196 HILL TRIBES OF FORMOSA. 
ver sits down on the ground placing her feet up against the hollow- 
ed wood; the strands encircle the wood, and the opposite ends are 
kept tight by a strap passed round the back of the weaver; the shut 
tles, or needles, are passed by hand, from right to left, drawn 
tight, and adjusted with a piece of flat wood, of the shape of a paper- 
knife: it is inthis way that ordinary savage cloth is manu- 
factured. The knowledge of the art of weaving, of embroidery, of 
the use of hemp, may have been derived from the first occupants, 
and I am strongly inclined to believe that such was the case; also, 
that the present manners of life in the hills and the mode of gov- 
ernment are the same as existed hundreds of years ago, long before 
the advent of the Malay element and certainly anterior to the 
appearance of Chinese and Dutch settlers. Amongst the hill and 
especially amongst the plain tribes, the Malay language and phy- 
siognomy are observable, whereas, excepting on the borders and in 
Chinese territory, any trace of Chinese admixture is scarcely no- 
ticeable. Marriages between Chinese borderers and captive savage 
girls have taken place, but not to any very great extent. In the 
case of .Pepowhans, however, Chinese have intermarried freely, 
often for the sake of the fat paddy lands possessed by the Pepo- 
whans, but after marriage the native dress is discarded, the language 
is unused and the progeny becomes Chinese; the grand-children 
know perhaps of their mixed origin, but can seldom speak the Pe- 
powhan dialect. There are certain peculiarities in the shape of the 
head, and the eye peculiar to descendants both of Pepowhans and 
savages is not to be mistaken; the latter, in the course of a few 
generations, is almost the only discernible difference between them 
and pure-bred Chinese. 
The aborigines still in possession of the most elevated ranges of 
mountains in the central and eastern points of the island have, I feel 
sure, sprung originally from a very ancient stock, and have been 
left almost undisturbed until within the last three centuries or so, 
retaining all their primitive mode of life, manners, and customs, 
absorbing gradually and at intervals fresh blood and connections 
from the periodical influx of wandering castaways, or by the cap- 
ture and admittance into the tribes of prisoners taken in warfare 
with neighbouring savage tribes, receiving perhaps but few new 
