Travels in the Philippines by Fedor Jagor

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Citation

Jagor, Fedor. Travels in the Philippines. 1875. Chapman and Hall.

Quotes

Collations

Chaper VIII

p. 83, The inhabitants of Mariveles have not a very good reputation. The place is only visited by ships which run in there in bad weather, when their idle crews spend the time in drinking and gambling. Some of the young girls were of striking beauty and of quite a light colour; often being in reality of mixed race, though they passed as of pure Tagal blood. This is a circumstance I have observed in many sea-ports, and in the neighbourhood of Manilla ; but, in the districts which are almost entirely unvisited by the Spaniards, the natives are much darker and of purer race.

p. 84, A few natives unite to charter u small vessel, and load it with the produce of their own fields, which they set off to sell in Manilla.

p. 84, Indian hospitality is ample, and much more comprehensive than that practised in Europe. The crews are accommodated in the different huts. After a repast shared in common, and washed down by copious draughts of palm-wine, mats are stretched on the floor; the lamps—large shells, fitted with rush wicks—are extinguished, and the occupants of the hut fall asleep.

p. 84 At last one evening, when the storm had quite passed away, we sailed out of Mariveles. A small, volcanic, pillar-shaped rock,
bearing a striking resemUanoe to the island of the Cyclops, off
the coast of Sicily, lies in front of the harbour.

p. 85 As the sun rose, a beautiful spectacle presented itself. To the north was the peak of the Taal volcano, towering above the flat plains of Batangas; and to the south the thickly-wooded, but rock-bound coast of Mindoro, the iron line of which was broken by the harbour of Porto Galera, protected from the fury of the wares by a small islet lying immediately before it. The waters around us were thickly studded with vessels which had taken refuge from the storm in the ports of Bisaya, and were now returning to Manilla.

p. 86

p. 86 A hilly range bound the horizon on the Luzon side; the striking outlines of which enable one to conjecture its volcanic origin. Most of the smaller islands to the south appear to consist of superimposed mountainous ranges, terminating seawards in precipitous cliffs. The lofty and symmetrical peak of Mount Mayon
is the highest point in the panoramic landscape. Towards evening we sighted Mount Bulusan, in the south-eastern extremity of Luzon.

p. 86 The Bulusan volcano, "which appears to have been for a long time extinct, but which again began to erupt in 1852,"* is surprisingly like Vesuvius in outline. It has, like its prototype, a
couple of peaks. The western one, a bell-shaped summit, is the
eruption cone. The eastern apex is a tall rugged mound, probably
the remains of a huge circular crater. As in Vesuvius, the
present crater is in the centre of the extinct one. The intervals
between them are considerably larger and more uneven than the
"Atrio del Cavallo" of the Italian volcano.

p. 86 To our left we had continually in view the magnificent Bulusan volcano, with a hamlet of the same name nestling at the foot of its eastern slope in a grove of cocoa-trees, close to the sea.

p. 86 arrival at Legaspi, the port of Albay

p. 87

p. 88

p. 88

p. 89

Chapter IX

p. 90-91

p. 92

p. 92 Our descent took some time. We hod still two-thirds of it
beneath us when night overtook us. In the hope of reaching the
hut where we had left our proYisions, we wandered about till
eleven o'dook, hungry and weary, and at last were obliged to
wait for daylight. . This miafortune was owing not to our want of
proper precaution, but to the unreliability of ihe Indians,
{ #o}
of
them, whom we had taken with us to cany water and refreshments,
hud disappeared at the verj' first ; and a third, " u very
trustworthy man," whom we had left to take care of our things
at the hut, and who had been ordered to meet us at dusk with
torches, had bolted, as X afterwards disoovered, back to Dar6ga
before noon. Myservant, too, who was canying a woollen coat and
an umbrella for me^ suddenly vanished in the darkness as soon as
it began to rain, and, though I repeatedly called him, never
turned up again till the next morning. We passed tlie wet
night upon the bare rocks, where, as our very thin clothes were
perfectly wet through, we iroze till our teeth chattered. As soon,
however, as the sun rose we got so warm that we soon recovered
our tempers. Towards nine o'dodk we reached the hut and got
something to eat after twenty-nine hours' &8t.

p. 92-93

Chapter X

p. 94

p. 94-95

p. 95

p. 95

p. 95 onwards

p. 99

p. 102-103

p. 103-104

p. 104 Both the theatrical performance and the whole festival bore the
impre?^^ of laziness, iiKlift'erence, and niinflloss mimicrv. Wlicn
I compared the frank cheerfulness I had seen r^^iiatiug from
OTory countenance at the religious holidays of Europe with the
expressionless and immobile &ces of the Indians, I found it
difficult to understand how the latter were persuaded to waste so
much time and money upon a matter they seemed so thoroughly
indifferent to.

p. 104 Travellers have remarked the same want of gaiety amongst the Indians of America ; and some of them ascribe it to the small
d^elopment of the nervous system proTalent among these
peoples, to which cause also they attribute their wondeHul
courage in bearing pain.

p. 104-105

p. 105

p. 105-106

p. 106 Monday and Friday evenings were the Daraga market nights, and in fine weather always afforded a pretty sight. The women, neatly and cleanly clad, sat in long rows and offered their provisions for sale by the light of hundreds of torches; and, when the business was over, the slopes of the mountains were studded all over with flickering little points of brightness proceeding from the torches carried by the homeward-bound market women. Besides eatables, many had silks and stuffs woven from the fibres of the pine-apple and the banana for sale. These goods they carried on their heads; and I noticed that all the younger women were accompanied by their sweethearts, who relieved them of their burdens.

Chapter XI

Excursion to Bulusan and Sorsogon.—Road making.—Pirates.

p. 107

p. 108-109

p. 109 Bulusan is so seldom visited by strangers that the "tribunal" where I put up was soon full of curiosity-mongers, who came to stare at me. The women, taking the places of honour, squatted round me in concentric rows, while the men peered over their shoulders. One morning when I was taking a shower-bath in a shed made of open bamboo work, I suddenly noticed several pairs of inquisitive eyes staring at me through the interstices. The eyes belonged exclusively to the gentler sex; and their owners examined me with the greatest curiosity, making remarks upon my appearance to one another, and seeming by no means inclined to be disturbed. Upon another occasion, when bathing in the open air in the province of Laguna, I was surrounded by a number of women, old, middle-aged, and young, who crowded round me while I was dressing, caretully inspected me, and pointed out with their fingers every little detail which seemed to them to call for special remark.

p. 110-111

p. 112

p. 113 Towards evening Mount Bulusan in the south-east, and Mount Mayon in the northwest, were visible for a short time. They are both in a straight line with Casiguran.

p. 114

Chapter XII

Excursions in South Camarines.—Spanish Priests.—Alcaldes and Mandarins.

p. 115

p. 116-117

p. 117-120

p. 121

p. 122

p. 124-125

p. 125

p. 126

Chapter XIII

p. 127 The inhabitants, particularly the women, struck me by their ugliness and want of cleanliness. Although they lived close to the lake, and drew their daily drinking water from it, they never appeared to use it for the purposes of washing. The streets of the village also were dirty and neglected; a circumstance explained,
perhaps, by the fact of the priest being a native.

p. 127-128

p. 129 Native priests, as a rule, do little credit to their profession. Extraordinarily ignorant, extremely dissipated and only superficially acquainted with their duties, they pass the greater part of their time in gambling, drinking, and other sinful amusemeuts; and they take little care to preserve a properly decorous behaviour, except when officiating in the church, when they read with an absurd assumption of dignity, without understanding a single word.

p. 129-130

p. 130

p. 131-132

p. 132-133

p. 133-134

p. 134

p. 135

p. 136

p. 137

p. 137-136

p. 139-142

Chapter XIV

Manners and Custos of the Bicol Indians.

p. 143

p. 144

p. 145

p. 145-148

p. 148

p. 148-149

p. 149

p. 149-150

p. 150

p. 151

p. 152

p. 152-153

p. 153 In general it may be said that every pueblo supplies its own necessaries, and produces little more. To the indolent Indian, especially to him of the eastern provinces, the village in which he was bom is the world; and he leaves it only under the most pressing circumstances. Were it otherwise even, the strictness of the poll-tax would place great obstacles in the way of gratifying the desire for travel, generated by that oppressive impost.

p. 154

p. 154-155

p. 155

The daily wages of the common labourer are 1 real, without food: and his hours of work are from 6 to 12, and from 2 to 6 o'clock. The women, as a rule, perform no field labour, but plant out the rice and assist in the reaping; their wages on both occasions being equal to those of the men. Wood and stone-cutters receive 1.5 r. per day, and calkers l.75 r.

p. 156

p. 156-157

p. 157-158

Girls who have children by Europeans esteem it quite as an honour; and still greater is it when the priest is the parent, the cura always maintaining his children, though under an assumed name.'

p. 158-159

p. 159

p. 160

p. 161

Chapter XV

p. 162-164

p. 166

p. 167-168

p. 169-170

p. 170

p. 171

p. 171 Both the banks of the Bicol River are flat, and expand into broad fields of rice; and to the east are simultaneously visible the beautiful volcanoes of Mayon, Yriga, Malinao, and Ysarog.

p. 171-172

p. 173

p. 174-176

p. 177

p. 178-179

p. 180

p. 181 for how could those rude uncultivated negroes understand the art
of smelting copper?

p. 181-184

p. 185

p. 187

Chapter XVI

p. 190

p. 191

p. 192-193

p. 194

p. 195

p. 196

p. 197

p. 198

Chapter XVII

The Ysarog and Its Inhabitants.

p. 200

p. 202

p. 203

p. 204

p. 206

p. 206-207

p. 208

p. 209-212

p. 212 Headaches and fevers were stated to me as the prevalen maladies; for which burnt rice, pounded and mixed to a pap with water, is taken as a remedy; and in case of severe headache they make an incision in the forehead of the sufferer. Their prevalence is explained by the habit of neutralising the ill effects of drinking water in excess, when they are heated, by the consumption of warm water in large doses; and the rule holds with regard to cocoa-water; the remedy for immoderate use of which is warm cocoa-water. Their muscular power is small, and
they are not able to carry more than fifty pounds weight to any considerable distance.

p. 212

p. 212-213

p. 213 If a man kills a woman of another house, her nearest kinsman endeavours
to kill a woman of the house of the murderer; but to the murderer himself he does nothing; and the corpse of the victim thus slain as a death-offering is not buried, nor is its head cut off; and her family, in their turn, seek to avenge the death by murder. This is reckoned the most honourable course. Should the murderer, however, be too strong to be so overcome, any weaker person, be it who it may, is slain in retaliation; and hence, probably, the comparatively small number of women.

p. 213-214

p. 214-215

Our torches were quickly extinguished, and a fowl covered over with a cigar-box died in a few minutes, to the supreme astonishment of the Ygorrotes, to whom these phenomena were entirely new.

p. 216-217

Chapter XVIII

p. 219

p. 220

p. 221

p. 222

The native authorities have, as a rule, but little respect for private Spanish people, and treat them not seldom with open contempt.

p. 223

p. 224

p. 226-227

p. 227-229

My realizations

How much are we ought to describe or talk about the environment? How are we going to talk about seeing the environment or nature when there is almost nothing to see or wherever we look at even in the farthers of our forests or seas, we see the effects of capital?

Glenn's book is hybrid and is like a modern version of Jagor's book.

Jagor jumps from one thing to another like a real walking book

Jagor has a scientific lens, knows the names of plants, precisely describes the wind, takes temperature measures etc. He also looks at the natives with a scientific Western lens.

Jagor also uses photos not just as illustrations but as pauses or breakages of narrative.

Literature notes

Prompts