FOREST AND STREAM. 


AHMIR BANCURU, 
MOROLAND 
THE WEALTHIEST MORO IN 
a nail in it, wooden pins taking the place of nails 
where it was impossible to employ withes of 
behuca or bamboo; for your Moro places his 
faith in knots and never uses a nail or pin if his 
ingenuity can devise a way of tying the thing 
up instead. 
The roof was of thatch made by folding 
bunches of grass over a strip of bamboo and 
then placing two other strips, one above and 
one under the fold, and binding the three to- 
gether with behuca, squeezing the grass between 
them as tightly as possible. When this is done 
you have a panel of any desired length and 
about twenty inches wide. These panels are 
then placed on the roof beginning at the bottom 
and overlapping one another, just as we lay 
shingles, showing perhaps six inches to the 
weather. This makes an excellent roof—tight 
enough to resist even the furious rain storms 
they have in the tropics, and when properly 
constructed it lasts a long time. 
The sides were of bamboo: split half way 
through and then flattened out, and the floor 
was like the ones made by my friend Datto 
Pedro, described in. a previous article. There 
was only one door, and windows were provided 
by leaving out a section of wall here and there 
The house stood on huge posts about six feet 
high, which were elaborately carved in the con- 
ventional Moro manner. Access was had by 
means of a ladder—a log with wooden pins 
driven into it—one end of which rested on the 
door sill and the other on the ground,*up and 
down which the Moros with their bare feet ran 
like so. many rats; but we found it rather’ diffi- 
cult to negotiate, bootéd and spurred as ‘we 
were, with sabres dangling and tripping us up, 
the while we tried to maintain that dignified 
bearing and gravity of manner demanded by 
the occasion. f 
Inside there was. but one room, 
as parlor, dining and sitting ‘room and kitchen 
for the entire court. In one ‘corner was a 
canopy and an arrangement for curtaining ‘off 
the space under it'to make a sleeping apartment 
for the Sultan. At the other end of the room 
was a raised platform of dirt, on which a -firé 
was burning—evidently where: the 
“chow” was prepared—while in the center stood 
a strongly-built bamboo cage, running from 
floor to rafters, in which the favorite wife or 
wives of .the--Sultan-were- locked-.during -their 
lord’s absence. These cages are characteristic, 
and I do not recall seeing a house in Moroland 
which served 
family - 

[Marcu 24, 1906. 

A MORO FESTIVAL GATHERING, 
that did not have one, and sometimes there 
were two 
Marriage in Moroland isn’t a very binding 
contract except among the very highest classes, 
and even then a woman doesn’t stand much 
chance unless her father or brother be of suf- 
ficient importance or influence to make it un- 
pleasant for her husband if he maltreats her. 
With the coast Moros the wedding ceremony is 
very elaborate, sometimes lasting for several 
days; but with the Malanaos it is greatly simpli- 
fied, there being little more to their ceremony 
than paying the price—which varies of course 
just as it does in more civilized communities 
according to the prominence and social stand- 
ing of the contracting parties and the personal 
beauty and accomplishments of the bride—hav- 
ing a feast, and taking the bride home. 
The usual price paid for a wife by the lake 
Moros is about a hundred pesos—$s5o0 of our 
money—although sometimes much more is de- 
manded. Rifles—Remingtons being quoted at 
$75 and Krags and Mausers at $100, gold, each 
—lantakas, ponies, slaves and money all are 
given if the bride is particularly beautiful or her 
family very prominent. 
A Moro may divorce his wife at pleasure; 
but if he does so, and there are children, he is 
compelled to pay a certain fixed sum to her 
people for their support until they are old 
enough to take care of themselves. In case of 
divorce the children remain with their mother 
during. infancy, after which the father may 
claim the boys, while the girls belong to the 
woman. Under certain conditions a woman is 
permitted to leave her husband; in which case 
he is freed from the responsibility of caring for 
the children, 1f there be any,;.who must be pro- 
vided for by the mother and her people. The 
_annual crop exerts a very marked influence on 
the’ price « of because— 
women: and = slaves, 
as',Pedro naively’ informed* me—when _ the 
crops “are poor. it “is expensive to feed 
them, and’ so the price asked is considerably 
less than in’a good year,: when there is plenty 
to°eat for every.one, and therefore no necessity 
for getting rid of the surplus stock. 
“There “are. two classes, of»slaves among the 
Moros; those’of another race—Visayans, Taga- 
logs and others—who have been taken in battle 
or in raids made for the sole purpose of ob- 
taining captives-and-who-are_held--in perpetual 
slavery, and those of their own race—usually 
enslaved for debt—who are. freed after a certain 
plural marriages; 
SULTAN OF BAYANG, 
time. The first class, which is really quite 
small, are treated very harshly indeed. During 
the time I was at Camp Vicars two or three of 
this class succeeded in escaping from their 
masters and reaching our camp. They were in 
a horrible condition—veritable living skeletone 
—due to the hard labor they had been forced 
to perform, abuse, and the lack of food.. When 
a slave once reached our camp, of course he 
was safe, as we always refused to return him to 
his former master and sent him to his home at 
the first opportunity. 
The second class of Moros, who are enslaved 
for debt or other reasons, are invaribly well 
treated and but little the worse for their in- 
voluntary servitude. Slaves of this class work 
in the fields, and accompany their masters to 
war; and, in fact, about the only difference be- 
tween their lot and that of the ordinary free- 
man is that the freeman is entitled to his share 
of the crops he has assisted to raise, while the 
so-called slave only receives the food he eats. 
The number of slaves of the first class is so 
small that it is hardly to be taken into account, 
and it may be truthfully said that slavery—as 
we understand the term—only exists in very 
isolated and rare cases. 
I am informed that the government is trying 
to break up slavery, as well as the custom of 
but I do not believe it can be 
done—or, at any rate, for a long time to come. 
Bigamy is not only permitted, but, unless I 
am very much mistaken; is encouraged by the 
Mohammedan religion; and slavery as prac- 
ticed has been their custom for centuries. and 
neither can be effectually wiped out by an act 
of Congress or of the Philippine Commission. 
In my opinion the present trouble in the Rio 
Grande—or Cottabatto—valléy is due entifely 
to ill advised attempts to stamp out these prac- 
tices in too hurried a manner, and I am so in- 
formed by a person who has been recently on 
the ground. When I was last at Cottabatto, 
about three years ago, it was perfectly safe for 
an American to go anywhere alone and un- 
armed. The Moros were friendly and their 
hospitality unlimited, while at present, [ am 
told, it is unsafe to venture outside the limits 
of the town without an escort. 
But let’s get back to old Bayang’s palace. 
The place was utterly devoid of furniture ex- 
cept that parts. of looms, pots and kettles of 
brass and earthenware and other kitchen 
utensils lay scattered about, while dozens and 
