Washington sentinel., 1898-07-23


with hanging the skulls of monkeys
deer, wild boars and buhaloes about
their doors. They all seem to have
some idea of great spirit who rules
over the affairs ofmen. They also recoR
nIze spirits of lower orders, some good,
some evil, the evil ones causing disease
and death in men. Each village usually
has one who serves as priest and doctor.
who is supposed to be a special favorite
OF the great spirit. His chief duties seem
to be to cure disease or to foretell its
result. He is usually aided by certain
old women who undertake to frighten
away the evil spirit by cries and wild
gestures, They do not appear to hi We
idols, but some paw reverence to certain
stones before which they place food and
drink. They have many forms Of tabu,
like the other island dwelling people of
the Paclh'. At the death ofa person a
fence OF bushes is built about the village,
and for a certain period no one is al
lowed to enter or depart, food for those
within being brought by friends to the
fence. where it is received by those
within. They are usually mouogamists
the wife being purchased from ner
parents Divorce is common the pur-
chase price being returned with The
divorced woman Their laws are pro
claimed and enforced by the elders OF
the villages, rather than by chiefs or
kings. The Spanish, whenever they
have come in contact with the wild
tribes, have undertaken to gam influence
among them by recognizing some head
man OF the village as chief, or g06eyHa.
a0rciLlO giving him as a symbo Of his
Office, cane, and perhaps a lew articles
of cast off military uniform.
My first visit to the Lagbanuas OF
Palawan was made in August OF 1874.
A small village OF them existed near the
newly established town Of Puerto Prin.
cesa. The patches OF rice among which
their houses were built were not yet
ripe, but they we're already rubbing out
the sof kernels and roasting of the hulls
and eating them. They appeared like
walking skeletons, having not yet re.
last harvest. was taken TO the house
Of the g06syNadoTcilE0, who ! found sat.
ting at his door, clothed like the rest in |
a breach clout. He had planted several
posts before his house. which were
ornamented with strips OF bark and
colored leaves, After shaking hands
with me, he retreated into his dwelling,
and after a moment came out with his
cane and dressed in an old Spanish
military coat, with big brass buttons.
and a co ked hat with tarnished bands
and tassels, He undertook to show me
a nearer way TO the river. and strutted
along the path before me with his cane,
his thin, bare, brown legs sticking out
below his military coat. While in the
interior of Mindoro in 1888, we were
visited at our camp by the Mangia lanes.
Those seen we're a little people. The
men were naked, but for the breech
clout, and armed with knives and bows
and arrows, The women wore a curious
petticoat, ofthin strips ofrattau, braided
into a narrow ribbon OF the width Of
NAA~ AhNNAs NAHbJ ydAho VI AuAS ElQDOu
were wound about the hips and held in
place by a strip of bark cloth fastened to
the girdle. They gathered up the bits
of crocodile's flesh which we were cut
ting of in making skeleton, and roast
ing them at our fire, ate them with
great relish. On their second coming
they brought us wild honey and wild fruit
in bark baskets TOR barter. In the
future of the Philippines the wild tribes
will probably have but small share.
They must be gradually merged with J
the civilized tribes or be as gradually
starved to death by being pushed back
by the rapidly multiplying civilized
Indians. The hundred thousand Chin.
ese and the two hundred thousand
Mohammedans of the southern islands
Will form more powerful factors in max.
ing future history, as they have already |
in making that Of the past,