Intellectual Life
The countenance of the average Negrito is not dull and passive, as might reasonably be expected, but is fairly bright and keen, more so than the average Malayan countenance. The Negrito also has a look of good nature—a look usually lacking in the Malayan. His knowledge of things other than those pertaining to his environment is, of course, extremely limited, but he is possessed of an intellect that is capable of growth under proper conditions. He always manifests the most lively interest in things which he does not understand, and he tries to assign causes for them.
Natural phenomena he is unable to explain. When the sun sets it goes down behind a precipice so far off that he could not walk to it, but he does not know how it gets back to the east. Rain comes from the clouds, but he does not know how it got there except that thunder and lightning bring it. These things are incomprehensible to him and he has apparently invented no stories concerning them. While thunder and lightning are good because they bring rain, yet if they are exceedingly violent he becomes afraid and tries to stop them by burning deer’s bones, which, he says, are always efficacious.
The mathematical knowledge of the Negritos is naturally small. They count on their fingers and toes, beginning always with the thumb and great toe. If the things they are counting are more than twenty they go through the process again, but never repeat the fingers without first counting the toes. To add they use rice or small stones. They have no weights or measures except those of the civilized natives, but usually compare things to be measured with some known object. Distance is estimated by the time taken to walk it, but they have no conception of hours. It may take from sunrise until the sun is directly overhead to go from a certain rancheria to another, but if asked the number of hours the Negrito is as likely to say three or eight as six. They have no division of time by weeks or months, but have periods corresponding to the phase of the moon, to which they give names. The new moon is called “bay′-un bu′-an,” the full moon “da-a′-na bu′-an,” and the waning moon “may-a′-mo-a bu′-an.” They determine years by the planting or harvesting season. Yet no record of years is kept, and memory seldom goes back beyond the last season. Hence the Negritos have no idea of age. They know that they are old enough to have children or grandchildren, and that is as far as their knowledge of age goes. To count days ahead they tie knots in a string of bejuco and each day cut off one knot.
In regard to units of value they are familiar with the peso and other coins of the Philippines and have vague ideas as to their value. But one meets persistently the word “tael” in their estimate of the value of things. A tael is 5 pesos. If asked how much he paid for his wife a mail may say “luampo fact.” Where they got this Chinese term I do not attempt to say, unless it points to very remote commercial relations with the Chinese, a thine, which seems incredible.[5]
The Negritos have developed to a high degree a sense of the dramatic, and they can relate a tale graphically, becoming so interested in their account as to seem to for get their surroundings. For instance, a head man was giving me one night an account of their marriage ceremony. He went through all the motions necessary to depict various actions, talking faster and louder as if warming up to his theme, his eyes sparkling and his face and manner eager.
They are much like children in their curiosity to see the white man’s belongings, and are as greatly pleased with the gift of a trinket. Their expressions and actions on beholding themselves in a mirror for the first time are extremely ludicrous. One man who had a goatee gazed at it and stroked it with feelings of pride and admiration not unmixed with awe.
Superstitions
It will also take a close acquaintance to learn much of the superstitious beliefs of the Negritos. Some hints have already been given in regard to feeding the spirits after a hunt and reasons for changing names of children. Other superstitious were mentioned, as the wearing of bracelets and leglets of wild boar’s skin and the burning of deer’s bones to scare away thunder.
The basis of all the superstitious beliefs of the Negritos, what might else be termed their religion, is the constant presence of the spirits of the dead near where they lived when alive. All places are inhabited by the spirits. All adverse circumstances, sickness, failure of crops, unsuccessful hunts, are attributed to them. So long as things go well the spirits are not so much considered. There seems to be no particular worship or offerings to gain the good will of the spirits, other than the feeding already noted, except in one particular. On the Tarlac trail between O’Donnell (Tarlac Province) and Botolan (Zambales Province) there is a huge black bowlder which the Negritos believe to be the home of one powerful spirit. So far as I could learn, the belief is that the spirits of all who die enter this one spirit or “anito” who has its abiding place in this rock. However that may be, no Negrito, and in fact no Christianized native of Zambales or Tarlac, ever passes this rock without leaving a banana, camote, or some other article of food. If they do, bad luck or accident is sure to attend the trip.
Señor Potenciano Lesaca, the present governor of Zambales, when quite young, once passed the rock and for amusement—and greatly to the horror of the Negritos with him-spurned it by kicking it with his foot and eating part of a banana and throwing the rest in the opposite direction. The Negritos were much concerned and said that something would happen to him. Sure enough, before he had gone far he got an arrow through both legs from savage Negritos along the trail who could have known nothing of the occurrence. Of course this only strengthened the belief. There is nothing unusual about the shape of the stone. It is merely a large, round bowlder.
Disease is usually considered a punishment for wrongdoing, the more serious diseases coming from the supreme anito, the lesser ones from the lesser anitos. If smallpox visits a rancheria it is because someone has cut down a tree or killed an animal belonging to a spirit which has invoked the aid of the supreme spirit in inflicting a more severe punishment than it can do alone.
For the lesser diseases there are mediquillos or medicine men or women, called “mañga-anito,” who are called to exorcise the spirit creating the disturbance. Anyone who has cured patients or belongs to a family of mediquillos can follow the profession. There is an aversion to being a mediquillo, although it pays, because if a patient dies the medicine man who treated him is held accountable. As a rule they are treated with respect, and people stand more or less in awe of them, but they have sometimes been killed when they failed to effect a cure.
Señor Benito Guido, a native of Botolan, who accompanied me to the barrio of Tagiltil as interpreter, became slightly ill while in a camp. The Negritos were much worked up over it. They said it was caused by cutting the bamboo for our camp, the spirits that owned the bamboo being offended.
In order that we might witness their customs in such cases, an old woman who practiced as “mañga-anito” was called and offered to relieve the patient for a little money. A peso was given her and she began. Upon being asked how he was affected Señor Guido said that he felt as if something was weighing him down. Of course this was the spirit, which had to be removed before a cure could be effected. The Mañga-anito danced around the patient and bad him dance and turn somersaults. This was to make the spirit sorry he had chosen such an unstable abiding place. Finally she took hold of his hands, gave a mighty tug and then dropped back stiff. The spirit had passed from the body of the patient into her body.
During all these gymnastics the other Negritos had preserved a most solemn mien, but at this juncture they set to work to restore the stricken woman, rubbing and working her arms and legs until the spirit was gone. All disease is caused by spirits, which must be expelled from the body before a cure can be effected.
Use is also made of other remedies to supplement the ministrations of the mañga-anito. Attention has been called to the string of dried berries, called “a-gata,” which the Negritos of Pinatubo wear around their necks for convenience in case of pains in the stomach. In southern Zambales what seem to be these same berries are used as a charm against snake bite. Here for pains in the stomach they boil a piece of iron in water and drink the water hot. Pieces of certain woods are believed efficacious for rheumatism, and old men especially may often be seen with them tied around the limbs. This superstition is not far removed from the belief entertained in certain rural districts of the United States that rheumatism may be prevented by carrying a horse chestnut in the pocket. The Negritos also wear such pieces of wood around the neck for colds and sore throat.
In cases of fever a bed is made from the leaves of a plant called “sam′-bon,” which much resembles mint, and leaves are bound to the affected parts. The action of these leaves is cooling. For fractures they use bamboo splints and leaves of a plant called “ta-cum′-ba-o.”
A bad cut is also bound up in these leaves or with the sap of a tree called “pan-da-ko′-kis.”
The Negritos do nothing for skin disease, a form of herpes, with which a great many are afflicted. They probably do not regard it as a disease. (See Pls. [LVI] et seq.) In case of centipede bites, if on a finger, the affected member is thrust in the anus of a chicken, where, the Negrito affirms, the poison is absorbed, resulting in the death of the chicken.
Goiter is quite common. It is said to be caused by strain from carrying a heavy load of camotes or other objects on the head.
Smallpox, as has been said, is believed to be a visitation of the wrath of the supreme spirit, and if it breaks out in a rancheria the victim is left with a supply of food and water and the place is abandoned. After several days have elapsed the people return cautiously, and if they find the patient is dead they go away again never to return, but if he has recovered they take up their abode in the rancheria. A great many of the Negritos seen in Zambales have scars of smallpox.
The practice of blistering the body in case of sickness is very common in the Pinatubo region. The belief prevails with some individuals that in the healing up of the sore thus produced the sickness with which the body is afflicted will go away. Others affirmed that blistering was done only in case of fevers, and that the pain inflicted caused the patient to break out in a profuse perspiration which relieved the fever. This seems a more rational belief. Individuals were seen with as many as twenty scars produced in this manner.
Aside from the anito belief, the Negritos have other superstitions. Cries of birds at night are especially unlucky. If a person is starting out on a journey and someone sneezes just as he is leaving he will not go then. It is regarded as a sign of disaster, and delay of an hour or so is necessary in order to allow the spell to work off.
A certain parasitic plant that much resembles Yellow moss and grows high up in trees is regarded as a very powerful charm. It is called “gay-u-ma” and a man who possesses it is called “nanara gayuma.” If his eyes rest on a person during the new moon he will become sick at the stomach, but he can cure the sickness by laying hands on the afflicted part.
Señor Benito Guido says that when a young man he was told by Negritos that this charm would float upstream. And when he offered to give a carabao for it if that were so, its power was not shown. In spite of this, however, the Negritos are firm believers in it, and, for that matter, so also are the Christianized Zambal and Tagalog. It is likewise thought to be of value in attracting women. If it is rubbed on a woman or is smoked and the smoke blows on her the conquest is complete.
[1] Montano, Mission aux Philippines, p. 316.
[2] MS. Coll. of The Ethnological Survey.
[3] Voyage aux Philippines, p. 71; Mission aux Philippines, p. 315.
[4] MS. Coll. of The Ethnological Survey.
[5] In the footnote on page 29 is given an extract from Careri’s Voyages, in which the following occurs: “True it is, that by means of the heathen Chinese who deal with them in the mountains, some deformed statues have been found in their huts.”
Chapter VII
Spanish Attempts to Organize Negritos
The attention of the Spanish Government was early attracted to the Negritos and other savages in the Philippines, and their subjection and conversion was the subject of many royal orders, though unfortunately little was accomplished. One of the first decrees of the Gobierno Superior relating especially to the Negritos was that of June 12, 1846. It runs substantially as follows:
In my visits to the provinces of these Islands, having noticed, with the sympathy that they must inspire in all sensitive souls, the kind of life and the privations that many of the infidel tribes, and especially the Negritos who inhabit the mountains, are forced to endure; and persuaded that it is a duty of all civilized Governments and of humanity itself to better the condition of men, who, hidden thus from society, will in time become extinct, victims of their customs, of the unhealthfulness of the rugged places where they live, and of our negligence in helping them; and desirous of making them useful, that some day, influenced by the benefits of social life, they may enter the consoling pale of our Holy Mother, the Catholic Church, I hereby decree the following:
ARTICLE 1. The alcaldes and military and political governors of provinces in whose district there may be tribes or rancherias of the aforesaid Negritos or of other infidels shall proceed with the consent of the devoted curas parrocos, whose charity I implore for them, through their head men or capitanes, to induce them to take the necessary steps to assemble in villages, lands being given for that purpose, in places not very near to Christian pueblos, and seeds of grains and vegetables being furnished that they may cultivate the land.
* * * * * * *
ART. 3. Two years after the pueblo shall have been formed the inhabitants thereof shall pay a moderate tribute, which shall not for the present exceed one real per head, the youths and children being excepted, obtaining in compensation the usufruct of the lands which they may hold as their own property so long as they do not abandon the cultivation, being able to sell to others under the same conditions with the knowledge of the authority of the district.
ART. 4. Said authorities and also the priests shall maintain the greatest zeal and vigilance that the Christian pueblos do not intrude on those of the infidels or Negritos, neither that individuals live among them nor that they harass or molest them on any pretext whatsoever under penalty of being punished. * * *
ART. 5. As I have understood that if the Negritos refuse social life it is on account of their being warned by the Christians who employ them in cutting wood, bamboo, and bejuco, and in the collection of other products of the woods which they inhabit, the chiefs of the provinces and the justices of the peace shall take care that no one enters into such contracts with the Negritos without competent authorization, leaving his name in a register in order that if he fail to pay the true value of the articles satisfactory to the Negritos or mistreats them it will be possible to fix the blame on him and to impose the proper penalty.
Article 6 states that—
It shall not be necessary for the Negritos to embrace the Catholic faith, but the priests shall go among them to examine their condition and learn their needs and teach them the advantages of civil life and the importance of religion.
Article 7 provides for a report every three months from those officers in charge of such districts.
This all sounds very well, and if carried out might have succeeded in improving the condition of the unfortunate Negritos, but we can not find that the provincial officials showed great zeal in complying with the executive request.
On January 14, 1881, a decree very similar to this was issued. The first part of this decree related to the newly converted or “sometidos.” But article 7 authorized the provincial authorities to offer in the name of the State to Aetas and other pagans the following advantages in exchange for voluntary submission: Life in pueblos; unity of families; concession of good lands and direction in cultivating them in the manner which they wished and which would be most productive; maintenance and clothing during one year; respect for their usages and customs so far as they did not oppose the natural law; to leave to their own wishes whether or not they should become Christians; to buy or facilitate the sale of their crops; exemption from contributions and tributes for ten years and lastly, government by local officials elected by themselves under the direct dependency of the head of the province or district.
These provisions were certainly liberal enough, but they bore little fruit so far as the Negritos were concerned. Being sent out as circulars to the chiefs of all provinces, such decrees received scant attention, each provincial head probably preferring to believe that they were meant for someone else. Although it sounded well on paper, the difficulties in the way of successful compliance with such an order were many. But in one way and another the authorities sought to reach the hill tribes, though it must be confessed they were actuated rather by a desire to preserve peace in their provinces and to protect the plainsmen from the plundering raids of the savages than by motives of philanthropy in improving the condition of the latter.
The Negritos of Zambales were classed as conquistados and non-conquistados, according to whether they lived in amicable relations with the Filipinos or stole carabaos and killed the people whenever they had the opportunity. The Guardia Civil made many raids into the mountains for the purpose of punishing the predatory Negritos, and many are the stories related by old members of that military organization now living in the province concerning conflicts which they had with the little black bow-and-arrow men, who always got the worst of it. Gradually they came to see the futility of resistance. As a matter of fact these raids were only for the purpose of securing food and not because of enmity toward the Filipinos. When a group expressed their desire to live peaceably in their hills they were dubbed “conquistados” and left alone so long as they behaved. The number of conquistados grew and the “unconquered” retreated farther into the mountains. Carabao raids are very infrequent now, for the people disposed to make them are too remote from the plains and would have to pass through territory of the settled and peaceable Negritos, who would inform the party sent in pursuit. But the Constabulary has had two or three raids of this kind to deal with during the past two years.
Those Negritos still living in a wild state have very simple government. They simply gather around the most powerful man, whom they recognize as a sort of chief and whom they follow into raids on the plains or neighboring tribes of Negritos. But when living peaceably scattered through their mountains each head of a family is a small autocrat and rules his family and those of his sons who elect to remain with him. When he dies the oldest son becomes the head of the family. Usually, however, a group of families living in one locality recognizes one man as a capitán. He may be chosen by the president of the nearest pueblo or by the Negritos themselves, who are quick to recognize in this way superior ability or greater wealth. The capitán settles disputes between families.
The next step in the civilizing process is the gathering together to form villages. This was the end to which the Spaniards worked, but the process was retarded by the Christianized natives who profited by trade with the Negritos in forest products and who advised them to avoid coming under Spanish rule where they would have to pay tribute. If a community became sufficiently large and bade fair to be permanent it was made a barrio of the nearest pueblo and given a teniente and concejales like other barrios. This was the case with Aglao and Santa Fé, in the jurisdiction of San Marcelino, but Ilokano immigrants settled in these places and the Negritos gradually withdrew to the hills and settled in other places, until now there are very few Negritos actually living in these towns. One old man in Aglao, who once went to Spain as a servant to an officer, speaks very good Spanish.
In spite of the reprisals made by the Guardia Civil and other means employed by the Spaniards, Negrito raids went on without much cessation until 1894. In that year the authorities induced a head man named Layos to come down to the town of San Marcelino for an interview. Layos came down about as nature had provided him and was received with much ceremony by the town authorities. They dressed him up from head to foot, made him presents, and feasted him for several days. Then with the customary Spanish pomp, parade of soldiery, and flare of trumpets, they presented him with a gaudy sash and named him Capitán General del Monte. He was given charge of all the Negritos in the district and charged to keep them under control. The sash was a cheap print affair, but it answered the purpose. The effect of all this on an untamed savage can be imagined. Layos was impressed. He went back to the hills with his new treasures and an experience worth relating. It is said that the robbing and killing of Christian natives lessened materially after that.
When I was at Cabayan in that district I saw Layos. He was a heavy-set man of about 38, harelipped, an old ragged shirt and breechcloth his only apparel, and with nothing of his former grandeur but the memory. The sash, his badge of office, he said had long since gone in breechcloths.
In the same year (1894) all Negritos in the Botolan district who would come down from the mountains were fed for five or six months in hope that they would settle down and remain. But they were given nothing to do and were not shown how to work, and when the feeding stopped they all went back to the hills, the only place where they knew how to secure sustenance. Although this experiment did not result as desired, it probably had good effects, for the people of this region are the farthest advanced to-day and are most inclined to live in villages. I am informed that since my visit some of the Negritos have moved down to the Filipino village of Pombato and there are several Negrito children in the native school. The people of Tagiltil have even expressed a desire for a school. The presence of several Zambal and halfbreeds in this village and its nearness to the Filipinos probably account for its being ahead of other villages in this as in other respects.
Appendix A
Anthropometric Measurements
The paucity of measurements has already been explained, but those that were taken are given here for what they are worth. I do not attempt to draw any conclusions from them or undertake any discussion other than that already given in the chapter on physical features.
In the following tables it should be noted that where the age is given the number indicates only an estimate, as no Negrito knows his age. It has been thought better to give these approximate ages than to leave them out entirely, in order to distinguish the very young from the middle aged and old: