MORGA
As a matter of pastime and
occupation, women pound the rice
which is to be cooked for their
meals and prepare the rest of their
foods.
The regular daily food is rice,
together with boiled fish, and pork
or venison, likewise meat of wild
buffalo or carabao. They also eat
boiled sweet potatoes, kidney
bean, quilitis and other vegetables,
all kinds of bananas, guavas,
pineapples, anomas or custard
apples, oranges and other citruses,
and other fruits and vegetables that
abound in the land.
Rice is crushed by wooden pilons or
pounders. It is then called
“morisqueta” when cooked.
They drink that which of drips out
of the tender flowers of the
coconut trees and of the nipa-
palms which are abundant and
which are raised like vine-yard
grapes although with less care and
difficulty.
The natives of these Islands drink
liquor in the day and night without
end in their meetings, weddings,
feasts and circles, accompanied by
RIZAL
Though pounding rice is not very hard,
for the pestle is light, it is now done
generally by men, leaving women the
cleaning of the rice.
Morisqueta to the Spaniards and
“kanin” to the Tagalogs.
Rizal shared the same thoughts with
Morga in this regard – that natives
drank tuba which is a juice or sap of
the palm tree.
It must be admitted that the Filipinos
have improved in this regard, thanks
perhaps to the wine monopoly.
Today, hardly can one see in the
SCOTT REMARKS
Rice was reaped panicle by panicle. It
is then threshed, winnowed and
milled with a mortar and pestle then
winnowed again. If white rice was
wanted, it was pounded again
(kashas.)
Rice was grown everywhere and was
the preferred food. Other staple crops
of the Visayans include millet, taro,
yams, bananas grown in swidden
(kaingin), wild yams and sago.
The plain white rice that is cooked
with condiments or seasonings are
called “morisqueta” by the Spaniards
since Father Colin said, “It was no
better than a Moro meal.”
Scott accounted in his writings that
Pigafetta drank palm wine, tuba nga
nipa. Moreover, five kinds of alcoholic
beverages were mentioned – tuba,
kabarawan, intus or kilang, pangasi,
and alak.
Father Chirino’s words were quoted:
“It’s good they rarely get angry when
drunk.” Drinking was done in small
groups or in social gatherings when
singing by a few who are so inclined
and who come to drink and have a
good time, although this habit does
not carry with it according to their
estimation, any dishonor or infamy.
They prefer meat, fish, saltfish
which begin to decompose and
smell.
There is an abundance of wild
game such as deer and wild boar,
and in some places, purcopine,
buffalos called carabaos which are
raised in the fields and there are
fierce carabaos aside from the
tame ones brought from China.
There is plenty of beef in many
parts of the islands, considerable
breeding stations and ranches
where cattle are raised. They
originated from China and New
Spain.
provinces one or so drunkard and in
manila only foreign sailors are given to
this vice. Owing to Colin’s words,
drunkenness was not dangerous
because rarely do they become
furious or wild; rather after drinking,
they preserve proper respect and
circumspection.
The fish that Morga mentioned does
not taste better when it is beginning
to rot; all on the contrary: it is
bagoong and all those who have eaten
it know that it is not or ought not to
be rotten. Bagoong is fish or fish eggs
preserved with plenty of salt. Filipinos
serve it as relish or sauce.
There was much an abundance of
cattle and Rizal quoted what Father
Gaspar said, “This convent has an
extensive farm for cattles, of so many
cows that there was a time when they
were over 30000.”
men and women sat on opposite sides
of the room, and any passerby was
welcomed to join in. It was commonly
called “pagampang”, conversation;
and neither business deals, family
affairs nor community decisions were
discussed without it.
No account of bagoong was
mentioned in the writings of Scott.
However, he wrote that fish were
preserved and marketed as sun-dried
daing, or split open and salted before
sunning as barol. “Lasi” was a
fermented fish paste or meat brine;
dayok, danglusi and ginamus were
high-flavored adobo-like dishes
minced meat or fish.
The absence of carabao is
noteworthy. The beast was found
wild, or feral, in Luzon from Bikol to
Ilocos, in all of which places it was
called norvangor anowang, but in the
Visayas it was karabaw-that is, Malay
kerbau. But whether it roamed the
Visayan hills or not, the Visayans
evidently did not hunt it in sufficient
quantity to attract Spanish attention.
Horned cattle – that is, cows – were
only introduced late in the century
from China and Mexico, with a few
bulls brought from Spain to improve
the stock.
There is a large variety of chickens. The flesh of these chickens that the Chickens were raised not just for
One of it was the hen with black Tagalogs called “ulikba” is said to have consumption but also for sacrificial
feathers, skin, flesh and bones, and medicinal value. offerings.
they taste good.

Goats are raised but they easily get Goats were rare: Spanish explorers
sick and dies because of the observed only a few in the coast of
dampness of the land and because Samar and Cebu. But they were
they eat certain poisonous plants. common in Mindanao and areas in
contact with Muslims in the south –
for example, they were raised for
trade in the Semirara Islands between
Panay and Mindoro, which the
Spaniards called Goat Islands because
they were populated with goats that
had been turned loose to breed wild.

Sheeps have been imported several Rizal mentioned that they exist in his
times from New Spain, but they time however, little esteemed.
have never multiplied, so they have
become scarce in the land, as it
seems that both the climate and
pasture lands are not quite
appropriate for them.

The regular fodder of donkeys, Rizal called these fodders as “zacate”

horses and mares throughout the or “sacate” which means grass fodder.
year is the green “camalote”,
unhusked with rice which makes
them become fat.

The regular delicacy offered It is not a tree but a vine but a vine Bonga palms were extensively
throughout these Islands is the which is cultivated by making it climb cultivated, often with a buyo vine
“buyo” or “betel” which is made bamboo poles placed in the middle of planted at their base.
out of a leaf of plant or vine small canals that serve for watering
resembling the mulberry leaf,
coupled with a seed or nut from
the areca palm which is whitish
inside.
The seed or nut from the areca
palm is called “bonga” and is cut
lengthwise into slices and placed
inside the rolled betel leaf with a
bit if very wet quick-lime.
The Visayans are less inclined to
tilling the soil, and are proficient
nseamen and fond of the spoils and
prices of war and aggressive
expeditions which they call
“Mangubat” or warlike enterprises,
which are equivalent to going out
to pillage.
every two days.
What was placed inside together with
the bonga in the rolled betel lead was
a very hydrated lime instead of
quicklime.
Rizal agrees with Morga in this case.
He defined gubat as forest or field;
mangubat as to go hunting in the
forest and even to fight.
Betel nut is the fruit of the areca
palm, and is chewed together with a
leaf of the betel piper vine, from
which it has borrowed its name. The
nut is cut into segments, sprinkled
with lime made from shells, wrapped
in a leaf, chewed into a quid which
produces blood-red spittle.