Produced by Jeroen Hellingman
Negritos of Zambales
by
William Allan Reed
Manila
Bureau of Public Printing
1904
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
Department of the Interior,
The Ethnological Survey,
Manila, March 3, 1904.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit a study of the Negritos of Zambales
Province made by Mr. William Allan Reed, of The Ethnological Survey,
during the year 1903. It is transmitted with the recommendation that
it be published as Part I of Volume II of a series of scientific
studies to be published by this Survey.
Respectfully,
Chief of the Ethnological Survey.
Hon. Dean C. Worcester,
Secretary of the Interior, Manila, P. I.
LETTER OF SUBMITTAL
Department of the Interior,
The Ethnological Survey,
Manila, March 1, 1904.
SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith my report on the Negritos
of Zambales.
Very respectfully,
William Allan Reed.
Dr. Albert Ernest Jenks,
Chief of The Ethnological Survey, Manila, P. I.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter of Transmittal
Letter of Submittal
Illustrations
Preface
Chapter 1: Distribution of Negritos
Present Distribution in the Philippines
In Luzon
In the Southern Islands
Conclusion
Chapter 2: The Province of Zambales
Geographical Features
Historical Sketch
Habitat of the Negritos
Chapter 3: Negritos of Zambales
Physical Features
Permanent Adornment
Clothing and Dress
Chapter 4: Industrial Life
Home Life
Agriculture
Manufacture and Trade
Hunting and Fishing
Chapter 5: Amusements
Games
Music
Dancing
The Potato Dance, or Piña Camote
The Bee Dance, or Piña Pa-ni-lan
The Torture Dance
The Lovers' Dance
The Duel Dance
Chapter 6: General Social Life
The Child
Marriage
Rice Ceremony
Head Ceremony
"Leput," or Home Coming
Polygamy and Divorce
Burial
Morals
Slavery
Intellectual Life
+ Superstitions
Chapter 7: Spanish Attempts to Organize Negritos
Anthropometric Measurements
Vocabularies
Plates
ILLUSTRATIONS
I. Outline map of the Philippine Islands, showing distribution of
Negritos. 18
II. Outline map of Zambales, showing distribution of Negritos. 30
III. Negrito women of Bataan on a rock in a stream. 30
IV. Negrito man from Nangsol, near Subig, Zambales. 30
V. Negrito man from Aglao, Zambales. 30
VI. Negrito woman of Zambales. 30
VII. View near Santa Fé, Zambales. 30
VIII. Capitán of Villar. 30
IX. Negrito man of Zambales. 30
X. Showing the relative height of American, mixed blood and pure
Negrito. 30
XI. Group of Negritos and Constabulary at Cabayan, Zambales. 30
XII. Old man of Zambales, pure Negrito. 30
XIII. Old man of Zambales, pure Negrito, showing hair on face and
chest. 30
XIV. Negrito of Zambales, showing hair on the chin and skin disease
on the arm. 30
XV. Pure Negrito of Zambales, showing hair on the chin. 30
XVI. Negrito Man of Zambales, showing hair on the face. 30
XVII. Negrito girls of Zambales, one with hair clipped behind to
eradicate vermin. 30
XVIII. Negrito man of Zambales, pure blood. 30
XIX. Negrito man of Zambales, mixed blood. 44
XX. Negrito man of Zambales, pure blood. 44
XXI. Negrito man of Zambales, mixed blood. 44
XXII. Negrito girl of Zambales, pure blood. 44
XXIII. Negrito woman of Zambales, mixed blood. 44
XXIV. Old Negrito woman of Zambales, pure blood. 44
XXV. Negrito man of Zambales, pure blood. 44
XXVI. Negrito man of Negros, mixed blood. 44
XXVII. Negrito man of Zambales. 44
XXVIII. Negritos (emigrants from Panay) of Maao, Occidental Negros;
mixed bloods. 44
XXIX. Group of Negrito men at Santa Fé, Zambales. 44
XXX. Principal men of Tagiltil, Zambales; pure Zambal and mixed
Negrito. 44
XXXI. Negritos of Zambales, mixed bloods. 44
XXXII. Group of people called Aburlin; non-Christian Zambal and
Negrito mixed bloods. 44
XXXIII. Negrito women of Zambales. 44
XXXIV. Group of Negrito women at Santa Fé, Zambales, showing dress. 44
XXXV. Negrito girls of Zambales, one wearing necklace of dried
berries. 58
XXXVI. Combs worn by Negritos of Zambales. 58
XXXVII. Ornaments worn by Negritos of Zambales. 58
XXXVIII. Negrito man, wife, and hut, Bataan. 58
XXXIX. Better class of Negrito hut, Zambales. 58
XL. Negrito man of Bataan making fire with bamboo. 58
XLI. Negrito men of Bataan making fire with bamboo. 58
XLII. Bows and arrows used by Negritos of Zambales. 58
XLIII. Position taken by Negritos of Zambales in shooting. 58
XLIV. Negrito man of Bataan drawing a bow; hog-bristle ornaments on
the legs. 58
XLV. Negrito man of Negros (emigrant from Panay) drawing a bow. 58
XLVI. Musical instruments used by Negritos of Zambales. 58
XLVII. Negritos of Zambales singing the "talbun." 58
XLVIII. Negritos of Zambales dancing. 58
XLIX. Negrito men of Bataan beating gongs and dancing. 58
L. Negritos of Zambales dancing the "torture dance." 58
LI. Negrito woman and daughter, Bataan. 72
LII. Pure Negrito woman and mixed blood, with babies, Zambales. 72
LIII. Negrito women and children, Zambales. 72
LIV. Negrito children, Santa Fé, Zambales. 72
LV. Capitán of Cabayan, Zambales, with Negrito and Zambal wives. 72
LVI. Boys of Zambales, showing scars made by blistering for fevers,
etc. 72
LVII. Negrito woman of Zambales, pure blood, showing scars made by
blistering for fevers, etc. 72
LVIII. Negrito woman of Zambales, pure blood, showing skin disease. 72
LIX. Negrito man of Zambales, mixed blood, showing skin disease. 72
LX. Negrito boy of Zambales, mixed blood, showing skin disease. 72
LXI. Negrito man of Zambales, mixed blood, showing skin disease. 72
LXII. Capitán-General del Monte, Negrito of Zambales. 72
Figure 1. "Belatic," trap used by Negritos. 45
Figure 2. Marks on dice used by Negritos. 49
PREFACE
This report is based on two months' field work pursued during May and
June, 1903. Accompanied by Mr. J. Diamond, a photographer, the writer
went in the latter part of April to Iba, Zambales, where a few days
were spent in investigating the dialects of the Zambal people and in
preparation for a trip to the interior.
After a journey of 25 miles inland a camp was established near
Tagiltil. During the three weeks we were there the camp was visited
by about 700 Negritos, who came in from outlying settlements, often
far back in the mountains; but, owing to the fact that most of them
would remain only as long as they were fed, extended investigations
had to be conducted largely among the residents of Tagiltil and the
neighboring rancheria of Villar.
From Tagiltil a trip was made southward behind the low mountain
chain, which marks the limit of the plain, and through a hitherto
unexplored territory, very broken and next to impassable except in
the dry season. The trail, known only to Negritos and but little
used, followed for the most part the beds of mountain streams. Four
little rancherias were passed, the people of two of which had already
visited us. A hard two-day trip brought us to Santa Fé, a barrio
of San Marcelino. After a week with the Negritos at this place a
trip was made toward the Pampanga boundary to Cabayan and Aglao,
the former locality inhabited by several small groups of Negritos,
the latter an isolated Ilokano barrio in and near which the Negritos
live. A visit to the rancherias near Subig and Olongapo concluded
the investigation. In all, more than a thousand Negritos were seen.
With only a short time at a place it is evident that an exhaustive
study of the people of any particular locality could not be made. But
the culture plane of the entire area is practically the same, and
the facts as here presented should give a good idea of the customs
and the general condition of the Negritos of Zambales Province. The
short time at my disposal for the investigation is my only excuse
for the meager treatment given some lines of study--as, for example,
physical anthropology and language.
Inasmuch as nothing has yet been published by The Ethnological Survey
on the Negritos of the Philippines, I have thought it not out of
place to preface my report with an introductory chapter on their
distribution. The data contained therein have been compiled by me
from information gathered by the Survey during the past two years
and are sufficiently authentic for the present purpose.
The photographs of the Zambales Negritos were made by Mr. J. Diamond
and those of the Bataan Negritos are from the collection of Hon. Dean
C. Worcester, Secretary of the Interior. Credit for each photograph
is given on the plate as it appears.
CHAPTER I
DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRITOS
Probably no group of primitive men has attracted more attention from
the civilized world than the pygmy blacks. From the time of Homer and
Aristotle the pygmies, although their existence was not absolutely
known at that early period, have had their place in fable and legend,
and as civilized man has become more and more acquainted with the
unknown parts of the globe he has met again and again with the same
strange type of the human species until he has been led to conclude
that there is practically no part of the tropic-zone where these
little blacks have not lived at some time.
Mankind at large is interested in a race of dwarfs just as it would
be in a race of giants, no matter what the color or social state; and
scientists have long been concerned with trying to fix the position of
the pygmies in the history of the human race. That they have played an
important ethnologic rôle can not be doubted; and although to-day they
are so scattered and so modified by surrounding people as largely to
have disappeared as a pure type, yet they have everywhere left their
imprint on the peoples who have absorbed them.
The Negritos of the Philippines constitute one branch of the Eastern
division of the pygmy race as opposed to the African division, it being
generally recognized that the blacks of short stature may be so grouped
in two large and comprehensive divisions. Other well-known branches of
the Eastern group are the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands and perhaps
also the Papuans of New Guinea, very similar in many particulars to the
Negritos of the Philippines, although authorities differ in grouping
the Papuans with the Negritos. The Asiatic continent is also not
without its representatives of the black dwarfs, having the Sakai of
the Malay Peninsula. The presence of Negritos over so large an area has
especially attracted the attention of anthropologists who have taken
generally one or the other of two theories advanced to explain it:
First, that the entire oceanic region is a partly submerged continent,
once connected with the Asiatic mainland and over which this aboriginal
race spread prior to the subsidence. The second theory is that the
peopling of the several archipelagoes by the Negritos has been a
gradual spread from island to island. This latter theory, advanced
by De Quatrefages, [1] is the generally accepted one, although it is
somewhat difficult to believe that the ancestors of weak and scattered
tribes such as to-day are found in the Philippines could ever have been
the sea rovers that such a belief would imply. It is a well-known fact,
however, that the Malays have spread in this manner, and, while it
is hardly possible that the Negritos have ever been as bold seafarers
as the Malays, yet where they have been left in undisputed possession
of their shores they have remained reckless fishermen. The statement
that they are now nearly always found in impenetrable mountain forests
is not an argument against the migration-by-sea theory, because they
have been surrounded by stronger races and have been compelled to
flee to the forests or suffer extermination. The fact that they live
farther inland than the stronger peoples is also evidence that they
were the first inhabitants, for it is not natural to suppose that a
weaker race could enter territory occupied by a stronger and gain a
permanent foothold there. [2]
The attention of the first Europeans who visited the Philippines
was attracted by people with frizzly hair and with a skin darker
in color than that of the ruling tribes. Pigafetta, to whom we are
indebted for an account of Magellan's voyage of discovery in 1521,
mentions Negritos as living in the Island of Panglao, southwest of
Bohol and east of Cebu. [3] If we are to believe later historians
the shores of some of the islands fairly swarmed with Negritos when
the Spaniards arrived. Meyer gives an interesting extract from an
old account by Galvano, The Discoveries of the World (ed. Bethune,
Hakluyt Soc., 1862, p. 234): [4]
In the same yeere 1543, and in moneth of August, the generall
Rui Lopez sent one Bartholomew de la torre in a smal ship into
new Spaine to acquaint the vizeroy don Antonio de Mendoça, with
all things. They went to the Islands of Siria, Gaonata, Bisaia
and many others, standing in 11 and 12 degrees towards the north,
where Magellan had beene. * * * They found also an Archepelagus
of Islands well inhabited with people, lying in 15 or 16 degrees:
* * * There came vnto them certaine barkes or boates handsomely
decked, wherein the master and principall men sate on high, and
vnderneath were very blacke moores with frizled haire * * *: and
being demanded where they had these blacke moores, they answered,
that they had them from certaine islands standing fast by Sebut,
where there were many of them.
Zúñiga [5] quotes the Franciscan history [6] as follows:
The Negritos which our first conquerors found were, according to
tradition, the first possessors of the islands of this Archipelago,
and, having been conquered by the political nations of other
kingdoms, they fled to the mountains and populated them, whence
no one has been able to accomplish their extermination on account
of the inaccessibility of the places where they live. In the past
they were so proud of their primitive dominion that, although
they did not have strength to resist the strangers in the open,
in the woods and mountains and mouths of the rivers they were very
powerful. They made sudden attacks on the pueblos and compelled
their neighbors to pay tribute to them as to lords of the earth
which they inhabited, and if these did not wish to pay them they
killed right and left, collecting the tribute in heads. * * *
One of the islands of note in this Archipelago is that called Isla
de Negros on account of the abundance of them [negroes]. In one
point of this island--on the west side, called "Sojoton"--there
is a great number of Negritos, and in the center of the island
many more.
Chirino has the following to say of the Negritos of Panay at the end
of the sixteenth century: [7]
Amongst these (Bisayas) there are also some negroes, the ancient
inhabitants of the island of which they had taken possession before
the Bisayas. They are somewhat less black and less ugly man those
of Guinea, but are smaller and weaker, although as regards hair
and beard they are similar. They are more barbarous and savage
than the Bisayas and other Filipinos, for they do not, like them,
have houses and fixed settlements. They neither sow nor reap, and
they wander through the mountains with their women and children
like animals, almost naked. * * * Their sole possessions are the
bow and arrow.
Meyer, [8] who has given the subject much study and has conducted
personal investigations on the field, states that "although at the
time of the arrival of the Spaniards in the country, and probably
long before, the Negritos were in process of being driven back by
the Malays, yet it appears certain that their numbers were then
larger, for they were feared by their neighbors, which is now only
exceptionally the case."
Of the vast amount of material that has been written during the past
century on the Negritos of the Philippines a considerable portion
can not be taken authoritatively. Exceptions should be made of the
writings of Meyer, Montano, Marche, and Blumentritt. A large part
of the writings on the Philippine Negritos have to do with their
distribution and numbers, since no one has made an extended study
of them on the spot, except Meyer, whose work (consisting of twelve
chapters and published in Volume IX of the Publications of the Royal
Ethnographical Museum of Dresden, 1893) I regret not to have seen. Two
chapters of this work on the distribution of the Negritos, republished
in 1899, form the most recent and most nearly correct exposition of
this subject. Meyer summarizes as follows:
It may be regarded as proved with certainty that Negritos are
found in Luzon, Alabat, Corregidor, Panay, Tablas, Negros, Cebu,
northeast Mindanao, and Palawan. It is questionable whether they
occur in Guimaras, Mindoro, and the Calamianes.
This statement would be more nearly correct if Corregidor and Cebu were
placed in the second list and Guimaras in the first. In this paper it
is possible, by reason of special investigations, to give more reliable
and detailed information on this subject than any yet published.
Present Distribution in the Philippines [9]
In Luzon
This paper concerns itself chiefly with the Zambales Negritos whose
distribution in Zambales and the contiguous Provinces of Bataan,
Pampanga, and Tarlac is treated in detail in the following chapter. But
Negritos of more or less pure blood, known variously as Aeta, Agta,
Baluga, Dumagat, etc., are found in at least eleven other provinces
of Luzon. Beginning with the southern end of the island there are
a very few Negritos in the Province of Sorsogon. They are found
generally living among the Bicol population and do not run wild
in the woods; they have probably drifted down from the neighboring
Province of Albay. According to a report submitted by the governor
of Sorsogon there are a few of these Negritos in Bacon and Bulusan,
and four families containing Negrito blood are on the Island of Batang
near Gabat.
Eight pueblos of Albay report altogether as many as 800 Negritos, known
locally as "Agta." It is not likely any of them are of pure blood. In
all except three of the towns they are servants in Bicol houses, but
Malinao, Bacacay, and Tabaco report wandering groups in the mountains.
Meyer, who makes no mention of Negritos in Sorsogon or Albay, deems
their existence in the Camarines sufficiently well authenticated,
according to Blumentritt, who places Negrito half-breeds in the
neighborhood of Lagonoy and around Mount Isarog. Information received
by The Ethnological Survey places them in the mountains near Baao,
Bulic, Iriga, Lagonoy, San José, Gao, and Tigaon, as well as scattered
over the Cordillera de Isarog around Sagnay. All of these places
are in the extreme southeastern part of the province contiguous to
that part of Albay inhabited by Negritos. In neither province is
the type pure. In the northern part of the province a few Negritos,
called "Dumagat," are reported near Sipocot and Ragay. The towns of
San Vicente, Labo, Paracale, Mambulao, and Capalonga along the north
coast also have Negritos, generally called "Aeta." These are probably
of purer blood than those around Mount Isarog. More than a hundred
families of "Dumagat" are reported on the Islands of Caringo, Caluat,
and Jomalic.
Farther to the north the Island of Alabat was first stated by
Blumentritt to be inhabited by Dumagat, and in his map of 1882 he
places them here but omits them in the map of 1890. Meyer deems their
occurrence there to be beyond all doubt, as per Steen Bille's reports
(Reise der Galathea, German ed., 1852). Reports of The Ethnological
Survey place Aeta, Baluga, and Dumagat on Alabat--the former running
wild in the mountains, the latter living in the barrios of Camagon
and Silangan, respectively. On the mainland of the Province of Tayabas
the Negritos are generally known as Aeta and may be regarded as being
to a large degree of pure blood. They are scattered pretty well over
the northern part of the province, but do not, so far as is known,
extend down into the peninsula below Pitogo and Macalelon. Only at
Mauban are they known as Baluga, which name seems to indicate a mixed
breed. The Island of Polillo and the districts of Infanta and Principe,
now part of the Province of Tayabas, have large numbers of Negritos
probably more nearly approaching a pure physical type than those
south of them. The Negritos of Binangonan and Baler have received
attention in short papers from Blumentritt, but it yet remains for
someone to make a study of them on the spot.
Meyer noted in 1872 that Negritos frequently came from the mountains
to Santa Cruz, Laguna Province. These probably came from across the
Tayabas line, as none are reported in Laguna except from Santa Maria,
in the extreme northern part. Even these are probably very near
the boundary line into Rizal Province; perhaps they are over the
line. Tanay, Rizal Province, on the shore of Laguna de Bay, reports
some 300 Negritos as living in the mountains north of that town. From
descriptions given by natives of Tanay they do not appear to be pure
types. There is also a small group near Montalbán, in Rizal Province,
not more than 20 miles from Manila.
Going northward into Bulacan we are in possession of more definite
information regarding the whereabouts of these forest dwellers. Zúñiga
in 1803 spoke of the Negritos of Angat--in those days head-hunters who
were accustomed to send messages by means of knotted grass stalks. [10]
This region, the upper reaches of the Angat River, was visited by
Mr. E. J. Simons on a collecting trip for The Ethnological Survey
in February, 1903. Mr. Simons saw twenty-two little rancherias of
the Dumagat, having a total population of 176 people. Some of them
had striking Negroid characteristics, but nearly all bore evidence
of a mixture of blood. In some cases full-blooded Filipinos have
married into the tribe and adopted Negrito customs entirely. Their
social state is about the same as that of the Negritos of Zambales,
though some of their habits--for instance, betel chewing--approach
more nearly those of lower-class Filipinos. A short vocabulary of
their dialect is given in Appendix B.
Negritos are also found in northern Bulacan and throughout the
continuous mountain region extending through Nueva Ecija into Isabela
and the old Province of Principe. They are reported from Peñaranda,
Bongabong, and Pantabangan, in Nueva Ecija, to the number of 500. This
region is yet to be fully explored; the same may be said also of that
vast range of mountains, the Sierra Madre, of Isabela and Cagayan. In
the Province of Isabela Negritos are reported from all the towns,
especially Palanan, on the coast, and Carig, Echague, Angadanan,
Cauayan, and Cabagan Nuevo, on the upper reaches of the Rio Grande
de Cagayan, but as there is a vast unknown country between, future
exploration will have to determine the numerical importance of the
Negritos. It has been thought heretofore that this region contained a
large number of people of pure blood. This was the opinion set forth
by Blumentritt. He says:
This coast is the only spot in the Philippines in which
the original masters of the Archipelago, the Negritos, hold
unrestricted possession of their native land. The eastern side
of the Cordillera which slopes toward this coast is also their
undisputed possession. However, the western slopes they have been
compelled to share with branches of Malay descendants. Here they
retain the greatest purity of original physique and character.
These statements stand much in need of verification. Inquiries
pursued by The Ethnological Survey do not bear them out--in fact,
point to an opposite belief.
There is a small body of what may be pure types near the boundary
between Isabela and Cagayan, west of the Cagayan River, but the coast
region, so far as is known, does not hold any Negritos.
As many as sixteen towns of Cagayan report Negritos to the total number
of about 2,500. They are known commonly as "Atta," but in the pueblo
of Baggao there are three groups known locally as "Atta," "Diango," and
"Paranan." They have been described by natives of Baggao as being very
similar to the ordinary Filipinos in physical characteristics except
that they are darker in color and have bushy hair. Their only weapons
are the bow and arrow. Their social status is in every way like that of
the Negritos as distinguished from the industrious mountain. Malayans
of northern Luzon. Yet future investigations may not associate these
robust and warlike tribes with the weak, shirking Negritos. Negritos
of pure type have not so far been reported from Cagayan.
At only two places in the western half of northern Luzon have Negritos
been observed. There is a small group near Piddig, Ilokos Norte,
and a wandering band of about thirty-five in the mountains between
Villavieja, Abra Province, and Santa Maria, Ilokos Sur Province, from
both of which towns they have been reported. It is but a question of
time until no trace of them will be left in this region so thickly
populated with stronger mountain peoples.
In the Southern Islands
Although Negritos were reported by the early Spanish writers to
be especially numerous in some of the southern islands, probably
more of them are found on Luzon than on all the other islands in the
Archipelago. Besides Luzon, the only large islands inhabited by them
at present are Panay, Negros, Mindanao, and Paragua, but some of the
smaller islands, as Tablas and Guimaras, have them.
Negritos of pure blood have not been reported from Mindoro, but only
the half-breed Manguian, who belong in a group to themselves. It is
questionable whether the unknown interior will produce pure types,
though it is frequently reported that there are Negritos in the
interior.
There is a rather large colony of Negritos on the west coast of Tablas
near Odiungan, and also a few on the Isla de Carabao immediately
south of Tablas. These have probably passed up from Panay. All the
provinces of the latter island report Negritos, locally known as
"Ati" and "Agta." They seem to be scattered pretty well over the
interior of Panay, being especially numerous in the mountainous region
where the Provinces of Antique and Iloilo join. In Antique there are
about 1,000 Negritos living in groups of several families each. They
are reported from nearly all the towns, being more numerous along
the Dalanas and Sibalon Rivers. The number of pure types is said,
however, to be rapidly decreasing on account of intermarriage with
the Bukidnon or mountain Visayan. They are of very small stature,
with kinky hair. They lead the same nomadic life as the Negritos in
other parts, except that they depend more on the products of the forest
for subsistence and rarely clear and cultivate "ca-ing-in." [11] They
seem to have developed more of religious superstitions, and believe
that both evil spirits and protecting spirits inhabit the forests
and plains. However, these beliefs may have been borrowed from the
Bukidnon, with whom they come much in contact. From a mixing of the
Ati and Bukidnon are sprung the Calibugan, who partake more of the
characteristics of their Visayan ancestors than those of the Ati, and
generally abandon the nomadic life and live in clearings in the forest.
About ten years ago there was a group of about 200 Ati at a place
called Labangan, on the Dalanas River, governed by one Capitán
Andres. They made clearings and carried people across the river for a
small remuneration. Many of them are said to have emigrated to Negros
to escape public work to which the local authorities subjected them
without compensation.
There is a small, wandering group of Negritos on Guimaras, probably
emigrants from Panay. They have been reported from both Nagaba and
Nueva Valencia, pueblos of that island.
Investigation does not bear out the statements of the historian
previously quoted in regard to the early populations of Negros. At
least it seems that if the southwestern part of that island known
as Sojoton had been so thickly populated with Negritos early in the
eighteenth century more traces of them would remain to-day. But they
seem to have left no marks on the Malayan population. While in the
Isio region in August, 1903, I made special investigation and inquiry
into this subject and could find no trace of Negritos. Expeditions
of the Constabulary into the interior have never met with the little
blacks except a single colony near the boundary line between the two
provinces just north of Tolon. A few Negritos have also been seen
scattered in the interior of southern Oriental Negros back from
Nueva Valencia, Ayuquitan, and Bais. From there no trace of them
exists until the rugged mountains north of the volcano of Canlaon
are reached, in the almost impenetrable recesses of which there are
estimated to be a thousand or more. They are especially numerous
back of Escalante and formerly made frequent visits to that pueblo,
but recent military operations in the region have made them timid, as
scouting parties have fired on and killed several of them. The sight
of a white man or native of the plain is a signal for an immediate
discharge of arrows. Also in the mountains behind Sagay, Cadiz, and
Manapla live a few scattered families. I was fortunate in securing
photographs of a Negrito captured by the Constabulary near Cadiz. (See
Pl. XXVI.) He was much taller than the Negritos of Zambales, but with
very little muscular development. He spoke Visayan, and said he knew
no other dialect. While in Negros I also secured photographs of a
small colony of Ati, who emigrated from Panay about twenty years ago
and now live on a mountain hacienda on the slope of Mount Canlaon.
So far there is no evidence that Negritos exist on Cebu, Bohol, Samar,
and Leyte. In Mindanao they are found only in the extreme northern
part of Surigao, not having been reported below Tago. They are called
"Mamanua," and are not very numerous.
We have detailed accounts of both the Tagbanua and Batak of
Paragua, by señor Manuel Venturello, a native of Puerto Princesa,
who has lived among them twenty years. These interesting articles,
translated by Capt. E. A. Helmick, Tenth United States Infantry, and
published in pamphlet form by the Division of Military Information,
Manila, are especially full as to customs, religion, language, etc.,
of the Tagbanua who inhabit the central part of Paragua from the
Bay of Ulugan south to Apurahuan. However, the Tagbanua, although
perhaps having a slight amount of Negrito blood, can not be classed
with the Negritos. But, in my opinion, the Batak who inhabit the
territory from the Bay of Ulugan north to Caruray and Barbacan may
be so classed, although they are by no means of pure blood. They are
described as being generally of small stature but well developed
and muscular. They have very curly but not kinky hair, except in
rare cases. Their weapons are the bow and arrow and the blowgun or
sumpitan, here called "sumpit." Their only clothing is a breechcloth
and a short skirt of flayed bark. A notable feature of their customs
is that both polygyny and polyandry are permitted, this being the
only instance of the latter practice so far observed among the tribes
of the Philippines. The Batak are not very numerous; their villages
have been decimated by ravages of smallpox during the past five years.
Conclusion
This rapid survey leaves much to be desired, but it contains about
all that is definitely known to-day concerning the whereabouts
of the Negritos in the Philippines. No attempt has been made to
state numbers. The Philippine census will probably have more exact
information in this particular, but it must be borne in mind that
even the figures given by the census can be no more than estimates
in most instances. The habits of the Negritos do not lend themselves
to modern methods of census taking.
After all, Blumentritt's opinion of several years ago is not far from
right. Including all mixed breeds having a preponderance of Negrito
blood, it is safe to say that the Negrito population of the Philippines
probably will not exceed 25,000. Of these the group largest in numbers
and probably purest in type is that in the Zambales mountain range,
western Luzon. However, while individuals may retain in some cases
purity of blood, nowhere are whole groups free from mixture with the
Malayan. The Negritos of Panay, Negros, and Mindanao are also to be
regarded as pure to a large extent. On the east side of Luzon and in
the Island of Paragua, as we have just seen, there is marked evidence
of mixture.
The social state of the Negritos is everywhere practically the
same. They maintain their half-starved lives by the fruits of the
chase and forest products, and at best cultivate only small patches of
maize and other vegetables. Only occasionally do they live in settled,
self-supporting communities, but wander for the most part in scattered
families from one place to another.