THE MANGYANS OF MINDORO. 147 



it is fit to eat. It is then sometimes dried and pounded and 

 sometimes coolced without drying. 



One of the most prosperous settlements in Mindoro from the 

 point of view of food supply is known as Ak-si-gang near Abra 

 de Hog. About 24 people live here and it has been their home 

 for six years. One man has 13 coconut trees almost ready to 

 bear fruit and 50 more which are three years old ; he also has 

 30 breadfruit trees all bearing. The people of this settlement 

 also plant the customary crops, rice, camote, maize, taro, yams, 

 squash, beans, papayas, and lemons. They say they use the 

 last as medicine for fevers. They catch wild hogs and deer with 

 spring traps and lassos. They keep hogs to kill, and eat 

 chickens, eggs, and honey. 



The people at Aluyan, a small settlement near Abra de Hog, 

 say that they kill fish with a poison known as tuba kamisa, the 

 croton oil plant.'" They crush this poisonous fruit and throw 

 it into the water; the fish soon become stupified and are easily 

 taken. They also catch monkeys for food by means of snares 

 set in the trees. Some of them eat iguanas and some do not. 



Mangyan methods of cooking are common all over the Philip- 

 pines so far as my observation goes; however, these people do 

 not use the earthenware stoves or fireplaces which are employed 

 by the Christians. They cook by placing the cooking vessel on 

 3 stones over a fire. The people of Aluyan at least know how 

 to cook rice in a joint of bamboo or in the bark of a tree when 

 they have no better vessels. 



WEAPONS. 



In the settlements near Bulalakao some of the Mangyans make 

 and use simple bows vvith bamboo-pointed arrows. The latter 

 are poisoned and are used in hunting game. They have lances 

 also with which they hunt wild hogs. 



Among the Mangyans on the north coast of Mindoro I saw no 

 bows and arrows. Spears also seemed to be scarce. The people 

 in the Bako region sometimes use spears, which they get from 

 their Tagalog neighbors, in hunting wild hogs. They say that 

 they are afraid of the tamarao and never try to catch it. 



FIRE MAKING. 



The Mangyans have several ways of making fire. In the 

 settlements near Bulalakao some men carry a flint and steel 

 and tinder for this purpose. Others make fire by the use of two 



" Croton tiglium L. 



