203 
Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 
vance of the colonist, who clears the hills of the forest and 
exterminates the beasts of the chase. But another and perhaps 
more effectual cause of their rapid diminution is the constant 
feuds carried on by adjacent tribes, chiefly with a view to try 
their skill at arms, and prove the prowess of their youth, who 
are compelled, by their laws, to present the lady of their choice 
with the head of an enemy before they can claim her for a bride. 
Another destructive cause is the law for preventing women from 
becoming mothers till they are thirty-six, all previous to that 
age being compelled to produce abortion. Between the terri¬ 
tories of the savage and those of the Chinese there is generally 
a few acres of common land in which barter is carried on, and 
which bounds neither side are allowed to cross. On the range 
of mountains inland of Tamsuy there is a copper-coloured race, 
called the Kweiyings, whom I visited and found to be a short, 
sturdy, good-looking people, of somewhat of the Malay type. 
The men go about nearly naked, with merely a short jacket to 
the waist, and a rag round the loins. In winter they wrap 
themselves up in plaids. They wear pieces of wood through 
their ears, as well as rings made of shells, and glass-bead neck¬ 
laces, and carry their hair long and parted in the middle. The 
women wear long wrappers round their loins, and jackets, and 
wrap their heads in blue turbans. They also wear ear-rings and 
necklaces. The unmarried men and women tattoo a square 
mark on the forehead, the married men also on the chin, and 
the married women right across the face, from ear to ear. Their 
language contains many words allied to Malay. These people, 
I was informed by some, occupied the greater part of the moun¬ 
tain-range; and certainly those we met at Chock-e-day, on 
the east coast, lat. 24° 7', in 1857, when circumnavigating the 
island, more resembled the Kweiyings than the Kalees, who 
are a darker race, more allied in appearance and language to the 
Tagals of the Philippines, and inhabit the south end of Formosa. 
But it is not improbable that there are yet other races in the 
country intermediate between these two; and in the higher 
mountain-range, which attains to a height of 12,000 feet, I am 
led to believe that a race of Negritos still exist. When at Sawo 
and the adjoining plains on the N.E. coast, we found several 
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