The Sulu do not, like the Muhammadans of Hindustan, seclude their women ; on the contrary, they mix in society as in Europe. The women wear a close, short baju of cotton of various colours, with kanchings on the back part of their arm ; trousers (saluar) of fine white cloth or of flowered silks or kimkhabs, with two sarongs, one put on as a petticoat, the other thrown over their shoulders. They tie their hair in a bunch at the fore part of their head ; wear krabows in their ears, rings on their fingers, and Chinese shoes on their feet. In their houses, however, their sole apparel is their trousers, remaining nude from the waist upwards. They arch their eyebrows with the razor, shave off the short hairs round their fore heads, and their teeth, like those of the men, are filed and stained black.
Mr. Hunt says the Baja of the Sulu Archi elago are really the Orang Sulok of the east of bubanos and Lutas. Authorities, however, have considered them to be from Johore, from China, from Japan, or a Bugi tribe. They speak the Bisayan language of Sulu, profess Muham madanism, and are, as the word ' Baju ' indicates, fishermen. They made Macassar their head
quarters, to escape from the oppression from which they suffered at the hands of the Datu chiefs of Sulu. The Lanun or Illanun race, from the provinces of Illano and Melana, in the island of Magindanao, long carried on piratical expeditions, making Sulu their chief headquarters and entrepot for the sale of their plunder. They moved in large fleets of small prahus in the straits of Macassar, among the Moluccas, and in the southern islands of the Philippines. During a six months' residence at Sulu, about the year 1830, Mr. Hunt heard of many ships being captured. Their twelve estab lishments in the Sulu dominions in his time had upwards of 8000 pirates, with prahus manned by 30 to 60. In 1851 the Governor-General of the Philippines took the fortress at Sulu, and since then Spain has been dominant over the Sultan, to whom they allow 2400 dollars per annum. In 1883 they assumed a more direct control.