The Inhabitants of the PhilippinesSawyer, Frederic H.
History
The Inhabitants of the Philippines
Sawyer, Frederic H.
Ethnology -- Philippines; Philippines -- Social life and customs
Samales (15).
These people inhabit the islands of Samal and Talicud, in the Gulf
of Davao, and are not to be confounded with the Moros Samales of
Tawi-tawi and Jolo.
The Samales surpass both the Moros and Nisayas in muscular development
and stature.
Their feet and hands are large; they have high and projecting
cheek-bones, and a stiff beard standing out round the face gives it,
according to Montano, something of a cat-like appearance. Both sexes
dress like the Moros.
They are less ferocious than their neighbours, and do not, like them,
go about armed.
They do not commit any aggressions, and are industrious. In character,
they are superior to the Moros, and are not like them--cunning and
deceitful.
They have been on good terms with the Spaniards for a long time,
but until quite lately they were very obstinate, and could not be
persuaded to be baptized.
They cultivate the usual crops, fish, and make salt. The women weave
dagmays.
They used to have slaves, whom they purchased from the Moros or
Manobos, and treated them well.
Formerly, they enclosed their dead in wooden coffins, made in two
parts, the shallower part serving as a lid. Each piece was hollowed
out of a solid log. They placed the coffins on a rude platform in a
cave or niche in the rocks, or else built a thatched roof over it to
keep off the rain.
They placed near the coffin buyo and bonga for chewing, and vases
containing rice and maize. Each year after the harvest they went to
visit the dead, and renewed the offerings.
Little is known of their former religion, but they worshipped the
serpent, and believed in the immortality of the soul, and in a place
of punishment by fire, which they called Quilut.
The patience and zeal of the missionaries has, however, been richly
rewarded, and in June, 1894, a number of Samales were baptized,
including most of their dattos. By the autumn of that year there was
not a heathen left in the islands, and the Samales are now settled in
seven villages--San José, San Ramon, Alcira, Tarifa, Carmona, Cervera,
and Peña Plata. This last was the residence of the missionary, who
was accompanied by a lay brother. The population at the beginning of
1897 was 1625.
Vilanes (16).
These people, the prey of every warlike tribe, and even of the
Tagacaolos, live on the summit of the mountains of Buhian, to the
east and west of the lake of that name.
Some of them extend as far south as the eastern shore of the Gulf of
Sarangani, and they people the two islands of Sarangani and Balut.
They are short and thickset, with little agility.
Montano describes them as having flat, broad noses, underhung jaws,
and receding foreheads, giving them an appearance of stupidity.
Father Urios, however, writing about the Vilanes of Sarangani and
Balut, gives a more favourable description of them. He says they
are docile and industrious, and more active and intelligent than the
Moros Sanguiles, who live on these same islands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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