Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

256 AUSTRALASIA.according to their religion and pursuits.Those who have accepted the authorityof the whites and the ministrations of the Catholic clergy are called Iiidios, or" Indians," and this class is gradually merging in a common nationality. Tho.seof the south, who remain followers of the Prophet, are collectively knowu asMoros, or " Moors ;" lastly, the tribes that have maintained their independence, orsubmit impatiently to the foreign yoke and still practise their old pagan rites,form the class of Ixfieles, or " Infidels."Of the Indios the most civilised are the Tagals (Ta-Gala), who number1,500,000, and are steadily increasing, less by the excess of births over deaths thanb^' the gradual assimilation of the surrounding tribal groups. The Tagal domain,which comprises all the central parts of Luzon, is slowly encroaching on all theother populations of the island. Thus in the north it has already absorbed theterritory of the Pampangos and Pangasinanes, in the north-east that of the Aetas,in the south-east that of the Vicols, while the islands of Mindoro and Marinduquehave also become " Tagalised." The Tagals are met everywhere along the seaboard,and are in fact the chief pioneers of European culture throughout the arcliipelago.Be.sides them there are other groups of Indios, even in Luzon, such as theIlocos or Ilocanos on the west coast north of Lingayen Bay, and the Ibanags or(Jagayanes in the extreme north and neighbouring islands.The Vicols, or Bicols, who occujiy the Camarines peninsula, with the islands ofCatanduanes, Burias, Ticao, and half of Masbate, greatly resemble the Tagals, andlike them were already somewhat civilised before the arrival of the Spaniards.They number at least 400,000, including the Cimarrones and a few other groupswho still keep aloof in the more inaccessible hilly districts. The third greatethnical division of the Indios are the Visayas, or Bisayas, who are estimated at2,500,000, and who give their name to the cluster of islands comprised betweenLuzon and Mindanao. They have also formed several settlements on the coast ofMindanao itself, and to the same division belong the inhabitants of the CalamianesIslands and of Paragua, although their darker colour and wavy hair betray evidenttraces of Negrito blood.The Visayas had formerly the habit of " painting themselveswith fire," whence the term Pintados applied to them by the Spaniards.But since their submission and acceptance of Christianity, they have discontinuedthis practice, as well as that of head-hunting, formerly universal.The " Moors," who occupy the Sulu Archipelago and the southern shores ofMindanao, comprise, like the Indios, a considerable number of distinct tribes ornations, united by the common ties of their Mohammedan faith and social usages.Amongst them are groups resembling the Borneau Dayaks, the Bayos of Celebes,and other Malayan peoples.The aristocratic families are Arabs, or else from Borneoor Ternate, while traces of crossings with the Chinese and Spanish renegadesmay also be detected. The roving habits of these corsairs, who were continuallycarrying off the women from all the surrounding regions, have made the Moorsone of the most mixed populations in the extreme East.Their essentially feudal institutions caused the whole social organization to reston piracy. By the side of the sultans were their almost equally powerful vassals.