case was being heard, Hadji Butu, the
Sultan's Prime Minister, and Sultan Tattarassa, of Paragua Island,
the latter afflicted with _locomotor ataxy_, came in, saluted us all,
and took seats. The business ended, Datto Ambutong rose from his
stool, gave his hand to the major, and then walked to the back of
him to salute us. I thought I should like to handle the beautiful
_barong_ which was to have served him in taking heads. The _Datto_
complaisantly allowed me to draw it from the sheath and pass it round
to my friends. Sharp as a razor, it was the finest weapon of the class
I had ever touched. The handle was of carved ivory and Camagon wood
(_vide_ p. 314), the whole instrument being valued at quite $100. Datto
Timbang was watching, and the occasion was not a propitious one for
taking christian blood.

The following translation of a letter which Major Hugh L. Scott
courteously gave me will serve to illustrate how lightly human life
is appreciated by the Moro.

This letter from your son, His Highness Datto Mohammed Dahiatul
Kalbi, to my father, the Governor of Sulu, Major Scott, and to
my younger brother, Sali.

I want to inform you that at 7 o'clock in the morning of Saturday,
we had a fight with Tallu. I have taken his head, but if you
will allow it, I will bury it, if my father will let me do that,
because he is an Islam and I would commit an offence. It scared
my wife very much when she looked at the head in my house. Those
that are dead were Sadalani, Namla, Muhamad, and Salui. Beyond
that I have not investigated.

With greetings to my father and to my younger brother, I beg you,
my younger brother, to let me bury the head, if my father does not
feel bad about it. If our father should not believe that the head
is there, come to our house and see yourself, so to be sure. I
would not soil the faith my father has in me. To close I herewith
send the kris of Orang Kaya Tallu. The end of the pen. Sunday,
February 23, 1904.

Whilst I was in Zamboanga in June, 1904, Datto Pedro Cuevas, of
Basilan Island, sent a message over to say that there would be no
more trouble with certain pirates who had been caught, as he had cut
off their heads.

It would fill a volume to recount the legends of the sharks near
Cagayan de Jolo which wreck ships; the Moro who heard the voice of
Allah rising from a floating cocoanut to urge him to denounce the
Sultan's e