Banuaon.—Name of the Manobos tribe from which the Christian settlement of Amporo, in the district of Surigao (Mindanao), was formed.
Barangan.—Name borne by those Manguian hordes who occupy the most elevated stations in the Mangarin Mountains (Mindoro).
Batak.—Another name for the Tinitianos, especially those that dwell in the neighborhood of Punta Tinitia and the Bubayán Creek, on the island of Palawan.
Batan.—The inhabitants of Batanes Island were and are enumerated by Spanish authors among the Ibanags or Cagayanes. According to Dr. T. H. Pardo this is incorrect, for their idiom differs not only from the Ibanag but from all others in the Philippines, having the sound of “tsch,” unknown elsewhere in the archipelago, and a nasal sound like that of the French “en.” They are therefore to be separated from the Cagayanes.
Bayabonan.—Name of a supposed Malay people with a language of their own, living as neighbors to the Gamunanges on the mountain slopes eastward from Tuao, in Cagayan (Luzon). They are heathen and little is known of them save the name.
Beribi.—Manguianes domiciled between Socol and Bulalacao, living on the mountains. (Compare Bangot.)
Bicol.—Autonym of those natives of Malay race who inhabit the peninsula of Camarines in Luzon and some outlying islands. On the arrival of the Spaniards they were somewhat civilized and had a kind of writing. They are Christians, still a section of them live under the names Igorots, or Cimarrones, mostly mixed with Negrito blood, in the wilds of Isarog, Iriga, Buhi, Caramuan, etc., wild, and plunged in the deepest heathendom. The official spelling of the name is Vicol. This is clear, since in Spanish the letter v, especially before e or i, is sounded like German b.
Bilanes.—A Malay people occupying, according to latest accounts, a larger area than I have attributed to them in my ethnographic chart of Mindanao, here thoroughly penetrated also by other stocks. The Sarangani islands, lying off the southern point of Mindanao, are inhabited by them. They are heathen, of peaceable disposition. Their language is characterized by the possession of the letter f. The proper form of their name ought to be Buluan, so that they have the same title as the lake. They must then at first have been called Tagabuluan (Taga = whence, from there). (Compare Tagabelies.)
Variants: Buluanes, Buluan, Vilanes, Vilaanes.
Bisayas.—Officially written Visayas. A Malay people who, on the arrival of the Spaniards, had a culture and an art of writing of their own. They inhabit the islands named after them, besides the northern and the eastern coast of Mindanao, with small intrusions of heathen populations that have become Visayised since the converted tribes—Manobos, Buquidnones, Subanos, Mandayas, etc., have been taught the Visaya language in the schools. Also Zamboango and Cottobato show Visaya settlements. Among them are to be counted the Mundos. At the time of the discovery they painted (or tattooed) their bodies, on which account they received from the Spaniards the name of Pintados, which stuck to them even till the eighteenth century. They are Christians. Their language is divided into several dialects, of which the Cebuano and Panayano are most important. (Compare Calamiano, Halayo, Hiliguayna, Caraga. Blumentritt places their number at 2,500,000 and upward. Globus, 1896, LXX, p. 213.)