64 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
most of the uncivilized peoples of southern Mindanao, 
they are not very numerous. 
Pagans of Other Islands. There remain pagans 
of considerable interest on two other islands: the Tag- 
banua or ‘‘ people of the country” in Palawan, and the 
Mangyan or “savages” in Mindoro. Both are exceed- 
ingly interesting backward peoples who have yielded 
most of the shores of their islands to intrusive Moros, 
Bisaya, and Tagalog, but have retained a culture which 
on the whole is perhaps simpler than that which pre- 
vailed among most of the natives four hundred years © 
ago. Their dress is scant, agriculture and the iron 
industry little developed, and the population very sparse 
over the considerable areas involved.. It is very re- 
markable that with such a general low culture both the 
Tagbanua and Mangyan should have succeeded in 
preserving forms of the old native alphabet of Hindu 
origin which once prevailed through the greater part of 
the islands but has everywhere else yielded to the 
Roman or Arabic system of writing. The writing is 
done by incising bamboo, but a difference in the direc- 
tion of the script used by the Tagbanua and Mangyan 
indicates that the two tribes preserved their alphabets 
independently of each other. 
In addition to the groups here enumerated are the 
several bodies of Negritos and of the more or less Negri- 
toid Hill people who are practically unknown, and some 
of whom, such as those of Samar and perhaps Panay, 
may prove to be nearly pure Malaysians: in which case 
they would be placed among the groups here discussed. 
It is notable that both the Hill people and the 
Negritos, in spite of their exceeding backwardness, 
often live very close to well civilized peoples, so far as 
distance in miles goes. The gap which separates them 
from civilization is therefore one of habits and habitat, 
