288 NOTES ON SOME PRIMITIVE PHILIPPINE TRIBES 



At the time of my first visit I was unable to learn anything 

 as to conditions in the interior from the half dozen officials who 

 with a few friars and a couple of Spanish merchants constituted 

 the Spanish population of the island. I was informed, however, 

 that the Mangyans were head-hunters and cannibals. 



We began our explorations at a most unfortunate time. The 

 rainfall is enormous in this island, and the rains were just be- 

 ginning at the time of our arrival. The daily showers increased 

 in duration and violence until they became almost continuous, 

 and finally, after thirteen days and nights of uninterrupted 

 downpour, we beat a retreat. 



We returned to the island a second and yet a third time, how- 

 ever, and profiting by our first experience, began operations at 

 the commencement of the dry season. By utilizing canoes 

 where streams were sufficiently deep, and by tramping along 

 their dry beds when water failed, we were able to quickly pene- 

 trate to the very center of the island. We found that most of 

 the surface details given on our charts were incorrect, and ex- 

 plored two large rivers where, according to the charts, no rivers 

 should have been. 



The Mangyans fled at our approach, but we eventually suc- 

 ceeded in gaining their confidence, and found that the alarming 

 accounts which we had heard of them had very little founda- 

 tion in fact. They proved perfectly harmless when decently 

 treated. The men were clad in the usual clout, and in that 

 alone. The dress of the women is different from that of any 

 other Philippine tribe. It consists of numerous coils of a cord 

 braided of split rattan, or other similar vegetable substance, 

 wound around the body at the hips and supporting a clout of 

 bark. This bark is made soft by careful pounding between 

 stones, and at a short distance it looks exactly like cloth. The 

 cord is usually stained black, although a kind woven in black 

 and yellow check is especially prized. 



Girl babies are provided with two or three coils as soon as they 

 can toddle, and the quantity is constantly added to as time goes 

 by, so that the appearance presented by some of the old women 

 is ludicrous in the extreme. This cord usually constitutes the 

 only earthly treasure of the wearer, although the women some- 

 times ornament themselves with armlets or anklets of twisted 

 rattan and beads made from the seeds of plants. Coins, copper 

 wire, and bits of bright metal are highly prized as ornaments, 

 but feathers are never used. 



