In the Malay Peninsula they are called Semang. From the description of them given by Hugh Clifford, in his interesting book, ‘In Court and Kampong,’ they appear to be identical with the Philippine Negritos. Crauford, in his ‘History of the Indian Archipelago,’ gives the measurement of a Negrito from the hills of Kêdah as four feet nine inches. Mr. F. V. Christian, in a paper recently read before the Royal Geographical Society, stated that he had found tombs of Negritos on Pónapé one of the Caroline group.
The Negritos build no houses, and are nomadic, in the sense of moving about within a certain district. They live in groups of twenty or thirty under a chief or elder, and take his advice about camping and breaking up camp, which they do according to the seasons, the ripening of jungle fruit, movements of game, etc. They seem to have great reverence for their dead and for their burial-grounds, and apparently dislike going far away from these places where they suppose the souls of their ancestors are wandering. They bury their dead, placing with them food and weapons for their use, and erect a rough shelter over the graves.
It would be curious to learn the opinion of these poor savages on the proceedings of some learned Teuton, prowling around their graveyards in search of skulls and skeletons for the Berlin or Dresden Ethnographical Museum.
They have no tribal organisation and even make war on other groups, seeking victims for the death-vengeance. They are therefore unable to assemble in large numbers; nor is it easy to see how they could subsist if they did so. They put up rough sloping shelters against the sun and wind, consisting of a framework of saplings or canes, covered with coarse plaited mats of leaves which they carry with them when they move their camp.
In Pampanga and Bataan, they are occasionally guilty of cattle stealing, and even of murdering Christians, if a favourable opportunity presents itself. In such a case an expedition of the Cuadrilleros of the neighbouring towns is sent against them.
If they can be found, their bows and arrows are no match for the muskets of the Cuadrilleros, and some of them are sure to be killed. After a time peace is restored.
The trade for jungle produce is too profitable to the Christians for them to renounce it, whatever the authorities may order.
The Negritos do not cultivate the ground but subsist on jungle fruits and edible roots, their great luxury is the wild honey which they greedily devour, and they barter the wax with the Christians for rice and sweet potatoes. They also hunt the deer and wild pigs, and as Blumentritt says, they eat everything that crawls, runs, swims, or flies, if they can get it. They chew buyo like the Tagals and other Malays, and are inordinately fond of smoking.
They are said to hold the lighted end of their cigars in their mouths, a thing I have seen done by the negroes on the Isthmus of Panama.
They appear to have no religion, but are very superstitious. They celebrate dances at the time of full moon, the women forming a ring and the men another ring outside them, something like a figure in the Kitchen Lancers. They move round to the sound of some rude musical instruments in opposite directions.