NOTES ON SOME PRIMITIVE PHILIPPINE TRIBES 287 



MANGYAN GROUP, WITH HOUSE — MT HALCON, MINDOEO 



pines," on account of the enormous rice crops raised in the fer- 

 tile lowlands to the east and west of its central mountain chain, 

 but the mohammedan pirates from the south preyed upon its 

 civilized inhabitants, decimating the population ; an epidemic 

 nearly exterminated the buffaloes depended on for tilling the 

 soil, and today the once fertile fields have for the most part 

 grown up into forest land, while the coasts are peopled chiefly 

 by escaped criminals from the neighboring islands, who find in 

 the miasma of the forests a most effective ally against the troops 

 which are from time to time sent against them. They band 

 together and organize forays against the peaceable Spanish and 

 native planters, and are a constant terror to the region around. 

 Even in the days of its greatest prosperity the cultivated dis- 

 trict in Mindoro was restricted to a belt along the coast. The 

 interior of the island stands today as it was in the beginning. 

 Under the perpetual shadows of the mighty lowland forests, and 

 in little clearings on the mountain sides, dwell a tribe of natives 

 who show little kinship in speech or customs and none whatever 

 in dress with the remaining Philippine peoples. They are called 

 by the Spanish " Mangyanes " or " Manguianes," but I adopt 

 their own pronunciation of their name, and call them Mangyans. 



