Pe VE EW IDEAS 
ON THE 
PROBABLE “ORIGIN 
OF THE 
mite TRIBES OF FORMOSA. 
(Continued from Journal No. 9, p 77.) 
POL DILGAO D> 
HE aborigines are manufacturers of matting of a supe- 
rior kind, made out of a sort of long grass. There are 
four or five different qualities; the best kinds are very 
fine, smooth and closely interwoven. A few years back 
they were obtainable from savages only, but now the 
same mats are made by Chinese living on the borders, and are 
hawked about the streets of Chinese towns in the summer months. 
when there is some demand for them, Chinese as well as foreigners 
using them chiefly as a covering to their beds, and finding them 
cooler to sleep on than the customary sheets, or palampores. Another 
article of manufacture is the wicker-work skull-cap, of a circular 
shape, worn at times by the savages. These caps are made to fit close- 
ly to their small round heads, and often have a peak resembling that 
of ajockey’s cap, but this is always worn at the back of the head 
to protect the neck and long lank hair from sun andrain. There 
are many other minor articles of manufacture, such as bows 
and arrows, spears, string made of hemp, pipes of bamboo; &c. ; 
but the principal articles are cloth and wearing apparel made of 
bleached hemp fibres. The mode of manufacture is simple. The 
loom is generally a hollow piece of wood about three feet long and 
one foot and a half in diameter, and is placed on the ground ; the wea- 
