Samales (15).
These people inhabit the islands of Samal and Talicud, in the Gulf of Davao, and are not to be confounded with the Moros Samales of Tawi-tawi and Jolo.
The Samales surpass both the Moros and Nisayas in muscular development and stature.
Their feet and hands are large; they have high and projecting cheek-bones, and a stiff beard standing out round the face gives it, according to Montano, something of a cat-like appearance. Both sexes dress like the Moros.
They are less ferocious than their neighbours, and do not, like them, go about armed.
They do not commit any aggressions, and are industrious. In character, they are superior to the Moros, and are not like them—cunning and deceitful.
They have been on good terms with the Spaniards for a long time, but until quite lately they were very obstinate, and could not be persuaded to be baptized.
They cultivate the usual crops, fish, and make salt. The women weave dagmays.
They used to have slaves, whom they purchased from the Moros or Manobos, and treated them well.
Formerly, they enclosed their dead in wooden coffins, made in two parts, the shallower part serving as a lid. Each piece was hollowed out of a solid log. They placed the coffins on a rude platform in a cave or niche in the rocks, or else built a thatched roof over it to keep off the rain.
They placed near the coffin buyo and bonga for chewing, and vases containing rice and maize. Each year after the harvest they went to visit the dead, and renewed the offerings.
Little is known of their former religion, but they worshipped the serpent, and believed in the immortality of the soul, and in a place of punishment by fire, which they called Quilut.
The patience and zeal of the missionaries has, however, been richly rewarded, and in June, 1894, a number of Samales were baptized, including most of their dattos. By the autumn of that year there was not a heathen left in the islands, and the Samales are now settled in seven villages—San José, San Ramon, Alcira, Tarifa, Carmona, Cervera, and Peña Plata. This last was the residence of the missionary, who was accompanied by a lay brother. The population at the beginning of 1897 was 1625.