely compiled before 
1842, refers to the making of fine hats at Baliuag and San Isidro (now Pulilan) 
in Bulacan, Calasiao in Pangasinan, and Camaligan in Camarines. This work 
also has the earliest reference found to an existing export trade. In 1841, “La 
Australia * * * Sidney saca sombreros;” and “Manila exporta para dicho 
punto (Singapur), sombreros y petacas de bejuco y nito.” 21 ' 
Mallat 22 notes hats of bejuco and nito as made in Bulacan, but says nothing 
of its present chief material, bamboo, this being in accordance with local tradition. 
Jagor, who visited the Philippines in 1859 and 1860, describes the Manilans 
as wearing salacots, refers to the cigarette-eases of Baliuag, but not .to its hats, 
and figures the knife still often used there for preparing the strands, speaks of 
fine buntal hats made at Lucban, cheap bamboo hats and more expensive salacots 
in Camarines, and figures a nito salacot from the Visayas. 23 
The Sociedad economica del Amigos del Pais, so active in the commercial 
development of the Philippines half a century ago, appropriated 500 pesos to 
buy specimens illustrating the industries of the country for exhibit at the London 
Exhibition of 1851. Their minutes have been destroyed by fire, but copies of 
the official reports have been obtained through the kindness of Lieutenant-Colonel 
D. Prain, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. They speak in the 
highest terms of the material bejuco and of cigarette-cases woven from it, for 
which medals were awarded. The actual hat exhibit seems to have been confined 
to the crown of one of bejuco. In 1862, a more extended exhibit was made, in- 
cluding hats from Pangasinan, mats from Pangasinan, Zambales, and Bulacan, 
and cigarette-cases. 
A very wide variety of Philippine products was shown at Madrid, in 1887, 
and among these, hats took a prominent place, representing many localities and 
materials. The list is so extended that it may be taken as a a good index of 
the industry at its height under Spanish auspices. Omitting a fairly large 
“Las Islas Filipinas progresos en 70 anos. Reprint (1878) 195, 196. 
21 Buzeta, M. Diccionario geogr&fieo, estadfstico, historieo, de las Islas Fili- 
pinas. 1 (1850) 234. 
“Mallat, J. Les Philippines. (1846) 192. 
23 Jagor, F. Reisen im Philippinen (1873) 25, 48, 59, 128, 227. 
