At the beginning of each year there is a very solemn ceremonial, and, in the event of the birth or death of a child, or the safe return from some expedition, it is repeated. It is a sort of _Te Deum_ in conformity with Mahometan rites. During a number of days in a certain month of the year they abstain from eating, drinking, and pleasure of all kinds, and suffer many forms of voluntary penance. Strangers are never allowed, I was told, inside the Mosque of the Sultan. The higher clergy are represented by the hereditary _Cherif_, who has temporal power also. The title of _Pandita_ simply means priest, and is the common word used in Mindanao as well as in Palauan Island. He seems to be almost the chief in his district--not in a warlike sense, like the _Datto_; but his word has great influence. He performs all the functions of a priest, receives the vow of the _juramentados_, and expounds the mysteries and the glories of that better world whither they will go without delay if they die taking the blood of a Christian. In theory, the Moros accept the Koran and the teachings of Mahomet: in practice, they omit the virtues of their religious system and follow those precepts which can be construed into favouring vice; hence they interpret guidance of the people by oppression, polygamy by licentiousness, and maintenance of the faith by bloodshed. Relays of Arabs come, from time to time, under the guise of Koran expounders, to feed on the people and whet their animosity towards the Christian. The _Panditas_ are doctors also. If a _Datto_ dies, they intone a dolorous chant; the family bursts into lamentations, which are finally drowned in the din of the clashing of cymbals and beating of gongs, whilst sometimes a gun is fired. In rush the neighbours, and join in the shouting, until all settle down quietly to a feast. The body is then sprinkled with salt and camphor and dressed in white, with the kris attached to the waist. There is little ceremony about placing the body in the coffin and burying it. The mortuary is marked by a wooden tablet--sometimes by a stone, on which is an inscription in Arabic. A slip of board, or bamboo, is placed around the spot, and a piece of wood, carved like the bows of a canoe, is stuck in the earth; in front of this is placed a cocoanut shell full of water. The old native town, or _cotta_ of Sulu (Jolo) was a collection of bamboo houses built upon piles extending a few hundred yards into the sea. This was all demolished by the Spaniards when they permanently occupied the place in 1876, excepting the Military Hospital, which was re-constructed of light materials, native fashion. The sea-beach was cleared, and the native village put back inland.