al customs of these peoples

114. There were no kings or rulers worthy of mention, throughout this
archipelago; but there were many chiefs who dominated others less
powerful. As there were many without much power, there was no security
from the continual wars that were waged between them. Manila had two
chiefs, uncle and nephew, who had equal power and authority. They
were at war with another chief, who was chief alone; and he was so
near that they were separated from one another by nothing more than
a not very wide river. The same conditions ruled in all the rest of
the island, and of even the whole archipelago, until the entrance
of the faith, when they were given peace--which they now esteem
much more than all that they then obtained from those petty wars
and their depredations. They were divided into barangays, as Roma
into districts, and our cities into parishes or collations. They are
called barangays, which is the name of a boat, preserving the name from
the boat in which they came to settle these islands. Since they came
subject to one leader in their barangay, who acted as their captain
or pilot--who was accompanied by his children, relatives, friends,
and comrades--after landing, they kept in company under that leader,
who is the dato. Seizing the lands, they began to cultivate them
and to make use of them. They seized as much of the sea and near-by
rivers as they could preserve and defend from any other barangay, or
from many barangays, according as they had settled near or far from
others. Although on all occasions some barangays aided and protected
others, yet the slave or even the timaua or freemen could not pass from
one barangay to another, especially a married man or a married woman,
without paying a certain quantity of gold, and giving a public feast
to his whole barangay; where this was not done, it was an occasion
for war between the two barangays. If a man of one barangay happened
to marry a woman of another, the children had to be divided between
the barangays, in the same manner as the slaves.

115. Their laws and policy, which were not very barbarous for
barbarians, consisted wholly of traditions and customs, observed
with so great exactness that it was not considered possible to break
them in any circumstance. One was the respect of parents and elders,
carried to so great a degree that not even the name of one's father
could pass the lips, in the same way as the Hebrews [regarded] the
name o