254 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 5<> 



nation. Culture-historical considerations must be added to make 

 the evidence convincing. 



There can be no doubt that the aborigines of Formosa form part 

 of the Malayan group of peoples ; and from the oldest account which 

 we possess regarding them, which is contained in the Chinese An- 

 nals of the Sui dynasty, full evidence of the fact may be obtained, 

 that in the beginning of the seventh century, when the Chinese first 

 discovered the island, its culture was of a thoroughly Malayan char- 

 acter. Moreover, it has been observed that the languages of For- 

 mosa are more closely akin to those of Luzon than to any other 

 Malayan stock, a large number of words being in common, even 

 terms expressing relationship, and that striking agreements in the 

 two cultures exist ; e. g., in the practice of and ideas concerning 

 head-hunting. I am under the impression that Formosan and 

 Philippine-Malayan cultures are only two variations of one and the 

 same North-Malayan culture-type. The fact that the Formosans 

 are immigrants is self-evident and confirmed by native traditions. 

 Theoretically, there are only two ways possible for this immigra- 

 tion : either the Formosans came from the original seats of the 

 Malayan stock or from the direction of the Philippines. I concur 

 with Prof. H. Kern and P. W. Schmidt in the view that the Malayan 

 home was somewhere off the east coast of Farther India — a theory 

 now splendidly corroborated by the discovery by Schmidt of the 

 relationship of the Malayan with the Mon-Khmer languages. If 

 the Formosans had taken their starting-point from there, they would 

 doubtless have gradually followed the coast-line of the East- Asiatic 

 mainland, and, touching along the shores of China, have reached 

 their present home. Then, however, we should have expected that 

 they would never have lost contact with the continent, and would have 

 had some idea of the Chinese. The fact is, however, that the Formo- 

 sans never had any cognizance of China, nor the Chinese of them, be- 

 fore the year 607, and at the first military expedition of the Chinese, 

 in 610, the two cultures suddenly clashed like two alien worlds. The 

 reason for this late mutual acquaintance may be sought partly in 

 natural events, as in the fact that the channel which separates the 

 island from the continent is shallow and perilous to navigation, and 

 in that the whole region is the center of typhoons. On the part 

 of the Formosans, the additional fact comes in that they were not 

 and are not skilled seafarers, in contradistinction to their relatives. 

 No Formosan word referring to boat-gear agrees with anv Malayan 



