1. GADDAN TREE HOUSE. 2. A DWELLING OF THE MAMANT AS. 3. TINGUIAN HOUSE AT PADANGITA-A FEAST IN PROGRESS.

Respect for the dead is general among the Moros, who provide a suitable burial, attended by more or less religious ceremony. The death of a dato or other important person is celebrated with considerable pomp by the Malanao tribe. The body is kneaded, to remove all impurities, and then wrapped in cloth, a process which is repeated until it becomes heavily encased. It is buried with prayers by the panditas, which ceremony is followed by a period of mourning. At the conclusion a feast is spread, to which all friends of the deceased are invited.

Among the Sámal Laut, at the approach of death, a priest is called in to read from the Koran or intone prayers. The corpse is carefully washed and wrapped in white cloth; or, if the family is poor, cloth of other color, even matting may be used. The body is placed in a wooden coffin and buried with eyes open and the face toward Mekka. A simple ceremony, consisting of prayers and selections from the Koran, is held at the grave, which is sometimes scattered with sandalwood water. The place is usually marked by a modest canopy of cloth supported by low posts. Returning home the family of the deceased is expected to sit up several nights mourning the dead and reading the Koran. Tom-toms are often dolefully beaten as an expression of sorrow, especially if the man be of prominence.

In spite of their living almost entirely in boats and wandering from place to place, the Bajaus never bury their dead at sea, but always on a particular island, regardless of the distance they may have to travel to reach the burying ground. Everything belonging to a Bajau, including his money, is buried with him. Even his boat is cut up and buried.

In an interesting monograph, written in 1901, by the Rev. Pio Pi, superior of the Jesuit order in the Philippines, and published by Maj. Gen. George W. Davis, U. S. Army, commanding the Division of the Philippines, in his annual report of 1903, the author presents a carefully written, concrete opinion of the Moros, based on the experience of the Jesuit fathers, who were missionaries among them for many years. The following extracts are somewhat abbreviated to adapt them to this report:

We have no scruple in affirming, and we do not believe that there is anyone who will be so rash as to deny, that the principal obstacle in the way of the reduction1 and civilization of Mindanao and Joló is the Moro. We shall devote some space to prove this and to indicate some means for overcoming this obstacle.

In two senses are the Moros opposed to reduction and culture in the archipelago. First, in that they prevent reduction and civilization for themselves; and second, that they impede its reaching the other infidel races. The Moros are interested and anxious that Mindanao shall continue the present status quo indefinitely throughout that territory, seeing that they can not extend their lordship over all.

And to this they are influenced by: First, their character; second, their history or tradition; third, their fanaticism; fourth, their interests. Concerning these four points we will make a few brief remarks.

CHARACTERISTICS.

The Moros are haughty, independent, and domineering. They believe themselves to be the only sons of God. None are more zealous than they in their genealogies. To all the natives not Moros they give the depreciatory title of Visayas, as we should say, pariahs. In carriage, attitude, manners, and dealings they are accustomed to

1 Reduction equivalent to the English conversion.-Director.

show great asperity and disdain. Although poor, miserable, and needy, they show scarcely any gratitude to those who aid them.

History eloquently records with what tenacity they resist all domination; with what insincerity they submit; how treacherously they rebel. The subjection to the payment of any tribute whatever or to the recognition of the Spanish Government, even among those Moros living nearest to the Spanish settlements, where the action of the Spanish Government could more easily reach, has ever been an arduous undertaking, and has almost always been evaded. It may well be said that they were indifferent even to the most common legislation, nor do they take care to fulfill, for example, the requirements of public hygiene, the forestry regulations, etc., as though they were exempt from all law.

They consider themselves the true lords of Mindanao and Joló. All other native races are looked upon by them as inferiors, and from all of them, as far as possible, they collect tribute and exploit, vex, and raid them as though their neighbors had no more right than what they (the Moros) consented to give them. It is as common a thing for them to enter the settlements and villages, both of infidels and Christians, and to rob, kill, take captives, and destroy property as it was common for them formerly to scour the seas engaged in expeditions of piracy, for they believed themselves lords of the seas also.

Their ancestors were refractory to all reduction and civilization; and they desire to be like them. And, in fact, such is the history of more than three centuries, or in other words, of the whole time of the Spanish sovereignty in these islands. The Moros have been the only, but constant and tenacious, enemies of the civilization brought here by Spain. Run through the list of the sultans of Joló and Mindanao and investigate the deeds of the principal datos and it will be clearly seen, in spite of the passing of centuries, that what was done by an Ali-Aliudin was done by an Amitol-Quiram; what a Corralot did has been repeated by Uto in what relates to the acceptation of the European domination and civilization. The sole difference is in the degree of resistance offered by the one or the other, more or less rigorous, more or less declared, more or less efficacious, according to the power the said dato had to reckon with, or the importance to which he was reduced. The most obdurate opposition of soul and of instinct, the most obstinate passive resistance, the most pertinacious and vigilant intention of really revolting whether by the aid of strength or craftiness, the very moment the material impossibility of success ceases, or his own personal convenience, which caused him to be temporarily and feignedly submissive, is threatened. This, at least, is the attitude and constant disposition of the average Moro and of his race against the dominating nation, no matter what be the material power which holds him subject for the moment, or the moral or legal obligation of preserving the most formal treaties and covenants.

The religious ignorance of the Moro of the Philippine archipelago is universal and almost absolute, even in relation to affairs concerning Mohammedanism, since all his instruction, and little it is, is reduced to the poor reading of the Koran without understanding what he reads. They have, however, a blind and everliving hatred of all things Christian, whether Catholic, schismatical, or Protestant; and this one thing they know for certain, that Mohammed commanded a holy war without truce or termination upon Christians, who, according to their idea, are infidels (or capir); and they believe that it is a meritorious thing to rob, and that to gain heaven it is sufficient to kill the Christians. Hence, they must cease to be Moros in order to resign themselves to support a domination so repulsive to their false beliefs.

The Moros acquire riches and preserve them principally by means of slavery, for their slaves are their servants both in their houses and on their voyages; they are the laborers in their fields, the workmen in their small industries, the instruments of their rapine, of their exactions, and of their vexations. They are the most

esteemed objects of commerce and the most available means for the making of treaties, settlement of business affairs and of differences, and for the contracting of matrimony, to all of which the dato must pay attention for his sustenance and comfort. The dato who owns many slaves is rich, and he who has them not has not wherewith to eat; hence, the energy exerted to obtain slaves without consideration of the means by which they are obtained; the continual stealing of children, not only from people of another race, but even from the Moros of other settlements, and the killing, on most occasions, of the parents in order the more easily to carry off the children. It is evident that this chief source of wealth of the Moro datos must cease the day the reduction aimed at by the Government reaches them.

The lands still occupied by the Moros in Mindanao and Joló are numerous, of vast extent, and finely situated. They embrace not a few entire islands, fertile territories, great coast lines, the channels and valleys of many navigable rivers or a great part of them, and the great and beautiful Lake Lanao, with its banks and cascades; all of which is a matter of importance, not only in the matter of the effective domination they exercise over the land, but also in the power they exert over the people who are their neighbors, and whom they do not permit to approach the rivers or the seacoasts so that they may the better shut them in, bury them in the interior, keep them from all communication with the exterior, and so the more advantageously subject and exploit them in the manner above stated. Hence the Moros understand thoroughly that in proportion as their reduction and civilization is advanced in the regions they inhabit, they will be less able to preserve their possessions and advantageous positions, at least under the conditions under which they occupy them at present, and much less can they maintain them for themselves without interference from the white race, which is the way in which they desire to be and live.

The day in which the reduction becomes a fact all their autonomy and their political, military, and religious organization must cease to exist; an organization which insures the race its cohesion and duration in the country, and which, up to a certain point, they esteem; and if threatened with its loss they would rather resolve without hesitation to abandon the region they occupy, their settlements, their estates and crops, all their means of livelihood. Now, how will their sultans, datos, panditas, and panglimas live, except at best as mere ornaments and historical figureheads, mere names without actual significance and offices without utility; even deprived in a very short time of the servile submission and stupid veneration of their sacopes; and both the one and the other with but the remembrance of their once entire exemption from law? Well they know that this would be the loss of the interior constitution of their people, the end of their nationality still sustained in those islands, and, above all, in their disappearance from the country as a distinct race.

A priori, then, it is well proved that, far from the Moros being an element favorable to the reduction, colonization, and civilization of Mindanao and Joló, they constitute in their present state, as they ever wil! be while they enjoy their autonomy and organization, a most powerful obstacle in the way of obtaining that desideratum.

But there is a fact, although a negative one, which confirms moreover this statement a posteriori, namely, the hostile disposition of the Moros to all that the reduction, colonization, and civilization of the country implies. Who, in factSpanish, foreigner, or even native-has ever been bold enough to locate any establishment, undertake any exploration, break or cultivate any portion of the soil amidst Moro settlements?

Even in Christian settlements already formed, the number of estates is small and these few exist only in the outlying districts of the settlement and under the shelter of some military detachment. One of these few is the estate of Rosales & Co.,