There is something very picturesque in the simple costume of a peasant
woman going to market. She has no flowing gown, but a short skirt,
enveloped in a _tapis_, generally of cotton. It is simply a rectangular
piece of stuff; as a rule, all blue, red, or black. It is tucked in
at the waist, drawn very tightly around the loins, and hangs over
the skirt a little below the knees, the open edges being at the back.

At times the better class wear the more becoming short skirt and
_tapis_ of silk or satin, with gold-lace embroidered _chinelas_. This
dress is elegant, and adds a charm to the wearer.

The _tapi_ is smaller. It is not used in the street; it is a sort
of _neglige_ apparel worn in the house only, or for going to the
bath. The poorest classes go to the river-side to bathe in it. It is
drawn all around from the waist downwards.

The _patadiong_ is more commonly worn by the Visaya than the northern
woman. It is somewhat like the _tapis_, but is drawn round the waist
from the back, the open edges meeting, more or less, at the front. In
Luzon Island the old women generally prefer this to the _tapis_.

On feast days and special occasions, or for dances, the young women
who can afford it sport the gaudy flowing gown of bright particoloured
striped silk or satin, known as the _saya suelta_, with the train
cut in a peculiar fashion unknown in Europe.

The figure of a peasant woman is erect and stately, due to her habit
from infancy of carrying jars of water, baskets of orchard produce,
etc., on her head with a pad of coiled cloth. The characteristic
bearing of both sexes, when walking, consists in swinging the arms
(but more often the right arm only) to and fro far more rapidly than
the stride, so that it gives them the appearance of paddling.

A "first class" Manila funeral, before the American advent, was
a whimsical display of pompous ignorance worth seeing once. There
was a hideous bier with rude relics of barbarism in the shape of
paltry adornments. A native driver, with a tall "chimney pot" hat,
full of salaried mournfulness, drove the white team. The bier was
headed by a band of music playing a lively march, and followed by
a line of carriages containing the relations and friends of the
deceased. The burial was almost invariably within twenty-four hours
of the decease--sometimes within six hours.

There is nothing in Manila which instantly impresses one as strikingly
national, whether it be in artistic hand