The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

42 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES

and sarongs of different colors. There are bronze images of
gods of unknown origin, scattered about the grassy jungle..."
These people had the same trustworthiness for which most
of the non-Christian Filipinos are remarkable. "The custom
is for the barbarian traders to assemble in crowds and carry
the goods away with them in baskets, and even if we cannot
at first know them and can but slowly distinguish the men
who remove the goods, yet there will be no loss. The barbarian traders will after this carry these goods on to other
islands for barter, and as a rule it takes them as much as
eight or nine months till they return, when they repay those
on shipboard with what they have obtained for the goods."
An account written in 1349 says of these Mindoro people:
"In their customs they are chaste and good. When a husband dies, his wife shaves her head and fasts for seven days,
lying beside the body. Most of them nearly die, but if, after
seven days, they are not dead, their relatives urge them to eat.
Should they get quite well they may not remarry during their
whole lives. There are some even who, to make manifest
their wifely devotion, on the day when the body of their dead
husband is burned, throw themselves into the fire and die."
In 1732 it is recorded that Luzon (which the Chinese
called "Luzung") was paying tribute to China. Sulu is also
mentioned repeatedly throughout Chinese writings on the
Philippines. "The Sulu pearls," says a Chinese writer of
the fourteenth century, "are whiter and rounder than those
gotten in India and other places. Their price is very high.
There are some over an inch in diameter."
The Chinese contribution to the antique Philippines was
largely commercial. Whatever religious influence they may
have had was completely obliterated by the Spanish friars.
Mr. H. Otley Beyer thinks that the Philippines derived from
the Chinese iron, lead, gold and silver, while the other metals
(brass, bronze, copper and tin) were of Indian origin.
In clothing the inhabitants of Sulu derived their sarong,
turban, bronze bells, anklets, armlets and skin tight trousers
from the Indians; while the jacket with sleeves, the loose
trousers worn by the women, glass beads, and many types of