346 
NATURE 
[August 13, 1885 
FORMOSAN ETHNOLOGY 
jeeefee political events in the East have directed 
public attention in Europe, more especially in 
France, to the large and important island of Formosa. 
They have shown how scanty our knowledge really is of 
everything relating to an island which has been known 
to Europeans for about three centuries, which has been 
actually held by an European power for twenty years, 
and in which for about a quarter of a century there have 
been three ports opened to the trade of the world. Such 
knowledge as we possess is derived from the works of 
Dutch writers of the commencement of the seventeenth 
century, and from fugitive papers published by one or two 
learned societies in Europe and the East, and especially 
by journals and magazines in various parts of the Far 
East, the names of which are hardly known beyond a 
limited circle of special students, some of them being 
extinct for years. This paucity of information regarding 
one of the most important islands in the world, which, 
moreover, lies in the fair way of a considerable portion of 
the trade of the world, is not due to lack of inquirers or of 
zeal, but to physical and ethnological obstacles in the way 
of research which will appear presently. Such informa- 
tion as could be obtained from the sources here indicated 
with regard to the ethnology of Formosa has been col- 
lected by M. Girard de Rialle, and arranged in two 
articles contributed to the latest numbers of the Revue 
@ Anthropologie (January and April, 1885). The value of 
these articles, besides collecting and sifting much scat- 
tered information not readily accessible, or accessible at 
all except in the most comprehensive national libraries, is 
that they contain a sound working theory on one of the 
perplexing problems of modern ethnology, viz. the origin 
of certain little-known tribes inhabiting for the most part 
the recesses of the chain of mountains running from north 
to south, but nearer to the east than the west coast of 
Formosa, and generally known as the Formosan abori- 
gines. 
_ Broadly, the population of Formosa may be divided 
into three classes—the immigrants from China, aborigines 
who have submitted to Chinese rule, and the independent 
tribes. It would be useless to attempt to decide which of 
the estimates of the number of the population is most 
likely to be correct, for they vary between ten millions 
and 300,000 souls. The Chinese immigrants may soon 
be dismissed. They come mostly from Canton and from 
the neighbouring province of Fokhien. They include 
amongst them large numbers of Hakkas, a people who 
are themselves the subject of an interesting ethnological 
question, which, however, we cannot discuss here beyond 
saying that bysome students theyare regarded as the repre- 
sentatives of pure-blooded Chinese who inhabited portions 
of the valley of the Yellow River before the dawn of 
history, while others speak of them as of Malay origin. 
The division of the aborigines into subjugated and free is 
obviously of no value for ethnological purposes, although 
it is convenient in certain cases. Two points which may 
perplex the discussion of the question can be cleared away 
at once. The aborigines have undoubtedly been head- 
hunters, like the Dyaks of Borneo and the Igorrotos of 
Luzon, but there is no modern authority in support of the 
charge of cannibalism made against them by Chinese 
writers, especially by Ma-twan-lin in his “ Encyclopedia.” 
M. de Rialle thinks that the allegation might have been 
correct at an earlier period, inasmuch as the practice is 
known among the Battaks of Sumatra, as well as in 
Borneo and the Celebes. But no traces of it have 
appeared recently in Formosa. Another difficulty has 
been raised by the statement of the early Dutch writers 
that there is a pure black race in Formosa, of great 
stature, inhabiting the mountains and speaking a different 
language to the rest of the inhabitants. This would 
apparently refer to Papuans, and M. de Rialle asks 
whether perhaps here, as in the Philippines, we may not 
perceive the existence of an old autochtonous race, or at 
any rate one so ancient that it may well be considered 
such. There would be nothing surprising in this, for in 
the Indian Archipelago an ethnic substratum of Papuans 
and Negritos has been discovered. But the statement 
has not been confirmed by modern explorers, some of 
whom have travelled through the island in order to settle 
the question. Neither the Chinese nor the natives have 
ever heard of this black race, and it is possible that a very 
dark tribe in the south were so called by the Dutch. But 
M. Paul Ibis, in his “ Promenades Ethnographiques,” 
thinks that when the Malays invaded Formosa it is not 
impossible they found a black race there, which they 
exterminated or absorbed, and other ethnologists have a 
theory that there was once an epoch of pure Negritos in 
the island. However this may be, there is now no trace 
of the tall black race of the Dutch writers of two hundred 
years ago. 
The Chinese divide the aborigines of Formosa into 
three classes—the Pefo-hoan, or “barbarians of the 
plains,” the Seé-hoan, or “ripe barbarians,” and the Chzm- 
hoan, or “green barbarians.” The island, as already 
noticed, is divided into two unequal parts by a lofty range 
of mountains. On the western side, which is the nearer 
to China, and consequently that peopled by Chinese im- 
migrants, the country consists for the most part of large 
and fertile plains. The aborigines were gradually driven 
back from the coast by the immigration from the 
mainland, and pressed towards the mountains. In 
course of time a considerable number submitted peace- 
fully to the Chinese authorities and became civilised, 
or rather sinicised. These are the Pepo-hoan of the 
Chinese. They live on the plains and smaller hills bor- 
dering on the mountains. Here they form large villages 
surrounded by rich sub-tropical vegetation. In some 
places near the Chinese settlements they have adopted 
the language and habits of the conquerors, but they 
have preserved their ancient culture. They are fetish- 
worshippers. One traveller found in one of their houses 
a stake on which was placed the skull of a deer adorned 
with garlands of flowers and herbs. This he was told was 
the female fetish ; the male, which was by its side, was 
simply composed of bamboos interlaced like a cradle. A 
jar of pure water below appeared to be the only offering 
made to the divine group at the moment. The women 
have charge of the fetishes. Dancing appears to be 
associated amongst them with religious ideas and rites, 
and from the description of their dances they appear similar 
to those of the Polynesians and Micronesians. M. Paul 
Ibis, who was present at one of these /é/es, states that 
young women, when dressed for it, presented the closest 
resemblance to Tagal women. In spite of the name 
“barbarians” given them by the Chinese, they are no 
less civilised than the peasants of the Celestial Empire ; 
they are for the most part devoted to agriculture. In 
some places they act as intermediaries between the inde- 
pendent tribes and the Chinese, conveying the forest pro- 
ducts of the former to the coast and obtaining Chinese 
goods in exchange. Their great stature has been noticed 
by all Europeans who have seen them. The hair is 
dressed amongst the men by being oiled and rolled 
around the head, and then covered with a large turban of 
coloured stuff. The women twist their hair into a large 
mat, interlaced spirally with a red ribbon. This is wound 
round the head, and appears above the forehead like a kind 
of natural diadem. The Pepo-Hoan, who have been least 
influenced by the Chinese, and who have preserved their 
ancient customs and dress, inhabit districts in the centre of 
the southern half of Formosa, especially in the valley of the 
Lakoli River, which, flowing almost due south, enters the 
sea at the harbour of Tan-Kiang. The Sek-hoan, the 
second of the Chinese divisions of the aborigines, inhabit 
part of the centre of the northern half of the island, as the 
