Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-10-30
wAhHALLA. SOUTH CAROLINA. OCT. SO, 1901.

them, for they are phenomenally in
dastrious, extremely frugal and per-
feotly reliable. AS these are the
three virtues which lead to financial
success, they are the moneyed men of
the place.
The Filipinos are by far the small
eat and sorriest looking people 1
have ever seen. They are not yell
low like the Chinese, or red like the
Indians, but are brown and vary in
shade from Claro to Colorado
Maduro. But few of them have
enough muscular strength to be
valuable as laborers, and, while they
are quite shrewd, none have any
mental ability except those which
are blended with the Spaniard, the
Chinaman or the ubiquitous sailor.
They are a mild, good natured peo-
pie, and are not bad in any way,
unless stirred up by these mougrels
who live among them. BY nature
there is no harmony of thought, pur.
pose or habit between a Chinaman
and Tagalo; so when they inter.
marry the result is creature whose
very nature is paradoxical, and they
are the ones who have always made
trouble.
The food of the natives is mainly
rice, tropical fruits and fish, but
they also eat roots, hogs, bats, dogs,
grasshoppers, snakes, beetles, mon
keys, lizards, rats and about every
thing else that anything else can eat.
They will even eat one thing which
do not believe anything but Fill
pino can eat, and that is an ancient
and venerable egg. l am told that
when one of them gets to eating
eggs which will pop it is hard to
break him of it. He cares for no
other kind and the habit, like chew
ing tobacco, becomes fixed on him
so that the Keely cure is the only
remedy. fear, though, that this
statement may be somewhat exag-
gerated.
A Filipino can squat down and sit
down at the same time. When thew
eat they all squat around pot and
eat out of it with their fingers. They
are able to sit in chair and eat
with spoon when required to do so,
but prefer to squat upon the table
and eat out of the dishes.
The weather here is always either
warm or hot, and it is not the slight
est breach of Filipino etiquette to
appear without clothes, so clothing
to them is simply an uncomfortable
ornament, which interferes with their
health and makes them ridiculous.
Shoes give them great trouble by
keeping their feet hot and causing
blisters, corns, toe itch and other
torments. When a wild Igorrote is
in full dress he simply wears a hat
and gee string and carries large
shield on his left arm and several
spears in his right hand. A domes-
ticated Tagalo, however, prefers
derby hat and shirt with a large
full tail which he always hangs out
side. He often ties string around
his trousers at the ankles and carries
his shoes in his hand.
Five cents worth of rice will last a
man about four days, and if he
will catch few fish in the mean
time he will get along all right. For
that reason it is almost impossible to
induce them to do much work. One
old fellow said if they civilized him
he would have to work and try to
save enough money to live without
working, but while he remained as
he was he lived all right and did no
work.
Like all ignorant people, their ere.
dulity is easily imposed upon and
they will believe things which are
unnatural and unreasonable and mys.
terious more readily than they will
those things which they can under
stand. When they try to accept
some foreign religion, which is in no
way adapted to their lives and Gus
toms or ways of thinking, they per-
vert it horribly. For example, when
one of them wishes to commit soma
es" ecially atrocious crime he commits
it on Easter for as the thief on the
cross was readily forgiven then, he
feels sure of being forgiven also.
They do not regard Icing as vico
and will even lie to the priest when
thoy go to confession. The Igorrotes
maintain that tho heaven of tho
Europeans would not at all suit them.
They believe they might find Span.
iards there, and besides, walking
about the golden streets is something
they could not enjoy. They think
that tho anu1 10 ou,oy u,bo,,