Note 4 — Chapter XVIII

Blumentritt (Tribes of the Philippines) identities the Lutaos with the Mono of the district of Zamboanga, who are frequently called Ilanos, and adds that the name appears to be the Hispanicized form of the Malay Orang-Laút (“Men of the Sea”). The description given by Combes fits rather the Orang-Laút themselves than the Ilanos, who live along the seacoast west of Malabang, and are few in number. The Orang-Laút, called also “Sea Gypsies,” “Bajau” and “Sámal-Laút” (“Sámal of the Sea”) are found throughout the Malay Archipelago (in the Philippines along southern Mindanao and throughout the Sulu Archipelago), and live for mouths in their small boats. Their original home was Johore and the islands in the strait of Malacca; and they are only imperfectly Mahometanized, some being quite pagans. The Sámal living in towns in Zamboanga and the Sulu Archipelago are probably descendants of the Sámal-Laút who have abandoned their wandering life. See Census of the Philippines, i, pp. 464, 475, 476, 563.