Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/139

 body asked a slave of his for some grass with which to clean himself. The slave threw to him a large stalk of reed-grass, which seems to have hit the chief on the knee, causing a wound. As he was at the time a very old man, he died, as they say, from the blow; but before his death he gave orders that, when he should die, the slave and all his children should be put to death. From this arose the custom of killing slaves at the death of a chief.

Mourning indicated by fasting. When the father or mother or any near relative died, they promised to eat no rice until they should seize some captive in battle. The actual sign of mourning among them was the wearing of armlets made of bejucos [rattans] which covered the entire arm, with a similar band around the neck. They drank no pitarrilla, and their only food was bananas and camotes, until they had either taken a captive or killed some one, when they ceased their mourning; it might thus happen that they would eat no rice for a whole year, and therefore they would be, at the end of that period, very languid and weak. Sometimes a man determined, soon after a relative's death, to eat nothing, but to abandon himself to death. But his timaguas and slaves quickly assembled, and made a collection throughout the village; bananas were given him for food, and tuba (which is a wine made from the palm-tree) for drink, so that he should not die. These gains were the perquisites of the chiefs. This kind of mourning is called among them maglahe.

Mourning among the women. The mourning observed by the women they call morotal. It is similar to that of the men, except that the mourner—instead of going to capture or kill some one before she is