Note 12 — APPENDIX: AGRICULTURE IN FILIPINAS

One of the largest and richest towns of the province of Bulacán; and both town and province are renowned for various native manufactures—hats, cigar-cases, piña fabrics, and petates (i.e., mats)—of fine quality, and often very costly. See Jagor’s account (Reisen, p. 48) of the manufacture of these cigar-cases at Balivag; the fibers of which they are made are obtained from a certain species of Calamus (rattar), and the cases cost from two to fifty pesos each. It appears that the word petaca comes (as does petate, “mat”) from the Mexican word petlatl, meaning “a mat.” ↑