The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-24

| last many weeks and viii result in quell-
ing the insurrection of Panay.
Business, particularly the shipment of
sugar, is being done on q large scale in
! has almost DESTROYED the city and that
| a state of war exists only a few miles
/ the ships Yorktown and Petrol, which pa
| troll the coast for 1iliousters There
exists little or no sickness among the
| troops there and the wounded are rapidly
The mestizo Sebastian Diales, is only
1 one among thousands Of the inha bitants
| OF archipelago and the description of his
1 with two of the Fiipinos' strongest char
! acterlstics-lndOIence and musical talent.
1hey are also literary people, or rather
would be, had they equal educational OPP
| l have made study of Philippine liter
/ allure during leisure hours and will give
| the reader the benefit of some of my in
| designations.
| To a casual observer it would seem more
man pass1ng Strange thaf duTng the nun
| one ever took the pains to make inquiries
| ippine islanders. II has never been the
| policy Of Spain to develop its Oriental
| far as it was possible so to do, in their
| primitive state. The only schools and
! they were few, that were provided for the
natives included in their curriculums only
| a few prayers and a little arithmetic. Once
in awhile a priest made a favorite of some
youngster and sent him to the Jesuit col
| lege in Manila, but he was never permit
ted to take a degree unless he happened
to come from a family who had great
wealth, and that was next to impossible
under the Spanish government, which
men5aeed trade other than in Spanish
If I remember aTigR5tly, one Alfred Wal
knowledge of the legends and literature
of the F'ilipinos. I recall having read
something by him on the subject, in which
he said that the native literature is prin-
cipally composed of legends, traditions
ancient songs and ballads and few queer
historical and religious dramas have
seen Viscayans, Tagals and Moro folklore
tales in both prose and verse. Necessarily
they are poorly printed and very scarce.
enought to pay for the printing of a book
to buy a book were very few indeed.
volume in .Tagalo which I have re-
Gently labOriOuSly read throws much light
on the mental life of that class of people.
It was devoted to the old wars between
the 1garroteS ana the Tagals, prior to the
time of the landing of Legaspi, which had
cost5Slr4e1 9aiI9THgIhoqr long centuries.
of poems by different Tagalo writers.
They have to do with the wanderings of
the Malays before they reached the north
ern archipelago. They are songs of the
the mind OF the savage, and, although
euphOniOus, are very crude. There are
falo, monstrous crabs and sea serpents
and titanic sharks. I read one story in
this volume of a tamaraos (buffalO) which
was as large as a mountain and which
often flew out into the tubig (sea) and de-
fearful jaws Of the tamaraOs We're chop
ping up and down and it's hideous mouth
seated unto death score ' Of people 55i Soon
40 % bfearS 70 n, IL go . sIe, go
the luminary and swallow it at a single
gulp. A little girl who plucking
flowers a bluff near the sea saw the
fr1ghtful monster and, recognizing the
creatures intentions. she called in a loud
voice to the tribe which was feasting and
making merry in a valley behind the bluff.
The warriors anticipated danger and,
grasping their creeses they FASTENED to
the place from whence came the cries
of the bata munte Qittle girD. She ex-
planned the situation to them in a few
words ana with terrible .whOop they
sprang into their canoes, which were tied
along the shore, and rOwed rapidly to-
wards the tamaraOs. An awful battle
ensued, in which many of the bravest
warriors were killed and the beast was
slain. For many years the bulun, out of
gratitude dropped hundreds of perlas (dia-
mOnds) every year.
This is the greatest specimen of iTnagin-
alton I have found. and in the native
tongue is quite pretty. It is often sung
by the natives as they squat about their
nepa huts on moonlight nights.
There is one also sung of the bankiva
0ungle-fowD which once every year, like