The Manóbos of Mindanáo | Page 9

houses and their manner of life, and mentions in particular the device they make use of in the construction of their ladders. It is interesting to note that the same device is still made use of by the more well-to-do Mandáyas on the Karága, Manorigao, and Kati'il Rivers. In other respects their character, as described, is very similar to that of the present Mandáyas of the Kati'il River who in physical type present characteristics that mark them as being a people of a superior race.
In Medina's historia (Blair and Roberston, 24:175, 1906,) we find it related that Captain Juan Ni?o de Tabora mistreated the chief of the Taga-baloóyes in Karága and that as a result the captain, Father Jacinto Cor, and 12 soldiers were killed. Subsequently four more men of the religious order were killed and two others wounded and captured by the Taga-baloóyes.
Zu?iga in Estadismo (ibid. 2:71, et seq.) notes the fairness of complexion of the Taga-baloóyes, a tribe living in the mountains of Balooy in Karága.
Father Manual Buzeta in Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de las Islas Filipinas (1: 506, 1905) makes the same observation, but M. Felix Renouard de Sainte Croix in Voyage commercial et politique aux Indes Orientales (1803-1809) goes further still by drawing attention to these people as meriting distinction for superior mentality.
The Jesuit missionary Pastells in 1883 (Cartas de los PP. de la Compa?ía de Jesús, 4:212, 1884) writes that the people above Manresa (southeastern Mindanáo) are perhaps of Moro origin but bettered by a strain of noble blood, which their very appearance seems to him to indicate. In support of this view he cites the authority of Santayana, who claims Japanese descent for them and repudiates the opinion of those who attribute Hollandish descent. In a footnote, the above celebrated missionary and scholar adds that the town of Kinablangan (a town on the east coast of Mindanáo) owes its origin to a party of Europeans who were shipwrecked on Point Bagoso and took up their abode in that place, intermarrying with the natives. I was informed by a Bisáya trader, the only one that ever went among the mountain Mandáyas, that he had seen a circular, clocklike article with strange letters upon it in a settlement on the middle Kati'il. The following year I made every effort to see it, but I could not prevail upon the possessors to show it to me. They asserted that they had lost it. It is probable that this object was a ship's compass.
[Transcriber's note: The preceding six paragraphs are all part of footnote 21.]
On the whole, the impression made upon me in my long and intimate dealings with the Mandáyas of the Kati'il, Manorigao, and Karága Rivers is that they are a brave, intelligent, clean, frank people that with proper handling might be brought to a high state of civilization. They are looked up to by Manóbos, Ma?gguá?gans, Mansákas, and Debabáons as being a superior and more ancient race, and considered by the Bisáyas of the Agúsan Valley as a people of much more intelligence and fair-dealing than any other tribe. The Mandáyas consist of four branches:
THE TáGUM BRANCH
These occupy the country from near the mouth of the Tágum to the confluence of the Sálug and Libagánon Rivers, or perhaps a little farther up both of the last-mentioned rivers. It is probable that the Debabáons farther up are the issue of Manóbos and Tágum Mandáyas.
THE AGúSAN VALLEY BRANCH
It is usual for the people of the upper Agúsan from Gerona to Compostela to call themselves Mandáyas, but this appears to be due to a desire to be taken for Mandáyas. They have certainly absorbed a great deal of Mandáya culture and language, but, with the exception of Pilar and Tagusab, they are of heterogeneous descent--Mandáya, Manóbo, Ma?gguá?gan, Debabáon, and Mansáka.
At the headwaters of the Agúsan and in the mountains that encircle that region live the Mandáyas that are the terror of Mandáyaland. They are called by the upper Agúsan people Kau-ó, which means the same as Tagakaólo, but are Mandáyas in every feature, physical, cultural, and linguistic.
THE PACIFIC COAST BRANCH
They occupy the following rivers with their tributaries: the Kati'il, the Baganga, the Mano-rigao, the Karága, the Manai, the Kasaúman, and the upper reaches of the Mati. There are several small rivers between the Kasaúman and the Mati, the upper parts of all which, I think, are occupied by Mandáyas.
THE GULF OF DAVAO BRANCH
These occupy the upper reaches of all the rivers on the east side of the gulf of Davao, from Sumlug to the mouth of the Hijo River whose source is near that of the Agúsan and whose Mandáyas are famous in Mandáyaland.
THE MOROS
Moros or people with a preponderance of Moro blood and culture occupy the coast towns on the eastern and northern sides of the gulf from Sumlug