The
Bisayans. These
are the people of the central Philippine islands, referred
in other accounts as the Pintados. The Codex is
rather lavish in its description of their dress and
ornaments. The men paint their bodies, the tattoos serving
as their attire while women only paint/
t attoo their hands.
The men, however, do not go naked as they wear a hahaque or
loincloth. They have colorful head-dresses (purones) a
piece of cloth wound around the head. The young men put this
on with fine strips of gold.
The
women wear a mantle with a hole for the head, the halves
coming down front and back thus with the sides open, are
kept from flapping by knotting the comers at the waist. A
jacket with half sleeves or full sleeves is worn over the
blouse, buttoned in front with braids or gold ornaments. The
upper class women wear crowns or wreaths of tinsel imported
from China when they go out.
Both
men and women have their ears pierced, some in several
places for ornaments of gold "made very
exquisitely."
A
note on goldsmiths: "They have among them many gold
artisans who work on filigree choicely and with much
benefit. Some look like roses and these are worn only by
women and are called pomaras. Others are like round
rings worn by men and women who call them panicas. Some
wear three or four pairs of such
rings in their ears which they can do because they
have so many holes." (Quirino-Garcia Translation:
406-407). Goldsmiths melt and refine gold.
More on, Bisayan jewelry: Women
carry on their arms many bracelets of gold and others of
ivory; the men also use these ordinarily. The gold ones are
called ganbanes and those of ivory tiposos; they
value highly those ivory. They carry around their necks
chains of gold and consider them as very pleasing and
bizarre. Women place around their legs bracelets of gold
and brass because they carry them bare up to the knees and
wear bracelets around the legs with much festiveness (
Quirino-Carcia Translation: 411).
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