Scouts and Constabulary have done superb work." Blount makes much of disorders in Samar and Leyte.

Let us consider the facts.
In all countries feuds between highlanders and lowlanders have been common.

Although the inhabitants of the hills and those of the lowlands in the two islands under discussion are probably of identical blood and origin, they long since became separated in thought and feeling, and grew to be mutually antagonistic.

The ignorant people of the interior have always been oppressed by their supposedly more highly civilized brethren living on or near the coast.
The killing of Otoy by the constabulary in 1911 marked the passing of the last of a series of mountain chiefs who had exercised a very powerful influence over the hill people and had claimed for themselves supernatural powers.
Manila hemp is the principal product upon which these mountaineers depend in bartering for cloth and other supplies.

The cleaning of hemp involves very severe exertion, and when it is cleaned it must usually, in Samar, be carried to the seashore on the backs of the men who raise it.