Evening star., 1900-06-23

the right to seize any Of the women, and
he has goodly number OF slave girls IN
his harem. Not long ago female slave
connected with his household fell In love
with one Of his warriors. She was neither
wife nor concubine, but merely a servant
of the harem. and the warrior asked his
majesty that she be given him as wife.
The sultan refused. and the two ran away
and got married. They were captured and
brought back. and the sultan then said
that the man must die. The girl thereupon
threw herself at the feet of the sultan
and begged that she be allowed to die with
her lover. The sultan consented and the
same campilan sliced off the two heads.
The Laws Regulating Slavery.
According to our treaty, as understand
It, any slave in the islands ruled by the
Sultan of Sulu can be freed upon payment
of $50 by him to his master. I doubt II
this covers the Island Of Mindanao. which
is now part of our country. and. there
fore. subject to the thirteenth amendment
of the Constitution. which provides that
slavery shall not exist in any place subject
to the Jurisdiction of the United States.
AT present the Spanish laws are in force.
and they will continue so until Congress
adopts others. 1t was more than .'oo years
ago that Spain decreed that slavery snoulo
be abolished in the Philippines: King
Philip II then made decree that all slaves
over twenty years of age were to be freed
after five years more service, and that
child slaves were to be freed upon becom-
ing of age. Notwithstanding this. the
Spaniards held slaves themselves. and
about one hundred and odd years ago some
of them had as many as 3oO apiece
According to our present policy, we can
not restrain the Moros as to their treat
mert of their slaves. The Jurisdiction or
our officers extends only to cases of dis
pute and trouble between Moros and Chris
tians. and the dattos and the sultans are
to settle all cases between the Moros them
selves.
Take for instance. a case which recently
came up before Captain Dapray. then in
command at the Island of Bongao. A very
pretty girl rushed into his quarters one
day, threw herself at his feet and begged
him to protect her from death. She was
an escaped slave of the Datto Tantong, one
of the two most powerful dattos of that
region. She had angered the datto. and.
fearing he would kill her. had run away.
In short time the datto appeared and de-
manded she be given to him. and. according
to the law. Captain Dapray had to consent,
although he made the datto promise her
life would be spared If he did so. He made
the datto agree to bring the girl once a
week to his quarters to show him that she
still alive. After the second visit the
datto offered the girl to Captain Dapray as
a present The captain might have accept
ed the gift and freed the girl. but he real
lied that this would not be acceptable to
the dattO and refused She taken back
to the dattos establishment. where she was
evidently maltreated. for she away a
second time. She was again captured and
shortly after this disappeared, the da, 20
saying he had exiled her. Whether he
killed her or merely sent her away is not
known
slaves Not Badly Treated.
AS rule. however. the slaves are well
treated. They are not slaves of the Uncle
Toms Cabin kind. with taskmasters over
them whipping them to work. There is
such thing as tracking with blood
hounds and very little forced labor. They
are more like the faudal servants of the
middle ages than like our former slaves.
The slave child is brought up much the
same as the son of the family. The slaves
eat with their masters and in most cases
they do not work unless their masters
work with them. 1t is considered dis
graceful for a man to sell slave whom he
has raised in the family. although the man
and his children are subject To sale if the
master desires.
Very few of the Moros are agricultursts.
They are not industrious, accumu!ative
thrifty, and the slaves usually have as easy
a time as though they Were free and had
to work to support themselves Under diff
ferent conditions. such as Will come from
the development of the country, tho
ployment Of labor, the opening up of coffee
and sugar Plantations. their situation might
be changed. but it is now their servitude
is little more than slavery in name.
! do not apprehend that our government
would have great deal of trouble i'll erad-
icating the system. provided the work is
for the present it will be far safer to let
it alone.
Our POlyEamOus MOhamm ednns.
The question of poySamy is more Sc
rious one. This is connected with the Mo-
hammedan religion. and if the United
States attempts to abolish it we shall have
a war on our hands which will probably
last until the Moro population is wiped out
According to the Koran. every Moham-
medan has the right to four wives. He is
taught that he should keep that number II
he support them, and that when he
goes to heaven a part of his bliss Will con-
sist of numerous and beautiful houris. He
has also the right to as many cCncubines
and female slaves he wishes take.
and ruiz. his number is only limited
by his means Datto Tito is said to have
about sixty women in his hartm, The Sui
tan of Sulu has the un;ucky- Hunher of
thirteen, and the Sultan Of MindanaU, who's"
women | photographed at COttabato. has
at least ten Each Of the head Npros has
TWO or more wives although many of the
lower classes. on grounds of economy and
peace in the family, restrict themselves to
but one.
Some. I am told. vary their number of
wives with the times and the seasons. All
that a Mohamm"dan has to do to get rid
of "A wife is to say Il divorce you. / Gl-
vo-ce you. l divorce you three times and
the woman is divorced and must return to
her parents. This is convenient that
some Persian husbands are said to take On
extra lot of WIVES at harvest time
using them to gather the grain and divorc-
ing them when the crops are all in.
Hnrems of Our American Brothers.
l suppose may consider these
Moflammcdans part of our national
brotherhood, and we should therefore know
something of their customs to the family
relation. They differ in many ways from
the Mohammedans of the Mediterranean,
but they believe in the Koran and are ia
natics in the exercise of its p-eccptS. They
do not pray much nor often their
brothers of Turkey and Arabia. but they
believe just strongly. They have differ
ent customs regards their har"ms. not
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