Note 10 — Relation of the Filipinas Islands

Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that there are not some places in the country where they have several, especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to their parents according to their rank: that of dato, for instance, which signifies “a man of rank;” of tinaua, which signifies “free;” or oripuen, which signifies “a slave.” The women in the islands of the Pintados are called binocot, or “woman who is in the room;” for bocot signifies “a room,” and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front of the mouth when they talk to a man.10