bugan, a mixed people of Moro and Subano blood, and the Bajau and Ilanos.*

5

By instinct, tradition and training the Moro is fierce and warlike, exhibiting all the cruelty toward his enemies which is customary with savages. Ready and eager to shed blood, independent and jealous by nature, he goes to war on the slightest provocation. Formerly every man when outside his house or away from home was armed either with a kris or a barong, the two weapons of warfare. He is not open and fair in fight, and frequently resorts to what white men regard as improper methods of attack. Being by birth and tradition a fighter he makes an excellent soldier and has been largely employed in that capacity by the government. Two companies of the Philippine Scouts and a dozen or more of the Philippine Constabulary are enlisted from the Moros, and very gallant and valuable soldiers they have proved to be. They take readily to a strict discipline, show great powers of endurance and fight cheerfully and bravely against their own people under the leadership of white officers.

Occasionally they carry spears and a species of war-club shaped like a boomerang. The barong is a cutting weapon, with a blade twelve, fifteen or eighteen inches long, with front and back oval shaped, meeting at an acute angle at the point. Krises are of two varieties, wavy and straight, and are used for both cutting and thrusting. They are often prized for their service in having killed a great number of persons, and the selling price is established accordingly. Individuals have an uncomfortable habit of getting into a religious frenzy and running amok among Christians. A Moro who goes juramentado and runs amok often finds many victims before he is killed.

The kampilan, another favorite weapon, is a long two-handed

4 According to the most recent estimate there are 325,000 Moros divided among the leading tribes, as follows:

5 They have now been generally disarmed. The Lanao, Magindanao and Samal Moros make the best soldiers. The Yakans are the pacifists.

sword, widening toward the point and sharp on one side. Daggers and knives of many shapes and sizes are commonly used.

The Moros fortify their homes and villages, surrounding them with thick stone or earthen walls and conceal these forts, or cotas, by planting bamboo on or just outside the parapets. The cotas are usually deeply ditched, and entrance is effected by means of a narrow bamboo bridge consisting of a single pole and hand rail leading to a narrow gateway in the wall. From these cotas, in which they often make desperate and stubborn resistance to their foes, there are always secret means of ultimate escape, usually underground.

The Moro languages are of Malayan origin, with a large admixture of Arabic. Although derived from a common source, the dialects differ so as to make intercourse between the tribes impossible without an interpreter. They have some written books, other than the Koran and the Codes, but they are mostly genealogical and do not rise very high in the scale of literature. Considerable has been done by American army officers in the way of formulating the grammars of the different dialects. The Moro languages, however, remain quite rudimentary and undeveloped."

The various tribes, having reached different stages of civilization, differ to some extent in their habits, customs, modes of life and belief, and no description of habits and customs is applicable to all the tribes. A few who live near the coast are quiet and peaceful and carry on a little farming and primitive manufacture, in connection with the universal fishing. They are generally quite prosperous, but, living as they do in a land of great fertility, where the climate offers but slight encouragement to either energy or ambition, they make no effort to better the conditions into which they were born. They are not thrifty, are fond of gam

6A Grammar of the Maguindanao Tongue, by Father J. Juanmarti, translated by Captain C. C. Smith, U. S. A. (1906).

A Phrase Book and Vocabulary of the Lanao Moro Dialect, by Lieut. Charles Winslow Elliott, U. S. A. (1913).

The Moros now publish a small newspaper at Jolo, and several school text-books are issued in the Moro script by the Department of Education.

bling, and, as a rule, squander their substance without much thought of the future.

The men are assisted in the outside work by the women and boys, who plow the fields, go on various expeditions and engage in fishing. Those who are particularly skilled in the things incident to their daily life acquire a reputation among their neighbors. Thus one man becomes noted for sailing the fastest boat, another for making the best barong and kris handles and scabbards, a third as an expert catcher of crabs and crayfish, another as a diver, and so on through all the various native occupations.

The Moros of pure blood have the usual characteristics of the Malay race. The complexion is olive brown, the hair straight and black. They are somewhat taller than the average Filipino, straight and well formed, and often strong and stockily built. The feet are particularly broad at the toes, which are generally widely separated, due to the habit of going barefooted. In many of their daily occupations they use their toes as other people use their fingers. Thus, in climbing a tree a Moro will grasp the climbing rope with his toes, and in sailing a boat he will wind the sheet around the great toe, and in riding the stirrup strap is passed between the toes.

The different tribes are easily distinguished by their dress. Generally that of both the men and women is quite simple. For the former it often consists of nothing except a sarong, a long piece of cloth joined at the ends and folded around the waist. A breech-clout is sometimes worn, and upon special occasions a costume consisting of a tight jacket and close-fitting trousers, buttoned to the ankle and full in the seat. These garments are often made in brilliant colors and ornamented with bright buttons. In the folds of the sarong the wearer usually carries a short dagger, or if a man of high rank, a kris.

Woman's ordinary clothing is limited to the sarong, a strip of brightly-colored cotton cloth about four feet wide and ten feet long, while her more elaborate dress is usually a close-fitting jacket and loose trousers. Shoes or sandals are unknown to the common people of either sex. The favorite head-dress is a

brightly-colored scarf, which the men twist into a turban. Occasionally straw or wooden hats of domestic manufacture and enormous size, adorned with tin or silver spikes, are worn by the men. But the turban is more popular.

Children wear little or no clothing in their homes, but frequently appear in public adorned with a sarong. It is not unusual to see Moro women ornamented with rings and bracelets, the work of native smiths, who are skilful in molding brass and precious metals. The hair is usually worn long by the men, while the women grease it with cocoanut oil and knot it upon the head in more or less fantastic fashion. The umbrella is universally popular and is carried by the well-to-do on all occasions.

The Moros bathe frequently, spending a great deal of time in the water, but as the use of soap is unknown they can not truthfully be said to be a cleanly race. Their houses and surroundings are often in a very filthy condition. They fall very short of the standard of Mohammed, with whom cleanliness was said. to be the foundation of religion. The teeth are filed and blackened and the edges so shaped as to give them an outward curve. This process, which is very painful, is begun by both men and women in their youth and continued for several years. The front teeth are sometimes filled with copper, not for the purpose of preventing decay, but for ornament. Artificial teeth of horn are sometimes inserted, but they are entirely useless. The dye for the teeth is compounded from lemon juice, charcoal, rusty iron, or a certain vegetable sap.

Tobacco is used for chewing in connection with the betel nut and generally for smoking. Like all Mohammedans, the Moros are temperate in the use of alcoholic liquors. They use opium, however, to a certain extent. The habit of chewing the betel nut has a firm hold on all the people, men, women, and even children. It is supposed to aid digestion, preserve the teeth and act as a stimulant on the body. A betel nut outfit consists of a small brass box, a knife, a mixing pestle, a small package of shell lime, a few betel nuts from the areca palm, tobacco and a roll of buyo leaves.

The people of all stations in life build their houses very much alike. They are raised on poles from three to ten feet above the ground and are often built near or over the water. The timbers are lashed together and held in place with bejuco or rattan. The roofs are usually thatched with cogon grass, sometimes with nipa, or some other variety of palm, and the walls made of salaga, a species of palm leaf sewed together. The floors are made of strips of bamboo. These structures are practically waterproof and afford shelter from the sun, and also withstand the frequent earthquake shocks. The houses of the better class are often large, well built, and the outside joists elaborately carved and colored. The Bajaus, or sea gipsies, live in boats. Those who do not spend all their time at sea build huts on the shore over the water. Samal settlements are compactly built along the coasts, while those of the Yakans are scattered, the people living in small rancherias with houses far removed from one another. Generally the Moros proper live farther inland than do the Samal Laut.

The house furnishings are not elaborate, but sufficient for the needs of the occupants. Chairs and tables are not required, as the people sit on the floor. A few shelves, perhaps, are used for pottery and the kitchen utensils, all of which are primitive, consisting of brass bowls and jars, dried gourds, cocoanut shells, banana leaves and crude baskets. Mats are used for sleeping, except in the homes of datus, where bedsteads, curtained with colored cloth hangings and provided with pillows and mattresses, may be found. Among the wealthier people the walls are decorated with krises and lances, while tom-toms, called agongs, and other alleged musical instruments are among the prized family possessions. Artificial light, when needed, is obtained from a slender torch-like bundle of resin, wrapped in a green leaf, or from a dish of cocoanut oil in which floats a wick. The tiny kerosene lamps sold by the Chinese traders are much used."

But civilization is getting its grasp on the Moro. Once on a visit of inspection, I was shown through the establishment of a wealthy datu. In the large living-room were two cheap but gaudy "Morris chairs," which it was easy to see were regarded by the proprietor as the conclusive evidence of his "culture." But this was not all. As a special favor, I was shown the women's apartment and the chair which conjugal affection had provided for the favorite wife. It was a second-hand dental chair.