10 THE PIGMIES. 



mentioned, very primitive by the way, is to be seen among the half- 

 breed Negritos of India and the Malay Peninsula. All of them 

 seem to proceed in the same way. The Grond, like the Manthra, 

 begins by felling the trees which he burns when half dried up. 

 In the entanglement of trunks and branches, he -then sows or plants 

 rice, potatoes, &c. When the jungle shoots up again, he aban- 

 dons his frail and leaf -covered hut and proceeds elsewhere to 

 begin over again. A dog, a few fowls and pigs live as best they 

 can in these primitive clearings. What they can get by fishing 

 and hunting, together with edible roots and jungle fruits, seem to 

 form the principal resources of these people. ( x ) 



Such is the present state of things. But have not these tribes, 

 now half-nomad and scattered, known better days and enjoyed a 

 more- perfect social organization ? It is not easy to give a general 

 answer to this question. 



As far as regards the Mincopies, nothing indicates that they ever 

 rose above what w r e know them to be now-a-days. Having, so 

 to speak, under their hand, all that can satisfy the simple wants 

 of a wild man, and without intercourse with foreigners, they have 

 received nothing that could awaken new aspirations in them, and 

 their intellectual activity has been applied solely to multiplying 

 or improving the implements required by their mode of life. We 

 shall see further on that they have, in that line, evinced real 

 initiative power. 



It is more than probable that in the Philippines, the Aetas were 

 once in a more advanced stage. Biekzi, whose summary of the 

 traditions of these people is unfortunately rather confused, repre- 

 sents them as having in by-gone days occupied the whole of Luzon 

 and having for a long while resisted the Tagal invasions. ( 2 ) They 

 had, in those times, a form of government. An assembly of chiefs 

 and elders superintended the execution of the laws. ( 3 ) It is dif- 

 ficult to admit that, at that period, cultivation of the soil was not 



(i) Xotes (unpublished) of M. Montaxo ; Rousselet, loc. cit. p. 276; 

 Logan, loc. cit. p. 255; etc. 



(2) Oceanic, Vol. I, p. 301. 



(3) This is precisely what is still the custom among the Bhils, half-bred 

 Negritos. (Rousselet, loc. cit. p. 01). 



