Subanos (17).

The word Subanos means dwellers by the rivers, from suba—a river.

This numerous tribe inhabits the western peninsula of Mindanao from Misamis to Zamboanga, except the coasts which are mostly occupied by Visayas or Moros.

They are of a darker colour and inferior in physique to the Mandayas and Montéses.

Like other races in Mindanao the Subanos are organised under dattos or baganis in a feudal system. It is said that he who has killed one enemy may wear a red head-cloth, whilst other tribes only concede this distinction to a warrior who has killed five.

In religion, they are polytheists, and worship the following deities amongst others:

But they are said not to possess wooden idols like the Manobos, Mandayas and Montéses. They raise rough altars of sticks, on which they lay out offerings to their deities. They call these altars Paga-paga. The offerings consist of rice, chickens, eggs, buyo and tobacco, also a large jar of pangasi, a beer brewed from rice. When making their offerings, they sing, dance, and pray round the altar to the sound of the sucaran, a rough kind of cymbal or gong. Amongst the Subanos only the dattos or rich men have more than one wife. The marriage ceremonies are very elaborate, and conclude with two great feasts or drinking bouts, one in the house of the bride’s father, the other in the house of the bridegroom. Divorce can be obtained if the couple cannot agree, or if either quarrels with the father- or mother-in-law. It is not readily conceded, and the case is sometimes argued for days before the council of elders of the village. Children are only given names when four or five years old. The Subanos have no money in circulation, and any trading is effected by barter.

They bury their dead the day after their decease, wrapping the body in a mat. The grave is dug about a yard deep, and near the house. The Balian or priest accompanies the bearers, and sprinkles water on the house and ground as he goes. Women do not accompany the funeral party. The body is laid on a bed of leaves, resting on a framework of sticks or canes at the bottom of the grave. The sides are protected in the same way, and over it another framework is constructed, carrying an earthen jar containing food and clothing. The weapons of the defunct are laid over him, and the grave is filled in with earth, great care being taken not to let a particle of it touch the body. Sacrifices are made to the god Diuata; these constitute the funeral feast, which is consumed in silence. When it is concluded, the dishes and pots which contained it are turned upside down.

On the eighth day another feast is held, when they talk and dance, intoxicating themselves with copious libations of pangasi. The priest then goes through a ceremony the purport of which is to hand over the soul of the defunct to Diuata-sa-langit, the god of heaven. He begs the soul to go away with the god, and to trouble them no more. They then renew the dancing and drinking, and thus conclude the period of mourning.

The houses of the Subanos are similarly constructed to those of the Manobos, Montéses, and other tribes, but are not always raised so high from the ground, and are more roughly built. Their food is similar to that of the other heathen tribes. The men wear their hair long, but coiled up on the head, and covered with a kerchief worn like a turban. They dress in a tight jacket and trousers, either white, blue, or red. Sometimes they wear a sash. The men do not wear ear-ornaments of any kind. The women wear large combs made by themselves from bamboos, but no head-covering. Their ornaments are ear-rings, strings of beads round the neck, and many bangles or bracelets of brass or silver. They are clothed in a short shirt, either of homespun or Manchester cotton, and a skirt worn tight round the body, and reaching below the knees.

The weapons of the Subanos are the lance, which they call talanan, a round shield they call taming, a scimitar they call campilan, the Malay kris they call caliz, the machete or pes.

Their agriculture and industries are very primitive, and on a small scale.

They have scarcely any other musical instrument than brass gongs called Agum, which are played as dance music to their two dances, the Saldiringan and the Sinigay. In the first of these dances the men stand up in a row, opposite a row of women. All hold a palm-branch in each hand with which to beat time. They jump up and down with eyes fixed on the ground.

For the Sinigay, however, the partners touch each other’s hands, but only with the points of the fingers. The Subano, equivalent to our Mrs. Grundy, would feel shocked to see gentlemen dancing with their arms round their partners’ waists.

The principal feast is called Birclog, and it lasts eight days. A large shed is built, the priests offer prayers to the before-mentioned gods, and sacrifice swine and poultry. The pigs are strangled by a rope held or jerked by all the priests, and are placed on the altar one at a time. Above the carcass is placed a live cock, which they kill by wounding it through the mouth and letting it bleed to death. They also offer tobacco, rice, and pangasi.

The offerings are taken away to be cut up and cooked. They are then served, and the pangasi goes round, the priests being always served first and getting the best of everything, as seems to be the case all the world over.

When the first lot of people have been fed, they vacate the shed, which is instantly filled by a fresh lot. Sometimes in one of these feasts they consume twenty pigs and forty ten-gallon jars of the strong rice-beer. When intoxicated, their conduct, according to Father Sanchez, S.J., is apt to overstep the bounds of propriety, but in this they are very much like more civilised people in the same condition.

The only vessels possessed by the Subanos are some canoes, or dug-outs, on the rivers. These are sometimes of great length, and are called by them Sacayan. They propel them with great skill, using a long double-ended paddle which they use standing up, and alternately on either side. Like many other races of the Far East, they consider a lunar eclipse as the precursor of great calamities, and make a deafening noise to frighten away the serpent or dragon which is swallowing the moon. They consider the turtle-dove, or limocon, as an omen-bird, and will halt or perhaps return if they hear its cry when starting on a journey. Also if they hear any one sneeze whilst going down the ladder of the house, they return, and remain within doors.

Some of the Subanos bear Moro titles, such as Timuay, which is equivalent to third class judge. Father Vilaclara, S.J., a bold and enterprising missionary, visited, in 1890, the house of a Subano named Audos, who had recently succeeded his father as Timuay of the Sindangan River.

He counted twenty-nine persons, great and small, in the house, but this did not include the whole family, as several were absent at their occupations. The house was built on piles, according to the universal custom, and the floor could not be reached from the ground by the longest lance. It measured eighteen yards long by ten yards wide, and formed one vast apartment, there being no partitions of any kind. The floor was made of strips of bamboo, and on this account it must be out of reach, for as the inhabitants sleep on grass mats laid on the floor, they could easily be speared in the night through the interstices of the canes.

Five married couples and their children occupied this apartment, each having its own part of the floor, its own store of rice, its own pigs and poultry. Each family cooked and ate independently, but all showed the greatest respect to the aged grandparents, and consulted them about their affairs. Father Vilaclara appears to have ultimately converted the whole family, beginning with the boys, whom he took under his charge, dressed and fed them, and taught them to speak Visaya.

Gold-washing and gold-mining is practised by the Subanos between Dapitan and Misamis, where there is a vast extension of gold-bearing sand and earth. Near Pigtao auriferous iron pyrites occurs. The native name for this ore is Inga.

Horses are very abundant in the district of Misamis, and in common use for riding and as pack carriers.

The Subanos have the reputation of being war-like, yet until lately they were entirely dominated by the Moros wherever they came in contact. Since 1893 the Spaniards have isolated them from the Ilanao Moros by establishing a chain of forts, and making a Trocha, or military road, across the narrow neck of land from Tucuran on the Bahia Illana to Balatacan on Bahia Panquil. The width of the isthmus here is about sixteen miles, and the forts are called Alfonso XIII, Infanta Isabel, Sta. Paz, and Sta. Eulalia, and Maria Cristina.

The Subanos appear to be much more refractory to civilisation and Christianity than the Montéses, the Manobos or the Mandayas. This no doubt comes from the strong influence that vile nests of pirates and slave-traders around Lake Lanao has for centuries exercised over them, but in time the Trocha, if kept as it should be, in the interests of civilisation, will destroy that.

The Jesuit missionaries were actively at work round about the Bay of Dapitan in the extreme north of the Subano territory, and to some extent round about Zamboanga in the extreme south, until the war between Spain and America broke out.

In the Dapitan district there were at the end of 1896 nearly 15,000 Christians residing in the towns and villages under the spiritual, and temporal guidance of the Jesuits. During that year 208 heathen were baptized in the Dapitan district, but only 21 in the Zamboanga district.

It is safe to assume that in the Dapitan district alone there are 10,000 Christian Subanos.

The number of heathen Subanos, amongst whom there are a few semi-Mahometans, may be about 90,000. From these figures it is quite evident that the missionary enterprise should be extended, but in order to do this the insolence of the Moros must be chastised.

Chapter XXXVIII.

The Moros, or Mahometan Malays (18 to 23).

These terrible pirates who have for centuries laid waste the coasts of the Philippines and the adjacent islands, with fire and sword, carrying off tens of thousands of Christians or heathen into slavery, have only within the last few years had their power definitely broken by the naval and military forces of Spain and by the labours of the Jesuit missionaries, amongst the heathen tribes of the island.

It is scarcely half a century since they annually attacked the Visayas Islands and even Southern Luzon, and they have been, up to quite lately, the great obstacle to the civilisation of the Southern Philippines. In Culion, Cuyos and other islands the churches are built within a stone fort, in which the population took refuge when the Moros appeared. The old Spanish sailing men-of-war could not cope with these sea rovers, who in their light prahus, salisipanes, or vintas, kept in shallow water or amongst reefs where these vessels could not reach them. Of course, if the pirates were surprised when crossing open water, they ran great risks, since their artillery was always very deficient, but they sailed in great numbers, and if it fell calm they would cluster round a solitary man-of-war and take her by boarding.

In consequence, a special force was raised in the Philippines to protect the coasts against these pests. It was called “La Marina Sutil,” or the Light Navy. This force consisted of large flat-bottomed launches propelled by oars and sails. They were half-decked forward, and carried a long brass gun, on a slide, and some swivels on the quarters. These boats were coppered and fitted with a cabin at the after part. They carried forty or fifty men, all natives, and squadrons of them were stationed at the principal southern ports from whence they patrolled the coasts. Most of the officers were natives or mestizos; some of them survive to this day. These vessels rendered good service, and to some extent checked the incursions of the pirates, but they had not the speed to follow up the fast-rowing vintas of the Moros, which could always escape from them unless caught in narrow waters. In 1824, D. Alonso Morgado was appointed Captain of the Marina Sutil, and severely chastised the Moros.

Some of these rowing gun-boats are still to be seen rotting on the beach at the southern naval stations. But the introduction of steam gun-boats in 1860 gradually did away with the Marina Sutil, and sounded the knell of piracy in the Philippines. The Moros received terrible chastisement at the hands of these steam gun-boats, one of which, with a crew of only forty men, has been known to destroy a whole fleet of pirates, and now their power on the sea has become only a dread tradition of the past.

Even with all the advantages of steam propulsion, their suppression has been a matter of the utmost difficulty, for the Moros are not only possessed of the greatest personal valour, but are extremely skilful in taking advantage of every circumstance that can favour their defence.

Their towns are mostly built in the water, like the City of Brunei, the houses having bamboo bridges to connect them with the shore, which can be removed when desirable. They select a site well protected by reefs or islands, or only to be approached by long and tortuous channels through mangrove swamps enfiladed by guns cunningly concealed from view; a very death-trap to an attack by boats.

On rising ground and flanking their settlements they built their Cottas or forts. The walls of these strongholds are a double stockade of great trunks of trees, the space between them being filled with rock, stones, or earth rammed in. Some of these walls are 24 feet thick and as much as 30 feet high, defended by brass and iron guns, and by numerous lantacas. Such places can stand a deal of battering, and are not easily taken by assault, for the Moros mount the ramparts and make a brave defence, firing grape from their guns and lantacas, and as the assailants approach, hurling their spears on them to a surprising distance, with accurate aim, and manfully standing up to them in the breaches.

The Moro Sword and Spear.

[To face p. 363.

Should the assault slacken they never fail to rush out, helmet on head, clad in coats of mail, and with sword and buckler engage the foe in a desperate hand-to-hand struggle where quarter is neither asked nor given.

The annals of Moro-Spanish war include many well-contested combats, where, to use the language of Froissart, “many heavy blows were given and received,” where the most desperate exertions of Spain’s bravest officers, backed up by their war-like and hardy troops, not seldom failed to carry the forts held by the indomitable and fanatic Moros. Such Homeric combats were those between that dreaded Sultan of Mindanao, Cachit Corralat and Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, and Captain Atienzas’ bold attack on the hosts of the confederated Moros of Lake Lanao. Nor were the Spanish missionaries less active than the soldiers on the field of battle, or in the most desperate assaults. Crucifix in hand, Father San Agustin and Father Ducos calmly walked through many a hail of bullets and many a flight of spears leading and encouraging their half-savage converts in their resistance to these cruel oppressors.

Not to be out-done by either soldier or priest, Captain Malcampo, of the Spanish Navy, drove his vessel, the Constancia, right up to the Cotta of Pangalungan till her bowsprit touched the ramparts, then, sword in hand, leading a company of boarders, and using the bowsprit as a bridge, he carried the fort by assault, and put the garrison to the sword.

The thirsty soil of Mindanao has drunk freely of Spanish blood, and Pampango, Tagal, and Visaya have all worthily borne their part in this long drawn-out crusade of the Cross against the Crescent.

But not alone the Moro sword and spear has delayed for so long the conquest of Mindanao. Deadly fevers lurk in the lowlands, the swamps and the creeks of that rich and fertile island.

The Moros appear impervious to the malaria. At all events they live and thrive in, or in close proximity to, mangrove swamp and flooded jungle. The Tagal or the Visaya is not immune, and some even resist an attack of the terrible perniciosa less than a white man. I shall never in my life forget the awful sights I witnessed in 1887 and 1892 when some native regiments returned to Manila from the war in Mindanao. Any one who saw Shafter’s army disembark on their return from Cuba will understand me. Those who could march were mere walking corpses, but the shrunken forms, the livid tint and the glassy eyes of those who could not stand (and there were hundreds of them), brought the horrors of mismanaged war to the onlooker like one of Vereschagin’s realistic masterpieces.

But as the slaughter of the Dervishes at Omdurman teaches, not even the most dauntless bravery can prevail against modern weapons in the hands of tolerably disciplined troops. The quick-firing gun, the howitzer with shrapnell shell, the machine-gun and the magazine-rifle must inevitably bring about the subjugation of every lowland population not supplied with these dread engines of civilisation, and only the hardy dwellers in Nature’s loftiest fastnesses, the Himalayas or the Andes, may hope to retain their independence in the future.

It is a striking instance of the irony of fate that, just as modern weapons have turned the scale in favour of the Spaniards in this long struggle, and brought the Moros within measurable distance of subjection, when only one more blow required to be struck, Spain’s Oriental Empire should suddenly vanish in the smoke of Dewey’s guns, and her flag disappear for ever from battlements where (except for the short interval of British occupation, 1762–3) it has proudly waved through storm and sunshine for three hundred and twenty-eight years.

Such, however, is the case, and it now falls to the United States to complete the task of centuries, to stretch out a protecting hand over the Christian natives of Mindanao, and to suppress the last remains of a slave-raiding system, as ruthless, as sanguinary and as devastating as the annals of the world can show.

The Moros of Mindanao are divided into five groups or tribes; Illanos, Sanguiles, Lutangas, Calibuganes, and Yacanes.

(18) The Moros Illanos, who are the most important and the most dangerous community, are described fully later on. They inhabit the country between the Bay of Iligan and Illana Bay, also round Lake Lanao, the Rio Grande and Lake Liguan.

(19) The Moros Sanguiles live on the south coast from the Bay of Sarangani to the River Kulut.

(20) The Moros Lutangas occupy the Island of Olutanga and parts of the adjacent coasts, all round the Bay of Dumanguilas and Maligay, and the eastern coast of the Bay of Sibuguay.

(21) The Moros Calibuganes occupy the western coast of the Bay of Sibuguay, they are also dotted along the outer coast of the Peninsula as far as the Bay of Sindangan. They communicate by land across the mountains.

(22) The Moros Yacanes occupy the western part of the Island of Basilan, and the islands of the Tapul group.

(23) The Moros Samales are not inhabitants of Mindanao, but occupy and dominate the Islands of Jolo, Tawi-tawi and most of the smaller islands of those groups.

Physically, the Moro is a man built for the fatigues of war, whether by sea or land.

His sinewy frame combines strength and agility, and the immense development of the thorax gives him marvellous powers of endurance at the oar or on the march.

Trained to arms from his earliest youth, he excels in the management of the lance, the buckler and the sword. These weapons are his inseparable companions: the typical Moro is never unarmed. He fights equally well on foot, on horseback, in his fleet war canoe, or in the water, for he swims like a fish and dives like a penguin.

Absolutely indifferent to bloodshed or suffering, he will take the life of a slave or a stranger merely to try the keenness of a new weapon. He will set one of his sons, a mere boy, to kill some defenceless man, merely to get his hand in at slaughter.[1] If for any reason he becomes disgusted with his luck, or tired of life, he will shave off his eyebrows, dress himself entirely in red, and taking the oath before his Pandit, run amok in some Christian settlement, killing man, woman and child, till he is shot down by the enraged townsmen.

Wanton destruction is his delight. After plundering and burning some sea-coast town in Visayas or Luzon, they would take the trouble to cut down the fruit trees, destroy the crops and everything else that they could not carry away.

Yet, as they made annual raids, it would have appeared to be good policy to leave the dwellings, the fruit trees, and the crops, in order to tempt the natives to re-occupy the town and accumulate material for subsequent plundering.

Commonly, very ignorant of his own religion, he is none the less a fanatic in its defence, and nourishes a traditional and fervent hatred against the Christian, whether European or native.

Looking upon work as a disgrace, his scheme of life is simple; it consists in making slaves of less war-like men, to work for him, and taking their best looking girls for his concubines. His victims for centuries, when not engaged on a piratical cruise, have been the hill-tribes of the island, the Subanos, the Tagacaolos, the Vilanes, the Manguangas and others.

Originally immigrants from Borneo, from Celehes or Ternate, with some Arab admixture, the Moros have for centuries filled their harems with the women of the hill-tribes, and with Tagal and Visayas and even Spanish women, taken in their piratical excursions. They are now a very mixed race, but retain all their war-like characteristics.

Cut off from the sea by the Spanish Naval forces, they turned with greater energy than ever to the plundering and enslaving of their neighbours, the hill-men. These poor creatures, living in small groups, could offer but little resistance, and fell an easy prey. But now the devoted labours of the Jesuit missionaries began to bear fruit. They converted the hill-men, and gathered them together in larger communities, better able to protect themselves, and although the Moros sometimes burnt whole towns and slew all who resisted, carrying off the women and children into slavery, yet, on the other hand, it often happened that, getting notice of their approach, the Jesuits assembled the fighting men of several towns, and, being provided with a few fire-arms by the Government, they fell upon the Moros and utterly routed them, driving them back to their own territory with great loss. Of late years the Moros have found their slave-raids involve more danger than they care to face, and even the powerful confederation of Lake Lanao was, till the Spanish American war, hemmed in by chains of forts and by Christian towns.

Moros of the Bay of Mayo.

[To face p. 367.

But they have by no means entirely renounced their slave-raiding, and in order to give a specific instance of their behaviour in recent years, I will mention that on the 31st. of December, 1893, a party of 370 of them, under the Datto Ali, son to Datto Nua, accompanied by seven other Dattos, all well armed, and forty of them carrying muskets or rifles, and plenty of ammunition, made an unprovoked and treacherous attack on Lepanto, a Christian village in the Montés country, near the confluence of the Kulaman River with the Pulangui, between the Locosocan and Salagalpon cataracts. This is the extreme southern settlement of the Jesuits, and the nearest missionary resided at Linabo, whilst the nearest garrison was at Bugcaon, some four leagues distant.

The inhabitants, not being provided with fire-arms, sought safety in flight, but the Moros captured fourteen of them. They profaned the church, hacked to pieces the image of Our Saviour, and cut up a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary, smashed the altar, and with the débris, lighted a bonfire in the middle of the church, which, strange to say, however, did not take fire.

They stole the cattle and horses, looted the village, and marched off with their spoil and the fourteen captives.

When, however, they reached the ford on the River Mulita, five of the Christians refused to proceed into slavery. These were the Datto Mausalaya, another man named Masumbalan, and three women. They were all put to death by the Moros and barbarously mutilated. The flesh was cut from their bones, and it is said that the Moros consumed some of it, and so terrified the other captives that they marched forward into life-long slavery.

Had the converts in Lepanto been supplied with a few fire-arms, this disaster would not have happened.

The Mindanao Moros commonly wear a bright coloured handkerchief as a head-cloth or turban, a split shirt of Chinese pattern, wide trousers, and gaudy sashes.

The young men shave their heads, but after marriage they let their hair grow long.

The dattos, mandarines, and pandits usually cultivate a moustache, others pluck out all the hair on the face. The poorer women commonly dress in white and wear a jacket and a skirt coming down well below the knee. The richer ones wear silks of the brightest colours.

A white turban or head-cloth is a sign of mourning.

The illustration shows a group of Moros of the East coast. They are unarmed, unlike those of Lake Lanao.

The Moro noble takes great pride in his long descent, and in the distinction gained in war by his ancestors. During the long hours of their friendly meetings called Bicháras, they relate to each other tales of their ancestors’ heroism.

Their feudal system has been more or less copied by Subanos, Manobos, Montéses and other hill-races. The datto or mandarin is the feudal chief amongst all these, but the Moros have gone a step further, and have instituted rajahs and sultans, although with only a shadowy authority; for every important matter must come before the council of dattos for approval.

They use titles similar to those of the Malays of Borneo and Johore. Tuang, the head-man of a village; Cuano, a Justice of the Peace; Lamudia, Nacuda and Timuay, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class judges; Gangalia, a constable; Baguadato, a principal, or Cabeza; Maradiadina, eldest son of a principal. A datto is known by the richness of his apparel and by using gold buttons, and especially by always carrying a handkerchief in his hand. He is usually followed by a slave carrying his siri-box.

Like the Malays, they call the heir of a rajah the Rajah-muda; the nephew of a sultan uses the epithet Paduca; the son of a sultan calls himself Majarasin, the pure or mighty.

Orang-Kaya, corresponds to a magnate; Cachil, to a prince of the blood. The war-minister of a sultan is called the Datto Realao.

A principal priest is called a Sárif or sheriff; and an ordinary priest a Pandita, or learned man.

The learning of these worthies is of the most rudimentary description, and consists in being able to read the Koran in Arabic, and to recite certain prayers which they often do not understand.

They have some wretched sheds for places of worship which they call Langa. During the fast of Sanibayang, which lasts for seven days, they are supposed to abstain from all nourishment. However, at midnight, when they think their god may be napping, they indulge in a hurried meal on the quiet. At the end of their week of abstinence they undergo a purification by bathing, and indemnify themselves for their fasts by several sumptuous banquets. They are forbidden to eat swine’s flesh, or drink spirituous liquors, but they are not at all strict in their religion, and the savoury smell of roast pork has been known to overcome their scruples.

They are very fond of smoking tobacco, and of chewing buyo; some indulge in opium smoking.

Their amusements are gambling, cock-fighting, and combats of buffaloes. Their slave-girls perform various libidinous dances to the sound of the agun, or brass gong, and the calintangang, a kind of harmonium of strips of metal struck by a small drum-stick.

The dance called the Paujalay is usually performed at a marriage of any importance, and the young dancers, clad in diaphanous garments, strive to present their charms in the most alluring postures, for the entertainment of the dattos and their guests.

They have also a war-dance called the Moro-moro, which is performed by their most skilful and agile swordsmen, buckler on arm and campilan in hand to the sound of martial music. It simulates a combat, and the dancers spring sideways, backwards or forwards, and cut, thrust, guard, or feint with surprising dexterity.

The Moros are polygamists in general, although the influence of the Christian women taken as captives and sometimes married to their captors, has, in many cases, succeeded in preventing their husbands from taking a second wife. The cleverness and aptitude for business of Christian Visayas, and Tagal women captives, has sometimes raised them to the highest position in rank and wealth amongst the Moros; and few of them would have returned to their former homes, even if an occasion had offered. The custom of seizing girls for slaves and concubines which has prevailed amongst the Moros for centuries, has of course had the effect of encouraging sensuality, and the morals of Moro society may be compared to those of a rabbit-warren.

The Moros do not always treat their slaves with cruelty, they rather strive to attach them to their new home by giving them a female captive or a slave-girl they have tired of, as a wife, assisting them to build a house, and making their lot as easy as is compatible with getting some work out of them.

But perhaps the greatest allurement to one of these slaves is when his master takes him with him on a slave-raid, and gives him the opportunity of securing some plunder, and perhaps a slave for himself.

Once let him arrive at this stage, and his master need have no fear of his absconding.

The Spaniards have for years refused to send back any slaves who claim their protection, yet it has been remarked by Dr. Montano, and by missionaries and Spanish military officers, that slaves have been employed fishing or tilling the ground near the Spanish outposts, and only rarely would one step within the lines to obtain his liberty.

If caught running away from their masters, the dattos, they are sometimes put to death, or mutilated in a most cruel manner.

The famous Datto Utto, of the Rio Grande, is said to have stripped a runaway slave naked and to have tied him to a tree, leaving him to be stung to death by the mosquitos or devoured piecemeal by ants.

This same Datto Utto, towards the end of 1889, made himself so objectionable to the Datto Abdul, one of his neighbours, that the latter determined to place himself and his people under Spanish protection. His village consisted of eighty houses and was situated on the banks of Rio Grande.

Datto Abdul gave proofs of engineering skill, for he constructed eighty rafts of bamboos, and placing a house upon each with all its belongings, inhabitants and cattle, he floated his whole village fifteen miles down the river and landed at Tumbao, establishing himself under the protection of the fort.

The Datto Ayunan, who resides in the same neighbourhood, also came over to the Spaniards, and learned to understand and speak Spanish very fairly. He had at least three thousand followers, and in the fighting on the Rio Grande in 1886–87 he took the field, supported the Spanish forces against the other dattos, and rendered important services.

Several other dattos and chiefs have submitted to the Spaniards; for instance, the Sultan of Bolinson, who has settled at Lintago, near the barracks of Maria Christina. In the district of Davao more than five thousand Moros are living peacefully under Spanish rule.

The famous Datto Utto, who gave so much trouble, lost followers and prestige, and now where the Moro King of Tamontaca held his court and reigned in power and splendour on the Rio Grande, a Jesuit Orphan Asylum, and Industrial School flourished [till the war caused it to be abandoned], bringing up hundreds of children of both sexes, mostly liberated slaves of the Moros, to honest handicrafts or agricultural labour.

Amongst the Moros, the administration of justice is in the hands of the dattos or of their nominees. Offences are punished by death, corporal chastisement, or by fines.

However, the customs of the country admit of an offended person taking the law into his own hand. Thus he who surprises his wife in the act of adultery may cut off one of her ears, shave her head, and degrade her to be the slave of his concubines.

If he catches the co-respondent he may kill him (if he can).

A calumny not justified, is fined 15 dollars; a slight wound costs the aggressor 5 dollars; a serious wound, 15 dollars, and the weapon that did the mischief; a murder can be atoned by giving three to six slaves.

Adultery incurs a fine of 60 dollars, and two slaves; or death, if the fine is not paid.

He who insults a datto is condemned to death, unless he can pay 15 taels of gold, but he becomes a slave for life. The datto acting as judge takes as his fee one-eighth of the fine he imposes.

A slave is considered to be worth from 15 to 30 dollars according to his or her capabilities or appearance.

The dattos impose an annual tax on all their subjects whether Moros or heathen. It is called the Pagdatto, and consists of a piece of cloth called a Jabol, a bolo, and twenty gantas of paddy (equal to 10 gantas of rice) from each married couple. A ganta equals two-thirds of a gallon, so that the tax in rice would only be 6.6 gallons, a little over ¾ bushel.

Their language is a degraded Arabic with words from Malay, Chinese, Visaya, Tagal, and some idioms of the hill-tribes.

Very few of them can read or write.

Their year is divided into 13 lunar months, and the days of the week are as follows:—

Monday.Sapto.
Tuesday.Ahat.
Wednesday.Isnin.
Thursday.Sarasa.
Friday.Araboja.
Saturday.Cammis.
Sunday.Diammat.

Their era is the Hejira, like other Mahometans.

Their marriage customs are peculiar. When one of them takes a fancy to a damsel, he sends his friend, of the highest rank, to the house of the girl’s father, to solicit her hand. The father consults the girl, and if she is favourable he makes answer that the young man may come for her. The would-be bridegroom then proceeds to the mosque and calls the Imam, who goes through a form of prayers with him, after which they proceed in company to the maiden’s house, followed by a slave bearing presents, and from the street call out for leave to enter. The father appears at a window and invites them in, but when about to enter, the male relations of the damsel simulate an attack on the visitor, which he beats off, and throws them the presents he has brought with him.

He then enters with the Imam and finds the lady of his desires reclining upon cushions, and presents his respects to her. The priest then causes her to rise and, taking hold of her head he twirls her round twice to the right, then taking the hand of the man he places it on the forehead of the girl, who immediately covers her face. The priest then retires, leaving them alone. The bridegroom attempts to kiss and embrace the bride, who defends herself with tooth and nail. She shrieks and runs, and the bridegroom chases her round and round the room.

Presently the father appears, and assures the bridegroom that he may take for granted the virginity of his daughter. The bridegroom then leaves the house to make preparations for the wedding-feast, which begins that night, and finishes on the third night, when the bride takes off all the garments she has worn as a maid and dresses in handsome robes provided by the bridegroom. At the end of the feast, the emissary who first solicited her hand for his friend conducts her to the house of the bridegroom, accompanied by the guests singing verses allusive to the occasion, and cracking jokes more or less indecent.

Contrary to the custom in other countries, it is easier to get divorced than to get married, for this is the privilege of the man, who can repudiate his wife at any time.

They celebrate the baptism of their children, and the circumcision of their boys, with feasts and entertainments. They fire off cannon and lantacas on the death of a datto, and with all sorts of instruments make a hideous discord in front of the house of death.

Professional wailers are employed, and the pandits go through many days of long-winded prayer, for which they receive most ample fees.

Moro Lantacas and Coat of Mail.

[To face p. 373.

They have regular cemeteries, and, after the burial, place on the grave the head of a cock with a hot cinder on the top of it. I am quite unable to explain what meaning is attached to this custom, but they are soaked in all sorts of superstitions, and thoroughly believe in amulets or talismen, as do the Tagals in their Anting-Anting.

Owing to the multitude of slaves they possess, they make considerable plantations of rice, maize, coffee, and cacao. They sell the surplus of this produce to Chinamen or Visayas settled in the coast towns, as also wax, gum, resin, jungle-produce, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl shell, balate and cinnamon. It is estimated that they sell produce to the value of a million dollars a year. They also employ their slaves in washing the sands for gold, and, according to Nieto, in mining for silver and other metal.

I have not seen this latter statement confirmed by any other author.

Their industries are the forging of swords, cris, and lance-heads, casting and boring their lantacas.

To bore these long guns they sink them in a pit, ramming in the earth so as to keep the piece in a truly vertical position. They then bore by hand, two or four men walking round and turning the bit with cross-bars. Some of these lantacas are worthy to be considered perfect works of art, and are highly decorated. I have seen several double-barrelled. (See Illustration.)

The Moro women employ their slaves in spinning and weaving. They make excellent stuffs of cotton and of abaca, dyeing them various colours with extracts of the woods grown in the country.

Their houses are large and spacious, and they live in a patriarchal manner, master and mistress, concubines, children, and slaves with their children, all jumbled together. They possess plenty of horses, cattle, buffaloes, goats and poultry.

They use Spanish or Mexican silver coins, but most of their transactions are by barter.

To wind up this description of the Moros of Mindanao, it must be said of them that they are always ready to fight for the liberty of enslaving other people, and that nothing but force can restrain them from doing so. That they will not work themselves, and that as long as their sultans, dattos, and pandits have a hold on them, they will keep no engagements, respect no treaties, and continue to be in the future, as they have always been in the past, a terror and a curse to all their neighbours.

[1] See ‘In Court and Kampong,’ by Hugh Clifford.

Chapter XXXIX.