ugust 1 3 1885] 
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Pepo-hoan do the southern half. The Sek-hoan settle- 
ments are mainly in the neighbourhood of Chang-hua, 
slightly to the north of the 24th parallel, and in the hilly 
districts dividing the mountains from the plains in the 
west. They appear to have fully accepted the Chinese 
yoke, and even the village headmen are appointed by the 
Chinese authorities. These tribes are absolutely sedent- 
ary, and devote themselves wholly to the cultivation of 
rice, sugar-cane, and indigo, which they have learnt from 
the Chinese. They have adopted the dress and habits of 
their masters; they shave the top of the head and wear 
long queues. The women also dress like the Chinese, but 
they do not deform the feet. The type of these Sek-hoan 
appeared quite distinct from that of other Formosans to 
two travellers, Mr. Bullock and M. Ibis. The former 
describes them as tall, but feeble, with a comparatively 
clear skin, large bright eyes, the mouth extremely large, 
with thick lips, a projecting upper jaw, and teeth long and 
prominent. The lower part of the face is as ugly as the 
upper part is prepossessing. But although they bear 
little resemblance to the aborigines, they have still less to 
the Chinese and Loochooans, the only peoples amongst 
whom we should seek for their origin, if they. are of 
different blood from the other Formosans. M. Ibis states 
that the Sek-hoan present a contrast to the Malay type in 
the case of the males, although a resemblance may be 
found among the females. He attributes their anthropo- 
logical peculiarities to mixture with the Dutch two anda 
half centuries ago. He states that there are still old 
Dutch books and documents amongst them, and that the 
method of cultivating tobacco (which they call samako, 
and not by a Chinese name) is similar to that of the 
Batavian colonies. In the extreme north, around Tamsui 
and Keelung, there are also groups of Sek-hoan. Driven 
from the coast by the Chinese, and prevented by the 
savage tribes in the mountains from penetrating into the 
interior, these have been almost exterminated. The rem- 
nants live in scattered communities among the sandy 
downs or in the rocky islets off the coast. M. Ibis visited 
one of their villages on a small island in Keelung Bay, 
where he found them in great destitution, but bearing 
evident resemblances to the Sek-hoan further south. He 
also noticed the Caucasian features, which they got from 
the connection between their ancestors and the Dutch 
and Spaniards of the seventeenth century. Around 
Tamsui the Sek-hoan are rapidly becoming extinct ; ab- 
sorption into the Chinese, and opium, alcohol, and small- 
pox will soon do their work. Many of their most 
prominent features are Malay, but the form of the skull is 
quite different, if we may rely on two specimens brought 
to Europe in 1868. Dr. Schetelig found the cephalic 
index of the living males to average 77, of the females 
76; but, on the other hand, there were the Malay physi- 
oegnomy and the language of these Sek-hoan to render 
difficult their ethnological classification. On his return 
to London, however, Dr. Schetelig saw the collection of 
Polynesian and New Zealand skulls in the Museum of the 
College of Surgeons, and he found amongst these remark- 
able analogies with the skulls collected by him in the 
north of Formosa. On the north-east coast, at Suwo Bay 
and the neighbourhood, there are other subjugated tribes 
called Kabaran, Sui-hoan, and the like. They are all of 
the Malay type, and appear to be rapidly disappearing 
through contact with the Chinese. 
The whole mountainous region from the north to the 
extreme south, forming nearly the eastern half of For- 
mosa, is inhabited by aborigines who have accepted 
neither the yoke nor civilisation of the Chinese. These 
are called the Chin-hoan, or “ green, unripe barbarians,” 
in contradistinction to the Se&-hoan, or “ ripe barbarians.” 
These live in a state of perpetual war with the Chinese, 
and it is alleged that the latter brought tigers to Formosa 
NATURE bee 
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them. They are determined head-hunters, the young 
warrior commencing his career by securing a certain 
number of Chinese heads. Under these circumstances it 
is not surprising that our knowledge of these tribes should 
be exceedingly limited. A Spanish priest visited some of 
them in 1875-6, and they have been occasionally visited 
by Europeans who have touched on the east coast. They 
are represented as like the Malays, but much fairer in 
colour than even the Chinese. More, however, is known 
of the tribes in the extreme south than of those on the 
east coast or in the mountains. They have been heard of 
in Europe chiefly by their various murders of shipwrecked 
seamen. 
The various tribes are known as Kalis, Bhotans, 
Koaluts, &c., and their districts have been frequently 
visited by European officials desirous of obtaining from 
them some assurance of better treatment for mariners 
thrown on their coast. The late Mr. Swinhoe, who 
visited them for this purpose, states that some of them 
approached the Mongol type, while in others there was 
an enormous development of the lower jaw. After new 
observations he described them as resembling the Tagals 
of Luzon. In 1874 the massacre of the crew of a Loo- 
chooan junk by the tribes led to a powerful Japanese 
expedition being despatched for their chastisement. The 
Kalis and Bhotans suffered so severely that their sub- 
sequent subjugation by the Chinese was rendered easy, 
and the Chinese Customs established a station and light- 
house on the south cape. An account of the expedition 
despatched to arrange this latter enterprise was read before 
the Royal Geographical Society in January last by Mr. 
Beazeley, the engineer employed in the work. Soon after 
the Japanese expedition M. Paul Ibis visited the south of 
Formosa, and has described nine separate tribes differing 
in linguistic and anthropological details. He thinks their 
dialects are connected with the Tagal language ; seven of 
the nine had little physical resemblance to the members 
of the other two. Several other tribes have been de- 
scribed by other travellers, and in most cases they are 
marked by important peculiarities. It would be im- 
possible, even if it were likely to serve any useful purpose, 
to gointo details of the habits of each of these. All that 
is necessary for our present purpose is to note that there 
certainly are numerous distinct tribes amongst these 
independent aborigines, and that in describing them 
various travellers refer constantly to their resemblance to 
Malays, Igorrotos, Tagals, Soolooans, Dyaks, and other 
peoples of the Malay Archipelago. The reader will 
therefore be prepared for M. de Rialle’s conclusion that 
these aborigines belong to the great ethnic family known 
as Malayo-Polynesian. MM. Quatrefages and Hamy 
speak of them in the “Crania Ethnica” as “analogous 
to the Acheenese, Lampongs, and Eastern Sundanis. 
They are Indonesians, closely allied to Polynesians.” 
But there are ancient mixtures with other anthropological 
elements. Whether these took place in regions from 
which the ancient immigrants came, or in Formosa itself, 
will probably never be known positively. The peopling 
of Formosa is probably due to successive invasions, 
doubtless far removed from each other in point of time, 
by Malayo-Polynesians, and this, M. de Rialle believes, 
is sufficiently proved by the great differences which, not- 
withstanding their common anthropological origin, have 
been observed by travellers amongst the various moun- 
tain tribes in the island. Whether a comparative study 
of the Formosan dialects with those of the Philippines, 
Borneo, the Celebes and other parts of the Malay Archi- 
pelago, will carry the solution of the problem any farther 
than this remains to be seen; but there appears no im- 
mediate prospect of any student being able to study the 
independent tribes of Formosa. They are as remote from 
us, for any purpose of accurate investigation, as ever they 
and set them loose in order that they should prey on their | were, and far more remote than they were from the Dutch 
enemies ; the latter, however, succeeded in exterminating | and Spaniards nearly three centuries ago. 
