Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 03).djvu/272

potatoes, sago bread, and other vegetables they find, is wrong. It is not so in all districts, but only in some of the Pintados^[1] islands; nor is this through any lack of prosperity, but because they are vicious, and eat all sorts of food. They are so lazy that they will not go four leagues out of their villages to buy rice, but spend their time in drunkenness, idolatries, and feastings. As they get along also with those eatables until they harvest their rice, they do not miss it; because they are a people who, when any of their relations die, will, as mourning, willingly go without eating rice for four or six months, or even a year. They live on other foods and grains that they possess, and in many parts of the Pintados they live a part of the year on borona, millet, beans, fish, swine, and fowl, and many kinds of wine. Not for that reason do they fail to be rich and have golden jewels, slaves, lands, and gardens. The Pintados are not as rich as the natives of this island of Luzon (who are called Moros), because they are not as capable in labor and agriculture. So they are taxed to a less amount, each Indian being taxed for a fanéga and a half of unwinnowed rice, and a piece of cloth, white or colored, woven from a plant.^[2] In other districts they have other tax-rates, each suitable to their prosperity. Up to this time the natives have not been injured, nor are they now injured, by paying the tribute which is imposed upon them, because it is so moderate that they can pay it without any labor. For by breeding four fowls under their houses every year (which can

1. The early name of the islands now known as Visayas (or Bisayas)—the group lying between Luzón, Mindanao, and Mindoro; so named from their inhabitants, known as Pintados ("painted men") from their tattooed bodies.
2. Referring to the abacá, or wild plantain (note 68).