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 Mand��yas on the Kar��ga, Manorigao, and Kati'il Rivers. In other respects their character, as described, is very similar to that of the present Mand��yas 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-balo��yes in Kar��ga 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-balo��yes.
Zu?iga in Estadismo (ibid. 2:71, et seq.) notes the fairness of complexion of the Taga-balo��yes, a tribe living in the mountains of Balooy in Kar��ga.
Father Manual Buzeta in Diccionario geogr��fico-estad��stico-hist��rico 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?��a de Jes��s, 4:212, 1884) writes that the people above Manresa (southeastern Mindan��o) 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 Mindan��o) 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 Bis��ya trader, the only one that ever went among the mountain Mand��yas, 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 Mand��yas of the Kati'il, Manorigao, and Kar��ga 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 Man��bos, Ma?ggu��?gans, Mans��kas, and Debab��ons as being a superior and more ancient race, and considered by the Bis��yas of the Ag��san Valley as a people of much more intelligence and fair-dealing than any other tribe. The Mand��yas consist of four branches:
THE T��GUM BRANCH
These occupy the country from near the mouth of the T��gum to the confluence of the S��lug and Libag��non Rivers, or perhaps a little farther up both of the last-mentioned rivers. It is probable that the Debab��ons farther up are the issue of Man��bos and T��gum Mand��yas.
THE AG��SAN VALLEY BRANCH
It is usual for the people of the upper Ag��san from Gerona to Compostela to call themselves Mand��yas, but this appears to be due to a desire to be taken for Mand��yas. They have certainly absorbed a great deal of Mand��ya culture and language, but, with the exception of Pilar and Tagusab, they are of heterogeneous descent--Mand��ya, Man��bo, Ma?ggu��?gan, Debab��on, and Mans��ka.
At the headwaters of the Ag��san and in the mountains that encircle that region live the Mand��yas that are the terror of Mand��yaland. They are called by the upper Ag��san people Kau-��, which means the same as Tagaka��lo, but are Mand��yas 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 Kar��ga, the Manai, the Kasa��man, and the upper reaches of the Mati. There are several small rivers between the Kasa��man and the Mati, the upper parts of all which, I think, are occupied by Mand��yas.
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 Ag��san and whose Mand��yas are famous in Mand��yaland.
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