Palawan

“ The cost of the work in Palawan in valuable human lives has been dear. No one can at the outset fill the place of a man like Governor Miller, who had become invaluable not only as a result of his personal characteristics, but because of his years of experience and of the regard in which he was held by his people. Unfortunately his life is not the only one which has been sacrificed for the good of the inhabitants of this province. ”

“ In Southern Palawan the wild people of the highlands, who have never yet allowed any one to enter their country, are being persuaded to come down to the coast by the establishment of little government trading posts where they can sell their few products at good prices, and can purchase what they need at a reasonable figure. ”

“ All in all, things are moving forward steadily in Palawan, although many of the Filipino settlements are still filthy and unsanitary. Encouraged by the results obtained in Mindoro, I have inaugurated an active campaign to compel these people to clean up, and anticipate success. One thing which renders it difficult to deal with some of the Filipinos of this province is that in its more remote districts they are showing a marked tendency to scatter out into the forests where they make caiñgins, or forest clearings, and live in tiny huts. ”

“ Bouayanan.—A heathen folk in the interior of Palawan. The name appears to mean “crocodile men.”
Buhuanos, Bujuanos.—A heathen folk related to the Igorots (head-hunters?) , dwelling in the province of Isabela de Luzon. They are warlike in nature.
Bulalacaunos.—A wild people of Malay race (without Negrito mixture?) , having its own (?) idiom. It is to be found in the interior of the northern part of the island of Palawan (Paragua) and in Calamianes islands.
Buluanes, see Bilanes.
Bungananes.—A warlike, head-hunting (?) people, who live in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela de Luzon. ”

“ A long-term prisoner with two years of good conduct to his credit is given the privilege of going to the penal colony on the island of Palawan. This island is one of the more southern ones, and is the place where the Spanish sent their convicts in the old days. But the present colony, which was established by Governor Forbes, is very different from the former one. ”

“ Palawan, 275 m. long and about 15 m. wide, is traversed throughout its length by a range of mountains with an average height of 4000 to 5000 ft. and a few summits about 6000 ft. high. Submarine mountain ranges connect not only the islands within the archipelago, but also the archipelago itself with Borneo and Celebes, so that only shallow channels connect the interior waters with the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea. The coast-line of the Philippines, more than 11,000 m in length, is fringed with coral reefs and broken by numerous gulfs and bays. ”

“ June 19 is the Feast of Forest (Pista Yang Kagueban) in the City of Puerto Princesa and the Province of Palawan. This day is celebrated to generate participation in activities strengthening the province's commitment to reforest our precious lands and contribute to the global effort of preserving God's gift of nature for future generation to enjoy.
SEC. 2. June 19 of every year is hereby declared a special working holiday in the City of Puerto Princesa and the Province of Palawan. ”

“ Squirrels are confined to the eastern chain of islands from Basilan to Samar and to the Palawan-Calamianes group. In the southern islands there is a tiny species, the size of a mouse. Very large flying-squirrels are found in Palawan and Mindanao. Squirrel-shrews occur in the Palawan-Calamianes group, and true shrews at various points in the archipelago. Among the Carnivores are the binturong and an otter, both found in the Palawan-Calamianes group; two civet cats, which range throughout the archipelago, and a wild cat of small size, which has been found in Palawan, Panay, Negros and Luzon. ”

“ The palawan, or strong man, in charge of this station, was a man with a romantic history of his own, and perhaps the British Government were very wise to employ him. He is said to possess enormous muscular strength, being able to perform such amazing feats as reducing to dust between his first finger and thumb a silver rupee by merely rubbing it once, or breaking any coin in two in his hands with the same ease that one would a biscuit. ”

“ In Palawan (in which live the most exquisitely beautiful peacock pheasants) , and the Sulu archipelago—between Borneo and the Philippines—the natives were all Muhammadans and much under Arab influence; but in the rest of the Philippine Islands the Malays and the older Mongolian peoples dwelling on the coasts were civilized pagans, a good deal under Chinese and North Borneo influence, while the interior was tenanted mainly by the wildest pigmy Negritos, who were strong enough in numbers to keep the yellow-skinned, straight-haired people from colonizing the forested mountains. ”

“ The Spaniards compelled Filipinos to live in towns, or at least to have houses there. Under our form of government we allow them to do as they please, with the result that in provinces like Palawan our utmost efforts do not avail to keep them from forsaking settlements and scattering out through inaccessible mountain regions, where they are rapidly gravitating back to the state of barbarism from which they originally emerged. ”

“ At the first settlement at which they attempt to land, the natives prove hostile, whereupon they go toward another island, but contrary weather compelling them to anchor near Palawan, they are invited ashore on that island by the people of another village. ”

“ March 19 and June 21 are respectively the town fiesta and founding anniversary of the Municipality of Narra, Province of Palawan. Both occasions are celebrated by the townspeople to galvanize them around activities involving their cultural progress and socioeconomic development.
SEC. 2. March 19 and June 21 are hereby declared special working holidays in the Municipality of Narra, Province of Palawan. ”

“ The plumage of the adult female also varies, and very old birds appear to me to grow hoary, while the yellowish or reddish tinge on the head and throat may be considered as sure signs of youth.” (Shelley.)
“Whitehead insists, Ibis (1890) , 46, that the Palawan species is E. mindanensis, and not E. malayana (honorata) . Blasius, however, seems to think that he found both species among Dr. Platen’s birds. Steere identified the specimens secured by us in 1897 as E. malayana. We secured no additional material on our present trip.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.) [379] ”

“ Deer are absent in Palawan, Tawi Tawi, Tablas, Romblon, Sibuyan and Siquijor. Humped cattle are raised on most of the islands. They are killed for their flesh, hides and horns, and little attention is paid to their milk giving properties. The water-buffalo, or caraboa, occurs in a wild state in Luzon, Mindoro, the Calamianes group, Masbate, Negros and Mindanao, but the wild herds are believed to have originated from domesticated animals. The domesticated water-buffalo is sluggish in its movements, and will not work through the heat of the day ”

“ The Negritos of Palawan are few in number, and resemble those of Mariveles. They use a piece of cloth, made of the inner bark of a tree as their only garment. They call this the Saligan. They inhabit the upper parts of the mountains between Babuyan and Barbacan, say from 10° to 10° 20′ N. latitude. They do a little agriculture in a primitive fashion. The men clear the land, the men and women together do the planting, and the women alone the reaping. ”

“ The Tandulanos are physically similar to the Negritos, but less robust. They inhabit the shores of Palawan, being scattered along the western coast between the Bay of Malampaya and Caruray. They are more savage than the other races of the island, but they fulfil their engagements with rigorous exactness. They make rough canoes, and subsist principally on fish and shell-fish, and they do no cultivation. They are very skilful in the use of the harpoon which they employ for fishing. ”

“ Sharpe, Hand-List (1900) , 2, 89; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903) , 3, 75; Oberholser, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. (1906) , 58, 190. Salangana lowi McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906) , 58.
Palawan (Everett, Whitehead, Steere Exp.) . Northern Borneo, Anamba Islands, accidental in Sumatra and on Nias Island.
Adult.—“Upper surface sooty black with a little greenish gloss, somewhat purplish on the tail; lower surface brownish gray, with somewhat [353] darker shaft-stripes; feathers in front of eye white, broadly tipped with black; under wing-coverts blackish. ”

“ During a trip to Palawan in December, 1911, Captain Tornroth of the coast guard cutter Polillo took a forty-nine-pound specimen. The same evening Dr. Victor G. Heiser, Director of Health, took an individual weighing thirty-two pounds. The following August the record was raised first to fifty-three pounds and then to sixty-three and a half pounds, the latter fish being caught by Mr. Frank W. Sweitzer.
The pampano takes the hook with a rush and seldom misses his strike. He never leaps while being played, but helps himself to line very liberally at the outset and runs deep at once. ”

“ Others produce alcohol, tan barks, dyewoods, valuable vegetable oils or drugs. The so-called “Singapore cane,” so highly prized by makers of wicker furniture, grows abundantly in Palawan. Great areas are covered with a bamboo which makes an excellent paper pulp.
In short, the Philippine forests should be like money in the bank for the inhabitants of the islands. There are in this world wise people who under ordinary circumstances spend only the interest on their money; and there are others who spend the principal while it lasts. To which class do the Filipinos belong? ”

“ Men endowed with such magnificent courage as the Moro warriors often display certainly have their redeeming qualities. The same old policy that has won with the Ifugaos, Bontoc Igorots and Kalingas, and is winning with the wild Tingians and Ilongots, has been tried in dealing with the renegade Moros of Palawan with a considerable degree of success. It is my firm belief that it will work with the Moros of Mindanao, Basilan, Joló and Tawi Tawi, but substantial and permanent progress cannot now be anticipated for many years. ”

“ Balabac (Everett) ; Bongao (Everett) ; Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester) ; Palawan (Platen, Whitehead, Bourns & Worcester, White) ; Sulu (Guillemard) ; Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester, Everett) . Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, southern Tenasserim, Java, Borneo.
“Adult male (type of species) .—Above rich purplish blue; the entire back brilliant cobalt, changing to deeper blue on the lower rump and upper tail-coverts; wing-coverts black, washed with purplish blue, with a small spot of brighter blue near the end of each feather; quills black, secondaries externally purplish blue like the scapulars ”

“ LUELLA ENTERTAINS
Bill stood on the south veranda and looked down upon the town, where smoke was rising lazily from bent stovepipe and brick chimney—the supper fires of Parowan's inhabitants—and away across the desert beyond, where the Funeral Mountains stood shoulder deep in purple shadows, the peaks smiling yet in rosetinted afterglow.
"Home!" he said between his teeth. "I made a mistake. I've only built a house. I'm a damned fool. It takes two to make a home." ”

“ In basketry and in the making of caps—a cap in Formosa being only a sort of inverted basket with a visor—the women are as skilful as in the weaving of cloth. This applies to all the tribes. Among the Paiwan, the cap of the successful warrior—and now sometimes of the successful huntsman—is decorated in front, just above the visor, with a sort of rosette of wild boar’s tusks. This is a symbol of honour as significant among the Paiwan as is the tattoo-mark on the chin of the successful warrior among the Taiyal. ”

“ That which distinguishes the Paiwan festivities, however, from those of the other tribes is that once every five years on these festive days the Paiwan play a game called Mavayaiya. This game consists of a contest between several warriors, each trying to impale on a bamboo lance a bundle—now made of bark—which is tossed into the air, the one who catches it on the point of his lance being considered the victor. Tradition among them asserts that in olden days it was a human head—that of a slain enemy—which was thus tossed about, a mere bundle of bark being considered a poor substitute. ”

“ But quite apart from such external marks of dignity, the Pawang is a person of very real significance. In all agricultural operations, such as sowing, reaping, irrigation works, and the clearing of jungle for planting, in fishing at sea, in prospecting for minerals, and in cases of sickness, his assistance is invoked. He is entitled by custom to certain small fees; thus, after a good harvest he is allowed, in some villages, five gantangs of padi, one gantang of rice (bĕras) , and two chupaks of ĕmping (a preparation of rice and cocoa-nut made into a sort of sweetmeat) from each householder. ”

“ The ships touched also at Paloan, where they found pigs, goats, fowls, different kinds of bananas, cocoa-nuts, sugar-canes, and rice, with which they provisioned the ships. This was for them, as Pigafetta expresses it, "a promised land." Among the things which he thought worthy of notice, the Italian traveller mentions the cocks kept by the natives for fighting; a passion which after so many years is still deeply-rooted amongst the population of the whole Philippine Archipelago. From Paloan, the Spaniards next went to the Island of Borneo, the centre of Malay civilization. ”