292 NOTES ON SOME PRIMITIVE PHILIPPINE TRIBES 



find at hand. The lowland people do not practice agriculture, 

 but subsist for the most part on sago, which they get by felling 

 the trees, cutting them into two-foot lengths, splitting these, 

 pounding out the inner fiber with rude wooden mallets, running 

 water through it to wash out the starch, catching the water in 

 large leaves or rude troughs, allowing the starch to settle, and 

 finally drawing off the water. 



The starch may be eaten raw or toasted in an earthenware 

 dish. Sometimes it is rammed, while still damp, into a joint 

 of green bamboo, which is then put in the fire and allowed to 

 remain there until nearly burned through, by which time the 

 mass of sago has been converted into a solid roll, which would 

 make an effective substitute for a policeman's billy. 



The more vigorous and enterprising mountaineers have begun 

 to practice, after a fashion, the art of tilling the soil. They have 

 no other tools than the rude iron knives which they purchase 

 from the coast natives and such wooden implements as they 

 fashion for themselves ; but with infinite pains they clear away 

 small patches of forest, cutting through the trees at some dis- 

 tance from the ground, where the trunks are smallest. 



After burning the felled timber, so far as practicable, they 

 plant sweet potatoes or mountain rice in the ground thus laid 

 bare. Sweet potato vines grow with such luxuriance as to 

 practically exclude weeds, so that a patch once started lasts for 

 several years. 



It should not be supposed, however, that the Mangyan is a 

 vegetarian. He fashions lance, bow, and arrows for himself, 

 and makes the wooden tips of his weapons tremendously effect- 

 ive by dipping them in a virulent poison. No bird or beast is 

 too filthy for him to eat. Fish eagles, herons, carrion crows, 

 and buzzards are acceptable luxuries, while crocodiles and cer- 

 tain species of snakes are delicacies to be highly prized. The 

 huge white grubs which bore in the trunks of the sago palms 

 are regarded in the light of confectionery. I fancy that the 

 starch with which they are filled turns to sugar as it is digested, 

 giving them a sweet taste, but must admit that I have never 

 demonstrated this point experimentally. The Mangyans eat 

 them alive, with many evidences of great satisfaction, and evi- 

 dently find the flavor delightful. 



I have seen them devour with satisfaction the flesh of buffa- 

 loes which we had killed two or three days before. It was 

 swarming with maggots and smelled to heaven, but they gorged 



