They have a certain knowledge of the Arts. They manufacture on the anvil very fine kris daggers, knives, lance-heads, etc. Many of their fighting-weapons are inlaid with silver and set in polished hardwood or ivory handles artistically carved.
In warfare they carry shields, and their usual arms on land are the campilán, a kind of short two-handed sword, wide at the tip and narrowing down to the hilt, the bárong for close combat, the straight kris for thrusting and cutting, and the waved, serpent-like kris for thrusting only. They are dexterous in the use of arms, and can most skilfully decapitate a foe at a single stroke. At sea they use a sort of assegai, called bagsacay or simbilin, about half an inch in diameter, with a sharp point. Some can throw as many as four at a time, and make them spread in the flight; they use these for boarding vessels. They make many of their own domestic utensils of metal, also coats of mail of metal wire and buffalo horn, which resist hand-weapons, but not bullets. The wire probably comes from Singapore.
The local trade is chiefly in pearls, mother-of-pearl, shells, shark fins, etc.[11] The Sultan, in Spanish times, had a sovereign right to all pearls found which exceeded a certain size fixed by Sulu law—hence it was very difficult to secure an extraordinary specimen. The Mahometans trade at great distances in their small craft, called vintas, for they are wonderfully expert navigators. Their largest vessels do not exceed seven tons, and they go as far as Borneo, and even down to Singapore on rare occasions.
A Scene in the Moro Country
I found that almost any coinage was useful for purchasing in the market-places. I need hardly add that the Chinese small traders have found their way to these regions; and it would be an unfavourable sign if a Chinaman were not to be seen there, for where the frugal Celestial cannot earn a living one may well assume there is little prosperity. Small Chinese coins (known as cash in the China Treaty Ports) are current money there, and I think, the most convenient of all copper coins, for, having a hole in the centre, they can be strung together. Chinese began to trade with this island in 1751.
Zamboanga Fortress (“Fuerza del Pilar”)
The root of the Sulu language is Sanscrit, mixed with Arabic. Each Friday is dedicated to public worship, and the faithful are called to the temple by the beating of a box or hollow piece of wood. All recite the Iman with a plaintive voice in honour of the Great Prophet; a slight gesticulation is then made whilst the Pandita reads a passage from the Mustah. I observed that no young women put in an appearance at the temple on the occasion of my visit.
At the beginning of each year there is a very solemn ceremonial, and, in the event of the birth or death of a child, or the safe return from some expedition, it is repeated. It is a sort of Te Deum in conformity with Mahometan rites. During a number of days in a certain month of the year they abstain from eating, drinking, and pleasure of all kinds, and suffer many forms of voluntary penance. Strangers are never allowed, I was told, inside the Mosque of the Sultan. The higher clergy are represented by the hereditary Cherif, who has temporal power also. The title of Pandita simply means priest, and is the common word used in Mindanao as well as in Palaúan Island. He seems to be almost the chief in his district—not in a warlike sense, like the Datto; but his word has great influence. He performs all the functions of a priest, receives the vow of the juramentados, and expounds the mysteries and the glories of that better world whither they will go without delay if they die taking the blood of a Christian.