A History of the Philippines. David P. Barrows
of the Koran from Mindanao.
Chapter II.
The Peoples of the Philippines.
The Study of Ethnology.—The study of races and peoples forms a separate science from history, and is known as ethnology, or the science of races. Ethnology informs us how and where the different races of mankind originated. It explains the relationships between the races as well as the differences of mind, of body, and of mode of living which different people exhibit.
All such knowledge is of great assistance to the statesman as he deals with the affairs of his own people and of other peoples, and it helps private individuals of different races to understand one another and to treat each other with due respect, kindness, and sympathy. Inasmuch, too, as the modern history which we are studying deals with many different peoples of different origin and race, and as much of our history turns upon these differences, we must look for a little at the ethnology of the Philippines.
The Negritos.—Physical Characteristics.—The great majority of the natives of our islands belong to what is usually called the Malayan race, or the Oceanic Mongols. There is, however, one interesting little race scattered over the Philippines, which certainly has no relationship at all with Malayans. These little people are called by the Tagálog, “Aeta” or “Ita.” The Spaniards, when they arrived, called them “Negritos,” or “little negroes,” the name by which they are best known. Since they were without question the first inhabitants of these islands of whom we have any knowledge, we shall speak of them at once.
Countries and Peoples of Malaysia
They are among the very smallest peoples in the world, the average height of the men being about 145 centimeters, or the height of an American boy of twelve years; the women are correspondingly smaller. They have such dark-brown skins that many people suppose them to be quite black; their hair is very wooly or kinky, and forms thick mats upon their heads. In spite of these peculiarities, they are not unattractive in appearance. Their eyes are large and of a fine brown color, their features are quite regular, and their little bodies often beautifully shaped.
The appearance of these little savages excited the attention of the first Spaniards, and there are many early accounts of them. Padre Chirino, who went as a missionary in 1592 to Panay, begins the narrative of his labors in that island as follows: “Among the Bisayas, there are also some Negroes. They are less black and ugly than those of Guinea, and they are much smaller and weaker, but their hair and beard are just the same. They are much more barbarous and wild than the Bisayas and other Filipinos, for they have neither houses nor any fixed sites for dwelling. They neither plant nor reap, but live like wild beasts, wandering with their wives and children through the mountains, almost naked. They hunt the deer and wild boar, and when they kill one they stop right there until all the flesh is consumed. Of property they have nothing except the bow and arrow.”1
Manners and Customs.—The Negritos still have this wild, timid character, and few have ever been truly civilized in spite of the efforts of some of the Spanish missionaries. They still roam through the mountains, seldom building houses, but making simply a little wall and roof of brush to keep off the wind and rain. They kill deer, wild pigs, monkeys, and birds, and in hunting they are very expert; but their principal food is wild roots and tubers, which they roast in ashes. Frequently in traveling through the mountains, although one may see nothing of these timid little folk, he will see many large, freshly dug holes from each of which they have taken out a root.
The Negritos ornament their bodies by making little rows of cuts on the breast, back, and arms, and leaving the scars in ornamental patterns; and some of them also file their front teeth to points. In their hair they wear bamboo combs with long plumes of hair or of the feathers of the mountain cock. They have curious dances, and ceremonies for marriage and for death.
Distribution.—The Negritos have retired from many places where they lived when the Spaniards first arrived, but there are still several thousand in Luzon, especially in the Cordillera Zambales, on the Pacific coast, and in the Sierra Madre range; and in the interior of Panay, Negros, Tablas, and in Surigao of Mindanao.
Relation of the Negritos to Other Dwarfs of the World.—Although the Negritos have had very little effect on the history of the Philippines, they are of much interest as a race to scientists, and we can not help asking, Whence came these curious little people, and what does their presence here signify? While science can not at present fully answer these questions, what we do actually know about these pygmies is full of interest.
Races and Tribes of the Philippines
The Aetas of the Philippines are not the only black dwarfs in the world. A similar little people, who must belong to the same race, live in the mountains and jungles of the Malay peninsula. On the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, all the aboriginal inhabitants are similar pygmies, called “Mincopies.” Some traces of their former existence are reported from many other places in the East Indies.
Thus it may be that there was a time when these little men and women had much of this island-world quite to themselves, and their race stretched unbrokenly from the Philippines across Malacca to the Indian Ocean. As it would have been impossible for so feeble a people to force their way from one island to another after the arrival of the stronger races, who have now confined them to the mountainous interiors, we are obliged to believe that the Negritos were on the ground first, and that at one time they were more numerous. The Indian archipelago was then a world of black pygmies. It may be that they were even more extensive than this, for one of the most curious discoveries of modern times has been the finding of similar little blacks in the equatorial forests of Africa.
The Negritos must not be confused with the black or negro race of New Guinea or Melanesia, who are commonly called Papuans; for those Negroes are of tall stature and belong with the true Negroes of Africa, though how the Negro race thus came to be formed of two so widely separated branches we do not know.
The Malayan Race.—Origin of the Race.—It is thought that the Malayan race originated in southeastern Asia. From the mainland it spread down into the peninsula and so scattered southward and eastward over the rich neighboring islands. Probably these early Malayans found the little Negritos in possession and slowly drove them backward, destroying them from many islands until they no longer exist except in the places we have already named.
With the beginning of this migratory movement which carried them from one island to another of the great East Indian Archipelago, these early Malayans must have invented the boats and praos for which they are famed, and have become skillful sailors living much upon the sea.
Effect of the Migration.—Life for many generations, upon these islands, so warm, tropical, and fruitful, gradually modified these emigrants from Asia, until they became in mind and body quite a different race from the Mongol inhabitants of the mainland.
Characteristics.—The Malayan peoples are of a light-brown color, with a light yellowish undertone on some parts of the skin, with straight black hair, dark-brown eyes, and, though they are a small race in stature, they are finely formed, muscular, and active. The physical type is nearly the same throughout all Malaysia, but the different peoples making up the race differ markedly from one another in culture. They are divided also by differences in religion. There are many tribes which are pagan. On Bali and Lombok, little islands south of Java,