[Men’s clothing.] A hat, trousers, and a shirt worn outside them, both made of coarse Guinara cloth, compose the dress of the men of the poorer classes.  The shirts worn by the wealthy are often made of an extremely expensive home-made material, woven from the fibers of the pineapple or the banana.  Some of them are ornamented with silk stripes, some are plain.  They are also frequently manufactured entirely of jusi (Chinese floret silk), in which case they will not stand washing, and can only be worn once.  The hat (salacot), a round piece of home-made plaiting, is used as both umbrella and sunshade, and is often adorned with silver ornaments of considerable value. [The “Principales".] The principalia class enjoy the special privilege of wearing short jackets above their shirts, and are usually easily recognizable by their amusing assumption of dignity, and by the faded cylindrical hats, yellow with age, family heirlooms, constantly worn. [The dandies.] The native dandies wear patent leather shoes on their naked feet, tight-fitting trousers of some material striped with black and white or with some other glaringly-contrasted colors, a starched plaited shirt of European make, a chimney-pot silk hat, and carry a cane in their hands. [The servants.] The servants waiting at dinner in their white starched shirts and trousers are by no means an agreeable spectacle, and I never realised the full ludicrousness of European male costume till my eye fell upon its caricature, exemplified in the person of a “Manila dandy.”

[Mestiza costume.] The mestizas dress like the Filipinas, but do not wear the tapis, and those of them who are married to Europeans are generally clad in both shoes and stockings.  Many of the mestizas are extremely pretty, but their gait drags a little, from their habit of wearing slippers.  As a rule they are prudent, thrifty, and [Clever business women.] clever business women, but their conversation is often awkward and tedious.  Their want of education is, however, not the cause of this latter failing, for Andalusian women who never learn anything but the elementary doctrines of Christianity, are among the most charming creatures in the world, in their youth. [Ill at ease in society.] Its cause lies rather in this equivocal position; they are haughtily repelled by their white sisters, whilst they themselves disown their mother’s kin.  They are wanting in the ease, in the tact, that the women of Spain show in every relation of existence.

[Mestizos.] The mestizos, particularly those born of Chinese and Tagal mothers, constitute the richest and the most enterprising portion of the native population.  They are well acquainted with all the good and bad qualities of the Filipino inhabitants, and use them unscrupulously for their own purposes.

CHAPTER IV