Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/149

 and all his relatives (or at least his nearest kin) are fined. If they are unable to pay the fine, they are made slaves. This law applies to all classes, and even to the chiefs themselves; accordingly, if a chief commit any crime, even against one of his own slaves or timaguas, he is fined in the same manner. But they are not reduced to slavery for lack of means to pay the fine; as, if they were not chiefs, they would be slaves. In case of a small theft, the punishment falls upon the thief alone, and not on his relatives.

In time of famine. When there is a famine the poor, who have not the means of sustenance, in order not to perish, go to the rich—and almost always they seek their relatives and surrender themselves to them as slaves—in order to be fed.

Another kind of slavery. There is another kind of lordship [slavery: crossed out in MS.], which wasfirst introduced by a man whom they call Sidumaguer—which, they say, occurred more than two thousand years ago. Because some men broke a barangay belonging to him—in Languiguey, his native village, situated in the island of Bantayan—he compelled the descendants of those who had broken his barangay to bequeath to him at their deaths two slaves out of every ten, and the same portion of all their other property. This kind of slavery gradually made its way among all the Indians living on the coast, but not among the Tinguianes.

Real timaguas. The freemen of these islands, who are called timaguas, are neither chiefs nor slaves. This is their mode of life. If a timagua desires to live in a certain village, he joins himself to one of the chiefs—for each village usually has many chiefs, each of whom has his own district, with slaves and