and position. The nobles enjoyed privileges which were denied to the timawas.

Some were abusive and cruel to the members of the lower class. They imposed exhorbitant interests for money borrowed from them. A princial in Alangalang was so feared that timawas cut branches along his way to make him pass without stooping. The least blunder of timawas meant slavery.

The freemen on the other hand were free-born or acquired their freedom from slavery. They were under the sway of the datus and rendered him tributes and services by attending feasts and accompanying him on his journeys. They composed the barangay's little army and fought the wars of the datus. However, they received no compensation for these services, except security afforded them by the datus.

A third class came into existence because of these inter-tribal wars and usury. This was the class of slaves, which some scholars further subdivided into two types: mamalay and the halom. The former were treated like hired servants. They had their own houses and rendered service only on a part time basis. They were obliged to do household chores, prepare banquets, work in the fields especially during planting and harvest seasons, or row the boats when the master went to sea. They were not paid for their labors.

The halom were subject to harsher conditions. They could be disposed of at the master's will, and they could even be killed. (Many of such slaves were killed when their masters died because of the belief that they too would serve him in the afterlife.)

They had no houses of their own, except the shabby huts often given to them by their master. Now both types could be freed if they were able to pay their master the appropriate dues. Five taels for the mamalay, 10 for the halom. Their properties were subsequently divided into two: one for master, one for slave. A special banquet (at the slave's expense) must be prepared for the master and his friends. It was during this banquet that the slave received his freedom, witnessed by all in the community.

Slavery was flagrant in the island when the Spaniards came and went on for 100 years under Spanish regime. Indeed, next to glittering gold, slaves were

man's prized possessions. One measured his wealth by the number of slaves he had. King Phillip II of Spain had to send Contador Bustamante to Leyte in 1581 to free 2,000 slaves. In the words of Fr. Alonso de Humanes:"Every principal was living, according to their ancient customs, with his relations; and slaves in separate cluster of his huts..."

However, the most common causes of slavery here was usury. A debtor who could not pay his debts automatically became a slave. Even after the principal was paid, the slave remained so until the interests, which in the meantime had accumulated, was also fully paid.

Chirino had something to say about this:" Whenever they gave out loans (not in money which they neither had nor made use of but in kind, generally rice, bells and above all, gold, which duly weighed served as their medium of exchange and for which... everyone carries a small scale in his pocket), they always expected to make a profit, which in addition to the principal would have to be paid back to them...that same profit or interest kept increasing with every delay in the repayment and in the course of time exceeded what the debtor could possibly pay back; the obligation was then charged against the debtor's person and the poor man was made a slave, as thenceforth all his descendants."

"They had another rule of usury and slavery, which was that upon receipt of the loan, the debtor or his son immediately bonded himself to the service of the lender, to work out the full repayment of the principal plus the usuries and interests that were current among them. The result was that the debtor, or his hostage, together with all his descendants, became slaves....they also made slaves, cruelly and unjustly, in vengeance and punishment for things that were of little real importance but which they made out to be serious offenses, such as not observing the silence for the dead or happening to pass in front of a noble woman while she was bathing...while waging war, by means of raids and ambushes, they also made slaves of all those they did not wish to kill. And as warfare was so common among them, and as the strong generally take advantage of the weak, it was the easiest thing in the world for the powerful to multiply their slaves. They therefore possessed them in very large numbers, for among them slaves represent the greatest form of wealth."(Chirino)