36 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
The question naturally arises how it is that if they once 
occupied the intervening and surrounding islands and 
have been submerged by the subsequent Malaysians 
without leaving a trace, they have been able to main- 
tain themselves in full purity of type in these three 
regions alone. It is possibly significant in this connec- 
tion that the three undoubted Negrito areas in this 
part of the world are all situated near the extreme 
northern limits of the East Indies. 
It is also certain that there is a very close similarity 
of physical type between the East Indian Negritos and 
the Negrillos or pygmy blacks of Central Africa. Most 
students are inclined to identify these two far-flung 
groups as members of the same race. This of course 
makes the question of their origin and dispersion still 
more mysterious. Several theories have been pro- 
pounded in explanation, but since not one of these can 
muster any direct evidence in its support, it would 
hardly be profitable to discuss them here. 
We should probably feel much more certain of under- 
standing the Negrito problem if there were a common 
Negrito language; but, with one exception, no trace of 
such a peculiar speech has been discovered. The African 
pygmies speak dialects of the Bantu tongue which 
prevails among their full-sized neighbors. The Semang 
speech appears to be largely a somewhat corrupt and 
antiquated Malay. All the search that has been made 
in the Philippines has failed to reveal any peculiar 
Negrito language, or even any positive element that 
might be construed as a remnant of a former distinctive 
speech. The Philippine Negrito speaks Filipino: in 
fact that particular variety of Philippine speech that 
happens to prevail among the brown men of his district. 
Wherever his language has been recorded, it is nothing 
but a local patois of Tagalog, Cagayan, Sambal, Bikol, 
