Reese, A. M.

English

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LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 217fingers. Just before he touches the rice, a woman uses her fan andthe paper rice flies all around.When all the jokes have been played at the expense of thehungry bride and the groom, they are given good things to eat.Curtain falls with the end of the midnight breakfast.LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE.BY A. M. REESE.''T^HE little village or barrio of Mariveles is situated just insideA the narrow cape that forms the northern border of the entranceto Manila Bay. The city of Manila lies out of sight, thirty miles tothe southeast, but the island of Corregidor lies only seven miles toMARIVELES VILLAGE AND MOUNTAIN, FROM MANILA BAY.the south, and the great searchlights at night are quite dazzlingwhen turned directly upon the village. A large amount of moneyhas recently been spent in fortifying Corregidor until it is nowconsidered practically impregnable.The village extends for about half a mile close along the beach218 THE OPEN COURT.and is flanked, on the west, by the buildings of a United Statesquarantine station.OUR RESIDENCE ON "WASHINGTON STREET."Arriving by a very dilapidated launch from Manila I waitedatthe government dock while the native boy I had broughtwith meLIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 219went to the village to find, if possible, a vacant house. He soonreturned, with another boy to help carry our baggage, (there wasnot a cart or wagon of any sort in the place) and with the informa-tion that he had engaged a house for our use. A whole house fortwo people sounded rather formidable but as this house containedonly two rooms its rental was not as extravagant as might havebeen imagined. It was located on the main thoroughfare which hadthe very American name of Washington Street. Like the typicalnative house, our Washington Street mansion was built chiefly ofbamboo and nipa palm, with a few heavier timbers in the frame-NATIVE GIRL CARRYING BASKET OF CLOTHES.work. Upon the main timbers of the frame was built a sort oflattice of split bamboo, upon which in turn was sewed, shinglewise,close layers of nipa palm that are quite impervious to rain, arefairly durable, and are very inflammable. The people's floor waselevated four or five feet above the ground, thereby securing not onlyair and dryness for the people above, but also providing a veryconvenient chicken-coop and pig-pen beneath. The floor was madeof split bamboo which made sweeping easy—merely a matter ofpushing the dirt through the cracks between the strips of bamboo.Although the smell of even a clean pig under the dining-room220 THE OPEN COURT.table is rather objectionable at first, as is the crowing of two orthree roosters early in the morning, it is surprising how soon onebecomes accustomed to these little annoyances, and it simplifiesdomestic science considerably to be able to throw, from one's scatat table, banana skins and other scraps through a convenient holein the floor and have them immediately disposed of by the pig andchickens beneath.The dining room, as in many American houses, also served asa kitchen. The stove was a large box, elevated two or three feetTHE CHIEF STORE OF MARIVELES.from the floor, lined with baked clay upon which the fire is made.Large iron spikes, arranged in groups of three, may be imbedded inthe clay to hold one or more pots of different sizes. There was nochimney, but a convenient window carried out the smoke quiteeffectively. The fire-wood was stored under the house in the pig-pen and consisted chiefly of short sticks of such diameter as couldbe easily cut with the large knife or bolo that the natives wearsuspended from a belt at the waist. The sticks, when the cookingis done, are simply withdrawn from beneath the pot and lie readyto be pushed in again when the fire is lit for the next meal. A veryLIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 221few sticks will thus serve for cooking a large number of the simplenative meals. Opening from the kitchen was the front door, leadingto the ground by a flight of stairs or a ladder. Thanks to the UnitedStates Mariveles is supplied with. abundant water, piped from somemiles up in the mountains, and some of the better houses of thebarrio have a private faucet on the back porch, which is luxuryindeed. The main room of the house was used as a living roomand bedroom. In such houses there are usually large windows,without sash of course, which are shaded by day and closed bynight and in severe storms by a hinged awning of nipa, seen in theTHE OLD CHURCH.photographs. In spite of the warmth nearly all natives close thewindow shades tight when they sleep, so that, in spite of the numer-ous cracks, the ventilation must be very bad ; this may partly accountfor the prevalence of tuberculosis on the islands.Around the better houses in such a barrio is usually seen ahigh fence generally made of closely set vertical saplings, driven intothe ground and bound together with rattan at the top ; this fenceserves to keep the chickens in, and, at night, to keep prowlinganimals out.Many of the houses have a tiny store at the ground level in222 THE OPEN COURT.0.--ill I nil 11oouCOuI—(•JpqPWw>LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 223which a small stock of canned goods, native fruits, dried fish,native shoes etc. may be seen. One of the main department storesof Mariveles is shown in the accompanying photograph, with thevery American sign at the side of the entrance.Like many native villages Mariveles has' a large stone church,with red tile roof, bell tower, etc. ; it is now in such bad repair asto be unsafe, so that a crude shed with thatched sides and corru-gated iron roof has been built to take its place. No priest nowlives in this barrio and the shed-like church did not have the ap-pearance of being much used.THE TELEGRAPH AND POST OFFICE.The village school, on the other hand, gave every indicationof activity. Although not housed ni a very handsome building, aglance through the windows and door showed many students ofvarious ages all apparently busy and orderly under the supervisionof several neat and bright looking native women.On the same street with the school a link with the outside worldwas seen in the sign "Telegraph and Post Office." This office wasin charge of a native who, unlike most of the residents of the barrio,spoke English. In these villages it is usually easy to find natives224 THE OPEN COURT.who speak Spanish, but it is frequently difficult to find one whounderstands English.The men of the village were mostly engaged, though not verystrenuously, in the rice paddies or in fishing. The women lookedafter the housekeeping, washing, tending the stores, etc., and theirposition of respect and authority in the homes and in society wasin marked contrast to that of other oriental and even of some Euro-pean women.A tiny story across the street from where we lived was tendedduring most of the day and in the evenings by an attractive youngnative woman who seemed to be quite a belle. Every evening, atabout dark, a dapper young native, in an American suit of white,always appeared and seated himself upon the bench in front of thestore, where he could see and talk to his brunette lady love withoutinterfering with her commercial duties, which were not heavy. Oftenseveral other suitors appeared and, while it was not possible tounderstand what was said, since the conversation was all in Tagalog,from the frequent laughter it was evident that the girl was as ableto entertain several admirers at once as are some of her blondsisters across the sea. Her voice was softer and her laugh moreattractive than many an American belle of high social standing.In fact the women of this island village were, as a class, of remark-able dignity and modesty, so that there was probably less to shockone's modesty here than at many a fashionable American wateringplace. Of course ignorance of their language made it impossibleto understand all that was going on, but to judge by their actionsand the tones of their voices it would seem that their family lifeis as peaceful and happy as that of the average American family.It is truly the "simple life" that they lead, and to us it seems avery narrow one; yet it has its advantages over the "strenuous life"that most of us are .compelled to live. There was little or nodrunkenness or quarreling among the men, whose chief vice seemedto be gambling.This gambling instinct is gratified mainly by means of thecockpit. One of the most familiar sights of the islands is thenative man with a game cock or just a plain rooster under his arm.They pet and fondle these birds as we do cats or lap-dogs, and onSundays (alas!) they gather at the cockpits to match their favoritesagainst each other. Many barrios have large covered pits seatinghundreds of people. The pit of Mariveles, which happened to bein the yard next to ours, was simply a square of about twenty feetenclosed by a low bamboo fence, in the shade of a huge acacia tree.LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 225Around this square were gathered about one hundred men (prob-ably all of the men of the barrio) and two or three women, and weshall hope that the few women who were there to witness so un-pleasant a spectacle were looking after their husbands to see thatthey did not bet too heavily.Inside the square were two or three officials, and two menholding the two contesting birds. A man at a table outside held thestakes and presumably kept track of the bettors, odds, etc. Insteadof the weapons provided by nature each bird had securely fastenedto his left leg, in place of the spur that had been cut off, a villain-NAii\E BAiNL^A NEAR MARIVELES.ously sharp steel spur, slightly curved and about three inches long.A well directed thrust from this steel weapon may kill the victimalmost instantly, and one victim was already hanging head-downto a near-by tree when I entered.While the bets were being arranged each bird was held, inturn, to let the other peck him ferociously, probably with the ideaof making them mad enough to fight. When the bets were all ar-ranged the birds were placed on the ground facing each other, andwith lowered heads and neck feathers erected they dashed togetherlike tigers, jumping high over each other and endeavoring to stab226 THE OPEN COURT.one another with their artificial weapons. In the one fight wit-nessed (and one was enough to learn the ways of the cockpit) bothbirds were soon bleeding profusely and had lost their desire tofight, so that the crowd called out some word and the cocks werepicked up and "sicked" on each other again ; this was repeateduntil one bird had enough and retreated ignominiously to the farth-est corner of the pit, amid the shouts of the men who had bet on theother cock. In many cases, it is said, the vanquished bird is killedoutright before he has time to retreat.The sport, while rather exciting, is certainly demoralizing,especially with the betting that always accompanies it.A SCHOOLHOUSE IN ILOILO.Such is the life of these simple people. Of course among theless civilized and the savage tribes conditions are very different,and a white man would not dare enter so intimately into the lifeof a barrio ; in fact in some regions it is very unsafe to go outsideof the army posts without a proper guard.As to the character of the civilized Filipinos opinion seems todiffer among the Americans of the Islands. That they are notyet capable of self-government seems to be almost universally be-lieved by Americans who have lived among them ; and that they arenot energetic as a class is only what might be expected in such aclimate. Some Americans have a rather high opinion of the moralTHE IDEA OF MORAL HERITAGE IN THE JAPANESE FAMILY. 227character and general trustworthiness of the average native ; othersdo not hold such a high opinion of him and consider him the inferiorof the x\merican negro, mentally, morally and physically. As stu-dents in the University of the Philippines it is said they comparefavorably with students in American universities.Doubtless there is as much variation, mental and moral, amongthe natives of the Philippine Islands as among the inhabitants ofan Anglo-Saxon country, so that one's opinions are apt to be in-fluenced by the class of natives with which he chiefly comes incontact.THE IDEA OF MORAL HERITAGE IN THEJAPANESE FAMILY.BY M. ANESAKI.JAPAN has now emerged from the feudal regime, but hardlyenough to be completely emancipated from various ideas andpractices cherished for centuries during the old regime. Gravequestions in the moral life of new Japan arise out of the relationand conflicts between the inherited conception of the family tie andthe new life of the individual. The change in social life wroughtby the rising industrialism is disintegrating the bonds and usagesof the old communal system ; but, on the other hand, the moraltradition of the family system is an abiding force and is deemedby national leaders to be the essential kernel of social life in Japan.What will be the outcome of the two counteracting forces, old andnew? This is a question which awaits a solution in the future.I shall try to present here the ideal of family integrity in its histor-ical development, giving special attention to that important part ofits history, in the fourteenth century, when an eager effort fornational unity was combined with a zeal for the perpetuation offamily tradition.Speaking in general, the national history of Japan shows alter-nate ups and downs of the clan spirit and the state ideal, and inmany stages an interesting combination of the two. The dawnof Japanese history is marked by the predominance of clan life.Though many clans were serving the ruling family who werebelieved to be the descendants of the Sun-Goddess, many of themwere semi-independent tribes, united by blood or by the relationof lord and serf and having their definite territories ruled over

Life in a Philippine Village (Illustrated).

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Life in a Philippine Village (Illustrated).

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