INDUSTRIAL LIFE
Home Life
The general condition of the Negritos, although not one of extreme
misery, is indeed pitiable. Their life is a continual struggle for
sufficient food, but their efforts to provide for themselves stop short
at that; clothing and houses are of secondary importance. The average
Negrito takes little pride in his dwelling place. A shelter sufficient
to turn the beating rains is all he asks. He sees to it that the hut is
on ground high enough so that water will not stand in it; then, curled
up beside his few coals of fire, he sleeps with a degree of comfort.
The most easily constructed hut, and therefore the most common,
consists simply of two forked sticks driven into the ground so they
stand about 8 feet apart and 4 feet high. A horizontal piece is laid
in the two forks, then some strips of bamboo are inclined against this
crosspiece, the other ends resting on the ground. Some cross strips are
tied with bejuco to these bamboos and the whole is covered with banana
leaves. With the materials close at hand a half hour is sufficient
for one man to construct such a shelter. Where a comparatively long
residence in one place is contemplated more care may be given the
construction of a house, but the above description will apply to
many dwellings in a rancheria two or three years old. Instead of
two upright pieces make it four, somewhat higher, and place a bamboo
platform within so the occupants do not have to sleep on the ground,
and you have an approved type of Negrito architecture. Sometimes as
an adjunct to this a shelter may be erected in front, provided with
a bamboo seat for the accommodation of visitors. The more prosperous
Negritos in the long-established rancherias have four-posted houses of
bamboo, with roof and sides of cogon grass. The floors are 4 feet from
the ground and the cooking is done underneath the floors. A small fire
is kept burning all night. The inmates of the house sleep just above
it, and in this way receive some benefit of the warmth. If it were not
for these fires the Negrito would suffer severely from cold during the
night, for he possesses no blanket and uses no covering of any sort.
For two reasons he never lets his fire go out; first, because he likes
to feel the warmth continually, and second, because it is something
of a task to build a fire, once it has gone out. (See Pls. XXXVIII,
XXXIX.)
The method of making fire used universally by the Negritos of
Zambales is that of the flint and steel, which apparatus they call
"pan'-ting." The steel is prized highly, because it is hard to get;
it is procured in trade from the Christianized natives. Nearly every
Negrito carries a flint and steel in a little grass basket or case
dangling down his back and suspended by a fiber string from his
neck. In the same basket are usually tobacco leaves, buyo, and other
small odds and ends. Sometimes this pouch is carried in the folds of
the breechcloth, which is the only pocket the Negrito possesses.
The flint-and-steel method of fire making has almost entirely
supplanted the more primitive method of making fire by rubbing two
sticks together; but in some instances this method is still followed,
and everywhere the Negritos know of it. They do not know whether the
method is original with them or, not, but they admit they borrowed
the flint-and-steel idea from the Filipinos. When the friction process
is employed a piece of bamboo with a hole in it, in which are firmly
held some fine shavings or lint, is violently rubbed crosswise against
the edge of another piece until the friction ignites the lint. It is
called "pan-a-han'." When two men are working together one holds the
lower piece firmly while the other man rubs across it the sharpened
edge of the upper piece. If a man is working alone the piece with the
sharpened edge is held firmly between the ground and the man's waist;
the other piece of bamboo with the slit in is rubbed up and down on
the sharp edge. (See Pls. XL, XLI.)
In lieu of other vessels, rice and similar foods are cooked in joints
of green bamboo, which are placed in the coals and hot ashes. When
the food is cooked the bamboo is split open and the contents poured
out on banana leaves. This is by far the most common method employed,
though not a few Negritos possess earthenware pots, and some few
have a big iron vessel. Meats are always roasted by cutting into
small bits and stringing on a strip of cane. Maize is roasted on hot
coals. Everything is eaten without salt, although the Negritos like
salt and are very glad to get it.
It has already been noted that the Negrito has a hard time to get
enough to cat, and for that reason there is scarcely anything in the
animal or vegetable kingdom of his environment of which he does not
make use. He never has more than two meals a day, sometimes only one,
and he will often start early in the morning on a deer hunt without
having eaten any food and will hunt fill late in the afternoon. In
addition to the fish, eels, and crayfish of the streams, the wild boar
and wild chicken of the plain and woodland, he will eat iguanas and
any bird he can catch, including crows, hawks, and vultures. Large
pythons furnish especially toothsome steaks, so he says, but, if so,
his taste in this respect is seldom satisfied, for these reptiles
are extremely scarce.
Besides rice, maize, camotes, and other cultivated vegetables there
is not a wild tuber or fruit with which the Negrito's stomach is not
acquainted. Even some that in their raw state would be deadly poisonous
he soaks and boils in several waters until the poison is extracted,
and then he eats them. This is the case with a yellow tuber which
he calls "ca-lot'." In its natural form it is covered with stiff
bristles. The Negritos peel off the skin and slice the vegetable
into very thin bits and soak in water two days, after which it is
boiled in two or three waters until it has lost its yellow color. In
order to see if any poison still remains some of it is fed to a dog,
and if he does not die they themselves eat it. In taste it somewhat
resembles cooked rice. This was told me by an old Negrito who I
believe did not possess enough invention to make it up, and is in
part verified by Mr. O. Atkin, division superintendent of Zambales,
who says in a report to the General Superintendent of Education,
October, 1903, concerning the destitution of the town of Infanta,
that the people of that town were forced by scarcity of food to eat
this tuber, there called "co-rot'." He was told that it was soaked in
running water five or six days before cooking, and if not prepared
in this way it would cause severe sickness, even death. In fact,
some cases were known where persons had died eating co-rot'.
A white, thin-skinned tuber, called "bol'-wi," which is found in the
forests, is highly prized by the Negritos, although it grows so deep
in the ground that the labor of digging it is considerable. Among the
cultivated vegetables are the common butter beans, called "an-tak',"
and black beans, known as "an-tak' ik-no'" or "sitting-down beans"
from the fact that the pods curl up at one end. Ga-bi and bau'-gan
are white tubers, and u'-bi a dark-red tuber--which they eat. Other
common products are maize, pumpkins, and camotes.
The Negrito has ordinarily no table but the bare ground, and at best
a coarse mat; he has no dishes but banana leaves and cocoanut shells,
and no forks or spoons but his fingers. He brings water from a stream
in a piece of bamboo about three joints long in which all but one
joint has been punched out, and drinks it from a piece of cocoanut
shell. If he needs to cut anything to eat he has his ever-ready bolo,
which he may have used a moment before in skinning a pig and which
is never washed. He is repulsively dirty in his home, person, and
everything he does. Nothing is ever washed except his hands and face,
and those only rarely. He never takes a bath, because he thinks that
if he bathes often he is more susceptible to cold, that a covering
of dirt serves as clothing, although he frequently gets wet either
in the rain or when fishing or crossing streams. This is probably
one reason why skin diseases are so common.
Agriculture
The Negrito can not by any stretch of imagination be called a
worker. His life for generations has not been such as to teach
habits of industry. But for the fact that he has to do some work
or starve, he would spend all his days in idleness except that time
which he devoted to the chase. Yet when under pressure or urged on by
anticipation of gain from the white man, whose wealth and munificence
appear boundless, he is tireless. He will clear ground for a camp,
cut and split bamboo, and make tables and sleeping platforms, which
he would never think of doing for himself. He can get along without
such things, and why waste the time? Yet when the camp is abandoned
he will carry these things to his house. Most Negritos have seen the
better style of living followed by the more civilized Filipinos in
the outlying barrios; yet they seem to have no desire to emulate it,
and I believe that the lack of such desire is due to a disinclination
to perform the necessary manual labor.
By far the greater part of the Negrito's energies are directed to
the growing of tobacco, maize, and vegetables. He does not plant rice
to any extent. All planting is done in cleared spots in the forest,
because the soil is loose and needs no plowing as in the case of
the lowland. The small trees and underbrush are cut away and burned
and the large trees are killed, for the Negrito has learned the two
important things in primitive farming--first, that the crops will not
thrive in the shade, and second, that a tree too large to cut may be
killed by cutting a ring around it to prevent the flow of sap. The
clearings are never large.
Usually each family has its clearing in a separate place, though
sometimes two or more families may cultivate adjoining clearings. The
places are selected with a view to richness of soil and ease in
clearing. In addition to preparing the ground it is necessary to build
a fence around the clearing in order to keep out wild hogs. A brush
fence is constructed by thrusting sticks in the ground a few inches
apart and twining brush between them.
All work of digging up the soil, planting, and cultivating is done
with sharpened sticks of hard wood, sometimes, but not always, pointed
with iron, for iron is scarce. This instrument is called "ti-ad',"
the only other tool they possess being the bolo, with which they do
all the cutting.
Men, women, and children work in these clearings, but I did not see
any division of labor, except that the men, being more adept with
the bolo, do whatever cutting there is to be done. Once planted, the
weeding and care of the crops falls largely on the women and children,
while the men take their ease or hunt and fish.
The piece of ground for planting is regarded as the personal property
of the head of the family which cleared it, and he can sell it or
otherwise dispose of it at his pleasure. No one else would think
of planting on it even though the owner has abandoned it, unless he
declared that he had no more use for it, then it could be occupied
by anyone else.
An instance of the respect which the Negritos have for the property
rights of others was given me by a native of the town of Botolan. His
grandfather had acquired a piece of land near Mount Pinatubo from
a Negrito who had committed some crime in his rancheria and fled to
the pueblo to escape death. In return for protection the Negrito had
given him the land. This fact became known to the other Negritos,
but although the new owner made no use of the land whatever, and
never even visited it, it has never been molested or cultivated by
others. Now two generations later they have sent down to the grandson
of the first Filipino owner asking permission to buy the land. Land
may be sold to others, but of course there exists no record of such
transactions other than that of memory.
Manufacture and Trade
The Negrito knows little of the art of making things. Aside from the
bows and arrows which he constructs with some degree of skill he has
no ingenuity, and his few other products are of the most crude and
primitive type. The bows of the Negritos of Zambales are superior to
any the writer has seen in the Philippines. They are made from the
wood of the well-known _palma brava_ and are gracefully cut and highly
polished. The strings are of twisted bark, as soft and pliable and
as strong as thongs of deerskin. Although made from the same wood,
the bows of the Negritos of Negros are not nearly so graceful, and
the strings consist simply of one piece of bejuco with a small loop
at either end which slips over the end of the bow, and, once on, can
neither be loosened nor taken up. The Negritos of Panay generally use
a bamboo bow, much shorter and clumsier than those of _palma brava._
Also, while the Negritos of the southern islands generally use
arrows with hardwood points and without feathered shafts, those
used in Zambales are triumphs of the arrow maker's art. In either
case the shafts are of the light, hard, and straight mountain cane,
but instead of the clumsy wooden points the Zambales Negritos make a
variety of iron points for different purposes, some, as for large game,
with detachable points. (See Pl. XLII.) The shafts are well feathered
with the feathers of hawks and other large birds. Three feathers are
placed about the arrow and securely wrapped at each end with a thin
strip of bejuco or some strong grass.
The war arrows, in addition to having more elaborately barbed points,
are further embellished by incised decorations the entire length of
the shaft. These incisions consist simply of a series of lines into
which dirt has been rubbed so that they offer a striking contrast to
the white surface of the arrow.
The women weave some coarse baskets out of bamboo, but they are
neither well shaped nor pretty. Sometimes to adorn them one strand
or strip of bamboo is stained black and the other left its natural
color. Other objects of manufacture are their ornaments, already
described in Chapter III, and musical instruments. (See Chap. VI.)
The Negrito knows that the people of the lowlands for some reason
have more food than he. He can not go down and live there and work as
they do, because, being timid by nature, he can not feel secure amid
an alien people, and, besides, he likes his mountain too well to live
contentedly in the hot plains. He makes nothing that the lowlands want,
but he knows they use, in the construction of their houses, bejuco,
of which his woods are full, and he has learned that they value
beeswax, which he knows where to find and how to collect. Moreover,
there are certain mountain roots, such as wild ginger, that have a
market value. His tobacco also finds a ready sale to the Filipinos.
The bolo is the only tool necessary to cut and strip the bejuco,
which he ties into bunches of one hundred and takes into his hut for
safety until such a time as a trade can be made. These bunches never
bring him more than a peseta each. He collects the beeswax from a
nest of wild bees which he has smoked out, melts it, and pours it
into a section of bamboo.
It is not always necessary that he take his products down to the town,
for the Filipinos are eager enough to trade with him to go out to his
rancheria carrying the little cloth, rice, iron, or steel that he is
willing to take for his hard-gained produce. Perhaps the townspeople
go out because they can drive better bargains. However that may be,
the Negrito always gets the worst of the deal, whether in town or at
his own home.
Hunting and Fishing
The Negrito is by instinct, habits, and of necessity a hunter. Although
he has advanced somewhat beyond that stage of primitive life where man
subsists wholly from the fruits of the chase, yet it is so necessary
to him that were he deprived of it the existence of his race would be
seriously threatened. Since the chase has furnished him a living for
centuries, it is not strange that much of the ingenuity he possesses
should be devoted to the construction of arms and traps and snares
with which he may kill or capture the creatures of the woods and
streams. His environment does not supply a great variety of game,
but there are always deer and wild boars in abundance. Then there are
wild chickens and many birds which none but the Negrito would think
of eating, and the mountain streams have a few small fish.
It is the capture of the deer which makes the greatest demands on
the Negrito's skill. Doubtless his first efforts in this direction
were to lie in wait by a run and endeavor to get a shot at a passing
animal. But this required an infinite amount of patience, for the deer
has a keen nose, and two or three days might elapse before the hunter
could get even a glimpse of the animal. So he bethought himself of a
means to entrap the deer while he rested at home. At first he made
a simple noose of bejuco so placed in the run that the deer's head
would go through it and it would close on his neck like a lasso. But
this was not very effective. In the first place it was necessary
that the run be of the right width with underbrush on either side,
because if the noose were too large the deer might jump through it
and if too small he might brush it to one side.
The results of this method were so uncertain that the practice has
fallen into disuse. Recourse is now had to the deadly "belatic." I
do not believe that this trap, which is common nearly all over the
Philippines, is original with the Negrito. It is probably the product
of the Malayan brain. A trap almost identical with this and called
"belantay" is described by Mr. Abraham Hale [18] as belonging to the
Sakai of the Malay Peninsula, whom the Philippine Negrito resembles
in many ways. The similarity between the two words "belatic" and
"belantay" is apparent. In Ilokano and Pampanga this trap is called
"balantic," accented, like the Sakai term, on the last syllable. In
Tagalog and Bisayan the letter "n" is dropped and the word is
pronounced "be-lat'-ic." Mr. Hale does not state whether the word is
Sakai or is borrowed from the Malay. But according to Clifford and
Swettenham's Malay Dictionary the pure Malay term is "belante," which,
as it is even more similar to the terms in use in the Philippines,
puts an end to the doubt concerning the origin of the word.
The belatic consists of a long arrow or spear, which is driven,
with all the force of a drawn bough or other piece of springy wood,
across the path of the animal which strikes the cord, releasing the
spring. (See fig. 1.)
When the string C is struck it pulls the movable ring G, releasing K,
which immediately flies up, releasing the string I and hence the spring
F. The spear, which is usually tied to the end of the spring, though it
may simply rest against it, immediately bounds forward, impaling the
animal. The spring is either driven into the ground or is firmly held
between the two uprights L. This trap is almost invariably successful.
Wild chickens and birds are caught with simple spring traps. The
hungry bird tugging at an innocent-appearing piece of food releases a
spring which chokes him to death. The noose snare for catching wild
chickens invented by the Christianized natives is also used to some
extent by the Negritos. This trap consists of a lot of small nooses
of rattan or bejuco so arranged on a long piece of cane that assisted
by pegs driven into the ground they retain an upright position. This
is arranged in convex form against a wall or thicket of underbrush so
that a bird can not enter the space thus inclosed except by way of
the trap. In this inclosed area is placed a tame cock whose crowing
attracts the wild one. The latter, spoiling for a fight, makes for
the noisy challenger and runs his head through a noose which draws
the tighter the more he struggles.
The Negrito, as has been said, is remarkably ingenious in the
construction of arrows. Those with which he hunts the deer are
provided with cruelly barbed, detachable iron point. (Figs. 8,
9, Pl. XLII.) When the animal is struck the point leaves the
shaft, unwinding a long woven coil with which the two are fastened
together. The barbs prevent the point from tearing out of the flesh and
the dangling shaft catches on the underbrush and serves to retard the
animal's flight. In spite of this, however, the stricken deer sometimes
gets away, probably to die a lingering death with the terrible iron
point deeply embedded in its flesh. A similar arrow is mentioned by
De Quatrefages as having been found by Alan among the Mincopies of
the Andamans. [19]
The arrows which are used to kill smaller animals and birds have
variously shaped iron heads without barbs. (Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13,
Pl. XLII.) However, in shooting small birds a bamboo arrow is used. One
end is split a little way, 5 or 6 inches, into three, four, or five
sections. These are sharpened and notched and are held apart by small
wedges securely fixed by wrappings of cord. If the bird is not impaled
on one of the sharp points it may be held in the fork. (Figs. 2,
3, 4, Pl. XLII.) The fish arrows have long, slender, notched iron
points roughly resembling a square or cylindrical file. The points
are from 4 to 8 inches in length. Sometimes they are provided with
small barbs. (Figs. 5, 6, 7, Pl. XLII.)
The Negritos of Zambales are not so expert in the use of bows and
arrows as their daily use of these weapons would seem to indicate. They
seldom miss the larger animals at close range, but are not so lucky
in shooting at small objects. I have noticed that they shoot more
accurately upward into the trees than horizontally. For instance,
a boy of 10 would repeatedly shoot mangoes out of a tree, but when I
posted a mark at 30, yards and offered a prize for the best shot no
one could hit it.
The Negritos usually hunt in bands, and, because they have little
else to do and can go out and kill a deer almost any time, they
do not resort much to the use of traps. A long line of thirty men
winding down the path from their village, all armed with bows twice
their height and a handful of arrows, their naked bodies gleaming
in the early morning sun, presents a truly novel sight. They have
with them five or six half-starved dogs. When the haunts of the deer
are reached, a big gully cutting through the level table-land, thick
with cane and underbrush through which a tiny stream finds its way,
half a dozen boys plunge into the depths with the dogs and the rest
walk along either side or lie in wait at runs. The Negritos in the
thicket yell continually and beat the brush, but the dogs are silent
until game is scented. Then the cries of the runners are redoubled
and the din warns those lying in wait to be alert. Presently from
one of the many runs leading out of the ravine a deer appears and,
if there happens to be a Negrito on the spot, gets an arrow. But,
unless vitally wounded, on he goes followed by the dogs, which never
give up the chase of a wounded deer. When a deer is killed it is hung
up in a tree and the hunt proceeds.
Sometimes the thick canebrakes along the river beds are beaten up in
this way, or the lightly timbered mountain ravines; for the Negrito
knows that the deer lie in a cool, sheltered place in the daytime and
come forth to browse only at night. On clear, moonlight nights they
sometimes attempt to stalk the deer while grazing in the open field,
but are not usually successful. Quite often in the chase a long rope
net, resembling a fish net but much coarser and stronger, is placed
in advance of the beating party in some good position where the deer
is likely to run if started up. These are absolutely sure to hold the
deer should the unfortunate animal run into them--a thing which does
not happen often.
The Negritos are tireless in the chase. They will hunt all day without
eating, unless they happen to run across some wild fruit. Women
frequently take part, especially if dogs are scarce, and they run
through the brush yelping to imitate the dogs. But they never carry
or use the bows and arrows. This seems to be the especial privilege
of the men. Boys from an early age are accustomed to their use and
always take part in the hunt, sometimes performing active service
with their little bows, but girls never touch them. Not infrequently
the runners in the brush emerge carrying wild pigs which they have
seared up and killed, and if, by chance, a big snake is encountered,
that ends the hunt, for the capture of a python is an event. The snake
is killed and carried in triumph to the village, where it furnishes
a feast to all the inhabitants.
This sketch of hunting would not be complete without mention of
a necessary feature of every successful hunt--the division of the
spoils. When the hunt is ended the game is carried back to the village
before the division is made, provided the hunters are all from the
same place. If two or more villages have hunted together the game
is divided in the field. A bed of green rushes or cane is made on
which the animal is placed and skinned. This done, the bead man of
the party, or the most important man present, takes a small part
of the entrails or heart, cuts it into fine bits and scatters the
pieces in all directions, at the same time chanting in a monotone
a few words which mean "Spirits, we thank you for this successful
hunt. Here is your share of the spoils." This is done to feed and
appease the spirits which the Negritos believe inhabit all places,
and the ceremony is never neglected. Then the cutting up and division
of the body of the animal takes place. The head and breast go to the
man who first wounded the deer, and, if the shot was fatal, he also
receives the backbone--this always goes to the man who fired the fatal
shot. One hind quarter goes to the owner of the dog which seared up
the deer, and the rest is divided as evenly as possible among the
other hunters. Every part is utilized. The Negritos waste nothing
that could possibly serve as food. The two hunts I accompanied were
conducted in the manner I have related, and I was assured that this
was the invariable procedure.
The mountain streams of the Negrito's habitat do not furnish many
fish, but the Negrito labors assiduously to catch what he can. In
the larger streams he principally employs, after the manner of the
Christianized natives, the bamboo weir through which the water can
pass but the fish can not. In the small streams he builds dams of
stones which he covers with banana leaves. Then with bow and arrow
he shoots the fish in the clear pool thus formed. Not infrequently
the entire course of a creek will be changed. A dam is first made
below in order to stop the passage of the fish, and after a time the
stream is dammed at some point above in such a way as to change the
current. Then, as the water slowly runs out of the part thus cut off,
any fish remaining are easily caught.