so abundant m the Malayan, are wanting in the Philippine Archipelago. One
small wild eat and the musang of the Malays, known by this name also, in the
rMippme tongues, the Paradoxus musanya of naturalists, are the only two
01 prey known in the Archipelago. Some domesticated animals, however, have
become wild, and favoured by abundance of suitable pastures and freedom from
Deasts ot prey, have greatly multiplied. This has been the case with the buffalo, the
e,ven the horse- Oampier saw wild oxen of this description in Mindano in
1686, and was present with a party that hunted them. I t is to be observed, indeed,
that the names of all the animals domesticated in the Philippines belong to foreign
languages. This applies to the dog, the hog, the goat, the buffalo, the cat, and even
to the domestic fowl and duck. The names of all these are either Malay or Javanese,
while those of the horse, ox, and sheep, are Spanish. If these animals, as is most
probable, were introduced by strangers, it follows that the inhabitants of the Philippines,
before then- mtercourse with the civilised nations of the Malayan Archipelago,
were far worse off in domesticated animals for food or labour, than even the more
advanced nations of America, who had, at least, the lama, the alpaca, and the
turkey. Of small mammalia, the Philippines have several species of bats and of
squirrels, including among the latter the flying one of the size of an ordinary hare
mu ^ • 6 ys> ai?4 Sciurus maximus volans of naturalists.
The largest bird of the Philippines is a species of heron, rising to the height, it is
asserted, of five or six feet, called by the natives, pagala. This has a bag in front of
the throat, and may be the same bird known in Bengal as the adjutant, or in the
native language argala, and which, in that country, is migratory. Another of this
family measuring from two to three feet high, called by the natives the tapol, is
tamed and taught to dance to the sound of a flute or drum. In the forests of Luzon
there is one species of pheasant, and the jungle fowl, Gallus bankiva, is widely disseminated
over most of the larger islands. The most numerous birds are those of
the parrot and pigeon families, among the first of which is said to be a cockatoo, a
bird nearly unknown to the Malayan Archipelago, west of New Guinea. No species of
peacock seems to exist. Among the Philippine birds is the tubon, which leaves its
eggs in the sands of the sea-shore,to be hatched by the sun. The swallows which build
the esculent nest, frequents the many limestone caves of the islands, and the nests are
collected, as m the Malay islands, for the market of China. The bird is known in
the Phihppmes under the native name of salangan. Wild ducks and geese which, as
birds of passage are unknown in the Malayan islands, frequent the Philippines.
Among reptiles, serpents are numerous in the Philippines, and a few of them
poisonous. A python exists and of such size as to be capable of destroying the
Ç. buffalo. One of them, it is stated, was killed in the mountains of
Cavite, near the bay of Manilla, measuring 18 Spanish yards, which would make
it about 50 English feet m length. Alligators are numerous in all the lakes and rivers
and there are several species of land and sea tortoise, including that which yields
the precious shell.
Rsh, in reference to their utility to man form, perhaps, the most important branch
ot the zoology of the Philippines. They seem to be more abundant than in almost
^ c o u n t r y , for they are not only numerous in the sea, but unlike the islands
ot the Malay Archipelago, are even more so in the fresh water,—in the rivers, in the
permanent lakes, and in the periodical ones. Even the cultivated fields, during their
temporary submersion, yield a supply. Some of these fish are migratory, entering
particular rivers from the sea for the purpose of spawning, when great quantities of
them are taken with little care or art. Of this description is one called the ipon or
dolon, which frequents one of the rivers of the province of Ilocos in Luzon in the
dry season from October to February, and which, it is alleged, can only be captured
during the first five days of the moon’s age. A fish called the sablao, of the size of
a salmon, is peculiar to the lake Taal in Luzon, of volcanic origin. The Lago de Bay
or lake of Manilla, produces a great variety of fish, of which those called the
curbina and dalag are most abundant and most esteemed. Fish forms the principal
animal aliment of all the inhabitants of the Philippines, and great quantities of them
cured, form an important article of the internal native trade. One may form some
notion of the abundance of fish, when it is stated that the retail price of a dalag fish,
enough for six persons, is m the market of Manilla, no more than a real of plate or
about 5 pence. On several of the shores of the Philippines the tripang, called in the
native languages balaté, is fished for the market of China. On the same shores are
also earned on the fishery of the pearl-oyster or mother-of-pearl-shell, of which the
Philippines furnish to Europe and China, their largest supply.
Among insects, mosquitos, and various kinds of ants, including the termes, or
white ant, are numerous and troublesome in all the islands. On the otnei han ,
fleas and bugs are almost unknown, and the common fly is not frequent. Flights ot
locusts are experienced, but they do not appear to be very destructive.
The climate of the Philippines varies with latitudes which range from 5 to near
20° from the equator. At Manilla, in latitude 14° 36', the difference between the
longest summer and the shortest winter day is but one hour, 47 minutes, and
12 seconds. The monsoons are, the north-east and south-west, the first, as m all
countries lying on the China Sea being the most violent, contrary to what is the
case west of it. In the southern and western portions of the Archipelago the rainy
season corresponds with the summer and autumn, but the case is reversed in the
northern and eastern parts, occasioned by the ranges of mountains which run north
and south, in the same manner as is the case on the eastern and western sides of
Southern India. At the changes from one monsoon to another take place those
terrible hurricanes so well known to mariners as typhoons. These are most severe
at the autumnal equinox, and the month of October is the most remarkable for them.
From these scourges all parts of the Archipelago within ten degrees of the equator
are exempt, which include the island of Mindano and the long chain of islands
extending between it and Borneo. The rainy season commences in May, and lasts
to September inclusive. At Manilla, which is not far from the centre of the Archipelago,
reckoning from north to south, the lowest annual fall of rain is 84 inches,
and the highest 114, giving an average of 98. A vast quantity of rain falls within a
comparatively short space of time, and the consequence is that much of the low
country is submerged,—the rivers overflow their banks and periodical lakes of
many leagues in extent are formed. At Manilla Fahrenheit's thermometer never
falls below 72°, nor rises above 95°, so that the range is but 23°. In the
mountain valley of Banhao, 6400 feet above the level of the sea, and but 12 leagues
from the city, the thermometer stands at from 45° to 47°. The greatest heats
are experienced from April to August in the fair season, but Spanish writers
declare that those of Manilla never equal those of Madrid in severity, although they
last longer. A fall of hail is recorded to have taken place in the Philippines twice
only since the Spanish occupation—once in May, 1749, and once in February, 1803.
The Philippines are inhabited by two distinct races of men, the Malayan and the
Philippine Negro; the first constituting the great mass of the inhabitants, and the
last consisting only of a few tribes of mountaineers found only in four of the principal
islands. The Malayan race is known to the Spaniards by the vague names of “ Indians ”
and “ natives,” and among themselves, they have certainly no common denomination.
Spanish writers thus describe their physical form—Stature, seven lengths of the
head; facial angle, from 67 to 73; nose, broad, flat, and between the eyes hardly
any relief; lips thick; inner angle of the eye depressed; head broader than that of
the European; hair, harsh, rigid, and black; beard very scanty; complexion, olive
coloured. There can be no doubt but that this is the genuine Malay. The negros,
or as the Spaniards call them negritos or little negros, are in physical form diminutive
Africans, the negro features less pronounced, and the complexion less black.
Although of shorter stature, those who have seen them have been struck by their
resemblance to the natives of Australia. Some writers have fancied the negritos to
be the aboriginal inhabitants of the Archipelago and the fairer race to be intruders
from some unknown couhtry, but for this hypothesis there is not a shadow of evidence,
historical or lingual, and it must be regarded as the mere dream of the inventors.
For anything known to the contrary, both the Malay and negro race have an equal
claim to be considered as aborigines.
The Spaniards divide the fairer race into two classes, namely, the nations or tribes
that have been subdued, who pay the capitation tax, and who have been converted to
Christianity, and the rude independent people who are still, either pagans or Mahom-
medans. This division is, in fact, nearly equivalent to civilised and uncivilised.
The first of these classes is divided, as they were at the conquest, into several distinct
nations, speaking distinct languages. Of these there are in the great island of Luzon
alone no fewer than five. I t is asserted that one nation speaking one language
inhabits all the islands lying between Luzon and Mindano. This has been called by
the Spaniards the Bisaya, from a native word signifying to paint, derived from the circumstance
of the inhabitants of those islands practising tattooing when first seen by
the Spaniards. The fact, however, is not very clearly ascertained, for Pigafetta certainly
takes no notice of it, while he describes the people of Gebu who are ranked with the
Bisaya nation as speaking a very different tongue from those of Massana whom he