Chapter IX: Sooloo (3)

It is difficult to fix exactly the number of the Moros who live on this gulf at present. Their nomadic customs and the ease with which they change their habitation, sometimes moving to a great distance, make a little less than impossible an exact list of them. However, I believe that their approximate number is 4,000. If they exceed that number, I do not believe that they reach 5,000, and as well I do not believe that they are less than 3,000. The place that they generally choose for their home, as I have before suggested, is the coast or the mouth of rivers navigable for their small boats.

When any governor of this district urges them with instance to make a village, they make, as it were, an excuse for a settlement, carrying out the plan which the governor himself, or some Spaniard in the name of the governor, or some other intelligent person, gives them. They will construct, if it is desired, their so-called houses at the distances which are marked out for them, but they will never reconcile themselves with any kind of cultivation, or with cleanliness, or the repair of what gets out of order. In reality, in the short time that their villages have form, the filth, the nakedness, and the general wretchedness, cause them to present so repugnant an aspect, that no one can show a desire for their preservation; and as soon as the governor ceases to investigate them, those villages melt away like salt in water.

To the right of Davao, several attempts have been made to form the Moro village of Daron by bringing together the small Moro rancherias of Taumo, Baludo, and Obango, which are the only rancherias between Davao and the point of Culaman in sight of Sarangani. That village, in the days of its greatest apogee, would lodge at most one hundred Moro families, who always tend to be split up into small rancherias.

On the other side of Point Banus, from which one can begin to descry the islands of Sarangani there was another rancheria of Sanguil. [85] Moros of about one hundred families. That rancheria was settled there under the protection of an Indian, who had served his time in the navy, who fixed his residence there in the quality of agent or abonado [i.e., representative] of the traders of Davao. At the present time that petty trader has moved his residence to Nuin opposite the islands of Sarangani, and it appears that those Moros have followed him. But wherever they have fixed their residence, left to themselves, they are threatened with destruction. For that swarm of Bilanes, Manobos, and Tagacaolos [86] which surrounds them, warlike races who have never been subdued by the Moros, will always consider them as enemies, and will always reckon them in the first line to give an end to their personal and racial vengeance.

In support of my assertion, I shall tell your Reverence an episode just as it was told to me a long while ago. Some years before the conquest of Davao, the Moros, pursuing the piratical habits peculiar to their race, knifed the crew of a banca which was on its way from Pundaguitan, a Christian village at Cape San Agustin, to the tortoise-shell fisheries at the island of Olaniban, the third and smallest island of the Sarangani. It was a coincidence that the said banca was manned by members of the most influential families of both shores of this gulf from San Agustin and Culaman. Vengeance in the Manobo style was not long delayed. The members of the latter race beheaded as many of the Moros as they could find alone. But later some sort of a settlement was made among them. The Moros paid the fine imposed on them by the other races, but the latter did not cease to be hostile for all that. They have reduced the few Mahometans remaining between Malalag and Sarangani to so precarious a situation that, according to my mode of thinking, their greatest and only guaranty is in the respect that those heathens profess for the Spanish banner.

It is not my design to discuss now the islands and bay, or harbor of Sarangani, places which formed my gilded dream for many years. I shall not be many months in writing to your Reverence a letter with the data which I have gathered, and other data which I am acquiring in regard to those islands and that bay. [87] In that letter I will relate my opinion of those kindly heathens who left so pleasing an impression on the minds of us five missionaries who have visited them, namely Fathers Lluch, Bove, Puntas, Vivero, and the writer.

Just a few words now concerning the Moros to the left of Davao. One legua from this capital, and along the beach, lies the Moro village of Lanang, which has passed through the same sudden changes as has the village of Daron. The said village is formed by the malcontents of the various datarias [88] of this gulf, beginning with the ilayas of Davao. Their progress and setbacks have been proportioned to the tact and vigilance of the governors. Some cultivation of cocoas is seen on that coast, in part by the Moros and in part by the Christians of the vicinity. At the present time there are no more than twenty-five houses (if their huts can be so called), of which very few are finished. The greater part of them remain since a long time ago in process of construction.

Following the same coast toward the north of the gulf, and some three leguas distant, one encounters the rancheria of the river Lasan. The most remarkable thing about that rancheria is that it shelters one of the most famous of the directors of Moro politics in this gulf, namely, one Lasad. Some Christians from Cagayan in Misamis have come to their ilaya, according to report. The Moros have never even formed an excuse for a village there, but live scattered in tiny hamlets, or in miserable huts more or less contiguous to one another over a territory spread out over two or three leguas up stream.

Some two leguas farther, and following the coast, and near the Tuganay River is situated the Moro rancheria of Tagum, a name which is derived from the largest river of this bay which empties near the Tuganay. That rancheria is the most ungovernable and the most famous for the gloomy tragedies that have happened there from time immemorial even to our days. When the murders of four Christians in July of last year happened, the Moros of that rancheria had a village of about forty houses in process of construction, but it is now almost entirely abandoned.

Some two leguas farther following the same coast are found the river and rancheria of Madaum, which contains, it is reported, about one hundred families.

A very short distance from the preceding lies the rancheria of the Hijo River, which is famous for having been the last bulwark of the Moros at the time of the conquest of Davao. Senor Oyanguren and a distinguished chief of our militia went there in the steamboat "Elcano." It is said that after the Moros had surrendered, and while Oyanguren and the datos were arranging the conditions of submission, a young Mahometan snatched the sword from the hands of the leader alluded to, and took to his heels without the balls of the sentinels being able to reach him. That was a boldness that gave the Christians much to think over. A few years ago I was told that they still preserved the hilt of the said sword. At present that rancheria is governed by Dato Nonong, one of the most highly-considered Moros of this gulf. It has scarcely one hundred families, and the attempt has been made several times to make that dato form a village.

The small rancherias of Cupiat and Laji which may be considered as small suburbs or barrios of Hijo and Matiao respectively have absolutely no importance.

Matiao, famed during these last few years for the frequent sacrifices of heathen Mandayas, is the landing-place for the small boats that ply from Liboac in the northern part of Samal to the eastern shore of the gulf. There are about one hundred Moro families there, who have never formed a village, but live scattered along both sides of the Matiao River, and in the neighboring places of Quinquin and Canipa. Dato Lasad, of whom I have already made mention, is, as it were, lord of the lives and possessions, not only of his Moro subjects, but as well of those unfortunate Mandayas who live in the vicinity of Matiao.

On the other side of the mountains called Linao, whose spurs reach the sea, is found a large plain, extending from the salt-water river called Piso to Cuabu. Scattered through that plain and especially on the banks of the rivers there, live also about one hundred and twenty Moro families, who are under the datos Tumarus, Compao, and Patarandan.

On the beach and near the mouth of the Sumlug River, lies an excuse for a Moro village, which consists of about twenty houses which were built by order, and under the general conditions of the Moro villages of this gulf.

Your Reverence knows already that there is not a single Moro family in all the peninsula of San Agustin. It remains for me, then, to tell your Reverence of the last and most numerous Moro rancheria of this district of Davao. It is the rancheria of Mayo, so called because it took its name from the bay of Mayo, the point where its most principal datos live. However, in appearance all those Moros owe homage to Dato Tumarus of Sumlug. Including all the Moros of the harbor of Mati, the bay of Mayo, and the Baguan River to the other side of Point Tagobon, there are about one hundred and fifty families. They have never formed a village. Some years back a governor ordered all those Moros to form a village in Sumlug, but they had sufficient cunning to frustrate that just and wise order, in order that they might continue to live in the manner in which they had lived thitherto.

The Moros who live about this large gulf, Father, are the remains of those powerful and warlike Moros who in the not distant past collected tribute from the Mandayas and other heathens as far as those living on the Caraga River, and who extended their piratical raids to the villages of the Pacific. But they were completely conquered by worthy Don Jose Oyanguren in the year 1848.

Two classes in the manner of two races must be distinguished among these Moros: that of the datos which is, as it were, the aristocracy; and that of the plebeians who obey the datos. The panditas (for so do they call the priests of their false religion) are included among both classes, although it is more general for them to belong to the first. They form, as it were, an hereditary priesthood.

In general, the datos and their families do not work. At the most they fish and hunt for sport, and to stifle the pangs of hunger. Their chief and most honorable receipts are from the tributes which they collect from their subjects and from the heathens whom they have subdued. That tribute is called the pagdato. Although that source of wealth is the chief, it is not the only source. Although the Moros of this gulf are conquered and subdued, they have not completely forgotten their former customs of piracy. Slavery and captivity with their awful accompaniment of murders, thefts, poisons, and violence of every sort, and further, the human sacrifices which accompany them at times, form a very productive source of wealth for the ever exhausted chests of their treasuries. I could write a very thick volume of the deeds of this particular people which are very well known to me.

All the heathens dominated by the Moros, and even many of the Moros themselves, on approaching me, through the little confidence that my person inspires, molest me by the relation of the Moro misdeeds, telling me of the troubles and injustice which they suffer from the Moros, and the acts of inhumanity of which they are the victims; for they hope that I will protect them by causing that the guilty ones will be given their deserts.

As a proof of what I have said, and of the many things which I could add, I give below the relation of what happened to me about one year ago. I was on my way from Cuaba to Mati, and was accompanied by a young man of about twenty years of age of the Mandaya race. He together with his mother and two younger sisters had formerly been captured by the Moro datos of the bay of Mayo. When we reached Valete, pointing to a gagatpat tree, [89] he said to me: "Father, they bound my mother by the hands and neck to that branch, and left her half hanging there while they ate and rested." "And what was their reason for binding your mother there in so inhuman a manner," I asked. "In order that, since she would be tired out," he replied, "by the forced position in which they kept her, she might not have the strength to escape on the journey from this place to Sumlug." I believe that that unfortunate woman is no longer living. The Moros took her to Daron and no more has been heard of her, in spite of the repeated efforts which her son has made to find her. The latter having escaped from that bondage and having become a Christian, has not ceased to employ all the resources that his filial love has roused in him in order to see whether he can discover the abiding-place of his dear mother. He thinks that the Moros of Daron sold her to the Bagabos, and that the latter sacrificed her according to their custom.

That slave trade, sa pag sucad, as it is graphically expressed by Moros and heathen, or something to cover their necessities, is not yet the worst thing of the Moro race. More mischievous to my way of thinking is it for the progress and stability of this district, both in religious matters and in civil and political matters, that the Moros of this part have not yet lost their hope of being able to recover their ancient power. They show this openly whenever any opportunity arises. On that account they endeavor by all their efforts to maintain their own organization in the very face of our government. They call the dato of their choice Principal [i.e., Chief] and the captain or gobernadorcillo and the other agents of justice appointed among them by the governor of the district, they call Saliling, which is equivalent to our Interino [i.e., incumbent of an office ad interim]. At times they simply call the members of justice appointed by the governor for them interinos, and consider them as secondary or entrusted authorities. For as they say of themselves in their manner of speech, "We are friendly to the Castilians, through force." Consequently, they endure our rule for the present, but do not accept it.

One of the recent occurrences which place in relief this desire of the Moros in opposing our domination and recovering their lost prestige, is found in the island of Samal. Those islanders who on seeing the boats of Oyanguren remove the Mahometan yoke, and had passed over en masse to the Spanish camp, gradually allowed their affection toward us to cool, and again took the advice of their ancient masters, and have opposed all the attempts that have been made for their formal and real reduction. Taupan, who was, as it were, the dato or petty king of the Samals, and who during the last year of his life, had kept at a certain distance from the Spaniards, although he did not for all that return entirely to the Moros, whom he had considered as a very bad lot, died. His eldest son, named Severo, although a heathen, showed us affection and respect, and had expressed to a Visayan in his confidence his desire to have one of his children baptized. The conversion of Severo would have been a great defeat for the party of the Moros in Samal. Consequently, the eminent men among the Moro faction took alarm before the thought of Severo converted. No less than fourteen Moro datos of this gulf went to Samal, and when they were all assembled, they elected as dato or chief of the Samals not Severo to whom it belonged by hereditary right to succeed his father, according to the custom of the Samals, but one who was thoroughly trusted by the Moros. That was one Captain Batunun, that old man whom your Reverence saw in Samal, and who talking as a Moro with Father Juanmarti, held that long spear in front of the governor of the district. Now then, there are two gobernadorcillos in Samal: Severo, who besides being the legitimate successor of his father, was appointed captain or gobernadorcillo by Governor Don Joaquin Rajal; and Batunun, elected by the Moro datos, as I have related, and that later than the official appointment of Severo. That means that they are resisting the orders of our government directly, in order to oppose our domination, and in order to recover the Moro practice of intermeddling in the matters of the interior of the island of Samal. It is to be noted that throughout the island of Samal, and along its coasts, there does not exist any rancheria or group of Moros. Those who exercise that baleful influence over the Samals are the Moros from other points, of which I have already made mention.

In regard to the Mandayas, whom the Moros will by no means recognize as freed [from their rule], they will neither recognize them as independent authorities, even with official titles which are sent by the governor of the district, and are stamped with the seal of the government, if the latter when appointed, do not communicate with them by means of the Moro datos. If the Mandayas show a decided desire to break that secular slavery, the Moros tell them without circumlocutions that they will disappear without knowing how; and they cause them to know underhandedly that the means which they will use to finish them, will be by the poisons which they possess--some of them feigned and named only to terrify the Mandayas, but others only too real and true.

As the crown to what I have related, and in order that your Reverence may be convinced of the resolute will of these Moros of opposing by all means the reduction of the heathens and the gathering of themselves together into formal villages, I will mention the most transcendent deed that has happened in this district since the coming of Oyanguren. This is the unfortunate killing and awful murder committed by the Moros of Tagum on the person of Governor Don Jose Pinzon y Purga and those who were with him.

By certain ill-informed persons, that tragic event has been ascribed to the urgency with which Pinzon, it is said, begged to wife the daughter of a dato of Tagum. But being well informed by trustworthy persons contemporaneous with the event, who accompanied the governor on that sad journey, I am able to state that that idea is a calumny and destitute of every foundation of truth. The deed as is related by those persons, happened in the following manner. Senor Pinzon had proposed to establish a numerous reduction of Mandayas at the mouth of the Tagum River; and worked at it with great enthusiasm and good success. Everything was ready and the heathens were summoned for a given day, on which the said governor intended to go to inaugurate the said reduction. The Moros, seeing that the project was succeeding, and that all their plots in order to frustrate it were in vain, called in the rest of their malice, and resolved to kill the governor. In effect, they feigned that they were friendly to and desired the reduction. On the appointed day they assembled at the place where the Mandayas were to await the governor in order to plan the village. The first chief of the village arrived and the datos received him with great and feigned demonstrations of joy, and consented in all things to what the governor proposed. Then they invited him to one of their rancherias, where they said that they had prepared feasts in order to serve him and to solemnize the inauguration of the new village, with another unworthy offering, but one very suitable to the degrading customs of the Moros. There were not lacking those so bold as to advise the governor not to trust the Moros, for they were plotting some trick against him. But they say that he laughed at everything, and replied "I want to see whether what they tell me is true." Therefore he took eight companions and went with the datos to their rancheria. A feast was held there, and there was playing on culintangan, dances, etc., but not a woman, large or small, was to be seen in the whole rancheria. At the end of the ceremony, a dato invited the governor to enter an apartment, and when the latter was about to lift the curtain, at that moment the dato stabbed him violently in the back with his kris. Pinzon turned, and wounded as he was, advanced toward the murderer. Already did he have the latter at his mercy and unarmed, but before he could rise, another dato ran in, and cut off Pinzon's head with a two-handed blow. Meanwhile the other Moros were murdering the eight companions of the unfortunate Pinzon in the lower part of the house.

Such is the blackest event registered by the annals of this gulf, which paralyzed for many years the reduction of the heathens.

In my opinion the means that will resist the evil influence of the Moros are: 1. To eliminate the offices of dato and pandita, implanting in their stead in the Moro villages the legislation in force in the Christian villages by naming municipalities with which the government will deal directly. 2. The exclusion of holding public offices to those who have been datos or panditas and their children. 3. Absolute prohibition to the datos to continue the collection of tribute from their own people and the heathens of other races. 4. The stipulation and publication of the autonomy of the heathens in regard to the Moros, prohibiting the latter absolutely from meddling in the affairs of the heathens. 5. The intimation to all the heathens and Moros of their obligation as men and as subjects of the crown of Espana, to live in villages in a civilized manner. 6, and last. To reduce the Moros into the least possible number of groups and away from the mouths of the Tagum and Hijo rivers, where the members of the Mandaya race must construct their villages, that being the nearest location.

In my opinion the above are the means which, if faithfully followed out, will reduce the pernicious influence of the Moros to a cipher, and in a few years would cause an infinite number of villages to flourish, which could be formed from the great multitude of heathens of the various races who are scattered about the extensive gulf of Davao. With that system, I also shelter the hope that very many Moros, who do not belong to the class of the datos and panditas, will enter, if it is not delayed, the net of Jesus Christ.

With the half company which is on duty here, together with the cuadrilleros and the marine forces who guard these waters, there is more than sufficient for the accomplishment of all that I have stated in the present letter.

I commend myself many times to the holy prayers of your Reverence.

Your Reverence's servant in Christ,

Quirico More, S. J.

LETTER FROM FATHER PEDRO ROSELL [90] TO THE FATHER SUPERIOR OF THE MISSION [91]

Caraga, April 17, 1885.

My dearly beloved Father Superior in Christ:

Although it is scarcely three weeks since my arrival from the visit which Father Pastells and I made to the villages of the southern part of this mission, I received your Reverence's both affectionate and short letter of December 30 of last year, together with the authorizations which you were pleased to send me under separate covers. Ex intimo corde [92] I acknowledge to your Reverence both letter and authorizations, and give you a thousand thanks for them. And now desiring to pay so pleasing a favor with something more [than thanks], I am going to write you a minute relation of the last two excursions that we two fathers made together, for I know the great consolation that your Reverence receives by the reading of such relations, for besides the fact that you learn from them of the condition and progress of your dear missions and of the fathers and brothers who work in them, whom your Reverence loves with the true love of a father, there is also seen in the same relations the not small fruit that is obtained in souls by the mercy of God. Almost never is there lacking the relation of some remarkable event or edifying deed in the conquest of the heathens to our holy faith, which recreates the spirit and invites one to praise the goodness of our sweet Jesus. Some events of such a nature have occurred during the last two excursions which I have carefully noted in order to relate them to your Reverence.

We made our first excursion in December of last year, after the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the most holy Virgin to the visita of Santa Fe, which is distant two hours' journey from this capital, and which is located at the end of the small bay which is the terminal of Points Alisud de Caraga, and Sancol de Manurigao. About five hundred and sixty-nine Christians who have been reduced from the beliefs of the Mandayas in the space of the eight years since it was founded by our fathers, form its population. This village is one of the three which have been for a considerable time the aim of the repeated attacks of the Baganis or assassins of the mountains of Bungadon and Manlubuan. During the same days that we stayed there, the murder of three Mandayas, sacopes of Captain Ciriaco Lanquibo, who was recently converted to Christianity, happened in the fields which are located between that village and that of Manurigao. A week after we had returned to Caraga, we were informed that another like murder had been committed on another unfortunate friendly Mandaya near the said village of San Luis. So bold do those barbarians show themselves, because there is no force with which to pursue them, and they feel so secure in the places where they reside!

At the date on which we went to Santa Fe, it had been quite a long time since the said village had experienced any aggression from the baganis. Consequently, the people were living somewhat free from their past misery, and relieved of the frequent alarms and consequent frights. However, they were suffering great famine on account of the said aggressions, and because they had lost almost all the crops of maize and sweet potatoes (the only things which they cultivate), during that time because of the great and prolonged heat and the lack of rain. They were supporting themselves on the few sweet potatoes that had been saved, thanks to the humidity of the ground, and the shade of the trees, and on the soft parts of convolvulus and palms which grow along the shores of the rivers. In spite of so many and so severe troubles, thanks be to God, there has not been hitherto, but two families of San Luis who have become fugitives. That action has not at all been because they repent of having become Christians, but for other very different reasons. Those families have, however, now established relations with the father and promised him to abandon the Dacungbanua or lands of Magdagasang, where they are living at present, as soon as they shall have harvested the palay of their fields, and settle in a village other than the one in which they lived formerly. What a fine example, then, Father Superior, of Christian fidelity and resignation have those newly-reduced people given us in general, and how evident a proof of their true conversion to Christianity! In my opinion, these are results that ought to be attributed, after divine Grace (without which no good thing can be done), especially to the plan which Father Pastells has always followed in so far as it has been allowed him, in the reduction of heathens. It is exclusively a system of attraction by means of great charity, great mildness, continual patience, and solid foundations upon which the village recently established rests; namely, the foundations of a good inspector who continues to form gradually in the village the good customs of the Christians, of good authorities who rule and govern the people without exactions and injustice, or excessive rigor, of good masters who instruct and educate the children, with the visit of the father, as often as possible in order further to exercise his spiritual ministries, and to ascertain how they all observe their important obligations.

Coming back, now, from this long digression, your Reverence, Father Superior, could not imagine with what pleasure and blessings the Christians of those three visitas above mentioned, of Santa Fe, Manurigao, and San Luis, received the palay which your Reverence gave as an alms for the relief of those places because of that great scarcity of food of which I have spoken above. The heads of the families could not restrain their joy when they found themselves with palay which could be distributed to each one, although it was, it is true, very little compared to their great necessity. "How troublesome we are to you, Fathers," they said, "and how much patience you must have with us. But God will be able to repay you superabundantly for the good that you are doing us. Had we not received help, of a truth, our sick and stricken would have died of hunger and poor food. But now with this palay, we shall have enough to put new life into us, and we shall keep some of it for a small field, which will give us hopes of enduring the famine better later on." So did the poor wretches express themselves. They really planted their fields with the little palay which they could set aside for it; and at the date of the writing of this letter, some fields are seen so luxuriant and with so fine a heading of grain that within one month they are promised a moderate harvest. May God in His goodness preserve those fields and cause them to bear one hundred per cent.

The day following our arrival at Santa Fe, and the succeeding days, we managed to assemble in the convent all the Mandayas who appeared in the village. Father Pastells exhorted them to receive the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and many of them were baptized. Some of them obstinately refused, giving no other reason for their refusal, if reason it can be called, than Ualay gusto co, "I do not wish it." And they could not be changed from that decision, notwithstanding all our arguments and eloquence. That happens to us at various times so that we missionaries may learn that the faith and baptism are gifts of his divine generosity, and that if God do not illumine and impel them with His powerful grace, in vanum laboravimus. [93] But if some of them resisted divine Grace, others, God be thanked, yielded to it, and gladly received holy baptism. All together, adults and children, we baptized forty. Among that number three women whom we call bailanas are worthy of special mention. Those women were clad in their baro or doublet, of a deep-red color throughout, a dress which is peculiar to their profession, and which differentiates them from other women. Since I have mentioned these important persons of Mandaya society, it will not be outside of my design, nor will it be without interest for your Reverence, to say something about the same. The bailanas are, as it were, the priestesses of the Mandayas. They exercise the functions of priestesses, for they offer sacrifices and other offerings to their false gods, invoke them for the cure of their sick, consult them in cases of necessity, etc., etc. Consequently, they possess considerable authority and influence among the Mandayas, since the latter look upon them as mediators between them and their gods, the instruments through whom is transmitted the will and mysterious orders of the gods, and, finally, as persons superior to themselves, although they may be baganis or petty kings, inasmuch as they believe them to be in direct communication with their gods or invisible spirits. This class of sharpers are not few among the Mandayas, both because those people are very superstitious and believe that their persons and whatever surrounds them are under the influence of good and evil spirits, and because the profession of bailan is a lucrative trade. For, for every religious act that the bailanas perform at the request of another, they receive their fee or at least they have a share of the sacrifice or offering that is made to the gods. Hence those women are the most difficult to attract to our holy faith, and even to enter the presence of the father missionary. For they fear that they will lose their influence, their repute, and their easy living, if they become Christians. Poor creatures, how mistaken they are!

And now your Reverence may behold one of their pagdiuatas or sacrifices which they perform in honor of their gods, Mansilatan and Badla. Several bailanas assemble in the place assigned for the purpose, together with those persons interested and invited to take part in it. They erect a sort of small altar on which they place the manaugs or images of the said gods which are made of the special wood of the bayog tree, [94] which they destine exclusively for this use. When the unfortunate hog which is to serve for the sacrifice is placed above the said altar, the chief bailana approaches with balarao or dagger in hand, which she brandishes and drives into the poor animal, which will surely be grunting in spite of the gods and of the religious solemnity, as it is fearful of what is going to happen to it; and leaves the victim sweltering in its blood. Then immediately all the bailanas drink of the blood in order to attract the prophetic spirit to themselves and to give their auguries or the supposed inspirations of their gods. Scarcely have they drunk the blood, when they become as though possessed by an infernal spirit which agitates them and makes them tremble as does the body of a person with the ague or like one who shivers with the cold. They seize in their hands a gong to which they give repeated blows with the third finger, snapping it with the thumb, thus making a kind of toccata with it. While they are doing this, after having belched forth a few dozen of times, they invoke the above-mentioned gods Mansilatan and Badla, to whom they chant the following Mandayan song:

Miminsad, miminsad si Mansilatan
Opod si Badla nga magadayao nang dunia.
Bailan, managunsayao,
Bailan, managunliguit. [95]

This means in Spanish: "Mansilatan has come down, has come down. Later [will come] Badla, who will preserve the earth. Bailanas, dance; bailanas, turn ye round about." As soon as the invocation has concluded bailanas and non-bailanas, that is to say, all the people who have gathered, dance and cry out like disorderly persons, devour the hog, and end by getting drunk. Such is the conclusion and end of the demoniacal bucolic feast to the gods Mansilatan and Badla.

And although these things are so, the Catholic apologist will not fail to comprehend the most important teachings which he could utilize as a confirmation of the most transcendental questions of our true religion. For leaving aside the action of the sacrifice and the ceremonies that accompany it, is there not some glimpse in that song, Miminsad, miminsad si Mansilatan, etc., although an imperfect one, of the dogmas of the plurality of persons in God, and of the creation and redemption of the world? Indeed, it is so, and more if one keep in mind the signification in which the Mandayas understand it, according to the ancient and constant oral tradition received from their ancestors. That tradition which gives the true meaning to those verses has been taken down by Father Pastells from the mouth of many tigulang or old men who have been converted to Christianity. It is as follows. Mansilatan, the principal god and father of Badla, descended from the heavens where he dwells in order to create the world. Afterward his only son Badla came down also to preserve and protect the world--that is men and things--against the power and trickery of the evil spirits, Pudaugnon and Malimbung, the latter a woman and the former a man, who are trying by continual artifices to harm and injure them. Those evil spirits did not obtain nor will they ever obtain their most evil intents to destroy the earth and mankind, for they are under the power and protection of the powerful and invisible god Badla. Consequently, and in view of so great love and mercy on the part of the latter and because of so much goodness on the part of his father Mansilatan, the bailanas who are the priestesses of the same, can never do less than be joyful, and in the transports of their joy invite one another to dance and circle about their revered images as an act of reverence to so great benefactors. Also there is not wanting among the beliefs of the Mandayas one which gives, although in a confused and corrupted manner, the idea of the Holy Spirit, thereby completing the mystery of the holy Trinity. For they say that, from Mansilatan, the father of Badla his only son, also proceeds the god Busao, who is nothing else than the omnipotent virtue of the former. This last is communicated to some men preeminent in valor and skill for their combats, so that it makes them strong and valiant above other men. Those privileged men who are animated by the spirit of Busao are called in the Mandaya language baganis, which means valiant.

And now I desire to call your Reverence's attention to those two spirits, Pudaugnon and Malimbung, of whom I made mention above. Does it not seem to you, Father Superior, that they are an image, although disfigured, of that malign spirit and chief of all tempters, Lucifer, who caused Eve to fall by his lies and deceit, and by means of the latter, conquered and overthrew Adam, from which originated the ruin of all the human race and the innumerable ills that inundate the earth? It is quite apparent that there is something in that, and that opinion does not seem ill founded if we consider the etymology of the words Pudaugnon and Malimbung, and the explanation which the Mandayas give of the said spirits. For, first, the word Pudaugnon is derived from the root daug, which means "to conquer," "to tempt," and from the particles pu or pa, and non or on, which make the root a substantive adjective, and the resultant meaning is, if the person is a man, as in this case, "he who tempts" or "the tempter." So also Malimbung is composed of the root limbung, which means "to deceive," and the particle ma which makes it a substantive adjective. Thus it means, the subject being a woman, "she who deceives" or "the deceiver." The Mandayas say, then, of those evil spirits that Pudaugnon, the wicked and mortal enemy of mankind, strong as a man (which he is) and powerful as a spirit, pursues, attacks, and injures poor mortals as much as he is allowed; and that Malimbung, cunning and artful as a wicked woman, and endowed with an irresistible force of seduction like a spirit (which she is also) seduces by her deceits, and causes the strongest men, who do not guard against her wiles, to fall. In this woman, is there not a picture of Eve, the unhappy Eve, possessed for her sin, by the spirit of her tempter Lucifer, seduced and seductive, with whose golden cords, Adam, the most lofty cedar of Lebanon in this world, was bound and was dashed into the deepest depths of evil? [96]

But let us return to those three bailanas of whom I spoke above, and who have given rise to this digression. One of them, an old woman, indeed very old, since she was about seventy years old, at the exhortation of Father Pastells to become a Christian and abandon the foolishness of the Mandayas, which are no other than the deceits of the devil, became possessed or rather seemed to become possessed with that bailan spirit of which I spoke above, and began to tremble from head to foot. Did that knavish bailan divinity know beforehand what was about to happen to him, and that he had to leave the house in which he had lived for so long a time? But his apparent possession of the foolish old woman, and the trembling of her body did not last long, when he saw and heard the derisive guffaws of laughter from all the Christians who were present. Ah! this was without doubt the reason which made that invisible spirit, in shame at having been so illtreated by the fathers and by the Christians present, hasten to issue forth, and escape with all speed toward hell, or to the body of another bailana of the mountain who would treat him better. Finally the poor old woman, like her associates in the profession, surrendered to the exhortations of the father, or rather, to the grace of the Holy Spirit, and they consented to receive holy baptism. How beautiful and how consoling it was to hear from those lips which had invoked more than a thousand times perhaps, the infernal spirits hidden under the names of Mansilatan, Badla, Busao, Tagabanua, etc., respond affirmatively and with deep conviction of spirit to the following questions of Father Pastells. "Do you believe," he asked each one, "all that God has revealed and what the holy Catholic Church teaches us?" "Yes, I believe." "Do you renounce the beliefs of the Mandayas, and all their lies and works of iniquity?" "Yes, I renounce." "Do you give your heart wholly and without reserve to God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and to Jesus Christ his only son, the Redeemer of the world?" "Yes, in truth, I do give it entirely." "Do you desire in good faith to receive holy baptism?" "I wish it right gladly." After that so express profession of faith, the three bailanas, together with the other baptized adults, were fittingly instructed in the mysteries of our holy religion and in their duties as Christians. Then, according to the custom introduced by our fathers, they were stript of the garments of their heathenism, and they were clothed in the garments of the Christians, which were lent for the occasion, as the new clothes which were given to them as a present were not yet made; and holy baptism was conferred on them to the great joy of all.

On the thirteenth of the same month of December, when we had concluded our occupation in the holy faith, we returned to Caraga, postponing for a later time, although we regretted it keenly, the visit to the small villages near Manurigao and San Luis; for we were compelled to return as I had not yet performed the holy exercises of the year, and it was near the feast of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That fine feast came, and I saw for the first time how the good inhabitants of Caraga celebrated it. I noted no rich jewels and refined music in the church. All was simplicity and poverty, like a new parish recently separated from its metropolitan, and given over to its own life with few resources, in a most wretched country. Neither did I observe in the village anything of that excessive luxury, and the annoying diversions with which in other parts, the Christians of divided heart try falsely to honor God. Caraga, in spite of its antiquity of two centuries, with its excellent lands, and its established reputation of producing excellent cacao, coffee, [97] and tobacco, is a small, poor, and simple village. The chief causes of that are that it has been deserted by several old families who have settled in the small villages recently established, and although it has increased somewhat with the new Christians, who have been converted from the beliefs of the Mandayas, the latter are as a rule, both simple and indolent and but little accustomed to work, and they need rather to be aided, instead of being able to give aid to the others. But the reason which has had, and has, most influence in the above is their isolation which is caused by the very poor sea and land communication which make that region the most remote and forgotten one of these islands and (if I may use the word), as it were, the finis terrae. [98] Hence, it receives but little life from without, and is forced to live on its narrow resources and few means of subsistence.

Consequently, wholly and precisely for the above reasons, its method of existence and of celebrating its feasts has, I know not what, which attracts and satisfies. This is born of the characteristic simplicity and open and jovial nature of these people of Caraga, from the fraternal union with which all, both great and small, those who have something and those who have nothing, unite to take part in the feasts and common joy, and finally from the expansive communication, without an admixture of any sort of fear, which they have with the father missionaries whom they regard and love as their dear fathers.

And now you shall see, Father Superior, the religious ceremonies with which we managed to honor the birth of our Blessing, Jesus. As a preparation for the feast [of Christmas] the [feast of the] expectation of the delivery of our Lady was celebrated one week beforehand, and a daily mass of the Queen [i.e., of the Virgin] which a moderate number of persons attended. On the last day or the vigil of the feast, a pleasing, although simple Belen [99] was made at one side of the presbytery in which were placed the images of the Child, Mary, and Joseph. Christmas eve came, and at eleven o'clock the bells were rung loudly, and from half past eleven until twelve, a continual ringing of bells two at a time announced to the people that the mass called Gallo [100] was to be celebrated in memory of that holy hour in which the eternal Son of God the Father, made man in the most pure entrails of the Virgin Mary willed to be born on that poor and abandoned manger threshold [portal de Belen]. Hence when twelve o'clock had struck, the missa-cantata [101] was said, which was followed by the adoration of the holy Child. That was made enjoyable by the singing of some fine Christmas carols. The twenty-fifth dawned bright and joyful. At eight o'clock in the morning solemn mass [102] was celebrated, which was chanted according to custom by the choir of singers of the church, with the accompaniment of two flutes and a tambourine. About one hundred persons took communion at it. There was a sermon, and at the end of the mass, there was another adoration of the Child Jesus. At the end of the function, the authorities and chiefs of the village came to visit us as they are wont to do during all the great feasts of the year. After that the musicians and singers congratulated us for the good Christmas from the hall of the convent, with toccatas according to the custom of this country, and Christmas carols. After them followed a crowd of people of all classes. What arrested my attention most was the liberty with which they went up and down stairs, hither and thither, and addressed the fathers and begged for what they needed. I will say it: the convent appeared nothing more nor less than a Casa-Pairal. [103] Since the ceremonies of the morning were so long, nothing was done in the afternoon except to have the adoration of the holy Child, a thing which those excellent and simple people enjoy greatly and never tire of doing. With that the feast of the nativity of our Lord ended.

Father Pastells and I passed that feast excellently, as also those of the new year and twelfth night. So far as I am concerned, the three days exercise for the renewal of the holy vows which I made on the last named day, according to the custom of the Society, contributed much to it. One thing only was lacking to us in order to complete in some manner the joy of Christmas, namely, the traditional nougat which had not reached us from Surigao. But the good Jesus did not neglect to have it reach us, although late, in order that we might be regaled with it on His glorious day of the feast of the Resurrection. May He be forever blessed and may He give us His holy grace in order that we may love and serve Him until death, et ultra. [104]

We two fathers stayed here in Caraga until Ash Wednesday. After that we undertook the second journey of which I spoke at the beginning of my letter. But, since I see that this letter is growing too long, I shall keep the relation of the events of that journey for another letter, which I shall endeavor to send by next post.

I commend myself to the holy prayers and sacrifices of your Reverence.

Your servant in Christ,

Pedro Rosell, S. J.

LETTERS FROM FATHER MATEO GISBERT TO THE REVEREND FATHERS AND BROTHERS OF VERUELA

Davao, January 4, 1886.

Pax Christi.

My most beloved Fathers and Brothers in Christ:

Now I have to answer your fine letter, by telling you something of these missions, which I do not doubt will interest you greatly. In this and in the other letters which I plan to write you, I shall limit myself to mentioning things which I have either seen myself or have heard from eyewitnesses.

The matter of the Carolinas [105] has alarmed us a trifle hereabout; for as those islands are so near these coasts, and these peoples are so fearful, Christians and heathens have more than once believed themselves enslaved by the Germans. Even yet they do not have all the confidence that would be advisable to make them settle down and quietly build their villages; for any evil information although without foundation and improbable is enough to make them take to the mountains. The reverend father superior of the mission sent us some Spanish banners from Manila for the reductions of these coasts, and we told them all that if they flung the Spanish banners, although a foreign boat should approach, they ought not to fear anything.

You must already have had news of the numerous races of heathens that people the mission of Davao. The heathens nearest to this capital are the Guiangas, who are scattered among the rivers and rancherias of Dulian; Guimalan, Tamugan, Ceril, and Biao, and number in all six thousand four hundred souls. They talk a language difficult to understand, for it does not resemble the languages of other races. Those heathens sow rice, maize, sweet potatoes, bananas, and sugarcane. In addition they gather a considerable quantity of wax in their forests. There are some excellent smiths among them, and in general they reveal a sufficient amount of intelligence. But since they are still in a savage state, they commit many acts of barbarism, among which are human sacrifices. As yet they have not heard a father missionary who can talk to them in their language, and only a few of those who come to Davao have been baptized. I have had something to do at times with the nearest who understand and talk the language of the Bagobos, their neighbors. This very week I am to visit those of the Mala River where there are some Christians and catechumens who are constructing a chapel for me when I go.