CHAPTER IV. 



THE SULU ISLANDS (continued). 



We visit the Panglima Danimang — Battle between the Panglima and Maharajah 

 Tahil — The Panglima shows his teeth — An unpleasant predicament — The 

 convicts in Jolo — A serio-comic drama — Pangasinan Island — A buU-iight — 

 Siassi Island — Cholera epidemic — Lapac — Leave for Tawi-tawi Island — The 

 Spanish settlement at Tataan — An unpleasant companion — Tawi-tawi pirates — 

 Fauna and flora of the Philippines and Borneo contrasted — Consideration of 

 the Sulu fauna — The Sulu Archipelago zoographically purely Philippine — The 

 Sibutu Passage forms the boundary line — The Sulu language — History of Sulu 

 —Treaty of 1885. 



We rode out one afternoon from Lukut Lapas to the house of the 

 Pangihna Dammang. There had been some talk about another 

 day's pig-stickmg, but we were uncertain about it, as the natives 

 brought in the news that on the previous day he had summoned 

 all his men to proceed against the Maharajah Tahil. We learnt 

 that he had sent a challenge to this potentate, asking him to " come 

 down and fight," and that the Maharajah, ever ready to oblige him, 

 had replied that he would be delighted. " I will fight," he said, 

 " but not with guns. Let us fight man against man ; spear to speai', 

 and kris to kris." The event, we believed, had come off that 

 morning, but we could learn nothing certain, and when we pulled 

 up our horses at nine o'clock at night outside the Pangiima's 

 stockades we were not at all sure if His Excellency had returned 

 from the battlefield. 



It was some little time before they removed the bamboo 

 barricades and admitted us, and riding into the court, which was 

 VOL. IL F 



