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Memoirs of Ruth Hooper

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  • men also wore the button-trimmed top but with skin tight pants. The children (especially the boys) wore what they arrived in the world with, but the little girls wore dresses of a sort. They seemed a happy people and on moonlight nights, when everything was bathed in a soft glow, you would hear them going up and down the road playing a crude xylophone made from bamboo strips and chanting their songs. History and the present will tell you that the Moros and the Christian Filipinos are always at outs over something. The climate was ideal. No rainy season and the island was out of the typhoon belt. Every evening it became a habit for Carr and me to go out in the yard and sit under a special palm tree and watch the sunsets. You can't imagine the purple shadows creeping up the mountains with the sky being daubed with colors (all over) by God's paint brush. I use the word daub because there was no pattern, just beautiful bright colors splashed on a special canvas called the sky. Then suddenly it became dark and night closed in. While there we attended many of their festivities; marriage ceremonies, swa-swa dances and religious rituals. The Moros have no chairs in their homes but sit on colorful cushions placed around the walls. However, when Carr and I attended any of these special occasions, two chairs were brought in and placed right in the middle of things. Where they came from I never knew. I had to be careful about how I was dressed as I certainly was given the "cnce over". If I went into a store in Jolo and bought a piece of material I was followed in and watched and the storekeeper had no difficulty in selling out his stock of that particular item. The weddings were arranged by families and these celebrations lasted for as long as the food and money held out. The richer the families the longer the celebrations, and the family jewelry which was worn only
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