Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-10-15
Some Interesting Information
Concerning these People From
an Optic Subscriber and
Correspondent.
AN ORIEN tai BREEZE
AnInsight Into the Curious Lives
and Manners Of Uncle Sans
Wards in the Philippines.
The TROUBLE WITH NOR is


The following well written and de
cidedly entertaining article, L from
the pen Of Mrs. Lefa Fl IA Hnbhell
wife Of Henry Hubb ell both well
known in this city. II will be read
with great pleasure ~ their many ac.
qialiitailees mere The couple are
nov at cottai .ato Mindanao, philip
piiie isiahas, They left here for the
fnilipplne i about three years ago, at
Wiiicli lme Mrs. Hubbell promised an
afeic' & for The Optic. and pursuant to
e promise, a large envelope, post
marRed as stated above. arrived yes
terday. We take pleasure in be-
ing able to present to Optic readers
her interesting letter:
,sOf the fourteen hundred or more
islands comprising the Philippines,
there is none so interesting, SO pietur-
esque, so worthy of our steel, as Min
danao, which is peopled by many dill
ferent races, from the pagan tribes of
the mountains to the semiciyilized
people inhabiting the lowlands, and
even more enlightened class living.
along the coast in the principal towns.
The Moros come first. both in civili-
zation and in numbers; perhaps also
in courage and strength. They are
scattered throughout Mindanao and
the Sulu group. II is now almost gem
orally believed that they came to the
Philippines by way of Borneo, as far
back as the reign of Har-en-hebi, in
Egypt, when the disk-worshippers
were expelled from that country and
wandered to Arabia, and from wor-
shipping the sun--or that particular
phase of it which they called Aten-
worshipped fire. Some of their de-
scendants wandered still farther
away; to Ceylon, to Borneo, to the
Philippines; but by this time, through
close association with the Mohamme-
dams of Arabia, they had imbibed the
religion of Islam. There is symbol
of the old fire-worshipping people OF
Arabia still extant among the Moros;
il Is in the shape of the blade OF their
fighting weapon known as the cris,
,,.t,;al, 4, .uayozI;l.aS and tannrinu IN q
peculiar point resembling flame.
Whether their ancient religion Is SYM
bolized in their modern weapon, or
not, they do not themselves know;
but they have no other explanation to
offer as to the origin of the form of
the cris blade.
Many people suppose that the Mo
ros have no literature. They have
not, in the strict sense of the world;
though they have sort Of Homeric
literature which has perpetuated for
them many Of their ancient legends.
This, however Is enjoyed only by the
higher classes, as II Is spoken, not
written, in the more refined language
of the sultans and rajah-mldai. Thers
are itinerant literati who go about
from place to place and rcsite in a
monotonous sing-song tone the won.
derful traditions they learned from
their fathers before them,
While the Moros are imbued with
certain amount of intelligence OF
sporadic ana doubtful quality their
religion and superstitions initiate
against them ever becoming much
higher in the mental scale Than they
are at present. They are still TOO
deeply imbedded in tne serbonian
bogs Of barbarism' 10 listen 10 any
disparagement of their beliefs, and
they are themselves unable 70 draw
line between their religion and
their superstitions They consider
themselves good Mohammedans be
cause they pray 10 Allah, abstain
from eating pork, wear the turban
and observe the Fast Of Ramadan;
but they are wildly fanatical in theil
religion, and juramentalos are FIRE
quent among them. The juramentadc
IS more feared by the Americans thar
all their organized warriors, because
he bursts upon his unsuspecting vic
tim when he is least expected. TX
go juramentado is strange
custom. Sometimes Moro enters