NOTES ON SOME PRIMITIVE PHILIPPINE TRIBES 285 



portant of the tribes in question may not be entirely without 

 interest at the present time. 



Without doubt the most primitive of Philippine peoples are 

 the Aetas or Negritos, a race of blacks of almost dwarfish stature, 

 with flattened noses, thick lips, and closely curling black hair. 

 They are believed, and with reason, to be the true aborigines of 

 the islands, who even at the time of the Spanish conquest had 

 begun to go to the wall in the fierce struggle for existence which 

 was then being waged between them and the encroaching Malay 



CHURCH, CONVENTO, AND WATCH TOWER — DUMAGUETE, NEGROS ISLAND 



tribes on the one hand and between the mohammedan and pagan 

 Malays on the other. . At present they are well nigh extinct and 

 in a fair way to become entirely so. They seem to be confined 

 to the higher mountain ranges in Luzon and Negros, although 

 it is said that a few of them still exist in the mountains of north- 

 west Panay, and they may yet be discovered in Mindanao. We 

 encountered them but once. They wander through the forest, 

 living for the most part on what they can pick from the trees or 

 dig out of the ground, although the men sometimes make use 

 of bows and arrows or rude lances in hunting. They sleep wher- 



