Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 434

FURTHER-INDIAN BRANCH
+33 spoken by about 382,000 people living mostly in the province of Pangasinan, which borders on the Gulf of Lingayen (north Luzon); (2) Pampangan, spoken by nearly 350,000 people, mostly in the province of Pampanga, which borders the north shore of the Manila Bay; and (3) Bikol or Bicol, spoken by ca. 685,000 people, living mostly in Albay, Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur, Luzon.
Special mention must be made of the islands of Palawan and Mindoro, because in them alone in the entire archipelago there has been a survival of the ancient alphabets. Palawan lies across a narrow strait from northern Borneo It is long and narrow, and its total area is 4.725 sq. miles. Its population has increased in the last 60 years from little over 5.500 to about 55,000 people. These can be divided into four communal groups: (1) the Christians, mainly Bisayans, who inhabit the coastal towns; (2) the Moslerns or "Moros," who inhabit the southern part of the island; (3) a small number of "Negritos," who inhabit a portion of the northern part; and (4) the Tagbanuas, mostly pagans-although some have been converted to Islam-who inhabit most of the remaining interior of the island. Mindoro, lying south of Luzon, measures TIO miles north-west to south-east, and 56 miles north-east to south-west, having an area of 3.794 sq. miles. There are about 50.000 Christians, the remaining being Mangyans or Manguianes, who are pagans, The Mangyans, numbering about 20,000 people, inhabit the interior of this great island.
Both, the Tagbanus and the Mangyans, are of Malay stock, and are divided into several sub-tribes. The most important Tagbanua sub-tribe, the Apurawanos, are a mild, gentle and courteous people, the only one which is literate. The ancient culture, however, is rapidly disappearing. The old writing is known to a few of the older people, but its use is frowned upon by their tribal government.
Apart from the two principal islands, Luzon and Mindanao, Mindoro has the largest number of pagans. The term "Mangyan" is actually a common name meaning "forest man" and can be applied generally to the various wild races and tribes of the archipelago. The Mangyans of Mindoro can be subdivided into: (1) the Buhil or Bukil (Bukhil, Buqu)-the term meaning "country"-who number about 7,250, and live in the territory extending from Bulalacao to the neighbourhood of Naujan, and thence to Abra de Ilog. They are mixed with Negritos. According to their own traditions, they lived formerly on the island of Tablas and were forcibly deported by the Spaniards to Mindoro. Their traditions tell also that before the Spanish conquest they had a much higher culture, and wrote their communications on banana leaves. Their language is different from that of the other Mindoro Mangyans; (2) the Hanono-o, called also Haban or Javan in Spanish spelling, or else Hampangan, generally live as their ancestors lived for many centuries before the Spanish conquest. They number about 10,000 people and occupy the territory from Bulalacao north to Bongabong, midway in the island. They speak the southern Mangyan or Hampangan dialect. They are a happy, kind and gentle people, going to creat lengths to avoid trouble; the easiest way to achieve this aim is obviously to slip away into the mountains".
Ancient Characters When Magellan "discovered" the Philippine Islands in 1521, the main native peoples of those islands possessed scripts of their own. In a little more than a century of Spanish conquest and early colonial "development," which was roughly coëval with the Spanish inquisition, all the main native scripts were superseded by the Latin alphabet, and the
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