Burials and marriages of those natives
I have kept these two acts, so contrary in their effects, in order
to present them in one place in this chapter, inasmuch as they are
of greater display and magnificence, and in them, in spite of the
simplicity of those natives, the serious predominates. In the first,
which is practiced with their dead, I know not whether to praise
more their piety or their generosity and grandeur, or to which of the
two virtues recognition is due; for both are carried to the greatest
extreme. For their liberality, the obligations of their piety (which
declares itself in those attentions a debtor to nature), passes by
and tramples under foot the laws of their poverty and the natural
simplicity of these Indians, and makes demonstrations superior to
their fortune, clothing their dead with the magnificence of princes. In
the shroud alone, they clothe the dead person in a hundred brazas of
fine muslin, which serves him as a shirt. Over that they place rich
patolas, which are pieces of cloth of gold, or of silk alone, worked
very beautifully, and of great value, pious generosity endeavoring to
give him the best and to clothe him in the finest and most precious
garments. It is a law, established by immemorial custom, that the
children and near relatives each clothe the deceased in a piece of
gauze or of sinampuli (another fabric of equal estimation) arranging it
with such loops and knots that they find space for it all. In regard
to the dress, this custom is in force even to this day, and no man
who respects himself has ever failed in this law. There is no one so
poor and so wretched that he does not own a piece [of cloth] eight
brazas long, which is reserved for his burial. They have abandoned
other demonstrations, or rather, exchanged them for Christian ones,
of which we shall speak at the proper place. In that regard they give
oldtime Christians much to emulate. For formerly they buried with
their dead most of their treasures--gold, bells, and other things,
which are highly esteemed among them. Those things were so sacred to
reverence that no one, however abandoned and audacious he might be,
had the courage to stretch forth his hand to take them--although
he could have done so with great safety to himself, as their dead
are buried in caves, islets, or solitary mountains, without other
guard than their imaginary religion. On the day on which they buried
the deceased, about his sepulcher they planted palms, jasmines, and
other flowers peculiar to this region. If the deceased was a king,
or a prince of equal nobility, they placed a tent above the grave with
four white banners at its sides, while inside it they burned perfumes
as long as the time of lamentation or memorial lasted, perhaps setting
aside some slaves for that employ, in order to make it more lasting.
This heathen display has given way to Christian demonstrations of
sumptuous honors and abundant alms which they give for their deceased,
as we shall relate in the proper place. But I shall not defer the
telling of one which may prove a matter of reprehension to our neglect
and forgetfulness, in what is more important to us, namely, that they
are wont to have the coffin prepared during the lifetime for their
burial. They make those coffins out of one single piece, and from
incorruptible woods. They keep them under their houses where they
can see them whenever they descend from or ascend to their houses;
and they are open to the gaze of all who pass along the street. That
is a care that it would be right for them to have learned from the
oldtime Christians, whom the faith of what they hope for, ought to
arouse with greater demonstrations....
The Subanos follow the Lutaos in some things, their poverty and misery
exerting efforts in the worship of their dead, and their barbarism
showing itself at the side of their piety, when they throw into the
sea, out of grief, the gold of their ornaments, decorations, and
their most precious jewels--a custom wellnigh universal in all these
islands. [74] But in one island their cruelty is shown especially
in their alleviation of their grief and their barbaric pity for
their calamity, by giving associates to the deceased, and making
them companions of their grief, causing the same havoc and loss in
others. Because their father, son, near relative, or anyone whom they
had loved had died, they would seize their arms in order to kill the
first person whom they met, and without other cause for offense than
that of their natural disposition and their barbaric ferocity. Thus
with the blood of the unfortunate one did they dry the tears of their
own ill fortune, finding consolation in the misfortune of others.
The celebration at their marriages is such that in all that has been
discovered nothing else can compare with it; and the Spaniards who
daily wonder at it as witnesses always do so with new wonder. For if
the marriage is of a chief, the celebration begins a week beforehand,
and is concluded a week after with dancing to the sound of their bells
and drums. There is open table for all who care to go up into the
house. The viands consist of wine, for that is the thing in which they
are especially solicitous to show display, while they take no account
of the food, although it is not lacking. But the deceiving heat of
the wine takes away their taste so strongly that they are mindful of
nothing. Its heat serves to give spirit and animation to their songs
(which are in honor of him who makes the feast), and sprightliness
to their dances. The day of the celebration [of the wedding] when
the betrothed couple have to appear for the nuptial blessings, the
bride, breaking the strict confinement which she keeps all that time,
issues forth with a display and gravity superior to her condition;
for her relatives and the other Indians of their partisanship are clad
in their gala costume, and armed with lance and shield, and escort the
bride. The march is to the accompaniment of bells and Moorish dulzainas
[i.e., a sort of wind instrument]. The ladies of honor follow in double
file, and they generally consist of all the women of the village,
who are invited for the sake of greater display of grandeur. Then
the girls follow in the same order, while those of greater social
standing and higher rank are borne in chairs richly adorned, and
carried on the shoulders of four slaves. At the end comes the bride
in a certain very spacious chair which allows room for a lady who
supports and assists her, and to two or three girls, who serve her
with so singular modesty and gravity that it would cause wonder even
if she did not affect so great elaborateness; for she scarcely moves
an eyelash or must move her hand, those who accompany her substituting
themselves for everything. One dries the sweat from her, another fans
her, and a third looks after her clothing. Down a different street
comes the bridegroom to meet the bride, with a like or even greater
retinue in competition with that of the relatives of the bride. The
men are in gala costume, and armed; the women are in festal array;
and the chief women in chairs. The dress of the bridal pair must be
white, until, the [bride's] consent having been given, the bridegroom
retires, and exchanges it for a red dress. In this ceremony coquetry
displays greater affectations: for the bride takes a half-hour to give
her answer, and, after it is given she wastes another long half-hour
to reach the lattice of the chapel. And it is necessary to sit down
to await the bride for that time, amid the laughter of those who a
few days before saw her running and leaping about like a mad she-goat,
while on this day she deports herself with so great a demonstration of
sedateness and virginal modesty. The precision of her steps, they say,
is a necessity, because she is coming bound even to the feet. That
is the ceremony that they practice for the reception of the husband
who is the one who must come to take those bonds and shackles from her.
On that day the house is all hung with a canopy that covers everything,
so that neither walls nor ceiling are seen. The bridal-chamber is
open to the sight and richly adorned, for on that day everything
gleams with splendor and adornment. The bride is seated on a cushion,
near a seat made for the groom from cushions in the Moorish style,
with embroidery and strips of silk with a quantity of lace. She is
served with the same ostentation as in the street, and displays no
more animation than a statue. I was present at one of so great display
that, besides the display which the Lutaos showed in their weddings,
there came at two o'clock of the same day, marching in a company
formed of their men, lancers and arquebusiers, an assembly of men who
taking position in the plaza de armas, invited the governor and all
the Spanish artillery for that afternoon; and for the following day
all the paid soldiers--Pampangos and Cagayanes--giving food to all and
serving the Spaniards quite in the Spanish fashion, both in the cuisine
and in the courtesies. It is an event of so great preëminence that the
governor and all his captains and best soldiers go to it, in order to
honor and conciliate those people. And any prince can well go to see
those ceremonies, for neither actions nor words show that they are
barbarians; but [they appear as] the most modest nation in the world,
which is celebrating its marriage without any idea of the [carnal]
delights of it. They are so moderate in showing their affection that
during three days they do not avail themselves of the license of their
estate. Such is the way in which they act that the fathers worthily
honor it with their presence, and on that day go to their houses,
for they are unaccustomed to the modesty and caution unless it is
when they confess and anoint them. Everything is dispensed with on
that day because of its gravity. We all, then, went on that day with
the superior, and the governor and captains. I was very glad to be a
witness of so great splendor, modesty, and gravity in natives who are
in other things so simple and unceremonious; and to see a sacrament so
hazardous treated with so much devotion, in the respect shown to the
ministers of it. That chief spent at that feast more than four hundred
arrobas of wine, and more than one thousand birds. Although they are
poor, in order to meet the obligations of that day satisfactorily they
strip themselves, showing an equally generous spirit in such action
with the living as is displayed in the fatherland with the dead; for
the greatest displays of their grandeur are the funerals and weddings.