An Englishwoman in the Philippines . ichbecome positively a whisper with shyness andawe. The English people here adopt the custom,which prevails throughout the East, of callingtheir servants boys, but the Americans use theSpanish word muchacho, and that is unfortunate,as they give all vowels the narrow, English value,making it this word mudiaycho. It sounds soodd, this lack of ear, and quite alters some ofthe Spanish names—such as saying Cavyt forCavite (the naval port of Manila), Caypiz forCapiz (a town in Panay), and so on, and thoughthey pronounce Jaro exactly the same as theEnglish town of
An Englishwoman in the Philippines . ichbecome positively a whisper with shyness andawe. The English people here adopt the custom,which prevails throughout the East, of callingtheir servants boys, but the Americans use theSpanish word muchacho, and that is unfortunate,as they give all vowels the narrow, English value,making it this word mudiaycho. It sounds soodd, this lack of ear, and quite alters some ofthe Spanish names—such as saying Cavyt forCavite (the naval port of Manila), Caypiz forCapiz (a town in Panay), and so on, and thoughthey pronounce Jaro exactly the same as theEnglish town of Harrow, thank goodness theydont go so far as to call this place Eye-low-Eye-low! But I am wandering away from the servants,and I have not yet introduced the cook toyou. We had less trouble to get this treasurethan the others, as all the natives cook well byinstinct—at least, they know how to make thebest of what food there is to be had, whichis all one wants. This particular chef is ashrivelled, pock-marked person, about 4 feet. FURNITURE 29 6 in height, with an array of immense teeth,and an air of intense importance; this last char-acteristic being funny or annoying according tothe mood one happens to be in oneself Hiswages are 15 pesos a month, and as he is amarried man, or says so, he is to live with hisfamily in the town. And that was the end of the first day, anda very long and fatiguing one in this climate. When we came back next morning we foundthat the boys, who had been left in charge ofthe house and what furniture we had fixed up,had already swept and polished the floors, whichmade an immense difference to the appearanceof the place, and the lamps were filled andtrimmed. There is electric light in the town,but it is so very bad, and is the cause of so muchcomplaint, that all have to supplement their expen-sive electricity with oil lamps before they can are, therefore, not going to have it put on,though it would be quite easy, as the wire passesover us fro
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1906
