e, and even if they have been served throughout
life by them. That seems absolutely illogical.

129. To what has been said of dowries and marriages, it must be added
that in some districts, besides the bigaycaya and those presents made
to the relatives, there was panhimuyat. This was a kind of present
that was given to the mother of the bride, merely in return for the
bad and watchful nights that she had passed in rearing her. That
panhimuyat signifies "watchfulness and care." If the dowry was equal
to five taes of gold, the panhimuyat was equal to one tinga, which was
equivalent to one tae, or five pesos. That was a custom which well
shows the harshness and greed of these nations, since the mothers
wished to be paid even for the rearing of their daughters.

Also, whenever a chief married any daughter of his and asked a large
dowry of his son-in-law, as, for instance, eighteen or twenty taes of
gold, the father was obliged to give his daughter certain gifts called
pasonor, such as a gold chain, or a couple of slaves, or something
proportional to the dowry. It was very shameful to ask a large dowry
without giving a pasonor. This is still done, resembling the gifts
which among us the father presents to his daughter praeter dotem,
[27] which the civil law calls bona paraphernalia. [28]

THE NATIVES OF THE SOUTHERN ISLANDS

[Francisco Combes, S.J., [29] in his Historia de las islas de Mindanao,
Iolo, y sus adjacentes (Madrid, 1667), devotes a number of pages to
the peoples of Mindanao and other islands. This matter we translate
from the reprint issued (Madrid, 1887) by Pablo Pastells, S.J.,
and W. E. Retana, book i, chapters ix-xviii.]

CHAPTER IX

Of the nations of these islands and those adjacent to them

Four nations have renown in this island, the Caragas, [30] Mindanaos,
[31] Lutaos, [32] and Subanos. [33] That of most renown is the nation
of Caraga, which, although it is the smallest numerically, has been
the greatest in deeds. In times past that nation was the scourge of
the islands, as is today proclaimed by the depredations that still
are fresh in memory in the islands of Pintados--especially so in that
of Leyte, where there is scarce a village which has not bewailed its
ruin. A good part of this ruin extended to Ours, the pirates having
pillaged our town of Palo and destroyed all the villages of the coast,
taking prisoner the father ransomer, [34] who exercised that office
for all t