Sleeping arrangements: The ‘abrasador’

Jean Mallat was a Frenchman who published a three-volume work on the Philippines in 1846. I acquired the two volumes of text over 30 years ago, from the Madrid rare book dealer Luis Bardon; the third volume filled with illustrations has always eluded me.

In four decades of hunting for rare Filipiniana I have only come across stray illustrations from Mallat taken from a butchered volume. Mallat is collected not just for its antiquity but for its content: a lot of information on the 19th century Philippines including taxes for goods imported or exported from the port of Manila, a table of textiles complete with Philippine names, origins, and qualities of various cloth. Mallat wrote with the eye of an anthropologist recording the way Filipinos lived at the time.

Before classes went online, my students were required to visit Intramuros to step into the past and get a sense of life in Spanish Philippines. In San Agustin Museum they encounter the image of the Dominican San Pedro Martir depicted with a bloodied bolo embedded in his head. He is the patron saint against headaches. In Casa Manila Museum they are transported to a house very much like Capitan Tiago’s as described in the opening chapters of Rizal’s “Noli me tangere.” After visiting Intramuros, most students appreciate life in the 21st century particularly electricity, running water, smartphones, and WiFi. Most of the students who look inside the bedrooms smile at the sight of the night pot under the bed. They try to imagine sleep without mattresses and airconditioning.

I provide travel accounts of the Philippines to supplement their museum visit. Regarding beds, an American visiting Manila in 1898 commented that: “It takes a European some time to get used to the cooking of native dishes and it takes him still longer to get used to the Philippine idea of comfort while asleep.” His description of a typical bed in an upper class Philippine home fits all the museum models from Casa Manila to Emilio Aguinaldo’s house in Kawit, Cavite, to Casa Gorordo Museum, Cebu, and even Rizal’s place of exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte:

“It is no small task to wrestle with a Philippine bed which is springless, unyielding and anything but comfortable. It has four high posts covered with lace curtains and usually a mosquito bar [to hang a mosquito net or mosketero]. Where an American bed boasts springs, it has a rattan surface [sulihiya or open work rattan], similar to [the seat] of a rattan chair, which is extremely hard, and the thin mat [banig] which is placed over it and the hard pillow and almost as hard bolster which are given one to sleep on are not conducive to rest. It is rather a serious task to get into one of these beds without allowing the mosquitoes to precede you, but one gets the hang of it after awhile and manages to go to sleep.”

Mallat’s account of sleeping arrangements describes people surrounded by many pillows and cushions, including the long cylindrical abrasador:

“…more or less hard according to the taste of the person, covered with fine cloth, embroidered or not, to which it owes its coolness. As its name indicates, its purpose is to be embraced, and usually it is placed between the legs and the arms during sleep. Between the abrasador and the body is left a suitable distance for the air to be able to circulate. At first sight one would think such a cushion to be suffocating instead of refreshing; but it is the very opposite as long as one knows how to use it. New users have as much difficulty getting used to it as those who have grown into the habit of doing without it.”

To sleep comfortably in the heat, all manner of pillows are required; placed under the head, buttocks, and under each arm and leg so that one could lie suspended. “The body leans on each [pillow] only at a point, the rest lie on empty space, so that air circulates from everywhere around the body, and one cannot be more comfortably and softly bedded, even on the floor.” Mallat suggested the adoption of the abrasador in France and apologized for not leaving an illustration of a Manila resident lying on his pillows in Volume 3 of his book. Last time I was in the mall, abrasadors were on sale. With summer upon us, I might brave COVID-19 and buy a pair.

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