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Title: The Manóbos of Mindanáo

Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir

Author: John M. Garvan

Release Date: June 16, 2006 [eBook #18607]

Language: English

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MEMOIRS

OF THE

NATIONAL ACADEMY

OF SCIENCES

VOLUME XXIII

FIRST MEMOIR

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 1931

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. - - - - - - - - - - Price $1.00 (paper cover)

MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

VOLUME XXIII

FIRST MEMOIR

 - - - - - - 

THE MANÓBOS OF MINDANÁO

BY

JOHN M. GARVAN

PRESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, 1929

THE MANÓBOS OF MINDANÁO

BY

JOHN M. GARVAN

CONTENTS

PART I. DESCRIPTIVE

CHAPTER I

CLASSIFICATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MANÓBOS

AND OTHER PEOPLES IN EASTERN MINDANÁO

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

EASTERN MINDANÁO

Throughout this monograph I have used the term eastern Mindanáo to include that part of Mindanáo that is east of the central Cordillera as far south as the headwaters of the River Libagánon, east of the River Tágum and its influent the Libagánon, and east of the gulf of Davao.

THE TERM TRIBE

The word tribe is used in the sense in which Dean C. Worcester defines and uses it in his article on The non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon:¹

A division of a race composed of an aggregate of individuals of a kind and of a common origin, agreeing among themselves in, and distinguished from their congeners by physical characteristics, dress, and ornaments; the nature of the communities which they form; peculiarities of house architecture; methods of hunting, fishing, and carrying on agriculture; character and importance of manufacture; practices relative to war and the taking of heads of enemies; arms used in warfare; music and dancing, and marriage and burial customs; but not constituting a political unit subject to the control of any single individual nor necessarily speaking the same dialect.

¹Philip. Journ. Sci., 1: 803, 1906.

PRESENT USE OF THE WORD MANÓBO

The word Manóbo seems to be a generic name for people of greatly divergent culture, physical type, and language. Thus it is applied to the people that dwell in the mountains of the lower half of Point San Agustin as well as to those people whose habitat is on the southern part of the Sarangani Peninsula. Those, again, that occupy the hinterland of Tuna Bay² come under the same designation. So it might seem that the word was originally used to designate the pagan as distinguished from the Mohammedanized people of Mindanáo, much as the name Harafóras or Alfúros was applied by the early writers to the pagans to distinguish them from the Moros.

²Tuna Bay is on the southern coast of Mindanáo, about halfway between Sarangani Bay and Parang Bay.

In the Agúsan Valley the term manóbo is used very frequently by Christian and by Christianized peoples, and sometimes by pagans themselves, to denote that the individual in question is still unbaptized, whether he be tribally a Mandáya, a Mañgguáñgan, or of some other group. I have been told by Mandáyas on several occasions that they were still manóbo, that is, still unbaptized.

Then, again, the word is frequently used by those who are really Manóbos as a term of contempt for their fellow tribesmen who live in remoter regions and who are not as well off in a worldly or a culture[sic] way as they are. Thus I have heard Manóbos of the upper Agúsan refer to their fellow-tribesmen of Libagánon as Manóbos, with evident contempt in the voice. I asked them what they themselves were, and in answer was informed that they were Agusánon--that is, upper Agúsan people--not Manóbos.

THE DERIVATION AND ORIGINAL APPLICATION OF THE WORD MANÓBO

One of the earliest references that I find to the Manóbos of the Agúsan Valley is in the General History of the Discalced Augustinian Fathers (1661-1699) by Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis.³ The author says that "the mountains of that territory⁴ are inhabited by a nation of Indians, heathens for the greater part, called Manóbos, a word signifying in that language, as if we should say here, robust or very numerous people." I have so far found no word in the Manóbo dialect that verifies the correctness of the above statement. It may be said, however, in favor of this derivation that manúsia is the word for man or mankind in the Malay, Moro (Magindanáo), and Tirurái languages. In Bagóbo, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to Manóbo, the word Manóbo means man, and in Magindanáo Moro it means mountain people,⁵ and is applied by the Moros to all the mountain people of Mindanáo. It might be maintained, therefore, with some semblance of reason that the word Manóbo means simply people. Some of the early historians use the words Manóbo, Mansúba, Manúbo. These three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix man, signifying people or dweller, and súba, a river. From the form Manúbo, however, we might conclude that the word is made up of man(people), and húbo(naked), therefore meaning the naked people. The former derivation, however, appears to be more consonant with the principles upon which Mindanáo tribal names, both general and local, are formed. Thus Mansáka, Mandáya, Mañgguáñgan are derived, the first part of each, from man (people or dwellers), and the remainder of the words, respectively, from sáka (interior), dáya (up the river), guáñgan (forest). These names then mean people of the interior, people that dwell on the upper reaches of the river, and people that dwell in the forest. Other tribal designations of Mindanáo races and tribes are almost without exception derived from words that denote the relative geographic position of the tribe in question. The Banuáon and Mamánua are derived from banuá, the country, as distinguished from settlements near the main or settled part of the river. The Bukídnon are the mountain people (bukid, mountain); Súbanun, the river people (súba, river); Tirurái, the mountain people (túduk, mountain, etéu, man);⁶ Tagakaólo, the people at the very source of a river (tága, inhabitant, ólo, head or source).

³Blair and Robertson, 41: 153, 1906.

⁴The author refers to the mountains in the vicinity of Líano, a town that stood down the river from the present Veruéla and which was abandoned when the region subsided.

⁵Fr. Jacinto Juanmarti's Diccionario Moro Magindanáo-Español (Manila, 1892), 125.

⁶My authority for this derivation is a work by Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera on The Origin of Philippine Tribal Names.

The derivation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word Manóbo means by derivation a river-man, and not a naked man.

A further alternative derivation has been suggested by Dr. N. M. Saleeby,⁷ from the word túbo, to grow; the word Manóbo, according to this derivation, would mean the people that grew up on the island, that is the original settlers or autochthons. The word túbo, to grow, is not, however, a Manóbo word, and it is found only in a few Mindanáo dialects.

⁷Origin of Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy, Manila, Nov. 1, 1911.

Father F. Combes, S. J.,⁸ says that the owners, that is, the autochthonic natives of Mindanáo, were called Manóbos and Mananápes.⁹ In a footnote referring to Mananápes, it is stated, and appears very reasonable and probable, that the above-mentioned term is not a tribal designation but merely an appellation of contempt used on account of the low culture possessed by the autochthons at that time.

⁸Historia de Mindanáo y Jolo (Madrid, 1664). Ed. Retana (Madrid, 1897).

⁹The word mananáp is the word for animal, beast in the Cebu Bisáya, Bagóbo, Tirurái, and Magindanáo Moro languages. Among some of the tribes of eastern Mindanáo, the word is applied to a class of evil forest spirits of apparently indeterminate character. It is noteworthy that these spirits seem to correspond to the Manubu spirits of the Súbanuns as described by Mr. Emerson B. Christie in his Súbanuns of Sindangan Bay (Pub. Bur. Sci., Div. Eth., 88, 1909).

Hence there seems to be some little ground for supposing that the word Manóbo was originally applied to all the people that formerly occupied the coast and that later fled to the interior, and settled along the rivers, yielding the seashore to the more civilized invaders.

The following extract from Dr. N. M. Saleeby¹⁰ bears out the above opinion:

¹⁰The Origin of the Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy on Nov. 1, 1911.

The traditions and legends of the primitive tribes of the Philippine Archipelago show very clearly that they believe that their forefathers arose in this land and that they have been here ever since their creation. They further say that the coast tribes and foreigners came later and fought them and took possession of the land which the latter occupy at present. When Masha' ika, the earliest recorded immigrant, reached Súlu Island, the aborigines had already developed to such a stage of culture as to have large settlements and rajas or datus.

These aborigines are often referred to in Súlu and Mindanáo as Manubus, the original inhabitants of Súlu Islands, the Budanuns, were called Manubus also. So were the forefathers of the Magindanáo Moros. The most aboriginal hill tribes of Mindanáo, who number about 60,000 souls or more, are called Manubus.

[Transcriber's note: Both of the above paragraphs comprise the quotation.]

The idea that the original owners were called Manóbos is the opinion of San Antonio also, as expressed in his Cronicas.¹¹ Such a supposition might serve also to explain the wide distribution of the different Manóbo people in Mindanáo, for, besides occupying the regions above-mentioned, they are found on the main tributaries of the Rio Grande de Kotabáto--the Batañgan, the Biktósa, the Luan, the Narkanitan, etc., and especially on the River Pulañgi--on nearly all the influents of the last-named stream, and on the Hiñgoog River in the Province of Misamis. As we shall see later on, even in the Agúsan Valley, the Manóbos were gradually split on the west side of the river by the ingress, as of some huge wedge, of the Banuáons. Crossing the eastern Cordillera, a tremendous mass of towering pinnacles--the home of the Mamánuas--we find Manóbos occupying the upper reaches of the Rivers Hubo, Marihátag, Kagwáit, Tágo, Tándag, and Kantílan, on the Pacific coast. I questioned the Manóbos of the rivers Tágo and Hubo as to their genealogy and former habitat and found that their parents, and even some of themselves, had lived on the river Kasilaían, but that, owing to the hostility of the Banuáons, they had fled to the river Wá-Wa. At the time of the coming of the Catholic missionaries in 1875, these Manóbos made their way across the lofty eastern Cordillera in an attempt to escape from the missionary activities. These two migrations are a forcible example of what may have taken place in the rest of Mindanáo to bring about such a wide distribution of what was, perhaps, originally one people. Each migration led to the formation of a new group from which, as from a new nucleus, a new tribe may have developed in the course of time.

¹¹Blair and Robertson, 40: 315, 1906.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MANÓBOS IN EASTERN MINDANÁO¹²

¹²See tribal map.

IN THE AGÚSAN VALLEY

The Manóbos occupy the whole Agúsan Valley as far as the town of Buai on the upper Agúsan with the following exceptions:

1. The upper parts of the rivers Lamiñga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the river Maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably the territory beyond in the district of Misamis, as far over as the habitat of the Bukídnon tribe.¹³

¹³The reason for the insertion of this last clause is that the people inhabiting the mountains at the headwaters of the above rivers have the same physical types, dress, and weapons as the Bukídnons, if I may judge from my slight acquaintance with the latter.

2. The towns of Butuán, Talakógon, Bunáwan, Veruéla, and Prosperidad.

3. The town of Tagusab and the headwaters of the Tutui and Binuñgñgaan Rivers.

ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE PACIFIC CORDILLERA

In this region I include the upper waters of the Liañga, Hubo, Oteiza, Marihátag, Kagwáit, Tágo, Tándag, and Kantílan Rivers.

ON THE PENINSULA OF SAN AGUSTIN

I desire to call the reader's attention to the fact that this monograph has no reference to the Manóbos of Port San Agustin nor to the Manóbos of the Libagánon River and its tributaries, nor to the Manóbos that occupy the hinterland above Nasipit as far as the Bugábus River. I had only cursory dealings with the inhabitants of the last-named region but both from my own scant observations and from the reports of others more familiar with them, I am inclined to believe that there may be differences great enough to distinguish them from the other peoples of the Agúsan Valley as a distinct tribe.

As to the Manóbos of Libagánon, it is probable that they have more or less the same cultural and linguistic characteristics as the Manóbos that form the subject matter of this paper, but, as I did not visit them nor get satisfactory information regarding them, I prefer to leave them untouched until further investigation.

Of the Manóbos of the lower half of the peninsula of San Agustin, I know absolutely nothing except that they are known as Manóbos. I noted, however, in perusing the Jesuit letters¹⁴ that there were in the year 1891 not only Manóbos but Moros, Biláns, and Tagakaólos in that region.

¹⁴Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 335, et seq., 1892.

THE MAMÁNUAS, OR NEGRITOS, AND NEGRITO-MANÓBO HALF-BREEDS

The Mamánuas, or Negritos, and Negrito-Manóbo half-breeds of Mindanáo occupy the mountains from Anao-aon near Surigao down to the break in the eastern Cordillera, northwest of Liañga. They also inhabit a small range that extends in a northeasterly direction from the Cordillera to Point Kawit on the east coast.

I heard three trustworthy reports of the existence of Negritos in eastern Mindanáo. The first report I heard on the Umaíam River (Walo, August, 1909). It was given to me by a Manóbo chief from the River Ihawán. He assured and reassured me that on the Lañgilañg River, near the Libagánon River exists a group of what he called Manóbos but who were very small, black as an earthen pot, kinky-haired, without clothes except bark-cloth, very peaceable and harmless, but very timid. I interrogated him over and over as to the bark-cloth that he said these people wore. He said in answer that it was called agahan and that it was made out of the bark of a tree whose name I can not recall. He described the process of beating the bark and promised to bring me, 60 days from the date of our conference, a loin cloth of one of these people. I inquired as to their manner of life, and was assured that they were tau-batañg; that is, people who slept under logs or up in trees. He said that he and his people had killed many of them, but that he was still on terms of friendship with some of them.

The second report as to the existence of Negritos I heard on the Baglásan River, a tributary of the Sálug River. The chiefs whom I questioned had never visited the Negritos but had purchased from the Tugawanons¹⁵ many Negrito slaves whom they had sold to the Mandáyas of the Kati'il and Karága Rivers. This statement was probably true, for I saw one slave, a full-blooded Negrito girl, on the upper Karága during my last trip and received from her my third and most convincing report of the existence of Negritos other than the Mamánuas of the eastern Cordillera. She had been captured, she said, by the Manóbos of Libagánon and sold to the Debabáons (upper Sálug people). She could not describe the place where her people live, but she gave me the following information about them. They are all like herself, and they have no houses nor crops, because they are afraid of the Manóbos that surround them. Their food is the core¹⁶ of the green rattan and of fishtail palm,¹⁷ the flesh of wild boar, deer, and python, and such fish and grubs, etc., as they find in their wanderings. They sleep anywhere; sometimes even in trees, if they have seen strange footprints.

¹⁵The Tugawanons were described by my Sálug authorities as a people that lived at the headwaters of the River Libagánon on a tributary called Tugawan. They were described as a people of medium stature, as fair as the Mansákas, very warlike, enemies of the reported Negritos, very numerous, and speaking an Atás dialect. Perhaps the term Tugawanon is only a local name for a branch of the Atás tribe.

¹⁶O-bud.

¹⁷Ba-hi (Caryota sp.).

Their weapons are bows and arrows, lances, daggers, and bolos. According to her description, the bolos are long and thin, straight on one side and curved on the other. The men purchase them from the Atás in exchange for beeswax. The people are numerous, but they live far apart, roaming through the forests and mountains, and meeting one another only occasionally.

The statements of this slave girl correspond in every particular with the report that I received on the upper Sálug, except that the Sálug people called these Negritos Tugmaya and said that they live beyond a mountain that is at the headwaters of the Libagánon River.

Putting together these three reports and assuming the truth of them, the habitat of these Negritos must be the slopes of Mount Panombaian, which is situated between, and is probably the source of, the Rivers Tigwa (an important tributary of the Rio Grande de Kotabáto), Sábud (the main western tributary of the Ihawán River), and Libagánon (the great western influent of the Tágum River).

Montano states that during his visit to the Philippines (1880-81) there were on the island of Samal a class of half-blood Ata' with distinctly Negroid physical characteristics. Treating of Ata' he says that it is a term applied in the south of Mindanáo by Bisáyas to Negritos that exist (or existed not long ago) in the interior toward the northwest of the gulf of Davao.¹⁸ A careful distinction must be made between the term Atás¹⁹ and the racial designation Ata', for the former are, according to Doctor Montano, a tribe of a superior type, of advanced culture, and of great reputation as warriors. They dwell on the northwestern slope of Mount Apo, hence their name Atás, hatáas, or atáas, being a very common word in Mindanáo for high. They are, therefore, the people that dwell on the heights. I heard of one branch of them called Tugawanons, but this is probably only a local name like Agúsanons, etc.

¹⁸Une Mission aux Philippines, 346, 1887.

¹⁹Called also Itás.

I found reports of the former existence of Negritos in the Karága River Valley at a place called Sukipin, where the river has worn its way through the Cordillera. An old man there told me that his grandfather used to hunt the Negritos. The Mandáyas both of that region and of Tagdauñg-duñg, a district situated on the Karága River, five days' march from the mouth, on the western side of the Cordillera, show here and there characteristics, physical and cultural, that they could have inherited only from Negrito ancestors. One interesting trait of this particular group is the use of blowpipes for killing small birds. In the use of the bow and arrow, too, they are quite expert. These people are called taga-butái--that is, mountain dwellers--and live in places on the slopes of high mountains difficult of access, their watering-place being frequently a little hole on the side of the mountain.

THE BANUÁONS

The Banuáons,²⁰ probably an extension of the Bukídnons of the Bukídnon subprovince. They occupy the upper parts of the Rivers Lamiñga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the River Maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably extend over to the Bukídnons.

²⁰Also called Higaunon or Higagaun, probably the Hadgaguanes--a people untamed and ferocious--to whom the Jesuits preached shortly after the year 1596. (Jesuit Mission, Blair and Robertson, 44:60, 1906.) These may be the people whom Pigaffetta, in his First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522) calls Benaian (Banuáon ?) and whom he describes as shaggy and living at a cape near a river in the islands of Butuán and Karága--great fighters and archers--eating only raw human hearts with the juice of oranges or lemons (Blair and Robertson, 30:243, 1906).

THE MAÑGGUÁÑGANS

This tribe occupies the towns of Tagusab and Pilar on the upper Agúsan, the range between the Sálug and the Agúsan, the headwaters of the Mánat River, and the water-shed between the Mánat and the Mawab. The physical type of many of them bespeaks an admixture of Negrito blood, and their timidity and, on occasions, their utter lack of good judgment, brand them as the lowest people, after the Mamánuas, in eastern Mindanáo. One authority, a Jesuit missionary, I think, estimated their number at 30,000. An estimate, based on the reports of the people of Compostela, places their number at 10,000 just before my departure from the Agúsan Valley in 1910. The decrease, if the two estimates are correct, is probably due to intertribal and interclan wars.

THE MANSÁKAS

The Mansákas do not seem to me to be as distinct tribally as are the Manóbos and Mandáyas. It would appear from their physical appearance and other characteristics that they should be classed as Mandáyas, or as a subtribe of Mandáyas with whom they form one dialect group. I judge them to be the result of intermarriage between the Mañgguáñgans and the Mandáyas. They occupy the Mawab River Valley and the region included between the Hijo, Mawab, and Madawan Rivers. They are probably the people whom Montano called Tagabawas, but I think that this designation was perhaps a mistaken form of Tagabaas, an appellation given to Mañgguáñgans who live in the bá-as, or prickly swamp-grass, that abounds at the headwaters of the Mánat River.

THE DEBABÁONS

The Debabáons are probably a hybrid group forming a dialect group with the Manóbos of the Ihawán and Baóbo, and a culture group in dress and other features with the Mandáyas. They claim relationship with Manóbos, and follow Manóbo religious beliefs and practices to a great extent. For this reason I have retained the name that they apply to themselves, until their tribal identity can be clearly determined. They inhabit the upper half of the Sálug River Valley and the country that lies to the west of it as far as the Baóbo River.

THE MANDÁYAS

These form the greatest and best tribe in eastern Mindanáo.²¹ One who visits the Mandáyas of the middle Kati'il can not fail to be struck with the fairness of complexion, the brownness of the hair, the diminutiveness of the hands and feet, and the large eyes with long lashes that are characteristic of many of these people. Here and there, too, one finds a distinctly Caucasian type. In psychological characteristics they stand out still more sharply from any tribe or group of people that I know in eastern Mindanáo. Shrewd and diplomatic on the one hand, they are an affectionate, good-natured and straight-forward people, with little of the timidity and cautiousness of the Manóbo. Their religious instincts are so highly developed that they are inclined to be fanatical at times.

²¹It is very interesting to note that the people called Taga-baloóyes and referred to by so many of the writers on Mindanáo can be none other than the Mandáyas. Thus San Antonio (Blair and Robertson, 40: 407, 1906) states that the Taga-baloóyes take their name from some mountains which are located in the interior of the jurisdiction of Caraga. They are not very far distant from and trade with the villages of (Karága) and some, indeed, live in them who have become Christians. * * * These people, as has been stated above, are the descendants of lately arrived Japanese. This is the opinion of all the religious who have lived there and had intercourse with them and the same is a tradition among themselves, and they desired to be so considered. And it would seem that one is convinced of it on seeing them: for they are light complexioned, well-built, lusty, very reliable in their dealings, respectful, and very valiant, but not restless. So I am informed by one who has had much to do with them: and above all these are the qualities which we find in the Japanese.

In further proof, Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis (ibid. 41: 138, et seq.) says: The nearest nation to our village [Bislig] is that of the Taga-baloóyes who are so named from certain mountains that they call Balooy. * * * They are a corpulent race, well built, of great courage and strength, and they are at the same time of good understanding, and more than halfway industrious. Their nation is faithful in its treaties and constant in its promises, as they are descendants, so they pride themselves, of the Japanese, whom they resemble in complexion, countenance, and manners. The writer describes briefly their 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 Niño 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.

Zuñiga 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 Compañía 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, Mañgguáñgans, 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, Mañgguáñgan, 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 to the mouth of the Tágum. Of course they have other settlements on the north and west sides of the gulf.

In Mati and its vicinity, I believe there are a comparatively large number of Moros or Mohammedanized Mandáyas.

THE BILÁNS²²

²²Called also, I think, Bi-la-an.

Biláns were found according to the testimony of the Jesuit missionaries²³ in Sigaboi, Tikbakawan, and Baksal, on the peninsula of San Agustin.

²³Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 331, et seq., 1889-1891.

THE TAGAKAÓLOS

According to the authorities just cited there were Tagakaólos in Sigaboi, Uañgen, Kabuaya, and Makambal between the years 1889 and 1891. It is probable that these people are scattered throughout the whole of the hinterland to the west of Pujada Bay, and that they are only Mandáyas who, unable to withstand the stress of war, fled from the mountains at the headwaters of the Agúsan River. I base this suggestion on the fact that the Mandáyas at the headwaters of the Agúsan are known as, and call themselves, Kau-ó²⁴ and that they were, and are probably still at the date of this writing, the terror of Mandáyaland. If the Tagakaólos of Point San Agustin are fugitive Kau-ó, according to the prevailing custom they would have retained their former name; this name, if Kau-ó, would have been changed by Bisáyas and by Spanish missionaries to Tagakaólo.

²⁴Kau-ó would be Ka-ólo in Bisáya, from the prefix ka, and ólo, head or source.

THE LÓAKS OR LÓAGS

According to the authority of Father Llopart²⁵ the Lóaks dwell in the mountains southwest of Pujada Bay. He says that in customs they differ from other tribes. They dress in black and hide themselves when they see anyone dressed in a light color. No stranger is permitted to enter their dwellings. The same writer goes on to state that their food is wholly vegetable, excluding tubers, roots, and everything that grows under the ground. Their chief is called posáka,²⁶ an elder who with his mysterious words and feigned revelations keeps his people in delusion and under subjection. It is the opinion of Father Llopart that these people are only fugitives, as he very justly concludes from the derivation of their name.²⁷

²⁵Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 337-338, 1891.

²⁶Posáka means in Malay, and in nearly all known Mindanáo dialects, an inheritance so that in the usage attributed to these Lóaks it would appear that there may be some idea of an hereditary chieftainship. The word in Bagóbo, however, means something beloved, etc., so that the reported Lóak posáka or chief might be so called because of his being beloved by his people.

²⁷He states that lóak is probably from lóog, to flee, to take to the mountains. In several dialects of eastern Mindanáo laag, lag, means, to get lost, while lágui is a very common word for run or run away.

Another writer, Father Pablo Pastells²⁸ makes mention of these Lóak as being wild Tagakaólos who are more degraded than the Mamánuas. He designates the mountains of Hagimitan on the peninsula of San Agustin as their habitat. I am inclined to think that the authority for this statement was also a Jesuit missionary.

²⁸Ibid., 8: 343, 1887.

THE CONQUISTAS OR RECENTLY CHRISTIANIZED PEOPLES

The work of Christianizing the pagans of eastern Mindanáo was taken up in earnest in 1877 by the Jesuit missionaries and carried on up to the time of the revolution in 1898. During that time some 50,000 souls were led to adopt Christianity. These included Mandáyas, Manóbos, Debabáons, Mansákas, Mañgguáñgans, and Mamánuas, and members of the other tribes that live in eastern Mindanáo. For the present, however, we will refer to the conquistas of the Manóbo, Mandáya, Mamánua, Mañgguáñgan, Mansáka, and Debabáon tribes.

THE MANÓBO CONQUISTAS

The inhabitants of all the settlements in the Agúsan Valley except Novela, Rosario, the towns south of Buai, the towns within the Banuáon habitat, and a few settlements of pagan Manóbos on the upper