haze
in which the island was shrouded, there broke upon us a gorgeous view.
An enchanted isle it looked that day, a vision rising from the sea, and
enchanted isle it still is to me, although it has been my home and the
place of my labor for many years.
Though
it was still so early, several good-sized praus with full-blown
rust-red sails came out to meet us. Long before we had come to anchor,
a host of bamboo outriggered catamarans, manned by stark-naked bronze
boys, swarmed round the ship's sides. From the smaller vintas came as a
salute snatches of Samal song, interlarded with wild yells of welcome.
Good-natured banter, headlong tumblings into the blue spray, and
marvelous diving for coins which we threw down kept us amused for a
long time.
It
was a wonderfully strange island into which I had come, and my lot was
now cast amongst a peculiar people. Although I had only come as a
trader, I felt that as this was likely to be my home for a considerable
time I ought to know something of its early history, its traditions and
customs, and of recent happenings on the island. I was lucky enough to
come by chance upon Dr. N. M. Saleeby's History of Sulu, from which I learned much of what I wanted to know.
"The
original inhabitants of the island," he said, "were called Budanun, the
'hill people,' who were kin to the Dyaks of Borneo. The capital of
these ancient Budanun was May-unbung on the other side of the island.
The first known rulers at Mayunbung were Raja Sipad the Older and his
son or descendant Raja Sipad the Younger. In the days of the younger
Sipad there appeared Tuan Mashaika, who was by some supposed to have
issued from a bamboo stalk and was held by the people as a prophet.
Tradition, however, states that he had human parents and that his
father's name was Jamiyun Kulisa and his mother's Indira Suga, who both
came to Sulu with Alexander the Great. The ancient religion of the
people of Sulu was Hindu. The probability is that Raja Sipad's 'people
of the hills,' the original inhabitants of the island, first fused with
an invading people led by Tuan Mashaika, who came by way of Malacca and
later on took in two further
