Ilocos

“ Ilocanos.—A Malay people, with language of their own. At the discovery they had their peculiar culture and an alphabet. They inhabit the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Union, and form the civic population of Abra, whose Tinguian peasants they Ilocanise. Since they are fond of wandering, their settlements are scattered in other provinces of Luzon, as Benguet, Pampanga, Cagayan, Isabela de Luzon, Pangasinan, Zambales, and Nueva Ecija. They are to be found as far as the east coast of Luzon. They are Christians and civilized. ”

“ Five houses in Bisayas were left with votes, namely, Santísimo Nombre do Jesús, Panay, Barbarán, Passi, and Octóng. Another five votes were left in Ilocos, namely, Bantay, Ilagua, Batac, Nalbacán, and Bauang. Thus twelve votes were taken away from the province of Bisayas, which has sixteen large convents, leaving the vicars, immediate to the chapter, with the authority and power in temporal and spiritual matters, as if they were priors. Only their vote in the chapter was taken away. Of the thirteen convents in the province of Ilocos, eight were deprived of vote. ”

“ Near the boundaries of the province of Ilocos, in the mountains of Cape Engaño, near the province of Cagayán, belonging to the mission of the convent of Bacarra, the conversion of the natives of the villages of Aclán and Vera (now Bangbanglo) was commenced that year by the ardent zeal and diligence of father Fray Benito de Mena, a native of Manila and son of our Manila convent San Pablo; he was a religious of great virtue, and one very fluent in the tongues of Ilocos and Cagayán. Those villages are more than twenty leguas distant from the central town Bacarra ”

“ This chapter established religious in Vigan, or the village of Fernandina, near Bantay. There lives the bishop, to whom this town has been given for his dwelling, and so that he may place there what seculars he wishes. It is the best town in Ilocos, although it has suffered its setbacks from fires, which have caused much damage. The residence of the alcalde-mayor of this province is here. This province is [278] better than all the others, because the Ilocans lead all the other Indians in being clean and heat, and in having large settlements. ”

“ The vast majority of the population have, unfortunately, fallen or remained in a dependent and almost semi-servile position beneath the principales. In Ilocos this subordinate class, or dependientes, is known as kailian, and it was these kailian who now fell upon their more wealthy masters, burning their houses and destroying their property, and in some instances killing them. ”

“ Like the other civilized natives they live principally on rice and fish, which they capture in large quantities. Blumentritt mentions two kinds, the “Ipon” and the “Dolon,” which they salt or pickle.
They have fine cattle, which they sell to the Igorrotes. It will be noted that the Tinguianes, on the other hand, sell cattle to the Ilocanos. The ponies of Ilocos are highly valued in Manila, where there is a great demand for them. They are smaller than the ponies of other provinces, but are very hardy and spirited, and go at a great pace. ”

“ In some places the idolaters molest “the peaceful Christian population,” and make the roads dangerous to travellers. De Mas has gathered information from various sources, and from him I shall select a few particulars; but it appears to me there is too much generalization as to the unsubjugated tribes, who are to be found in various stages of civilization and barbarism. The Tinguianes of Ilocos cultivate extensive rice-fields, have large herds of cattle and horses, and carry on a considerable trade with the adjacent Christian population. The Chinese type is said to be traceable in this race. ”

“ The houses are all built of wood, and therefore liable to many fires, so that scarcely a year passes when some convent does not burn. Now they have begun to roof the houses with stone, that is, tile. This was begun by father Fray Francisco de Mercado,118 who has often been prior of Ilaoag—which [279] has more than one thousand five hundred Indians—and at other times vicar-provincial of the same province.119
This province is considered to have a great advantage over the others; for when the Chinese arrive late, and cannot anchor or go to Manila, they enter some port or river of Ilocos. ”

“ There they found that aged chieftain sitting in the great hall, upon a soft couch spread with purple coverings. His hair and his long beard were white as the driven snow, and his hands trembled from very feebleness, for he was exceeding old. He spoke kindly to Odysseus, and asked many questions about his father Laertes, and his home in Ithaca; but he seemed most pleased when the young man told him of his visit, when a boy, to Iolcos and Mount Pelion. For Iolcos had been the home of Neleus in his youth; and he it was who had helped Pelias drive Æson from the kingdom which was his by right. ”

“ However, these vices are not so common as they were formerly. And not only would the Indians of these islands have been consumed if the Spaniards had not come hither, but they would have been conquered and enslaved by the neighboring nations, such as the Borneans, Chinese, and Japanese, as we see in the books of history.
” ... The principales were the aim of the popular wrath in the Ilocan insurrection in 1807. ‘Kill all the lords and ladies’ was the cry, while the people hastened toward the capital to petition for the abolition of the monopolies and the fifths. ”

“ Nothing especially of interest is to be found at Iloilo,—only a long avenue containing Spanish, [65] native, and Chinese stores; a tiny plaza, where the city band played and the people promenaded hand in hand; a harbor flecked with white, triangular sails of native velas; and the river, where the coasting boats and tugs are lying at the docks. Neat cattle take the place of carabaos here to a great extent. There is the usual stone fort that seems to belong to some scene of a comic opera. America was represented here by a Young Men’s Christian Association, a clubhouse, and a presidente. ”

“ Here the Ilocanes, or the natives of the better class, the Christians of these provinces, although of Malay origin, belong to a more cultured class of Malay ancestry. They are amenable to Christian influences, and their manners are agreeable and pleasing. They cultivate abundant quantities of sugar, cotton, indigo, rice, and tobacco, and the women weave the famous Ilocano [56] blankets that are sold at such a premium in Manila. ”

“ We speak in all kindliness when we say that they are distinguished by a certain restlessness of disposition, by a considerable degree of vanity. They are not so given to labor as some others—for example, the Ilokanos, [219] to whom they are measurably inferior in point of trustworthiness. More numerous than any other tribe except the Visayans, they are also wealthier and better educated. ”

“ I cannot remember whether we occupied all that night and the next day in getting down to Iloilo or whether we made Iloilo in twelve hours. I do remember the night trip down the east coast of Panay, with Negros on the invisible left, and all about us a chain of little islands where the fisher folk were engaged in their night work of spearing fish by torchlight. Dim mountainous shapes would rise out of the sea and loom vaguely in the starlit distance, the curving beaches at their bases outlined by the torches in the bancas till they looked like boulevards with their lines of flickering lamps. ”

“ When a white man for the first time enters one of their tupics or igloos, he is nauseated with everything he sees and smells—even disgusted with the looks of the innocent natives, who extend to him the best hospitality their means afford. Take, for instance, the igloo in which I had an excellent dinner on the day last mentioned. Any one from the States, if entering this igloo with me, would see a company of what he would call a dirty set of human beings, mixed up among masses of nasty, uneatable flesh, skins, blood, and bones, scattered all about the igloo. ”

“ A tropical climate, ample means of subsistence, and their consequence, a concentrated and fixed population, raised the ancient inhabitants of Mexico, and some other leading nations on the continent, 4 to a state of ease and semi-civilization, which have commanded the surprise and admiration of historians. But it may be said, in truth, that, in their fine physical type, and in their energy of character, and love of independence, no people, among the aboriginal race, have ever exceeded, if any has ever equalled, the Iroquois. ”

“ This college is located in the island of Panay, in the hamlet called formerly Arevalo, and now Iloilo. It was founded by the alms of private persons, and consequently has no patron. There are six religious there and in the mission village of Ilog in the island of Negros, which belongs to it. In their charge is the chaplaincy of the presidio of the Spaniards, and the mission to the natives and those of other nationalities belonging to this presidio. The mission village of Ilog is also located near by, and is in the island called Negros. ”

“ Most of the Ilocanos are in the western half of north Luzon; most of the Bicols in south Luzon; most of the Pangasinaus in the province of Pangasinan, which borders on the Gulf of Lingayén; most of the Pampangans in the province of Pampanga, which borders the north shore of Manila Bay; and most of the Cagayáns in the valley of the Cagayán river. More than three-fourths of the wild population is included in the Moro, Igorot and Negrito tribes. The Igorots (197,938 wild and 13,582 civilized) are the chief representatives of the early Malay immigration to the archipelago. ”

“ There was an oracle of God which said that Pelias should die by force or by stern counsels of the proud sons of Aiolos, and there had come to him a prophecy that froze his cunning heart, spoken at the central stone of tree-clad mother Earth, that by every means he should keep safe guard against the man of one sandal, whensoever from a homestead on the hills he shall have come to the sunny land of glorious Iolkos, whether a stranger or a citizen he be. ”

“ And so, the next day, the two went out of Iolcos, through vineyards and fields and olive orchards, towards Pelion, the snow-crowned warder of the shore. They followed a winding pathway, and came ere long to the foot of the mighty mountain. Above them were frowning rocks, and dark forests of pine, which seemed ready to fall upon and crush them. But among the trees, and in the crannies of the rocks, there grew thousands of sweetest flowers, and every kind of health giving herb, and tender grass for the mountain-climbing deer. ”

“ I am Ulysses, and dwell in Ithaca, an island which contains a high mountain called Neritum. In its neighbourhood there are other islands near to one another, Dulichium, Same, and Zacynthus. It lies on the horizon all highest up in the sea towards the 25 West, while the other islands lie away from it to the East. This is the island which I would reach, for however fine a house a man [Pg 42] may have in a land where his parents are not, there will still be nothing sweeter to him than his home and his own father and mother. ”

“ Either Olympus or Pelion would be the natural base on which to pile up the other mountains. By turning around and looking astern one sees Parnassus, which in ordinary company would absorb attention, but is here dwarfed by the sight of Olympus. In such company Othrys, on our left, hardly counts at all.
The near view with its associations claims attention. Here in the middle of Volo is the site of Iolkos, from which the Argonauts sailed out through this very bay into the distant Euxine on their daring quest. ”

“ When the Jap girl leaped through the smoke hole of the igloo at East Cape she rolled like a purple ball off the roof. Jumping to her feet she darted down the row of igloos. Pausing for a dash into an igloo, she emerged a moment later bearing under one arm a pile of fur garments and under the other some native hunting implements. Then she made a dash for the shore ice.
It was at this juncture that the first Chukche emerged from the large igloo. At his heels roared the whole gang. Like a pack of bloodthirsty hounds, they strove each one to keep first place in the race. ”

“ The Iroquois, in their best days, were the noblest and most interesting of all Indians who have lived on this continent north of Mexico. They were truly the men whom a name they bore described, a word signifying men who surpassed all others. They alone founded political institutions and gained political supremacy. With European civilization unknown to them, they had given birth to self-government in America. ”

“ Opposite the northern end of the island, though much nearer to Samos (Kephallenia) than to Ithaca, is the only island in the whole strait, needing to be magnified a good deal to suit the story of the Odyssey; but what poet ever denied himself the right to magnify? And looking toward this little island is the only harbor on this (western) side of Ithaca, a deep indentation running far into the land, now called “Polis Bay,” a reminiscence of the fact that a city once stood here. ”

“ A little farther on is Ithaca, whose connection with the Odyssey has made it familiar to every student of Greek, for the wanderings and misfortunes, the sufferings and the fortitude of Ulysses, the king of this island, have been handed down to us in one of the most fascinating stories of adventure. His descendants occupy Ithaca to-day, and are distinguished for their bold seamanship, their love of home, their hospitality and their courage, and their mercantile instincts have made them rich. ”