are much alike in life and character; all are bold and cruel; most of
them are head-hunters. They depend, in part, on agriculture, and have
settled villages which are usually in the mountains or forests. The
Igorrotes are a good example of them. They live in North Luzon. Both men
and women tattoo; they gild their teeth and are fond of ornaments. The
men go armed with spears, bows and arrows, and knives. Their peculiar
weapon, however, is a hatchet-knife called _ligua_; the thin broad
blade, set like that of a hatchet, has a concave cutting edge which runs
into a long point above. The houses of the Igorrotes are large,
rectangular, and raised on piles. These people are good agriculturists,
tending their fields—which they irrigate—with care. The girls of the
village are in charge of an old woman, and they all live and sleep
together in one special house; this is unlike the other houses of the
village and is not set up on posts. The Igorrotes have much respect for
the souls of their ancestors. In each village there is a sacred tree in
which they believe these souls abide. Though industrious and settled the
Igorrotes are dreadful head-hunters. They organize war-parties to attack
neighboring tribes for victims. The party shown in the picture were on
such an errand. Only a few days after the photograph was taken they fell
upon a Tingian village, killed thirty-nine persons, and carried away
twenty-five heads as trophies.
[Illustration: HOUSES OF IGORROTES (MEYER).]
The Tagals, one of the tribes of the second invasion, are the most
important of the Philippine peoples. They industriously work their
fields and raise rice, yams, maize, and several fleshy-root plants. Of
fruits they cultivate mangoes, bananas, pineapples, cocoanuts, and
others. Of industrial plants they produce manila hemp, cotton, indigo,
and tobacco. Many of these plants they have only had since the coming of
the Spaniards. They have long had domestic animals, among them the
buffalo, pig, dog, hens, and ducks. The Tagals have towns of
considerable size, with well-built houses perched on posts. They are
well dressed in good cloth woven by the women. They are fond of gain and
good traders. They are active in body and mind. They delight in poetry,
and it is said “boys on the street will improvise by the yard.” The
Tagals write their language with an alphabet which was probably brought
from India _long_ ago. They formerly wrote on bamboo or on the bark of
certain trees. The Tagals are passionately fond of cock-fighting. Every
one chews betel nut.
[Illustration: HEAD-HUNTING PARTY: IGORROTES (MEYER).]
As to the third migration, it failed to reach the great island of Luzon.
The immigrants were Mohammedan Malays from Borneo. They were sea-rovers
and pirates. They gained possession of the Sulu Islands, the farthest to
the southwest of the Philippines, and had landed on Mindanao when the
arrival of the Spaniards put an end to their movements. They are usually
called _Moros_ or Moors, from their religion. They are polygamous and
keep slaves. Their ruler is called the Sultan of Sulu.
Such are the people of the Philippines: at least fifty-one tribes,
speaking as many different languages. But there are also many foreigners
there: thousands of Japanese and Chinese; descendants of American
Indians, brought by the old Spaniards from Mexico and Peru; Spaniards
and other whites. And lastly there are all sorts of _mestizos_, or mixed
persons, produced by the intermarriage of all these so many different
stocks—native and foreign.
XXIX.
MELANESIANS.
Several great groups of people occupy the vast island world of the
Pacific. We have already spoken of the Malays. In Australia live many
tribes differing in language and customs. They are mostly dark brown
with bushy or curly hair. They are savages in culture. South of
Australia, in Van Diemen’s Land, or Tasmania, there formerly lived a
dark brown people, not tall in stature, with peculiar features and long
curly hair; they are now all gone. North of Australia, in Papua or New
Guinea, are many tribes with curious and interesting arts and customs.
The real Papuans are dark brown in color and have woolly hair, which,
like that of the Bushmen, _seems_ to grow in tufts with bare spaces
between. They are of medium stature. The islands to the east and south
of Australia and New Guinea are occupied by black, woolly-haired tribes,
who are called Melanesians, and who are related to the Papuans. Among
them are the natives of Fiji, New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon
Islands.
The Fijians of fifty years ago will well represent the Melanesians.
Thomas Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_, will give us our facts.
The Fijian hair-dressing was striking. Each chief had a special
hair-dresser, who frequently spent several hours a day in arranging his
master’s hair. The hairs were trained to stand out from the head so as
to form a great mass that might be trimmed into curious shapes. This
smooth, soft, solid, cushion-like mass of hair was stained with
colors—jet black naturally, it might be blue-black, ashy white, or
shades of red. The whole mass of hair, except a band in front, might be
black, while _that_ was white; sometimes the hair behind was twisted
into cords ending with tassels; one man had a knot of fiery red hair on
the crown while the rest of his head was shaved; sometimes the hair mass
measured four feet or more in circumference. Such grand hair-dressing
would be ruined by lying down with the head on the ground—so the Fijians
had a wooden head-rest or pillow, which was set under the neck and held
the head up, off the ground.
[Illustration: FIJIAN (RATZEL).]
Men wore a long sash of bark cloth, which was anywhere from three to one
hundred yards long. This was passed between the legs and wound around
the waist any number of times; if it were long and the man wanted to
present a _fine_ appearance it was folded several times up against the
upper part of his body; the ends were allowed to trail behind. The men
wore a turban of the same material, but fine and gauzy; from four to six
feet long, it was wrapped around the head, several times if need be; if
the hair mass was large, however, it would go little more than once.
Women wore little but a fringed waist band, which hung to the knees.
Like the Polynesians, from whom they probably learned it, the Fijians
used much _kava_, a drink which produces a stupefied or intoxicated
condition. The preparation of kava for the king was a great occasion.
The great kava bowl, made of wood carefully polished, was placed upon
the ground. The guests seated themselves around it. A number of young
men took pieces of the root from which the drink was to be made and
chewed them well in their mouths; they stacked up the pellets in the
dish; water was poured in until the bowl was nearly full and the balls
of chewed root were well stirred about and squeezed in it. Then a man,
especially trained to the work, strained them out with a bunch of fibre,
in which, by twisting, he squeezed the pellets until no more juice or
water ran out. The liquid was now ready for drinking. Prayer and song
had accompanied the making of the kava. The king, receiving a cupful
from a servant, spilled a little to the gods, and then drank. The others
then drank in their order. It was a high honor to drink next after the
king.
[Illustration: PILE-DWELLING VILLAGE: NEW GUINEA (RATZEL).]
[Illustration: CANOE: NEW GUINEA (RATZEL).]
The Fijians carved neat bowls and other vessels from wood. The kava
bowls, though usually plain, were carefully cut and beautifully
polished. The Fijians—almost alone of Pacific Islanders—made pottery;
the vessels were in various strange though rather graceful forms, and
were somewhat glazed. They made remarkable war clubs of fine, heavy,
dark woods which varied much in form, were decorated with carving, and
were handsomely polished. Fijians were not good sailors, but they made
better canoes than some of those made by Polynesians, who _were_ bold
sailors. It is said that the Tongans (Polynesians) gave up their own
style of canoe to adopt that of the Fijians. The canoes were, like those
of many of the Pacific Islands, double canoes; two canoes of the same
shape and size were placed side by side—with some little space
between—and united by a platform of boards; one sail was sometimes
hoisted; paddles were used for sculling and a great steering oar was
employed. A much larger book than this would be needed for describing
all the craft used on the water by Malayans, Melanesians, and
Polynesians. The Fijians enjoyed music and had two or three kinds of
drums, sticks that were beaten together, pan-pipes, a bamboo jew’s-harp,
a conch-shell trumpet, and a little flute that was blown by the nose.
The Fijians were a polite people—that is, they had rules about
greetings, behavior, and the treatment of superiors. One curious rule
was that a servant or inferior, in case his master fell or got into some
ridiculous position, must also fall or place himself in a similar
ridiculous position. Afterward it was expected that he would be rewarded
for his politeness. Mr. Williams tells us an incident that illustrates
this practice:—
“One day I came to a long bridge formed of a single cocoanut tree, which
was thrown across a rapid stream, the opposite bank of which was two or
three feet lower, so that the declivity was too steep to be comfortable.
The pole was also wet and slippery, and thus my crossing safely was very
doubtful. Just as I commenced the experiment a heathen said, with much
animation, ‘To-day I shall have a musket.’ I had, however, just then to
heed my steps more than his words, and so succeeded in reaching the
other side safely. When I asked him why he spoke of a musket, the man
replied, ‘I felt certain you would fall in attempting to go over, and I
should have fallen after you; and, as the bridge is high, the water
rapid, and you a gentleman, you would not have thought of giving me less
than a musket.’”
The _tabu_ is one of the most curious habits of Pacific Islanders.
Though it occurred in Fiji, it was Polynesian, rather than Melanesian.
Tabu was forbidding persons to touch, or use, or make some object.
Chiefs and priests set most of the tabus, but lesser people might
sometimes do so. A man might tabu all the cocoanuts in a district,
setting up some sign or mark to show that he had done so; no one might
thereafter touch a nut there until the tabu had been removed. A chief
might tabu a man’s working; he could not do work of any kind until the
chief removed the tabu. A chief might tabu the building of canoes by the
people of a certain village; the people thenceforth would need to secure
canoes from others. Thousands of tabus were set, and they made much
trouble and inconvenience. The man who broke a tabu was punished,
sometimes by death.
The Fijians were dreadful cannibals. England governed Fiji for many
years, and it was believed that the practice had disappeared. A few old
men were considered almost as curiosities because they had eaten flesh
of men and were called “the last of the cannibals.” Then suddenly in
1889 the old custom broke out again. A party of Fijians killed some
victims and ate them in a cave. A party in pursuit found evidence of the
dreadful feast. Among these were some of the curious wooden forks used
because it was not proper that the flesh should be touched with the
fingers!
XXX.
POLYNESIANS.
The Pacific Islands lying east from the Melanesian Islands, beginning
with New Zealand and stretching to Easter Island, were occupied by
Polynesians. The best known of their island groups were New Zealand, the
Society Islands, Samoa, and the Hawaiian Islands. These islands are
either volcanic islands or coral islands, and the natural animal and
vegetable life occurring on them is less varied than on the great
islands lying nearer to the Asiatic or Australian continents.
The Polynesians present a fine type. They are often tall and well built;
their skins, though brown, are frequently light; the features are
regular and the faces handsome. They are quick and intelligent, think
and reason well, take new ideas readily, and are fond of beauty. They
were barbarians, but had made so much progress that they were at the
border-line of civilization. Living in a mass of islands that presented
few natural resources, they had made the most of everything nature gave
them.
[Illustration: TATTOOED NEW ZEALANDER (VERNEAU).]
Many Polynesian tribes tattoo. Elaborate patterns are pricked into the
skin, with lines of needles set side by side and dipped in color. The
New Zealanders tattooed their faces with curious curved-line patterns,
each line had its proper place, and the patterns probably had a meaning.
The Marquesas Islanders covered their bodies with elaborate and graceful
patterns. The process was painful and only a small space was done at one
time; the whole work required years.
Polynesian dress differed somewhat with the region. In New Zealand fine,
soft, and flexible robes and blankets were woven of the native flax. In
Hawaii the king and chiefs had wonderful feather cloaks which hung to
the knees or even to the ankles. The little feathers of which these were
composed were red and yellow; a garment composed only of yellow feathers
could be worn only by the king; when both colors of feathers were used,
they were arranged in diamond-shaped or other ornamental forms, with
spots and lines of dark purple or black feathers. Besides the cloaks,
there were tippets of feathers, which were generally worn by lower
chiefs, who had not, or might not have, feather cloaks. In these feather
garments the dress was made of a sort of netted foundation, into which
these bright feathers were worked. Chiefs also had wonderful helmets of
wickerwork which were covered with feathers. The helmet might be simple,
just fitting the head, or large, ridged, or crested, and rising high
above the head. In some islands the clothing consisted of a fringed
girdle hanging from the waist to the knees.
[Illustration: HELMETS AND IDOL-HEADS OF FEATHERS: HAWAII (RATZEL).]
But everywhere in Polynesia the common dress was made of _tapa_. This
was a kind of paper or cloth beaten out of the bark of certain trees.
The bark was removed from the tree and soaked in water; it was laid upon
a large piece of wood and beaten with a sort of club or mallet. This was
made of hard wood and was round at one end for being taken in the hand;
the remainder was squared, and the four faces were either smooth or
ribbed by longitudinal grooves. By this beating the wood was separated
into its fibres, and these were mashed together into a sheet of firm
paper or cloth. This tapa differs with the tree from the bark of which
it is made. Some is thin and dark brown; that from the bark of the
breadfruit tree is fawn-colored; that from the paper-mulberry, best and
finest of all, is beautifully white. The women were so expert at beating
tapa that single strips, four yards wide and two hundred yards long,
were beaten. Such cloth might be left plain, or it might be stained with
colors, or it might be stamped with patterns. Wooden blocks or strips of
bamboo were carved with designs which were smeared with color and
stamped on the cloth; sometimes ferns were laid in coloring matter, then
the form transferred to the tapa.
The two chief food supplies in Polynesia were breadfruit and cocoanuts;
yams (much like sweet potatoes) and bananas were plenty. A favorite food
in places is _poi_, a sort of gruel or pudding made from the root of
_taro_. It was not eaten with a spoon, but the finger was dipped into it
and stirred around to get a good load of the sticky stuff on it, when it
was stuck into the mouth and sucked clean. Fish were much eaten, though
not all kinds nor at all times.
The Polynesian oven was a hole, three or four feet across, and a foot
deep, dug in the ground. The bottom was lined with stones, which were
covered with dry leaves, upon which a brisk fire was built. When the
stones were red-hot, the dust and ashes were brushed out of the oven,
and the potatoes, yams, and taro, or the pigs, dogs, fish, and birds
were wrapped in leaves, and laid upon the hot stones. When all the food
to be cooked had been neatly placed, leaves were laid above them, and
hot stones on these. All was then covered in with leaves and earth, and
left until thoroughly baked through.
Many of the strange peoples we have considered are filthy; Polynesians
were unusually cleanly, and bathed frequently. In some islands surf
bathing was the chief sport. Every traveller to Hawaii has described the
practice. Babies were taken into the sea by their mothers within two or
three days of their birth, and could swim as soon as they could walk.
Old and young, men and women, bathe in the surf, and the heavier the
waves the greater the sport. The surf-bathing board was five or six feet
long, and a foot wide; it was carefully polished. Taking his board and
pushing it before him, the man swam far out to sea, diving under the
billows as he met them. When far enough out, he lay himself on the end
of the board and waited for a great wave. When it came, he poised
himself on its very crest, and paddling with hands and feet rode in upon
it almost to the shore.
The Polynesians were warriors, and their battles were cruel and bloody.
They rarely ventured into battle until their gods, through their
priests, promised them success. To prepare themselves for war they
practised in warlike arts. Thus they slung stones at marks, threw
javelins, and wrestled. It is said that, in slinging, they were able to
strike a small stick at fifty yards’ distance, four times out of five.
In their javelin practice, the man at whom the weapon was thrown often
caught it and hurled it back; some were so skilled that they “would
allow six men to throw their javelins at them, which they would either
catch and return on their assailants, or so dextrously turn aside that
they fell harmless to the ground.” In going to war, a chief summoned all
his friends and subordinates. When they had gathered, the
gods—especially the war gods—were brought out to assist and encourage
them. During the battle there was great noise and confusion; effort was
made to kill the great chiefs of the enemy, so that their followers
might be discouraged. Many were killed. Survivors fled to some fortress,
or the mountains, or found safety in one of the curious “places of
refuge,” within whose sacred precincts no harm could be done them.
For weapons, the Hawaiians had spears of great length, javelins, clubs
which were used both for thrusting and striking, a hard wood dagger, and
slings often made of human hair. On the Kingsmill Islands the natives
made weapons, in many shapes or sizes, of wooden shafts, along the sides
of which great numbers of sharks’ teeth were securely lashed. These
weapons were used both for thrusting and striking, and were fearful
things on naked bodies. In those same islands, and on account of these
shark-tooth weapons, the natives had curious protective clothing or
armor of cocoanut fibre.
[Illustration: KINGSMILL ISLANDER (TYLOR).]
Many Polynesians were cannibals: some of them dreadful cannibals. Their
eating of human flesh was often connected with their religion. They had
many gods, whom they represented by idols. The Hawaiian war god is an
example. His idol was an image four or five feet high; the upper part
was of wickerwork covered with red feathers; the hideous face was
supplied with a great mouth with triple rows of dog’s or shark’s teeth;
the eyes were of shell, and upon the head was a helmet crested with long
tresses of human hair.
XXXI.
CONCLUSION.
We have spoken of many Strange Peoples. We have gone around the world in
our search. But after all we have examined but a small part. Remember
that there are fifty-one peoples at least in the Philippines alone. We
have not examined the Australians, or the unfortunate Tasmanians, or the
many tribes of Siberia, or the sixty native populations of India. We
have omitted great nations like the southeast Asians,—Siamese, Burmese,
Annamese. In fact there are many times more Strange Peoples in the world
whom we have _not_ examined, than whom we have. But we have examined
enough, I hope, to learn that they are interesting and deserve our
acquaintance and our sympathy.
There are few unknown peoples left. Travellers have gone to almost all
parts of the world. The spots which represent absolutely unexplored
regions on our maps are now neither large nor numerous. There are many
peoples about whom we know little, but there are not many who are
actually unknown. Those that may be discovered hereafter will be
interesting, but they are not likely to be very different from those now
known.
Many of the Strange Peoples are becoming less “strange” every year. Old
customs and peculiar practices are dying out in every part of the world.
Travellers, missionaries, and merchants from white men’s lands are
taking our ideas, our tools, our weapons, our dress, our learning, our
religion, and our vices to the remotest parts of the world. Some of the
Strange Peoples here described have already lost most of their old
customs. The Polynesians and Fijians have little of the old life which
we have described. Many American Indian tribes have changed less. Some
populations have still changed little. But a tribe must indeed be remote
and difficult of access to actually escape our touch absolutely. Usually
the change is _not_ improvement. Other people more quickly adopt our
vices than our virtues. Many tribes have become drunken, diseased, and
depraved through the white man’s influence. It is rare, indeed, that a
lower people gains in happiness or virtue by contact with “higher
civilization.”
Many of the Strange Peoples will disappear. The Tasmanians were killed
off almost like so many animals by the English. American Indian tribes
have suffered almost as badly at our hands. Many tribes have gone;
others are going. The Lipans were once a fairly numerous tribe. In 1892
I saw all who were left in the United States—four women and one man; six
months later I saw them again—the man was dead and only four women
remained. The Tonkaways are dying out at the rate of one-third each
eight years. The Polynesians, strong, handsome, active, and happy as
they were when James Cook visited their islands little more than one
hundred years ago, have dwindled, and fifty years more may blot them
from the earth. Not all American Indian tribes are dying out; it is
possible too that Polynesian decline began before Cook’s travels. But it
is certain that on the whole the changes brought by the newcomers sealed
the doom of the Indian and Polynesian.
There have always been movements of peoples from place to place. We have
seen the Malays pouring three great masses of immigrants into the
Philippines. There are white peoples in Asia; there are yellow peoples
in Europe. Recently plenty of whites and of blacks have poured into
America. Such movements contain some danger. The fair whites will
probably never be able to live in the tropical lands. A certain sort of
skin, hair, nose, breathing apparatus, is necessary for men who are to
live and prosper in low, hot, marshy parts of Africa. For Germans to try
to _colonize_ equatorial Africa is probably a fatal blunder. So far as
we know the dark whites—Spaniards, Italians, south Frenchmen—make better
tropical colonizers than we do; but even they are not successful. The
negro is a bad colonizer, he hardly holds his own even in our Southern
states. Of all the peoples of the globe the Chinese seem to be the best
able to colonize differing countries. He seems to go to hot lands and
cold lands, to small islands and to great continents, but flourishes
everywhere. So true is this that some writers have urged that Africa be
opened up for settlement to the crowded millions of the old empire. For
most peoples, however, migration, if they _must_ migrate, is best along
the lines of latitude into lands as much like the old home as possible.
Many Scandinavians live to-day happily where Wisconsin, Iowa, and
Michigan join; and they may be expected to prosper there, for land and
water, soil and products, scenery and climate, are there much what they
were in the fatherland.
LIST OF BOOKS REGARDING STRANGE PEOPLES.