The National Geographic Magazine 



garded as the equivalent of villages. 

 The average size of a barrio or village 

 in the Philippine Islands is 500 people. 



CHARACTER OF THE HOUSES 



The streets, as a rule, are not paved, 

 and the roads generally are in poor con- 

 dition, especially in the rainy season. 

 For potable water, except in Manila, 

 reliance is placed on wells and cisterns, 

 and very little attention has ever been 

 paid to sanitation. The houses of people 

 of means are built of stone, brick, or 

 wood, and their homes are provided with 

 all available comforts. But it is safe to 

 say that nine-tenths of the houses in the 

 Philippines are built of bamboo, thatched 

 with nipa, cogon, or other grasses, and 

 are admirably adapted to the climate 

 and to the condition of the occupants. 



Owing to their long subjugation to 

 friar and civil power, all parts of the 

 islands have received a similar grade of 

 culture. A town in the Cagayan Val- 

 ley presents the same style of architect- 

 ure, the same surrounding barrios, has 

 the same kind of stores and similarly 

 dressed people as a Christian munici- 

 pality on the Island of Mindanao. In 

 spite, however, of these facts the popu- 

 lation has remained separated into prac- 

 tically the original tribes or groups, 

 each speaking a different idiom and feel- 

 ing strongly its separateness from the 

 other. 



THE TRIBES DO NOT MIX WITH EACH 

 OTHER 



An examination of the map showing 

 the distribution of the tribes or peoples 

 of the Philippine Islands shows that, 

 generally speaking, the various tribes 

 have kept very closely to themselves. 

 To show how closely, it may be said 

 that, after eliminating from considera- 

 tion the municipalities in the provinces 

 of Benguet and L,epanto-Bontoc and 

 those of the comandancias, in 179 mu- 

 nicipalities every male 2 1 years and over 

 was of one Christian tribe, while 94 



towns contained only one person differ- 

 ent from the prevailing tribe. In 620 

 municipalities, or nearly two-thirds of 

 all, at least 99 per cent of the men were 

 of one tribe, and in 820 at least 90 per 

 cent were of one tribe. 



There is one tribe, and one only, 

 which seems to possess a migratory, col- 

 onizing disposition ; that is the Ilocano, 

 and even they, whenever they have in- 

 vaded the territory of other tribes, have 

 mixed with them very little, forming 

 villages by themselves. 



THE AVERAGE AGE OF THE FILIPINO 



Of the total native population of 

 6,931,548, 3,443,816 were males and 

 3,487,732 were females, the proportions 

 between the sexes being 49.7 per cent 

 males and 50.3 percent females. 



The average age of the people of the 

 Philippine Islands is 23.9 years. This 

 is 2.4 years less than the average age of 

 the people of the United States, which is 

 26.3 years, and is greater than that of the 

 negroes in the United States, 23.2 years. 

 The average age of the brown people in 

 the Philippines was 23.8 years, a trifle 

 less than that of the total population. 

 The average age of the Chinese was 33.4 

 years, much less than that of the same 

 people in the United States, which was 

 40 years. The average age of the white 

 people in the Philippines was 30.3 years k 



THE FILIPINO FAMILY 



Although the Filipino families have 

 been diminished in size by insurrections 

 and cholera, the average family consists 

 of 4.7 persons, and this is still about 

 equal to that of the United States. The 

 largest families are found among the 

 Cagayan and Visayan tribes, and the 

 smallest among the Ilocanos. About 

 one-sixth of the population is comprised 

 in families of 5 members. Families of 

 8, 9, and 10 persons form in each case 

 a smaller proportion of the population 

 than do families of similar size in the 

 United States, Porto Rico, and Cuba ; 



