THE ISLAND OF MINDOHO. 
758 
criminals, who were not permitted to remain in their*native towns, 
and who hoped to live unknown in the vast solitudes of Mindoro, 
where the natural fertility of the soil, and the produce of traffic with 
the Manguianes, would enable them to provide themselves abun¬ 
dantly with the means of subsistence, 
Tlie number of individuals comprising the wild tribes is calculated 
to be more than 6,000. Their general character is similar to that 
of all the Indians of the Malayan race. Colour, a clear copper ; 
hair, black, coarse and lank : eyes, rounded and the lacrymal some¬ 
what debased : nose, flattened : stature, small: limbs well formed 
although feeble ; expression very sad, their _ extreme misery and 
indolent habits, and their low state of civilization, affording an 
animated proof of what the Indians become when left to themselves. 
They generally go about naked. The chiefs wear a sort of band 
of nito cloth which encircles the waist, and a bcijaque , a cloth very 
long and narrow which crosses the loins and stomach, whence one 
of the ends hangs down loose. They bind a fillet of nito cloth 
round the head, or else wear a band of old rags with the view of 
confining their dishevelled hair. The men have a purse, also of 
nito, hanging about them, in which they carry their buyo and tobac¬ 
co, and a quiver of bamboo two inches in diameter in which their 
poisoned arrows are deposited : they carry in the hand a bow of 
nibong (palma brava) with the bow-string formed of abaca, or 
deer-sinews, or of some other filament which they can obtain 
readily, together with a club in the waist-belt j all which arms they 
never abandon, although they very rarely have occasion to use 
them. 
The arrows are of very fine cane with points of Nibong, and 
to empoison them they smear the points with an inspissated liquid 
composed of the milk or sap of the Dita, which is obtained by 
making a hole in the trunk of the tree, and an infusion of Abyah 
or the rind of the fruit of the Sago-palm (Cabo Negro : ) This 
infusion is of itself so venomous that if applied to the skin it pro¬ 
duces an intolerable itching. Thus it is that tie Manguianes, and 
also the Christians of the coast, use them as missile weapons, 
discharging them in numbers by means of instruments of cane 
which they fabricate for the purpose. 
The women adorn themselves somewhat more than the men. 
They wear about the waist a cloth of cotton or some other material, 
sewed into the form of a bottomless sack, which falls as low as the 
knees. They collect the hair in a knot or poso which falls over 
the nape af the neck, and is confined by means of bands of nito 
or split rattan, but not with sufficient strictness to prevent a number 
of matted and dishevelled locks straying about the neighbourhood 
of the forehead. 
They wear below the arms another garment three inches in 
width, which serves to cover part of the bosom, and some use a 
short shirt of cloth of precisely the ^ame fashion as a Chinese bajy, 
