THE MANGYANS OF MINDORO. 141 



fined to Mindoro. Eight years ago, when I was at Sablayan on 

 the west coast of Mindoro, I was told that there were people with 

 tails living near by. I visited the house where they were said to 

 live and saw one woman who had a large malignant growth at the 

 end of the spinal column. Of course, the existence of one such 

 person is sufficient foundation for a story that there are people 

 with tails. Whether the story in Mindoro has any more found- 

 ation than this I am unable to say, but I doubt if it has. 



Near Bulalakao the Mangyan men all wear loin-cloths as 

 the principal item of their dress. These are almost invariably 

 made of white cotton cloth. The cotton Is raised, spun into 

 thread, and woven into cloth by the people themselves. The 

 ends of the loin-cloths are embroidered with red and blue 

 cotton yarn. The men usually wear also a short jacket 

 made of the same kind of cloth as the loin-cloths. These are 

 sometimes dyed blue, but are more often white. They are em- 

 broidered with red and blue cotton yarn around the lower edge, 

 the neck, and wrists, along the two front edges, along the outer 

 seam of each sleeve, and along the middle seam in the back. 

 Aside from this embroidery, the jacket is entirely plain. The 

 outer seam of each sleeve is sewed at intervals only and pre- 

 sents a kind of slashed effect. 



Besides the cord to which the loin-cloth is attached, a belt is 

 worn around the waist. It is made of buri 8 to 10 centimeters 

 wide in the middle and tapering to a small loop at one end and 

 a wooden button at the other. The wide middle part has a 

 pocket in which betel-nuts, tobacco, money, and other small 

 articles are carried. In the interior of Mindoro and near Abra 

 de Hog these pocket belts are of the same style, but are only 

 3 or 4 centimeters wide in the middle. 



Strings of beads are worn around the neck, sometimes in such 

 quantities as to weigh several pounds. I saw one man with 

 coils of copper wire around the neck. A few men wear short 

 strings of beads suspended from the ear lobes and a few strings 

 around the calves of the legs. 



The hair is worn long, gathered in a knot low on the back of 

 the head. Around the head, a red cloth is usually worn which 

 serves to keep the hair in place both in front and behind. This 

 is the rule near Bulalakao, but the Mangyans elsewhere, notably 

 near Abra de Hog and Lake Nauhan, wear the hair short. The 

 men and less often the women wear armlets on the upper arm 



