

128 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
Mohammedanism would cover. All that can be said to 
the contrary is that, if the hat in little more than three 
hundred years came to be adopted almost universally 
without being associated with any such deeply rooted 
institution as head-hunting, it is conceivable that two 
centuries might have sufficed for the majority of tribes 
to have taken over the idea of the head cloth from the 
Mohammedan and fit it into their existent practices by 
connecting it with ideas of warlike distinction. Fashion 
in the narrower sense of the term undoubtedly plays and 
varies much more slowly among rude and semi-civilized 
peoples than among ourselves; but this conservatism 
or lack of imagination is compensated for by a much 
greater readiness to adopt fundamental changes in dress, 
particularly where these involve only additions to what 
is already in use. 
Women’s Dress. For women, the fundamental 
dress in the Philippines is that which is prevalent not 
only throughout the East Indies, but in the warmer 
portions of Eastern Asia: the sarong or unsewn skirt. 
This is nothing but a piece of cloth wound several times 
about the waist, held up by having its upper edge tucked 
in, and falling to the knees, ankles, or somewhere 
between. This is still the woman’s skirt wherever 
ancient usage is adhered to in the Philippines. Pagan 
tribes such as the Bagobo replace the sarong by the bag 
or tube-like skirt that is sewn together, and is invariably 
the result of contact with either Christians or Moham- 
medans. This is a far less beautiful garment, among a 
people whose art of dressmaking remains unrefined, 
than the sarong; because the latter falls naturally into 
folds and is capable of innumerable niceties of adjust- 
ment and draping. 
The Tagalog and Bisaya, as well as the Moro women 
at the time of discovery, had already added to the skirt 
—_ eh ete ete —» pat 
er 5s 8 ty Oa hk, er Ae 
