The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 40]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 40

12. If they are paid anything in advance, they
will leave work and keep the pay.127
"They think that it is a fine thing to meddle and take part
in things where they are not invited. Consequently, if any of
Ours wishes to attend to any bodily necessity, not fit to mention,
even when he least wishes it, there comes an Indian before or behind him even though he leave the banca and seek the most retired
spot to do what no other can do for him.
"They cruelly treat the animals that serve them, and the danger of losing them does not move them to the contrary. Thus following the very opposite of St. Paul's command: Non alligavis
vos bobi trituranti [i.e., "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,"-I Tim. v, I8, a quotation from Deut. xxv, 4],
they tie the poor cow or carabao to a post after it has worked all
day; and, if it is a horse, they feed it without removing bit or
bridle. And if they have to look after their carabao it must be on
condition of their being atop of it while it moves from place to
place; and on the road they make sores on its buttocks."
That the Indian does not shut a door that he has opened, etc.;
Delgado says (p. 306): "This is done by boys, and is common in
our own country. It is not because of laziness, but perchance,
for lack of attention, or the liveliness or mischievousness of boys,
in which the aged and prudent Indians cannot be included." He
has often seen the carpenters carefully collect their tools and take
them away, so that they should not be lost. San Agustin's criticism is too general and has proceeded from what he has experienced
in a few foolish lads.
127 "This," says Delgado (p. 307) "is peculiar only to some
workmen, and not to all the nations of these islands, and the same
thing happens also in our own country among cobblers, tailors,
and other deceitful and tricky workmen."
Mas comments as follows (pp. 66, 67): "There is no tailor,
cobbler, or workman of any kind, who does not begin by begging
money when any work is ordered. If he is a carpenter, he needs
the money in order to buy lumber; if a laundryman, to buy soap.
This is not for lack of confidence in receiving their pay, for the
same thing happens with those who have the best credit, with the
cura of the village, and even with the captain-general himself.
It consists. firstly, in the fact that the majority have no money,
because of their dissipation; and secondly, because they are sure
that after they have received a part of their price, their customer
will not go to another house, and that he will wait for the workman as long as he wishes (which is usually as long as what he
has collected lasts), and that then the customer will have to take
the work in the way in which it is delivered to him."