Evening star., 1900-05-19

he goes through his path Of deatb>ne
often disregards the religious chayaefer Of
his victims. and kills eveFy one he meets.
being insane in his endeavors to add an
other and still another death to his list.
Cases are cited of where the Juramentado.
being chased by soldier with gun and
bayonet, has turned, and seizing the bayo-
net, forced 1t into his body in order that he
might thus get closer to and kill the man at
the other end Of the gun.
So far no Americans have been killed by
Juramentados. General Bates guarded
against such a possibility to some extent
by telling the sultan and dattos that If a
Juramentado killed an American he would
kill not only the murderer, but also the
priest who swore the oath and every one
else who had hand in the crime. He i'm
pressed this firmly upon the mind of the
Sultan of Sulu that his majesty issued
proclamation telling his people that: They
must not kill Americans. because they are
like bunch of matches. and if you touch
one. the whole bunch will go Off" Be
sides" he added. there is really no rea-
son why Mohammedans should kill Ameri-
cans, because they are not Christians
Datto Mandfs Village.
But come with me and take a walk
through the village in which Datto Mandi
lives. 1t adjoins the garrison town of Zam-
boanga. being separated from it only by a
river, over which is a bridge. Imagine
hundreds of yellow and gray thatched huts
each from fifteen to twenty feet square
built high up on piles and scattered for a
mile or more along the SeashOre under the
tallest of cocoanut trees. Let the huts be
from four to SIX feet from the ground and
let them be reached by wide ladders with
round bamboo rungs. Let each of the huts
have lean-to. or a shed extending out 1T
its front side, and you have some idea
of Moro village.
You cannot see it. however, without you
fill it with people. forming the queerest con-
glomeration of features and colors you can
imagine You must place here and there
scores of bare-footed, brown-faced men.
wearing bright turbans. loose jackets and
skin-tight trousers of red, yellow, blue and
in fact. all colors of stripes. You must
have scores of brOwn-Skinned, half-naked
boys and altogether naked children moving
about At the waist of every boy who is
over fifteen, and of every man, you must
put great knife in wooden sheath. You
must now and then add one with, a spear or
a lance, and scatter through the whole men
with helmet-like straw hats. which end in
cone at the crown, adorned with a piece
of white tin, which shines like silver under
the rays of the sun. You must mix with
the crowd scores of dark-faced women and
girls. only few of whom hide their faces
after Mohammedan fashion, and some of
whom show a great deal more of their
bodies than our customs allow. This is 40
also of the men; not Il few wear nothing
but breech cloths and big hats; but all
have their swords
Their Teeth Are HOllOw-Gorund.
Stop a moment and look at their features
What fierce-looking people they are and
how different from the Tagals and Wis.,
ayans. Their faces are dark chocolate,
their cheek bones are high and they make
us think somewhat of the American In
dian. They have black eyes and rather
thick noses. There is Just a trace of the
negro in some of the features. although
some have the straight nose of the Cau-
casian. Notice the blood-red lips and black
teeth. These Moros all chew the betel, and.
strange to say, both women and men think
black teeth are prettier than white ones.
Take a closer look at the teeth of that
woman who stands over there! What Is the
matter with her? Her teeth seem to be
followed out at the front, and they are in
deed Ow-ground. This custom is com
mon among the Mohammedan women and
men. By means of a round stone or
rat-tail file, they cut their teeth so that they
curve outward, and the deeper the curve
the greater the beauty.
T heard the other day how the custom
arose. 1t dates back, it is said, to the days
Of Mohammed. When the prophet took a
second wife his first wife was jealous. She
was afraid No. would be loved more than
she. she decided to destroy her rivals
attractiveness. She first cut off her hair at
the front, but this only made her more
beautiful than ever. The other women
straightway banged their hair, and today
all Moro girls do the same.
The next day Nohammed's first wife con-
cluded to try the experiment of grinding
the teeth. and she followed out the grind
ers of wife No. 2, and painted them black.
When Mohammcd came home he thought
the young woman more charming than
ever and as the story goes from that day
these women have blackened their teeth
/ don't think the custom prevails i'll Tur-
key. however, and / have never heard OF 1t
In any other Mohammedan country. Here
both men and women universally do it, the
teeth of the girls being filed just as soon as