756 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 204. 



the most novel, is his description of the Maug- 

 yaus of Mindoro. 



Of the eight to ten million inhabitants the au- 

 thor recognizes some eighty distinct tribes ; Ne- 

 gritos, Mohammedan Malays, pagan Malays and 

 civilized Malays are, however, the principal 

 groups under which they can all be classified. 

 The Negritos occupy the bottom of the scale, 

 and apparently are incapable of civilization. 

 They are, however, a disappearing factor and can 

 be neglected. The Mohammedan Malays, or 

 Moros, however, present a very different and 

 much more difficult problem. Any nation hoping 

 to get on peacefully with them will find it neces- 

 sary to let their religion strictly alone. They 

 will require to be ruled with absolute justice, 

 but with relentless firmness, and must be held 

 in check with a strong hand for a very long 

 time before they can be brought into anything 

 like sympathy with our customs. Of the pagan 

 Malays the larger proportion are harmless and 

 docile, but there are others hostile to the whites, 

 with the best of reasons for their dislike. They 

 are generally, however, made out much worse 

 than they really are. The author suggests 

 that the best use to be made of the warlike bill- 

 tribes is to turn them into soldiers, as has been 

 done in India. 



The only problem presented by the wild 

 Malays is their civilization. 



Where there is so much that is interesting to 

 draw from, it is difficult to choose, but a few 

 examples might be given, which will illustrate 

 the state of society upon the Islands. The 

 reply of a certain native to his padre covers the 

 ground quite completely. This unregenerate 

 heathen said that if he became a Christian it 

 would cost money to be baptized, to live, to 

 marry, to die and to be buried. In his existing 

 state some of these more or less necessary oper- 

 ations cost him nothing, and he could see no 

 advantages to be derived from embracing 

 Christianity commensurate with the increased 

 expense. The author's observations led him 

 to believe that the morals of the natives im- 

 prove as the square of the distance from 

 churches and other so-called civilizing influ- 

 ences. The author tells a great many inter- 

 esting stories, which are intensely amusing, and 

 none of them lose anything from his method of 



presentation. The pages, for instance, which 

 refer to his experience on the Island of 

 Siquijor are unique. The story of the padre 

 and the civet cat would do credit to Mark 

 Twain. One can imagine better than describe 

 . the sensations of the author when, after inno- 

 cently whistling one of our popularditties, he 

 awoke one morning to find that the band 

 master had reduced the song to a proper score, 

 and at the head of a dignified religious pro- 

 cession was marching to the cathedral with his 

 band playing this tune at their utmost lung ca- 

 pacity ; and now ' Johnny get your gun' has 

 been added to the repertoire of the sacred 

 music of the island. 



Some idea, perhaps, may be obtained of the 

 primitive condition of the natives of the islands 

 from their customs. They seem to prefer their 

 meat in the condition of Charles Lamb's cheese, 

 ready to be led if you could tie a string to it ; 

 and one is not inclined to believe that their use 

 of the white grubs from the Sago palm as con- 

 fectionery will be universally adopted. 



Ex-President Cleveland will probably be 

 interested in the account of his canonization, as' 

 given on page 490. 



The author does not find the climate to con- 

 tain as many of the elements ascribed to Para- 

 dise as some of his predecessors. In fact, his 

 own observations and the summary given of 

 the thirteen years' series of observations, made 

 at Manila, would lead to the inference that the 

 climate was rather severe. This might have 

 been expected from the tropical location of the 

 Islands. The further complication of malaria 

 and fevers of all sorts upon the lowlands make 

 great portions of the Islands very unattractive 

 as places of residence. 



The important questions concerning the 

 future of the Philippines naturally arise from 

 the character of the five million civilized 

 natives. These belong, for the most part, to 

 three distinct tribes, the Tagalogs, the Ilicanos 

 and Visayans. They have good and bad char- 

 acteristics : for example ; they are unfaithful to 

 obligations of all sorts ; they are refractory to- 

 wards mental improvement, and they are con- 

 firmed liars, even without excuse, unless it 

 should happen to be the aesthetic satisfaction 

 of the use of their talents in that line. They 



