INHABITANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES. 253 



element ; it is met browsing far from tlie streams, and even climbing up tbe stems 

 of palm-trees. All the venomous orders of snakes are represented in the local 

 fauna, and crocodiles grow to an enormous size, some having been met about 

 30 feet long, at least according to De la Gironniere, 



IXHABITANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES. 



The aborigines, gradually driven back or exterminated by the intruding 

 Malays, have disappeared altogether from some of the islands, and in the others 

 are now met only in scattered tribal or family groups. The full-blood Aetas 

 (Atas, Itas), as these Negritoes, or " Little Negroes," are collectively called, do 

 not number at present more than twenty thousand in the whole archipelago ; but 

 traces of Negrito blood may be detected in large sections of the population, whicb 

 presents every shade of transition in physical appearance, culture, and usages, 

 between the Negrito and Malay elements. The pure blacks are most numerous in 

 the island of Negros, but they are also found in all the other islands, except the 

 archipelagoes north of Luzon, and apparently Samar, Leyte, Bohol, and Sulu. 



The Negritoes fully deserve their name, for the average height is under five 

 feet. The head is relatively large, with bright eyes, high forehead, abundant 

 frizzly and at times almost woolly hair, slender extremities, calf almost absent, 

 and great toe often standing wide apart. The wrinkles of the face combined with 

 their projecting jaws give them at times quite a simian aspect. The Aetas speak 

 Malay in their intercourse with their more civilised neighbours, but amongst 

 themselves they use words of unknown origin, supposed to be derived from the 

 primitive language whicb was still current in the seventeenth century. It 

 appears, however, that many of their tribes must have been subject to Malay 

 influences from ver}' remote times, for the dialects spoken in some districts 

 undoubtedly belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family, although the Aetas them- 

 selves are sprung from a totally different ethnical stock. 



Most of the tribes practise tattooing ; circumcision is also very general, and in 

 some parts the women artificially deform the skulls of their children. Except in the 

 vicinity of jDopulous districts little clothing is worn beyond a loin-cloth bv the men, 

 and a short skirt by the women. In some places they build huts of branches and 

 foliage, and even pile-dwellings like those of the Malays ; but elsewhere their only 

 protection from the inclemency of the weather are frail screens of palm-leaves, 

 which are placed against the sun, wind, or rain. In the provinces where they are 

 gradually becoming civilised, they clear and till the land, raise poultry and pigs, 

 and enter into trading relations with the Malays. But being unable to reckon 

 beyond four and five, they are easily cheated, and they have evidently a profound 

 sense of their own inferiority, reserving the term tao, or " men," to the dominant 

 race. 



Apart from the Negritoes, the Chinese settlers, the Europeans and half-castes, 

 the entire population, at least north of Mindanao, is of Malay origin and speech. 

 At some unknown, but certainly very remote epoch, the Malay ancestors of the 



