Note 12 — Geographical Relations and History

Colin (Labor Evangelica, Chap. IV, Madrid 1663), calls the Manguian of Mindoro and the Zambal, Tingues. Morga, Chirino, and Ribera also use the same name for the natives of Basilan, Bohol, and Mindanao (see Blair and Robertson, op cit., Vols. IV, p. 300; X, p. 71; XIII, pp. 137,205). Later writers have doubtless drawn on these accounts to produce the weird descriptions sometimes given of the Tinguian now under discussion. It is said (op. cit., Vol. XL, p. 97, note) that the radical ngian, in Pampanga, indicates “ancient,” a meaning formerly held in other Philippine languages, and hence Tinguian would probably mean “old or ancient, or aboriginal mountain dwellers.”