I look to this tribe, when trained to use fire-arms, and stiffened with a few Americans, to destroy the power of the pirate races—the murderous, slave-hunting Moros, with whom it is useless to make treaties, who cannot be converted till the power of their dattos is broken, and who must be sternly put down by force unless the nascent civilisation of Mindanao is to be thrown back for a century.
In the beginning of June, 1892, a Bagani of the Manobos performed the paghuaga, or human sacrifice, on a hill opposite Veruela, on the River Agusan. The victim was a Christian girl whom he had bought for the purpose from some slave-raiders.
Mandayas (4).
The Mandayas live on the Eastern Cordillera of Mindanao which runs parallel to the coast, and their territory extends from the 7th to the 9th parallel. They occupy the country down to the River Salug. They are remarkable for their light colour, some having quite fair complexions. Their faces are wide, the cheek-bones being very prominent; yet their appearance is not unpleasing, for they have large dark eyes shaded by long eye-lashes.
They are much respected by other tribes as an ancient and aristocratic race, and the war-like Manobos eagerly seek, by fair means or foul, to obtain Mandaya women for wives.
They usually shave off their beards, and also their eyebrows, wearing their hair long, tied in a knot at the back.
They are powerfully built, and of good stature. The men wear short drawers, and on grand occasions don an embroidered jacket. Both men and women wear large ear-ornaments. The women are clad in a bodice and patadion with ornaments of shells, beads, or small bells. The men are of a bold and warlike disposition, ready to fight against other villages of their tribe when not at war with the Manobos, the Guiangas, or the Manguangas, their neighbours. They have a language of their own which has a great affinity to the Visaya.
Their houses, four or five forming a village, are built on lofty piles thirty or forty, or even fifty feet above the ground. The floor is of thick planks and has a parapet all round pierced with loop-holes for defence. Above this parapet the house is open all round up to the eaves, but this space can be closed in by hanging shutters in bad weather. The construction of dwellings at such a height must involve an enormous amount of labour. Each group of houses forming a village is usually surrounded by a strong palisade of sharp-pointed posts, and further defended by pits lined with sharp stakes, which are lightly covered over with twigs and leaves.
Several families live in one house, after the custom of the Dayaks of Borneo, to provide a garrison for defence. An ample supply of arms is kept in the house, bows and arrows, spears, swords and knives. They are liable to be attacked in the night, either by the Manobos, the Moros, or by the sácopes of some neighbouring datto, who shoot flaming arrows covered with resin into the roof to set it on fire, or covering themselves with their shields from the arrows of the defenders, make a determined attempt to cut down the piles so that the house will fall. The attacking party is most often victorious, and the defenders, driven out by fire, or bruised and entangled amongst the fallen timbers, are easily killed, the women and children, with the other booty, being carried off by the assailants. Under this reign of terror the population is diminishing. These people not only kill for booty, but also for the honour and glory of it. Each warrior is anxious to become a bagani, and to be allowed to wear the honourable insignia of that rank. The dress of a bagani indicates approximately the number of murders he has committed. A scarlet head-cloth shows that he has killed from five to ten men; a red shirt, in addition, from ten to twenty, whilst a complete suit of red shows that he has murdered more than twenty persons, and is a much-desired and very honourable distinction, a sort of D.S.O. or K.C.B. amongst them.