761 
THE ISLAND OF MINDORO, 
insects which attack the roots, or from some other unknown cause, 
the crop is considered a most fortunate one which produces fifty for 
one : generally it is only twenty-five for one, and at times only half 
that proportion. 
The form of government and general habits of the Manguians 
are exceedingly simple. They are distributed in agricultural vil¬ 
lages (rancherias) which take the names of the respective districts, 
these names apparently having reference to their position with 
regard to each other. In the districts of the south there are many 
which are known by the names of Panulon ; Dalagdap ; Rumaga; 
Fanil (towards the east) Buquid, Sabatiun, Baribi, (towards the 
west) Batangan (towards the north) Bangan &c. The most 
populous contain two hundred or three hundred savages with their 
families. These villages hold commncication with each other, 
but this is not so constant or intimate to prevent a thousand incre¬ 
dible absurdities being circulated among themselves respecting their 
neighbours. For instance the Manguians who live in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Mansala.y, in the south-eastern part of the island, state 
that the people of Bangan permit no stranger to enter their district 
unless he is accompanied and introduced by one. of their own 
people:—that when they have large families of children and find 
difficulty, in supporting them, the parents abandon them in the wood 
or on pathways which lead to other villages ;—-that their marriages 
are attended with extravagant and ridiculous ceremonies, which 
decency withholds ns from referring to, and which are described 
with such ridicule and aversion that one would suppose that they 
were speaking of another race of people whom they had never 
seen. The people of Sablayan, in the eastern part of the island, 
give a very different account of these same tribes ; thus, to avoid 
inexactitude in the description of the mode of life of each tribe, it 
would become necessary to visit them all and to observe them very 
closely. . -ii 
One point upon which no doubt can be entertained is that the 
tribes never go to war with each other, nor do they ever have 
serious quarrels among themselves. When they are discontented 
with the spot in which they reside, they remove to another, and do 
not return to the former site until the cause of their disgust has 
disappeared. No tribe is ruled by a single chief, but they acknow¬ 
ledge superiority in certain elders which they call a Tanungan” and 
whom they compare with the commanders of prahus (cdbezas de 
barangay) among the Christians. One of these elders who appear¬ 
ed to have more talent and authority than the others, was head of 
the village of Panulon, in the neighbourhood of Mansalay, where 
we saw him in the year 1847. He was called “Sanagui, apd was 
in no wise to be distinguished from the rest of the Manguians either 
by his garb, superior cleanliness, or by his physical constitution ; 
but he was the oldest among those of his tribe who still continued 
active and capable of labour. Nevertheless he was only forty 
