This should have barfed during the compile phase:

82      PangoFontMap *
83      pango_cairo_font_map_new (void)
84      {
85        /* Make sure that the type system is initialized */
86        g_type_init ();
87
88      #if defined(HAVE_CAIRO_WIN32)
(gdb)
89        return g_object_new (PANGO_TYPE_CAIRO_WIN32_FONT_MAP, NULL);
90      #elif defined(HAVE_CAIRO_FREETYPE)
91        return g_object_new (PANGO_TYPE_CAIRO_FC_FONT_MAP, NULL);
92      #endif
93      }

as best I can tell, neither of HAVE_CAIRO_WIN32 or HAVE_CAIRO_FREETYPE are defined.

this patch is too agressive :-(

cagney@tower$ more pango-skip-cairo-check.patch
--- configure.in.orig   2005-12-04 01:35:14.000000000 -0500
+++ configure.in        2005-12-04 01:40:53.000000000 -0500
@@ -287,11 +287,11 @@
     AC_DEFINE(HAVE_CAIRO_WIN32, 1, [Whether Cairo uses the Win32 GDI for fonts])
   else
     AC_CHECK_LIB(cairo, cairo_ft_scaled_font_lock_face,
have_cairo_freetype=true, :)
-    if $have_cairo_freetype && $have_freetype ; then
-      AC_DEFINE(HAVE_CAIRO_FREETYPE, 1, [Whether Cairo uses FreeType for fonts])
-    else
-      have_cairo=false
-    fi
+#    if $have_cairo_freetype && $have_freetype ; then
+#      AC_DEFINE(HAVE_CAIRO_FREETYPE, 1, [Whether Cairo uses FreeType for fonts])
+#    else
+#      have_cairo=false
+#    fi
   fi
   LDFLAGS=$pango_save_ldflags
 fi

* Sun Dec 11  2005 Andrew Cagney <cagney@redhat.com> 0.0.0.20051211.1-0.EL4.1
- Update pango-skip-cairo-check.patch, leave in definition of
  HAVE_CAIRO_FREETYPE.