Note 12 — Relation of the Filipinas Islands

They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without children. When these are born, they name them according to the incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth; for lente signifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton, because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; for gubat signifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman called Vray—that is to say, “fine gold”—who had been given that name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long; and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a mark of beauty to have it thus.12 At the birth of a child to one among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week, during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.