
ps PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
nantly with the Asiatic East Indies, or the Australian 
East Indies, or with the mainland of Asia. As a matter 
of fact, geographers and biologists are somewhat in 
doubt how to affiliate them. There are relations obsery- 
able in all three directions. On the whole Philippine 
land animal life is meager. It is not that the animals 
are scarce, but that the number of species is small. 
The great mammals of Borneo and Sumatra are lacking; 
and the most characteristic Papuan forms are equally 
absent. 
As regards human inhabitants, the case is very much 
clearer. Up to ninety-nine percent of his numbers, the 
Filipino is not only Mongoloid, but specifically Malaysian 
—brown, lank-haired, slender, rather short, and inclined 
to round-headedness. Moreover, he is wholly Malay- 
sian in speech. His culture history points in the same 
direction. His aboriginal stock of knowledge and 
customs is closely similar to the primitive culture that 
survives in the interior of Borneo and Sumatra. The 
outside influences which have shaped his life are those 
which have emanated from India and Arabia. The 
peculiar primitive culture found in New Guinea and 
Australia, with its poverty on the material side of life 
and its elaboration of social institutions, is totally 
unrepresented in the Philippines. 
Topography and Climate. The larger Philip- 
pine islands, especially Luzon and Mindanao, contain 
considerable areas of lowland swamp and lakes. The 
general character of the archipelago, however, like that 
of the other East Indies, is mountainous. In fact, it is 
quite remarkable, in all this part of the world, to what 
an altitude the mountains rise, compared with the size 
of the land masses. The highest peaks in the Philippines 
fallsomewhat short of the greatest elevations reached in 
some other groups, but the altitudes of about eight 

