SOCIETY 155 
a slave to another district. Arson of dwellings or crops 
was a serious offense which even members of the nobility 
must compensate for in full, whereas common people 
were executed, and their goods and if necessary, their 
wives and children seized. ‘‘ Insulting words caused great 
anger’? and were considered a very grave offense. The 
culprits were fined in heavy sums ‘‘in order not to 
cause murders.’’ Naturally, the common people might 
offend the nobility very much more poignantly than 
the latter had it in their power to violate the duller 
sensibilities of plebeians. When one chief insulted an- 
other, a decision was rendered by a still greater one, or 
by several of equal rank. If the offender was unwilling 
to submit to such judgment, he was at liberty to try to 
outdo his rival by lavishing greater expense on ceremon- 
ial festivals, he who succeeded in spending the larger 
sums being thereby accounted the more honorable. 
The Moros of Magindanao and the Sulu possessed 
written codes translated into native dialects from old 
Arabic law. This law is Mohammedan in character, 
being based on the Koran and commentaries thereof, 
except for a few modifications in the direction of an- 
cient native custom. No Hindu code seems ever to 
have reached the Philippines. 
Economic Life. Property occupies a very large 
part of the Filipino’s thought. This is manifest from the 
importance which it has in law as well as from its 
determining effect on social standing. Certainly the 
contrast is great between the Filipino and the American 
Indian who generally professed to hold property in light 
esteem and readily lavished it in opportunities of 
ostentatious liberality. In the Philippines, the attitude 
of the civilized and uncivilized peoples toward wealth 
is much the same. The latter are generally poorer, but 
if anything more attached to their possessions. 
