8 THE MANOBOS OF MINDANAO— GAKVAN [Mem °[vo£xxi£ 



still at the date of this writing, the terror of Mandayaland. If the Tagakaolos of Point San 

 Agustin are fugitive Kau-6, according to the prevailing custom they would have retained their 

 former name; this name, if Kau-6, would have been changed by Bisayas and by Spanish 

 missionaries to Tagakaolo. 



THE LOAKS OR LOAGS 



According to the authority of Father Llopart 2S the L6aks dwell in the mountains southwest 

 of Pujada Bay. He says that in customs they differ from other tribes. They dress in black and 

 hide themselves when they see anyone dressed in a light color. No stranger is permitted to 

 enter their dwellings. The same writer goes on to state that their food is wholly vegetable, 

 excluding tubers, roots, and everything that grows under the ground. Their chief is called 

 posdka, 26 "an elder who with his mysterious words and feigned revelations keeps his people in 

 delusion and under subjection." It is the opinion of Father Llopart that these people are only 

 fugitives, as he very justly concludes from the derivation of their name. " 



Another writer, Father Pablo Pastells M makes mention of these Loak as being wild Taga- 

 kaolos who are more degraded than the Mamanuas. He designates the mountains of Hagi- 

 mitan on the peninsula of San Agustin as their habitat. I am inclined to think that the 

 authority for this statement was also a Jesuit missionary. 



THE CONQUISTAS OR RECENTLY CHRISTIANIZED PEOPLES 



The work of Christianizing the pagans of eastern Mindanao was taken up in earnest in 1877 

 by the Jesuit missionaries and carried on up to the time of the revolution in 1898. During that 

 time some 50,000 souls were led to adopt Christianity. These included Mandayas, Man6bos, 

 Debabaons, Mansakas, Mafigguangans, and Mamanuas, and members of the other tribes that 

 live in eastern Mindanao. For the present, however, we will refer to the conquistas of the 

 Manobo, Mandaya, Mamanua, Mangguangan, Mansaka, and Debabaon tribes. 



THE MANOBO CONQUISTAS 



The inhabitants of all the settlements in the Agusan Valley except Novela, Rosario, the 

 towns south of Buai, the towns within the Banuaon habitat, and a few settlements of pagan 

 Manobos on the upper Umaiam, Argawan, and Ihawan, Wa-wa and Maitum are Manobo 

 conquistas. 



On the eastern slope of the Pacific Cordillera in the vicinity of San Miguel (Tago River), 

 on the Marihatag and Oteiza Rivers there are several hundred Manobo conquistas. The 

 towns up the Hinatuan and Bislig Rivers are made up of both Manobo and Mandaya 

 conquistas. 



THE MANDAYA CONQUISTAS 



In the Agusan Valley the towns on the Sulibau River and perhaps on the Adlaian River 

 are made up of Mandaya conquistas for the most part. These Mandayas evidently worked 

 in from the Hinatuan River for one reason or another, perhaps to avoid missionary activity 

 on the east coast or to escape from Moro raids. 



On the Pacific coast we find Mandaya conquistas to a greater or less extent in nearly all 

 the municipalities and barrios from Tandag to Mati, with the exception of such towns as have 

 been formed by immigration of Bisayas from Bohol and other places. There can be no doubt 

 but that in former years the Mandayas covered the whole Pacific slope from Tandag to Mati, 

 for we still find recently Christianized Mandayas in Kolon and Alba on the Tago River and in 



« Cartas de los PP. de la Compafifa de Jesus, 9: 337-338, 1891. 



*« Posdka means in Malay, and in nearly all known Mindanao dialects, an "inheritance," so that in the usage attributed to these Loaks it would 

 appear that there may be some idea of an hereditary chieftainship. The word in Bagobo, however, means something beloved, etc., so that the 

 reported Loak posdka or chief might be so called because of his being beloved by his people. 



» He states that loak is probably from Idog, "to flee," "to take to the mountains." In several dialects of eastern Mindanao laag, lag, means, 

 'to get lost," while Idgui is a very common word for "run" or "run away." 



•• Ibid., 8: 343, 1887. 



