356 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which to introduce the color ; in the other long gashes are made. In the 

 latter case prominent scars result; in the former a smooth pattern. 

 But these combined patterns are on the whole the same, instead of 

 rectilinear figures. Schadenburg has the operations commence with a 

 sharpened bamboo on children 10 years of age.* Among the wild 

 tribes of the light-colored population tattooing is not less diffused, but 

 the patterns are not alike in the different tribes. Isabelo de los Reyes 

 reports thatf the Tinguianes, who inhabit the mountain forests of the 

 northern Cordilleras of Luzon, produce figures of stars, snakes, birds, 

 etc., on children 7 to 9 years old. Hans Meyer describes the patterns 

 of the Igorrotes.| There appears to exist a great variety of symbols; 

 for example, on the arms, straight and crooked lines crossing one 

 another; on the breast, feather-like patterns. Least frequently he saw 

 the so-called Burik designs, which extended in parallel bands across 

 the breast, the back, and calves, and give to the body the appearance of 

 a sailor's striped jacket. It is very remarkable that the human form 

 never occurs. 



What is true concerning tattooing on so many Polynesian islands 

 holds also completely here. But reliable descriptions are so few, and 

 especially there is such a meager number of useful drawings, that it 

 would not repay the trouble to assemble the scattered data. At least 

 it will suffice to discover whether among them there are genuine tribal 

 marks or to investigate concerning the distribution of separate patterns. 

 Those laiown show conclusively that in the matter of tattooing the 

 Filipinos are not differentiated from the islanders of the Pacific; they 

 form, moreover, an important link in the chain of knowledge wliich 

 demonstrates the genetic homogeneity of the inhabitants. The tattoo- 

 ings of the eastern islanders are comparable only to those of African 

 aborigines, with which last they furnish many family marks, made out 

 and recognized. It is desirable that a trustworthy collection of all 

 patterns be made before the method becomes more altered or destroyed. 



Next to the skin, among the wild tribes the teeth are modified in 

 the most numerous artificial alterations. The preferable custom, com- 

 mon in Africa, of breaking out the front teeth in greater or less number 

 has not, so far as I remember, been described among the Filipinos; 

 I only mention that while I was making a revision of our Philippine 

 crania, two of them turned up in which the middle upper incisors had 

 evidently been broken out for a long time, for the alveolar border had 

 shrunk into a small quite smooth ridge, without a trace of an alveolus. 

 It is otherwise with the pointing of the incisors, especially the upper 



* Zeitsclirift fiir Etlmologie, 1880, XII, p. 136. 



t Die Tinguianen ( Luzon ) . Translated from the Spanish by F. Blumen- 

 tritt (Mitth. der K. K. Geograph. Ges. in Wien), 1887. 



t Verhandl. der Berliner Gesellsch. fiir Anthropologie, 1883, p. 380. 



