The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 54

Although living so near the Moros, they have not adopted any of their religious ideas.

The Sarangani Vilanes dress like the Bagobos, and handle the lance and the bow, and are good shots in hunting game.

Subanos (17).

The word Subanos means dwellers by the rivers, from suba--a river.

This numerous tribe inhabits the western peninsula of Mindanao from Misamis to Zamboanga, except the coasts which are mostly occupied by Visayas or Moros.

They are of a darker colour and inferior in physique to the Mandayas and Monteses.

Like other races in Mindanao the Subanos are organised under dattos or baganis in a feudal system. It is said that he who has killed one enemy may wear a red head-cloth, whilst other tribes only concede this distinction to a warrior who has killed five.

In religion, they are polytheists, and worship the following deities amongst others:

Tagma-sa-dugat, or Lord of the Sea.

Tagma-sa-yuta, or Lord of the Earth.

Tagma-sa-manga bugund, or Lord of the Woods.

Tagma-sa-manga Suba, or Lord of the Rivers.

Tagma-sa-Saquit, or Lord Protector of the sick.

But they are said not to possess wooden idols like the Man.o.bos, Mandayas and Monteses. They raise rough altars of sticks, on which they lay out offerings to their deities. They call these altars Paga-paga. The offerings consist of rice, chickens, eggs, buyo and tobacco, also a large jar of pangasi, a beer brewed from rice. When making their offerings, they sing, dance, and pray round the altar to the sound of the sucaran, a rough kind of cymbal or gong. Amongst the Subanos only the dattos or rich men have more than one wife. The marriage ceremonies are very elaborate, and conclude with two great feasts or drinking bouts, one in the house of the bride's father, the other in the house of the bridegroom. Divorce can be obtained if the couple cannot agree, or if either quarrels with the father- or mother-in-law. It is not readily conceded, and the case is sometimes argued for days before the council of elders of the village. Children are only given names when four or five years old. The Subanos have no money in circulation, and any trading is effected by barter.

They bury their dead the day after their decease, wrapping the body in a mat. The grave is dug about a yard deep, and near the house. The Balian or priest accompanies the bearers, and sprinkles water on the house and ground as he goes. Women do not accompany the funeral party. The body is laid on a bed of leaves, resting on a framework of sticks or canes at the bottom of the grave. The sides are protected in the same way, and over it another framework is constructed, carrying an earthen jar containing food and clothing. The weapons of the defunct are laid over him, and the grave is filled in with earth, great care being taken not to let a particle of it touch the body. Sacrifices are made to the G.o.d Diuata; these const.i.tute the funeral feast, which is consumed in silence. When it is concluded, the dishes and pots which contained it are turned upside down.

On the eighth day another feast is held, when they talk and dance, intoxicating themselves with copious libations of pangasi. The priest then goes through a ceremony the purport of which is to hand over the soul of the defunct to Diuata-sa-langit, the G.o.d of heaven. He begs the soul to go away with the G.o.d, and to trouble them no more. They then renew the dancing and drinking, and thus conclude the period of mourning.

The houses of the Subanos are similarly constructed to those of the Man.o.bos, Monteses, and other tribes, but are not always raised so high from the ground, and are more roughly built. Their food is similar to that of the other heathen tribes. The men wear their hair long, but coiled up on the head, and covered with a kerchief worn like a turban. They dress in a tight jacket and trousers, either white, blue, or red. Sometimes they wear a sash. The men do not wear ear-ornaments of any kind. The women wear large combs made by themselves from bamboos, but no head-covering. Their ornaments are ear-rings, strings of beads round the neck, and many bangles or bracelets of bra.s.s or silver. They are clothed in a short shirt, either of homespun or Manchester cotton, and a skirt worn tight round the body, and reaching below the knees.

The weapons of the Subanos are the lance, which they call talanan, a round shield they call taming, a scimitar they call campilan, the Malay kris they call caliz, the machete or pes.

Their agriculture and industries are very primitive, and on a small scale.

They have scarcely any other musical instrument than bra.s.s gongs called Agum, which are played as dance music to their two dances, the Saldiringan and the Sinigay. In the first of these dances the men stand up in a row, opposite a row of women. All hold a palm-branch in each hand with which to beat time. They jump up and down with eyes fixed on the ground.

For the Sinigay, however, the partners touch each other's hands, but only with the points of the fingers. The Subano, equivalent to our Mrs. Grundy, would feel shocked to see gentlemen dancing with their arms round their partners' waists.

The princ.i.p.al feast is called Birclog, and it lasts eight days. A large shed is built, the priests offer prayers to the before-mentioned G.o.ds, and sacrifice swine and poultry. The pigs are strangled by a rope held or jerked by all the priests, and are placed on the altar one at a time. Above the carca.s.s is placed a live c.o.c.k, which they kill by wounding it through the mouth and letting it bleed to death. They also offer tobacco, rice, and pangasi.

The offerings are taken away to be cut up and cooked. They are then served, and the pangasi goes round, the priests being always served first and getting the best of everything, as seems to be the case all the world over.

When the first lot of people have been fed, they vacate the shed, which is instantly filled by a fresh lot. Sometimes in one of these feasts they consume twenty pigs and forty ten-gallon jars of the strong rice-beer. When intoxicated, their conduct, according to Father Sanchez, S.J., is apt to overstep the bounds of propriety, but in this they are very much like more civilised people in the same condition.

The only vessels possessed by the Subanos are some canoes, or dug-outs, on the rivers. These are sometimes of great length, and are called by them Sacayan. They propel them with great skill, using a long double-ended paddle which they use standing up, and alternately on either side. Like many other races of the Far East, they consider a lunar eclipse as the precursor of great calamities, and make a deafening noise to frighten away the serpent or dragon which is swallowing the moon. They consider the turtle-dove, or limocon, as an omen-bird, and will halt or perhaps return if they hear its cry when starting on a journey. Also if they hear any one sneeze whilst going down the ladder of the house, they return, and remain within doors.

Some of the Subanos bear Moro t.i.tles, such as Timuay, which is equivalent to third cla.s.s judge. Father Vilaclara, S.J., a bold and enterprising missionary, visited, in 1890, the house of a Subano named Audos, who had recently succeeded his father as Timuay of the Sindangan River.

He counted twenty-nine persons, great and small, in the house, but this did not include the whole family, as several were absent at their occupations. The house was built on piles, according to the universal custom, and the floor could not be reached from the ground by the longest lance. It measured eighteen yards long by ten yards wide, and formed one vast apartment, there being no part.i.tions of any kind. The floor was made of strips of bamboo, and on this account it must be out of reach, for as the inhabitants sleep on gra.s.s mats laid on the floor, they could easily be speared in the night through the interstices of the canes.

Five married couples and their children occupied this apartment, each having its own part of the floor, its own store of rice, its own pigs and poultry. Each family cooked and ate independently, but all showed the greatest respect to the aged grandparents, and consulted them about their affairs. Father Vilaclara appears to have ultimately converted the whole family, beginning with the boys, whom he took under his charge, dressed and fed them, and taught them to speak Visaya.

Gold-washing and gold-mining is practised by the Subanos between Dapitan and Misamis, where there is a vast extension of gold-bearing sand and earth. Near Pigtao auriferous iron pyrites occurs. The native name for this ore is Inga.

Horses are very abundant in the district of Misamis, and in common use for riding and as pack carriers.

The Subanos have the reputation of being war-like, yet until lately they were entirely dominated by the Moros wherever they came in contact. Since 1893 the Spaniards have isolated them from the Ilanao Moros by establishing a chain of forts, and making a Trocha, or military road, across the narrow neck of land from Tucuran on the Bahia Illana to Balatacan on Bahia Panquil. The width of the isthmus here is about sixteen miles, and the forts are called Alfonso XIII, Infanta Isabel, Sta. Paz, and Sta. Eulalia, and Maria Cristina.

The Subanos appear to be much more refractory to civilisation and Christianity than the Monteses, the Man.o.bos or the Mandayas. This no doubt comes from the strong influence that vile nests of pirates and slave-traders around Lake Lanao has for centuries exercised over them, but in time the Trocha, if kept as it should be, in the interests of civilisation, will destroy that.

The Jesuit missionaries were actively at work round about the Bay of Dapitan in the extreme north of the Subano territory, and to some extent round about Zamboanga in the extreme south, until the war between Spain and America broke out.

In the Dapitan district there were at the end of 1896 nearly 15,000 Christians residing in the towns and villages under the spiritual, and temporal guidance of the Jesuits. During that year 208 heathen were baptized in the Dapitan district, but only 21 in the Zamboanga district.

It is safe to a.s.sume that in the Dapitan district alone there are 10,000 Christian Subanos.

The number of heathen Subanos, amongst whom there are a few semi-Mahometans, may be about 90,000. From these figures it is quite evident that the missionary enterprise should be extended, but in order to do this the insolence of the Moros must be chastised.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

The Moros, or Mahometan Malays (18 to 23).

These terrible pirates who have for centuries laid waste the coasts of the Philippines and the adjacent islands, with fire and sword, carrying off tens of thousands of Christians or heathen into slavery, have only within the last few years had their power definitely broken by the naval and military forces of Spain and by the labours of the Jesuit missionaries, amongst the heathen tribes of the island.

It is scarcely half a century since they annually attacked the Visayas Islands and even Southern Luzon, and they have been, up to quite lately, the great obstacle to the civilisation of the Southern Philippines. In Culion, Cuyos and other islands the churches are built within a stone fort, in which the population took refuge when the Moros appeared. The old Spanish sailing men-of-war could not cope with these sea rovers, who in their light prahus, salisipanes, or vintas, kept in shallow water or amongst reefs where these vessels could not reach them. Of course, if the pirates were surprised when crossing open water, they ran great risks, since their artillery was always very deficient, but they sailed in great numbers, and if it fell calm they would cl.u.s.ter round a solitary man-of-war and take her by boarding.

In consequence, a special force was raised in the Philippines to protect the coasts against these pests. It was called "La Marina Sutil," or the Light Navy. This force consisted of large flat-bottomed launches propelled by oars and sails. They were half-decked forward, and carried a long bra.s.s gun, on a slide, and some swivels on the quarters. These boats were coppered and fitted with a cabin at the after part. They carried forty or fifty men, all natives, and squadrons of them were stationed at the princ.i.p.al southern ports from whence they patrolled the coasts. Most of the officers were natives or mestizos; some of them survive to this day. These vessels rendered good service, and to some extent checked the incursions of the pirates, but they had not the speed to follow up the fast-rowing vintas of the Moros, which could always escape from them unless caught in narrow waters. In 1824, D. Alonso Morgado was appointed Captain of the Marina Sutil, and severely chastised the Moros.

Some of these rowing gun-boats are still to be seen rotting on the beach at the southern naval stations. But the introduction of steam gun-boats in 1860 gradually did away with the Marina Sutil, and sounded the knell of piracy in the Philippines. The Moros received terrible chastis.e.m.e.nt at the hands of these steam gun-boats, one of which, with a crew of only forty men, has been known to destroy a whole fleet of pirates, and now their power on the sea has become only a dread tradition of the past.

Even with all the advantages of steam propulsion, their suppression has been a matter of the utmost difficulty, for the Moros are not only possessed of the greatest personal valour, but are extremely skilful in taking advantage of every circ.u.mstance that can favour their defence.

Their towns are mostly built in the water, like the City of Brunei, the houses having bamboo bridges to connect them with the sh.o.r.e, which can be removed when desirable. They select a site well protected by reefs or islands, or only to be approached by long and tortuous channels through mangrove swamps enfiladed by guns cunningly concealed from view; a very death-trap to an attack by boats.

On rising ground and flanking their settlements they built their Cottas or forts. The walls of these strongholds are a double stockade of great trunks of trees, the s.p.a.ce between them being filled with rock, stones, or earth rammed in. Some of these walls are 24 feet thick and as much as 30 feet high, defended by bra.s.s and iron guns, and by numerous lantacas. Such places can stand a deal of battering, and are not easily taken by a.s.sault, for the Moros mount the ramparts and make a brave defence, firing grape from their guns and lantacas, and as the a.s.sailants approach, hurling their spears on them to a surprising distance, with accurate aim, and manfully standing up to them in the breaches.

Should the a.s.sault slacken they never fail to rush out, helmet on head, clad in coats of mail, and with sword and buckler engage the foe in a desperate hand-to-hand struggle where quarter is neither asked nor given.

The annals of Moro-Spanish war include many well-contested combats, where, to use the language of Froissart, "many heavy blows were given and received," where the most desperate exertions of Spain's bravest officers, backed up by their war-like and hardy troops, not seldom failed to carry the forts held by the indomitable and fanatic Moros. Such Homeric combats were those between that dreaded Sultan of Mindanao, Cachit Corralat and Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, and Captain Atienzas' bold attack on the hosts of the confederated Moros of Lake Lanao. Nor were the Spanish missionaries less active than the soldiers on the field of battle, or in the most desperate a.s.saults. Crucifix in hand, Father San Agustin and Father Ducos calmly walked through many a hail of bullets and many a flight of spears leading and encouraging their half-savage converts in their resistance to these cruel oppressors.