CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS

The customs of the Tagalogs is a narrative on the established culture of the

Tagalogs in Luzon written by Juan de Plasencia, a Franciscan missionary in the
Tagalog region since 1578 until 1590.

This document was written as an answer to the request of the monarchy in

Spain which was to provide pieces of information about the government,
administration of justice, inheritances, slaves, dowries, worship, burials, and
superstition of the “Indians” in the colony. In addition, the document is to rectify
previous reports about the people's way of life in the region.

Plasencia wrote:

“This people always had chiefs, called by them datos, who govern them and
were captains in their wars, and whom they obeyed and reverenced. The subject
who committed any offence against them, or spoke to the word to their wives and
children, was severely punished.”
These chiefs ruled over but few people ; sometimes as many as a hundred
houses, sometimes even less than 30. This tribal gathering is called in Tagalog a
barangay. It was inferred that the reason for giving themselves this name arose from
the fact (as they are classed, by their language, among the Malay nations) that when
they came to this land the head of the barangay, which is a boat, thus called-- as is
discussed at length in the first chapter of the first ten chapters-- became a dato. And
so, even if the present day, it is ascertained that this barangay in its original was a
family of parents and children, relations and slaves. There are many of these
barangay in each town, or, at least on account of wars, they did not settle far from
one another. They were not, however, subject to one another, except in friendship
and relationship. The chiefs, in their various wars, helped one another with their
respective barangays.
…
In these three classes, those who are maharlicas on both the fathers and
mothers side continue to be so forever, and if it happens that they should become
slaves, it is through marriage, and I soon shall explain. If this maharlicas had children
among their slaves, the children and their mothers became free ; if one of them had
children by the slave woman of another, she was compelled, when pregnant, to give
her master half of a gold tael, because of her risk of death, and for her inability to
labor during the pregnancy. In such a case half of the child was free-- namely, the
half belong to the father, who supplied the child with food. If he did not do this, he
showed that he did not recognize him as his child, in which case the latter was
wholly a slave. If a free woman had children by a slave, they were all free, provided
he were not her husband.

If two persons married, of whom one was a maharlica and other a slave,
whether namamahay or sa guiguilir, the children were divided: the first, whether
male or female, belong to the father as did the third and fifth ; the second, the
fourth, and the sixth fell to the mother, and so on. In this manner, if the father were
free all those who belong to him were free ; if he were a slave, all those belonged to
him were slaves: and the same applied to the mother. If there should not be more
than one children he was half free and half slave. The only question here concerned
division, whether the child were male or female. Those who became slaves fell under
the category of servitude which was their parents, either namamahay or sa guiguilir.
If there were an odd number of children, the odd one was half free and half slave.I
have not been able to ascertain with any certainty when or at what age the division
of the children was made, for each one suited himself in this respect. Of this two
kinds of slaves the sa guiguilir could be sold, but not the namamahay and their
children, nor could they be transferred. However, they could be transferred from the
barangay by inheritance, provided they remain in the same village.
…
They condemned no one to slavery, unless he merited the death penalty. As for
the witches, they killed them, and their children and accomplices became slaves of
the chief, after he had made some recompense to the injured person. All other
offenses were punished by fines in gold, which, if not paid with promptness, expose
the culprit to serve, until the payment should be made, the person aggrieved, to
whom the money was to be paid. This was done in the following way: half the
cultivated lands and all their produce belong to the master. The master provided the
culprit with food and clothing, thus enslaving the culprit and his children until such
time as he might amass enough money to pay the fine. The father should by chance
pay his debt, the master then claimed that he had fed and clothed his children, and
should be paid therefore…

In what concerns loans, they was formerly, and is today, an excess of usury,
which is a great hindrance to baptism as well as to confession ; for it turns out in the
same way as I have shown in the case of the one under judgment, who gives half of
his cultivated lands and profits until he paid the debt. The debtor is condemned to a
life of toil ; and thus borrowers became slaves and after the death of the father the
children pay the debt. Not doing so, double the amount must be paid. This system
should and can be reformed.
…

In the case of a child by a free married woman, born while she was married, if
the husband punished the adulterer this was considered a dowry; and the child
entered with the others into partition in the inheritance. His share equaled the part
left by the father, nothing more. If there were no other sons then he, the children
and the nearest relatives inherited equally with him. But if the adulterer not
punished by the husband of the woman who had a child, the latter was not
considered as his child, nor did he inherit anything. It should be noticed that the
offender was not considered dishonored by the punishment inflicted, nor did the
husband of the woman. By the punishment of the father the child was fittingly made
legitimate.
…
Dowries are given by the men on to the woman's parents. If the latter are living,
they enjoy the use of it. Of their death, provided the dowry has not been consumed,
it is divided like the rest of the state, equally among the children, except in case the
father should care to bestow something additional upon the daughter. If the wife, at
the time of her marriage, has neither father, mother, nor grandparents, she enjoys
her dowry--- which, in such a case, belongs to no other relative or child. It should be
noticed that unmarried woman can own no property, in land or dowry, for the result
of all their labors accrues to their parents.
…
The above is what I have been able to ascertain clearly concerning customs
observed among these natives in all this Laguna and the Tingues, and among the
entire Tagalog race. The old man say that a dato who did anything contrary to this
would not be steemed ; and, in relating tyrannies which they had committed, some
condemned them and ajudged them wicked…
In all the villages, for in other parts of the Filipinas islands, there are no temples
consecrated to the performing of sacrifices, the adoration of the idols, or a general
practice of idolatry. It is true that they have the name simbahan, which means a
temple or place of adoration ; but this is because, formerly, when they wished to
celebrate the festival, which they called pandot, or worship, they celebrated it in the
large house of a chief. There they constructed, for the purpose of sheltering the
assembled people, a temporary shed on each side of the house, with a roof, called
sibi, to protect the people from the wet when it rained. They so constructed the
house that it might contain many people-- dividing it, after the fashion of ships, into
three compartments. On the post of the house theys et small lamps, called sorihile;
in the center of the house they placed one large lamp, adorned with leaves of the
white palm, wrought into many designs. They also brought together many drums,
large and small, which they beat successively while the feast lasted, which was
usually four days. During this time the whole barangay, or the family, united and
joined in the worship which they called the naaganitos. The house, for the
above-mentioned period of time, was called a temple.

Among their many idols there was one called Badhala, whom they especially
worship. The title seems to signify “all powerful”, or “maker of all things”. They also
worship the sun, which, on account of its beauty, is almost universally respected and
honored by heathens. They worshiped, too, the moon, especially when...
These natives had no established division of years, months, and days ; these are
determined by the cultivation of the soil, counted by moons, and the different effect
produced upon the trees when yielding flowers, fruits, and leaves: all this helps them
and making up the year. The winter and summer are distinguished as sun-time and
water-time-- the latter term designating winter in those regions , where there is no
cold , snow , or ice...
The manner of offering sacrifices was to proclaim a feast, and offered to the
devil what they had to eat. This was done in front of the idol, which they anoint with
fragrant perfumes, such as musk and civic, or gum of the storax-tree and other
odoriferous woods, and praise it in poetic songs sung by the officiating priest, male
or female, who is called catolonan. The participants made responses to the song,
beseeching the idol to favor them with those things of which they were in need, and
generally, by offering repeated healths, they all became intoxicated. In some of their
idolatries they were accustomed to place a good piece of cloth, doubled, over the
idol, and over the cloth a chain or large, gold ring, thus worshiping the devil without
having sight of him. The devil was sometimes liable to enter into the body of the
catolonan, and, assuming her shape and appearance, filled her with so great
arrogance-- he being the cause of it -- that she seemed to shoot flames from her
eyes ; her hair stood on end, a fearful site to those beholding, and she uttered words
of arrogance and superiority. In some districts, especially in the mountains, when in
those idolatries the devil incarnated himself and took on the form of his minister, the
latter had to be tied to a tree by his companions, to prevent the devil in his infernal
fury from destroying him. This, however, happened but rarely. The objects of
sacrifice are goats, fowls, and swine, which are played, decapitated, and day before
the idol...
…
In the case of young girls who first had their monthly courses, their eyes were
blindfolded 4 days and 4 nights ; and, in the meantime, the friends and relatives
were all invited to partake of food and drink. At the time of this period, the
catolonan took the young girl to the water, bathed her and washed her head, and
removed the bandage from her eyes. The old men said that they did this in order
that the girls might bear children, and have fortune in finding husbands to their taste,
who would not leave them widows in their youth.
…
Their manner of burying the dead was as follows: the deceased was buried
beside his house ; and, if he were a chief, he was placed beneath a little house or
porch which they constructed for this purpose. Before interring him, they mourned
him for four days ; and afterward laid him and a boat which served as a coffin or bier,
placing him beneath the porch, where guard was kept over him by a slave...
These infidels said that they knew that there was another life of rest which they
called maca, just us if we should say paradise, or, in other words, the village of rest.
They say that those who go to this place are the just, and the valiant, and those who
live without doing harm, or who possess other moral virtues. They said also that in
the other life and mortality, there was a place of punishment, grief, and affliction,
called casanaan, which was a place of anguish ; they also maintained that no one
would go to heaven, where there dwelt only Bathala, the maker of all things, who
governed from above. There were also other pagans who confessed more clearly to
a hell, which they called as i have said casanaan ; they said that all the wicked went
to the place, and their dwelt the demons, whom they called sitan...
There were also ghosts, which they called vibit; and phantoms, which they called
Tigbalaang. They had another deception-- namely, that if any woman died in
childbirth, and the child suffered punishment, she could be heard lamenting. This
was called patianac. “May the honor and glory be God our Lord’s, that among all the
Tagalos not a trace of this is left: and that those who are now marrying do not even
know what it is, thanks to the preaching of the holy gospel, which has banished it.”

Source: Plasencia, Juan de. “Customs of the Tagalogs” in Emma Helen Blair and
James Alexander Robertson. The Philippine Islands: 1493 to 1898. Cleveland, OH:
The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1906.