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.
Vilanes (16).
These people, the prey of every warlike tribe, and even of the Tagacaolos, live on the summit of the mountains of Buhian, to the east and west of the lake of that name.
Some of them extend as far south as the eastern shore of the Gulf of Sarangani, and they people the two islands of Sarangani and Balut.
They are short and thickset, with little agility.
Montano describes them as having flat, broad noses, underhung jaws, and receding foreheads, giving them an appearance of stupidity.