VII.] THE OCEANIC MONGOLS. 259 



the various attitudes of these independent hillmen towards the 

 administration. Many, especially those in the more inaccessible 

 upland tracts, appear to be undoubtedly Caucasic Indonesians, 

 others are Orang Benua (primitive Malayans), and a few true 

 Negritos. But all may be described as absolutely uncivilised, 

 while many are certainly savages in the strictest sense of the term. 

 Under the general category of " Infieles" Blumentritt enumerates 

 as many as seventy-four tribes, or even nations, ranging over all 

 the islands in groups of from 500 or less up to 40,000 (Igorrotes, 

 Buquitnons], and even 80,000 doubtfully (Manguangas\ with a 

 total estimated population of from 220,000 to 250,000. 



Under Moros ("Moors") are comprised the Muhammadans 

 exclusively, some of whom are Malayans (chiefly in 



J The Moros. 



Mindanao, Basilan, and Palawan), some true Malays 

 (chiefly in the Sulu archipelago). Many of these are still inde- 

 pendent, and not a few, if not actually wild, are certainly but 

 little removed from the savage state. Yet, like the Sumatran 

 Battas, they possess a knowledge of letters, the Sulu people using 

 the Arabic script, as do all the Orang Malayu, while the Palawan 

 natives employ a variant of the Devanagari prototype derived 

 directly from the Javanese, as above explained. No census has 

 ever been taken of the Philippine Muhammadans, who are roughly 

 estimated by Blumentritt at from 200,000 to 500,000, including 

 the 60,000 of the Sulu archipelago. 



Some of these Sulu people, till lately fierce sea-rovers, get 

 baptized now and then ; but, says Mr Foreman, " they appeared 

 to be as much Christian as I was Mussulman 1 ." They keep their 

 harems all the same, and when asked how many gods there are, 

 answer "four," presumably Allah plus the Athanasian Trinity. 

 So the Ba-Fiots of Angola add crucifying to their "penal code," 

 and so in King M'tesa's time the Baganda scrupulously kept two 

 weekly holidays, the Mussulman Friday, and the Christian Sunday. 

 Lofty creeds superimposed too rapidly on primitive beliefs are apt 

 to get " mixed " ; they need time to become assimilated. 



That in the aborigines of Formosa are represented both 

 Mongol (proto-Malayan) and Indonesian (proto-Caucasic) ele- 



1 Op. dt. p. 247. 



172 



