ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 95 



loose bark of trees, in search of their insect prey. They are carnivo- 

 rous and seize their victims with their pincer-like jaws, injecting their 

 venom. They are ver}^ quick in their movements and tenacious of 

 life. When one is cut in two each part makes off in an independent 

 direction at full speed, but the posterior part does not get very far. 



THE PEOPLE. 



ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS." 



PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The aborigines of Guam were described by the early navigators and 

 missionaries as fine-looking, tall, robust, well built, and of ))etter pro- 

 portions than the Spaniards, though sometimes inclined to be corpulent, 

 and as possessing ' ' great strength fitting to their statures. " They were 

 of a l)rown color (un pardo bazo), lighter than the natives of the 

 Philippine Islands and taller than they. Their hair was naturally jet 

 black, but at the time of Legazpi's visit was bleached to a yellow color. 

 At the time of the discovery the men wore it loose or coiled in a knot 

 on the top of the head. Later they were described as shaving the head 

 with the exception of a crest about a finger long, which they left on 

 the crown. Some of the men were bearded. The women, too, were 

 tall. Thoy were handsome and graceful and fairer and more delicate 

 tliaii the men, and at the time of the discover}' wore their hair so long- 

 that it touched the ground.'' No mention is made of tatooiug or of 

 I)iercing the ears or nose. Both sexes anointed themselves with coco- 

 nut oil. The natives were remarkably free from disease and physical 

 defects, and many of them lived to an advanced age, '* for among those 

 alone who were baptized the first year of the mission there were more 

 than 120 who were past the age of a hundred years; owing perhaps to 

 their rugged constitutions, inured from their infancy to distempers 

 which afterwards do not affect them, or to the uniformity and natural- 

 ness (naturalidad) of their food without the artifice which gluttonv has 

 introduced to waste the life which it sustains, or to their occupations 

 necessitating plenty of exercise without too great fatigue, or to the 

 absence of vices and worries — which are roses and thorns whose prick- 



« The information regarding the aborigines of Guam is derived from the narratives 

 of early navigators and from contemporary accounts of the Jesuit missionaries who 

 first settled on the island. The most important of the former are Pigafetta's history 

 of ^lagellan's voyage, the several narratives of Legazpi's expe<lition in the archives 

 at ^ladrid, and those of Gaspar and Grijalva, who accompanied Lcgazpi. The latter 

 w cie published at Madrid in 1685 by Padre Francisco Garcia, of the Society of Jesus, 

 in his Vida y martyrio del venerable Padre Diego Luis de Sanvitores. (See List 

 of works. ) 



&Le donne son belle, di iignra svelta, i)iu delicate e bianche degli udinini, con 

 capegli nerissimi sciolti e Innghi tino a terra. (Pigafetta, Primu viaggio intorno al 

 globo terracqueo, p. 51, Milano, 1800.) 



