Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

*

or Buddhist. The Mohammedan, the Buddhist, the Chinaman, looks with a sense of superiority on the efforts of the Christian European nation to better his condition. He has no desire for popular government, no longing for individual liberty. He opposes to development of this kind the impenetrable wall of disdain and contempt. ** Now, I hope I am a reasonable man, and I am not disposed to quarrel with those with whom I differ. I know that the habits of the Filipino servant are trying to the American who first comes to these islands; I know that the laziness and indisposition to hire of the cochero are enough to cause blasphemy. I know that we have had instances of the grossest treachery and cruelty by Filipinos; I know that the Filipino is disposed to conceal his real feelings when in opposition to the person whom he is addressing; and I know that these characteristics are calculated to make the American impatient and condemn the race. When one's feelings of enmity are very much aroused it is difficult to set the limit to the expression of them.

The charge of treachery against them is unjust, I think, in one respect: They are an Oriental people, and the Oriental believes in saying to the person with whom he is talking what he thinks that person would like to hear. That is the tendency of the race. You graft onto that the Spanish tendency to superlatives (and the Orientals have some such tendencies without the Spanish mixture), and a Filipino will talk to you in such language, that if you do not weigh it in the light of this trait, you are quite certain to misunderstand him and be misled by what he says. He thinks you will construe what he says through that medium, and hence, if you do not, the charge of deceitfulness.

The case of the presidentes liable to assassination by the insurrectos, if they did not help the insurrectos, and to imprisonment by the Americans if they did; hence they preferred to help and be arrested. This has been made the basis of a charge of treachery against the entire race.

My experience with the Filipino is that he is moved by similar considerations to those which move other men. It is possible that crimes, ambush, and assassination are more frequent there than in other countries, but it is also true that kindness to him makes him considerably less anxious and considerably more reluctant to resort to violence against you than if you had been abrupt and unconciliatory in your methods. That they are affectionate to their children and that they have

*

*

*

[blocks in formation]

The 90 per cent of the Christian Filipinos who do not speak Spanish are really Christians. They are capable of education, and they have no caste or arbitrary customs which prevent their development along the lines of Christian civilization. They are merely in a state of Christian pupilage. They are imitative. They are glad to be educated, glad to study some language other than their own, and glad to follow European and American ideals. They differ utterly in these respects from the East Indians, from the Malays of Java, and the Malays of the Straits Settlements, and thus make our problem different from and vastly easier than that of England and Holland. * * They are not a boisterous or turbulent people. If not

*

aroused, they are gentle and kindly. Like all Orientals, they are a suspicious people, but when their confidence is won, they follow with a trust that is complete. In warfare, when their angry passions have full vent, they are cruel, and they execute orders of a supposed superior to commit homicide with a stoicism and indifference that we of the Western World can hardly understand. Ignorant as they are, they are very easily moved by men of their own race who speak their language and have an influence among them by reason of wealth or education. It is the great weakness of this people that first one leader and then another may command their support, and that factions may be created and anarchy brought about by the conflicting ambitions of the unscrupulous educated politicians among them. The educated are

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

divided into those who are wealthy and conservative, and those who are young, ambitious, violent, and willing to resort to extremes. Among the conservative type one finds men of culture, honor, honesty, and most reasonable views on every subject; but such conservative members of society are generally timid before the violent declarations of the educated "fire eater," whose words of enthusiasm and excitement can easily bring to his aid all the taos and men of lowly class who come within his influence. * * The people whose means of communication are limited to a native dialect, with little or no literary knowledge, confined to a few provinces, even if they are able to read and write in that dialect, are so limited in their opportunity for obtaining information that they can not be said to be in communication with the modern world at all.

*

Under the theocracy which the friars maintained in the islands they were generally simple, attentive to their religious duties, lovers of their families, with the Oriental weakness for gambling; but they were temperate, law abiding, and respectful of authority. They were not overly industrious, but they were used to work at the direction of their encomienderos, or under the influence of their parish priest. They had learned a little catechism, and they were in a state of Christian pupilage. I am now describing the great body of the people who are to be distinguished from the ilustrados, or educated members of the community. *

*

*

With the friars gone, and no control exercisable through them, they are subject to influence by any one of their people who has wealth and education. They can be led about by the nose. During the disturbed conditions in the islands, when war prevailed during the years from 1898 to 1901, the most atrocious crimes were committed by taos, humble, ignorant, but apparently peaceable and nonvicious persons, simply because they were told by rich and wealthy Filipinos, or Filipinos of official position, that they must do so. They proceeded to bury people alive, or to cut their throats, or to chop them into pieces, with the imperturbability of the Oriental, supposing that they were entirely relieved from responsibility because of the direction given them by their superiors in education and wealth of their own people. This is what is called caiqueismo. It is the subjection of the ordinary uneducated Filipino to a boss or master who lives in his neighborhood, and who, by reason of his wealth and education, is regarded as entitled to control by the ignorant tao. There is, however, no fixed feudal relation. The population is mobile. First one leader, then another, can take control and lead in any direction, provided he understands the people, knows how to appeal to them, and is looked upon by them as an educated and wealthy Filipino. * * * They have no caste among them, no traditions which prevent the development of the people along European and American lines. Their Christian education has led them to understand and embrace, when sufficiently educated, European and American ideals. Those who are educated and wealthy among them adopt European customs, European dress, European manners with eagerness. They appreciate art. They appreciate statuary; they appreciate pictures. They have had two or three fine artists. * * * I have already stated they have a capacity for becoming machinists and skilled laborers. * The capacity for developing skill is in this people. The appreciation of art is among the educated classes. * * * The children of the poorest and most ignorant learn with ease and their parents are ambitious that they should learn. They value the advantage of education almost too highly, in that they yield to the influence of educated men of their own race abjectly and without restraint. The presence of Europeans among them for three hundred years and the birth of many mestizos, that is, children of the mixed blood, followed by the natural interest of the Europeans in the mestizos, led to the education of the mestizos even before the Indios, and so we find that the wealthy and educated Filipinos are generally of the mixed blood.

*

*

*

*

*

III. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN

TRIBES.

Negritos-Igorots-Ilongots- Mangyans-Tagbanúas-Tirurayes-Subanos — Bilans-Bagobos and Mandayas-Moros.

An effort was made through the supervisors of the census to collect as much information as was practicable concerning the present condition and way of life of the wild or non-Christian population. This was done either by the supervisors in person, or through the special agents and enumerators who went among them during the census, and the result of their observations is given in the following accounts, which have been compiled from their reports to the Director of the Census and adapted to the requirements of this work.

NEGRITOS.

As stated by Doctor Barrows, the Negritos are believed to be the aborigines of the Philippines, and of these about 23,000 still remain. They are found in many, although not all, of the provinces, living in a primitive state. In stature they are very short, the males averaging about four feet ten inches in height, while the females are shorter. Their color is black, their hair is woolly and bushy, their toes are remarkably prehensile, and they can use them almost as well as their fingers. They wear no clothing except a gee string; live on such food as they can find; have no fixed habitations or occupations, but wander about in the forests, having but little contact with other people, except when trading. They are skillful in the use of the bow, in throwing stones, and in making a fire, which they do by rubbing together two pieces of dry bamboo. The women, as is usual with uncivilized races, do all the work. They are not without a religious belief; their principal deity is the moon. They are very shy and distrustful; all efforts to civilize them have apparently failed. The Negritos probably approach as nearly to the conception of primitive man as any people thus far discovered.

With the arrival of the Malays in the Philippines, the Negritos gradually withdrew or were driven away from the coast into the

(532)

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »