SOURCES

• Folklore consists of manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, etc., which throw light about the past.
• Folk refers to people who share at least one common factor.
• Lore is the common denominator, a product of human invention.
• Myths, legends, folktales, jokes, proverbs, riddles, chants, charms, blessings, curses, oaths, insults, taunts, tongue-twisters, greetings/leave-taking formulas, costume, folk drama, folk art, folk belief, folk music, folk metaphors, folk poetry (epics), games, gestures, prayers, folk etymologies, food recipes, traditional ornaments, other art forms are all part of folklore.
• Folklore is relatively stable and resilient, and is the foundation of culture.
• Understanding folklore can show the whys, hows, and where’s of current cultural changes.
• Folklore transcends recent changes in history, including political strife and war that may have divided the nation.
• Survivals of past custom and belief may be embedded in the various genres of lore.
• Chao Ju Kuai was the first to write accounts and analysis of the foreign goods and the places he saw during his term as trade commissioner in the twelfth century.
• Tao I Chih Lueh, 1346 was a Wang Ta-yuan who wrote about the men often taking ships to Ch’iian-chou, where brokers take all their goods to have them tattooed all over, and when they get home, their countrymen regard them as chiefs and treat them ceremoniously and show them to the highest seat, without even fathers and elders being able to compete with them, for it is their custom so to honor those who have been to Tang.
• The Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300, describes the party sailing to the port of Singapore, travelling north to Sumatra.
• Muhammad ibn Battuta, 1304 – 1368 or 1369, in his Ar-Riḥla/Riḥlah, describes sailing to Sumatra and travelling north to Singapore.
• Tomé Pires, 1465? – 1524 or 1540, in his Summa Oriental que trata do Mar Roxo até aos Chins, describes the Spice Islands of Banda in Maluku, the islands that first drew Europeans to Indonesia.
• The earliest written account of the 'Spice Islands' of Banda in Maluku is found in the compilation of a wide variety of information: historical, geographical, ethnographic, botanical, economic, commercial, etc., including coins, weights and measures, collected from merchants, sailors and others with whom he had contact.
• The tombstone found in Mt. Data, Jolo, Sulu, inscribed with the date 710 A.D., or 1310 in the Christian calendar, is the earliest evidence of Islamization in the Philippines.
• The Sulu Code is a guide for the proper execution of the duties of office in accordance with the law and rules of the country, concurred in by all, and promulgated with the general consent of all the datus, panglima, and subordinate officers of state.
• Tombstones, early evidence, and other sources such as khutbahs, kitabs, sultan, datu, sharif, sayyid, shah, batara, rajah (Sanskrit) are all part of the sources for the study of the history of the Philippines.