Among the Subanos slaves are sacrificed at funerals[407]. But whether these so-called slaves are really slaves, or persons captured or purchased for sacrificing purposes only, does not appear.
The Kiangans sell their debtors as slaves; whether within the tribe or abroad we are not told[408].
In Blumentritt’s rather short article on the Bungians no mention is made of slaves[409].
From Venturillo’s and Miller’s descriptions it appears that slavery is unknown among the Bataks of Palawan[410].
Jenks, in his minute account of the Bontoc Igorot of Northern Luzon, gives a full description of the division of labour among them. The poor serve the rich for wages. Slaves are not mentioned. Under the heading of “conquest” he remarks: “Certain Igorot, as those of Asin, make forcible conquests on their neighbours and carry away persons for slavery. But Bontoc has no such conquests”. Schadenberg, too, does not speak of slaves among the Bontoc people[411]. Hence we may safely infer that the Bontoc Igorot do not keep slaves.
About the other divisions of the Igorot we are not so well informed. From Jenks’s above-quoted incidental remark it would appear that some of them practise slavery. But as in the other sources[412] we do not find anything strengthening this presumption, we cannot arrive at a positive conclusion.
Reed, describing the Negritos of Zambales (along the western coast of Luzon), says: “Notwithstanding the statements of Montano that the Negritos have no slaves and know nothing of slavery, the reverse is true, in Zambales at least; so say the Negritos and also the Filipinos who have spent several years among them. The word “a-li-pun” is used among them to [[117]]express such social condition. As has been stated, a man caught steeling may become a slave, as also may a person captured from another rancheria, a child left without support, a person under death sentence, or a debtor. It was also stated that if a man committed a crime and escaped a relative could be seized as a slave. It will take a long acquaintance with the Negritos and an intimate knowledge of their customs to get at the truth of these statements”. From this last sentence, together with the fact that the other writers on the Negritos we have consulted do not make any mention of slavery, we must infer that it is doubtful whether slavery exists among the Negritos[413].
VII. Madagascar.
The Hovas and kindred tribes are considered by many investigators to be Malays. Schurtz also classifies them among the Malays in the widest sense of the word[414]. The anthropologists do not yet agree about the origin of the Hovas; but as the divisions of this chapter are only intended to give the reader a clear survey of the matter, and not to answer any anthropological purpose, we may treat them here as well as elsewhere.
The existence of slavery among the Hovas is proved by the statements of several good authorities[415].