A History of the Philippines. David P. Barrows
inhabitants of India. In other parts of Malaysia they are Mohammedans, while in the Philippines alone they are mostly Christians.
The Wild Malayan Tribes.—Considering first the pagan or the wild Malayan peoples, we find that in the interior of the Malay Peninsula and of many of the islands, such as Sumatra, Borneo and the Celebes, there are wild Malayan tribes, who have come very little in contact with the successive civilizing changes that have passed over this archipelago. The true Malays call these folk “Orang benua,” or “men of the country,” Many are almost savages, some are cannibals, and others are headhunters like some of the Dyaks of Borneo.
In the Philippines, too, we find what is probably this same class of wild people living in the mountains. They are warlike, savage, and resist approach. Sometimes they eat human flesh as a ceremonial act, and some prize above all other trophies the heads of their enemies, which they cut from the body and preserve in their homes. It is probable that these tribes represent the earliest and rudest epoch of Malayan culture, and that these were the first of this race to arrive in the Philippines and dispute with the Negritos for the mastery of the soil. In such wild state of life, some of them, like the Manguianes of Mindoro, have continued to the present day.
The Tribes in Northern Luzon.—In northern Luzon, in the great Cordillera Central, there are many of these primitive tribes. These people are preëminently mountaineers. They prefer the high, cold, and semi-arid crests and valleys of the loftiest ranges. Here, with great industry, they have made gardens by the building of stone-walled terraces on the slopes of the hills. Sometimes hundreds of these terraces can be counted in one valley, and they rise one above the other from the bottom of a cañon for several miles almost to the summit of a ridge. These terraced gardens are all under most careful irrigation. Water is carried for many miles by log flumes and ditches, to be distributed over these little fields. The soil is carefully fertilized with the refuse of the villages. Two and frequently three crops are produced each year. Here we find undoubtedly the most developed and most nearly scientific agriculture in the Philippines. They raise rice, cotton, tobacco, the taro, maize, and especially the camote, or sweet potato, which is their principal food. These people live in compact, well-built villages, frequently of several hundred houses. Some of these tribes, like the Igorrotes of Benguet and the Tinguianes of Abra, are peaceable as well as industrious. In Benguet there are fine herds of cattle, much excellent coffee, and from time immemorial the Igorrotes here have mined gold.
Besides these peaceful tribes there are in Bontoc, and in the northern parts of the Cordillera, many large tribes, with splendid mountain villages, who are nevertheless in a constant and dreadful state of war. Nearly every town is in feud with its neighbors, and the practice of taking heads leads to frequent murder and combat. A most curious tribe of persistent head hunters are the Ibilao, or Ilongotes, who live in the Caraballo Sur Mountains between Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya.
On other islands of the Philippines there are similar wild tribes. On the island of Paragua there are the Tagbanúa and other savage folk.
Characteristics of the Tribes of Mindanao.—In Mindanao, there are many more tribes. Three of these tribes, the Aetas, Mandaya, and Manobo, are on the eastern coast and around Mount Apo. In Western Mindanao, there is quite a large but scattered tribe called the Subanon. These people make clearings on the hillsides and support themselves by raising maize and mountain rice. They also raise hemp, and from the fiber they weave truly beautiful blankets and garments, artistically dyed in very curious patterns. These peoples are nearly all pagans, though a few are being gradually converted to Mohammedanism, and some to Christianity. The pagans occasionally practice the revolting rites of human sacrifice and ceremonial cannibalism.
The Civilized Malayan Peoples.—Their Later Arrival.—At a later date than the arrival of these primitive Malayan tribes, there came to the Philippines others of a more developed culture and a higher order of intelligence. These peoples rapidly mastered the low country and the coasts of all the islands, driving into the interior the earlier comers and the aboriginal Negritos. These later arrivals, though all of one stock, differed considerably, and spoke different dialects belonging to one language family. They were the ancestors of the present civilized Filipino people.
Distribution of These Peoples.—All through the central islands, Panay, Negros, Leyte, Samar, Marinduque, and northern Mindanao, are the Bisaya, the largest of these peoples. At the southern extremity of Luzon, in the provinces of Sorsogon and the Camarines, are the Bicol. North of these, holding central Luzon, Batangas, Cavite, Manila, Laguna, Bataan, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija, are the Tagálog, while the great plain of northern Luzon is occupied by the Pampango and Pangasinan. All the northwest coast is inhabited by the Ilocano, and the valley of the Cagayan by a people commonly called Cagayanes, but whose dialect is Ibanag. In Nueva Vizcaya province, on the Batanes Islands and the Calamianes, there are other distinct branches of the Filipino people, but they are much smaller in numbers and less important than the tribes marked above.
Mindanao Belt of Bamboo Fiber.
Importance of These Peoples.—They form politically and historically the Filipino people. They are the Filipinos whom the Spaniards ruled for more than three hundred years. All are converts to Christianity, and all have attained a somewhat similar stage of civilization.
Early Contact of the Malays and Hindus.—These people at the time of their arrival in the Philippines were probably not only of a higher plane of intelligence than any who had preceded them in the occupation of the islands, but they appear to have had the advantages of contact with a highly developed culture that had appeared in the eastern archipelago some centuries earlier.
Mindanao Brass Vessels.
Early Civilization in India.—More than two thousand years ago, India produced a remarkable civilization. There were great cities of stone, magnificent palaces, a life of splendid luxury, and a highly organized social and political system. Writing, known as the Sanskrit, had been developed, and a great literature of poetry and philosophy produced. Two great religions, Brahminism and Buddhism, arose, the latter still the dominant religion of Tibet, China, and Japan. The people who produced this civilization are known as the Hindus. Fourteen or fifteen hundred years ago Hinduism spread over Burma, Siam, and Java. Great cities were erected with splendid temples and huge idols, the ruins of which still remain, though their magnificence has gone and they are covered to-day with the growth of the jungle.
Influence of Hindu Culture on the Malayan Peoples.—This powerful civilization of the Hindus, established thus in Malaysia, greatly affected the Malayan people on these islands, as well as those who came to the Philippines. Many words in the Tagálog have been shown to have a Sanskrit origin, and the systems of writing which the Spaniards found in use among several of the Filipino peoples had certainly been developed from the alphabet then in use among these Hindu peoples of Java.
The Rise of Mohammedanism.—Mohammed.—A few hundred years later another great change, due to religious faith, came over the Malayan race—a change which has had a great effect upon the history of the Philippines, and is still destined to modify events far into the future. This was the conversion to Mohammedanism. Of all the great religions of the world, Mohammedanism was the last to arise, and its career has in some ways been the most remarkable. Mohammed, its founder, was an Arab, born about 572 A.D. At that time Christianity was established entirely around the Mediterranean and throughout most of Europe, but Arabia was idolatrous. Mohammed was one of those great, prophetic souls which arise from time to time in the world’s history. All he could learn from Hebrewism and Christianity, together with the result of his own thought and prayers, led him to the belief in one God, the Almighty, the Compassionate, the Merciful, who as he believed would win all men to His knowledge through the teachings of Mohammed himself. Thus inspired, Mohammed became a teacher or prophet, and by the end of his life he had won his people to his faith and