342 THE THILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



and some of the better houses, built under European influence, 

 are evidently copied directly from the same models. 



Pile-dwellings are first invented as an expedient for raising 

 houses in the water for protection • but when the race which 

 for generations has thus dwelt surrounded by water takes to 

 living on dry land, actuated somewhat no doubt by sanitary 

 considerations, it follows the ancient pattern of architecture 

 with slavish exactness, and only by gradually introduced modi- 

 fications of that plan, arrives at last at a house supported 

 directly on the ground. 



At Zamboanga and at the neighbouring island of Basilan, 

 which we also visited, are settlements of a considerable number 

 of a race called by the Spanish "Moros" {i.e., Mahommedans), 

 who keep themselves strictly apart from the Bisayan and other 

 Malay races, amongst which they here dwell. The Moros at 

 Basilan still build their pile-dwellings out in the sea, so that 

 they can only be approached by boats. At Zamboanga, how- 

 ever, where the Moros seem somewhat more tamed by Spanish 

 influence, they have so far come on shore with their houses, 

 that these are built in a row along the beach, and at low tide 

 are not entirely surrounded with water, whilst the shore can 

 always be reached from them by means of a plank. The main 

 inhabitants of the Philippines, in the course of successive 

 generations, have taken their houses altogether on shore, except 

 where here and there there are houses in swampy ground, 

 which form a sort of gradation between the two conditions. 



The Moros or " Lutaos " are said to have settled in Mindanao 

 in the seventeenth century, and to have considered themselves, 

 until quite recently, as subjects of the Sultan of Ternate.* 

 They are a fierce and warlike race, pirates by profession at all 

 events not long ago at Basilan and Mindanao, and still so at 

 the Sulu Islands. They seem but half subjected to the Spanish 

 rule.t The men are short and broad-shouldered, with power- 

 ful chests and thick-set bodies, and extremely active. Their 

 features are of the Malay type, but peculiar. Their eyes are 

 remarkably bright. Their colour is light yellowish brown. 

 They have often a slight beard and moustache. They wear 

 bright-coloured shirts and rather tight-fitting trousers, buttoned 

 close round the leg at the ankle. The Moro women are short 

 and small, and delicate-limbed, most of them very handsome 



* Dr. Th. Waitz, " Anthropologic der Naturvolker," S*'' Th. i«<=' Hft. 

 Die Malaien, Leipzig, 1865, s. 56. 



f Since the above was written, the Sulu Islanders have, during this 

 year, 1878, submitted to Spanish rule on receipt of a sum of money. An 

 agreement has been signed at Manila, between the Sultan of Sulu and 

 the Spanish Government. 



