TEE PEOPLING OF TEE PEILIPPINES. 359 



placed in my hands. Since then I had opportunity to examine the 

 Schadenberg collection of crania, lately come into the possession of the 

 Eeichsmuseum, in Leyden, and to my great delight discovered in it a 

 series of skulls which are compressed in exactly the same fashion as 

 those of Lanang. It is said that these will soon be described in a 

 publication. 



It is of especial interest that this method has been noted in the 

 Philippines for more than three hundred years. In my first publication 

 I cited a passage in Thevenot where he says, on the testimony of a 

 priest, that the natives on some islands had the custom of compressing 

 the head of a newborn child between two boards, so that it would be 

 no longer round, but lengthened out; also they flattened the forehead, 

 which they looked upon as a special mark of beauty. This is, there- 

 fore, an ancient example. It is confirmed by the circumstance that 

 these crania are found especially in caves, from the roofs of which 

 mineral waters have dripped, which have overlaid the bones partly 

 with a thick layer of calcareous matter. The bones themselves have 

 an uncommonly thick, almost ivory, fossil-like appearance. Only the 

 outer surface is in places corroded, and on these places saturated with 

 a greenish infiltration. It is to be assumed, therefore, that they are 

 very old. I have the impression that they must have been placed here 

 before the discovery of the islands and the introduction of Christianity. 

 Their peculiar appearance, especially their angular form and the thick- 

 ness of the bone, reminds one of crania from other parts of the South 

 Sea, especially those from Chatham and Sandwich Islands. I shall 

 not here go further into this question, but merely mention that I came 

 to the conclusion that these people must be looked upon as proto- 

 Malayan. 



The changes which will take place in the political condition of the 

 Philippines may be of little service to scientific exploration at first; 

 but the study of the population will be surely taken up with renewed 

 energy. Already in America scholars have begun to occupy them- 

 selves therewith. A brief article by Dr. Brinton is to be mentioned 

 as the first sign of this.* But should the ardent desire of the Filipinos 

 be realized, that their islands should have political autonomy, it is 

 to be hoped that, out of the patriotic enthusiasm of the population 

 and the scientific spirit of many of their best men, new sources of 

 information will be opened for the history and the development of 

 oriental peoples. To this end it may be here mentioned, by the way, 

 that the connecting links of ancient Philippine history and the cus- 

 toms of these islands, as well with the Melanesians as with the Poly- 

 nesians of the south, are yet to be discovered. 



* The Peoples of the Philippines, Washington, D. C, 1898. American 

 Anthropologist. 



