have known Spaniards, some of those who assume to be more enlightened among them have sometimes killed the adulterers.  Both men and women, especially the chiefs, walk slowly and sedately when upon their visits, and when going through the streets and to the temples; and are accompanied by many slaves, both male and female, with parasols of silk which they carry to protect them from the sun and rain.  The women walk ahead and their female servants and slaves follow them; behind these walk their husbands, fathers, or brothers, with their man-servants and slaves. [60]

Their ordinary food is rice pounded in wooden mortars, and cooked—­this is called morisqueta, [61] and is the ordinary bread of the whole country—­boiled fish (which is very abundant), the flesh of swine, deer, and wild buffaloes (which they call carabaos).  Meat and fish they relish better when it has begun to spoil and when it stinks. [62] They also eat boiled camotes (which are sweet potatoes), beans, quilites [63] and other vegetables; all kinds of bananas, guavas, pineapples, custard apples, many varieties of oranges, and other varieties of fruits and herbs, with which the country teems.  Their drink is a wine made from the tops of cocoa and nipa palm, of which there is a great abundance.  They are grown and tended like vineyards, although without so much toil and labor.  Drawing off the tuba, [64] they distil it, using for alembics their own little furnaces and utensils, to a greater or less strength, and it becomes brandy.  This is drunk throughout the islands.  It is a wine of the clarity of water, but strong and dry.  If it be used with moderation, it acts as a medicine for the stomach, and is a protection against humors and all sorts of rheums.  Mixed with Spanish wine, it makes a mild liquor, and one very palatable and healthful.

In the assemblies, marriages, and feasts of the natives of these islands, the chief thing consists in drinking this wine, day and night, without ceasing, when the turn of each comes, some singing and others drinking.  As a consequence, they generally become intoxicated without this vice being regarded as a dishonor or disgrace. [65]

The weapons of this people are, in some provinces, bow and arrows.  But those generally used throughout the islands are moderate-sized spears with well-made points; and certain shields of light wood, with their armholes fastened on the inside.  These cover them from top to toe, and are called carasas [kalasag].  At the waist they carry a dagger four fingers in breadth, the blade pointed, and a third of a vara in length; the hilt is of gold or ivory.  The pommel is open and has two cross bars or projections, without any other guard.  They are called bararaos.  They have two cutting edges, and are kept in wooden scabbards, or those of buffalo-horn, admirably wrought. [66] With these they strike with the point, but more generally with the edge.  When they go in pursuit of their opponent, they show great dexterity in seizing his hair with one hand, while with the other they cut off his head with one stroke of the bararao, and carry it away.  They afterward keep the heads suspended in their houses, where they may be seen; and of these they make a display, in order to be considered as valiant, and avengers of their enemies and of the injuries committed by them. [67]