El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-12-13

M government is again having
w trouble with our Mohsmmedan
cousins. The Moros IN places are up
IN arms against the new laws and are
onenl- and secretly fighting the regu-
latiOns as to slavery ..
7-6ere is no doubt that slavery exists
moi only in the Moro country oul eLsO
here and there In other parts OF tne
islands. and II viii be a long time De
fora ST can be wiped out. mean actusll
slavery. such as existed when We TOOK
hold OF the islands
1 travelled through Mindanao and the
SrIu archipelago when we were Just
57eafnninc- to pacify that part OF the
Phffppines. / then found slaves every .
where. and once had chance 10 Duy
four likely MOhammedan cnlloreh IOI
$50 The owner was a Filipino woman,
mo lived several hundred miles west
of Zamboanga, at Davao, under the
shadow OF Mount Apo she had the
little ones brought for me out into the
sunlight and 1 made photograph u
them There were three boys and
gin. ranging in ages from 9 to Il years.
The girl was the oldest and, as IS COM
mon in tropical countries al thaL as
she was almost ready for marriage. 9he
was half naked, her only garment De,
ing a wide strip Of dirty cotton wrapped
around her waist and falling 70 heE
knees As looked at her, her raj oiu
mistress seductiyely said: Mucha
nueDG--
q girl ought to be worth so OF any
MANS money and seemed surprised that
/ did not jump at the bargain
Dean Worcester says he was ortered
Tsvyi for Is bushels Of rice, and that
on many Of the islands he could buy
girls of 10 for 50 apiece. A captain OF
the army told me how he had recently
bought a slave girl for $40 ana sven
her her freedom This sale was made
out of pity The captain, who was en-
.EaEed to a very pretty girl IN the
United States, sympatnlzed WIN the
female slave, who although IN love
I7vifh q Young man OF her village was
about to be sold into the harem OF an
old Moro chieftain. The girl said she
would rather die than submit, ana the
captain bought her and gave her TO the
man of her choice.
aieeF of our army, saved slave girl
from death. She had angered her mas
ter. who was one of the Dattos and
had run off from the harem and thrown
herself at the foot Of the officer say
ing the DattO had threatened to Kill
her The officer made the Datto
promise to spare her life, TO agree 70
Bring her once week TO ms quar-
to show that she was still living This
was done for several weeks and then
the girl disappeared Whether the
Datto killed her or sold her to one OF
her friends was never known
A few years ago the Sultan Of Sulu
got I'D q new code Of laws which he
sent to Manila for approval Many OF
them related to slavery ana to the
treatment Of the women OF the hareLn.
Our government does not like to be
mixed up in religious matters, and &C
cording to the treaties we allow the
MoFos to worship practically as they
please. By the Mohammedian religion
every follower Of the prophet has the
right TO four wives and all he has TO
do, il he wishes to change, is to say
to such of his wives as he does not
like three tines
"I divorce you'll divorce you'll d.
This means that they must go and
not return, and he can then fill up the
quota with a fresh assortment Accord
ing 10 this code the relations between
the AToros and the slaves were plainly
laid down. It was provided that II
slave laid his hand upon free married /
woman with any improper intention ne
should be the property Of the woman
husband, and also that If q free man
laid his hand upon a married slave Wo-
man he should be fined 500. If the
slave woman informed as to the out
rage the fine was to be divided between
her and the state, but If It was detected
by others the whole fine went 10 the
state
This code was turned down by our
government, but it shows that the
y
right, Notwithstanding their American (
Resort to Many CrueIties
In the Philippines women are not
yelled. as in other Mohammedan eoun- 1
tries. and both wives and slaves go /
about bare faced. I was told that a
dattO was cOnsiderer rich according 70 /
the number Of slaves he owned ana 1
that children were stolen from other
tribes TO be kept as slaves Some OF
the dattOs were notorious for their
cruelty in regard to their slaves.
I met an old villain named Tito, who
gave unheard Of pun1shments Tor minor minor
offenses. Slaves who ran away from
him were often punished by cutting the
tendons below the knee, so that they
could walk only with 0lTnculty anu
could be easily caught II they 9rleo
again TO escape This man had a
slave girl whom he disliked. He bound
her over a place swarming with RED
ants ana she was bitten to death Tito |
had a man tied naked to the trunk OF
a tree, where he was eaten by the NOS
quitos at night
Tito had also stocks in which he left
De0ple TO die One Of our oTticers J
found a Moro dead in the stocks. he
was lying there no one having oareo
to remove the corpse
Priest Makes Report,
Some Of the above instances give on !
the authority Of a Jesuit priest Who
was travelling among the Moros just
about the time we took hold of the is
lands. He wrote about them to one OF
the generals Of the United States army
and the latter included them in his re-
port to the government This man des-
cribed other punishments melted out by
the chiefs Of these Mohammedan Moros
He says that they had one way Of tan
talking their enemies. They would I
Tie q man in the river where the tides 1
came in such way that he could Just I
escape drowning by standing on MS
Eiptoes and thus keep the water from
entering his nostrils and mouth At /
times Of extraordinary tides such men |
were drowned.
One Of our American officials SAYS
that he saw a Moro in Jolo who al Z
WAYS wore q bandage over his mouth I
This was to bide from public view its /
deformity which has been caused, not {
by nature. but by a datto to whom he /
had spoken disrespectfully- The datto [
ordered that the mans mouth be Spit |
and opened to the edges Of the jaw
bones This was done with a kris /
and It was then left to heal Strange /
go say. the man lived
Is Difficult TO Wipe Out.
It is strange that slavery cannot be I
put down in the Philippines. The /
Spaniards attempted it 800 years ago, /
and there have always been laws 1