TAIYAL WOMAN (LEFT), A WOMAN LIVING AMONG THE TAIYAL TRIBE, BELIEVED TO BE PART PIGMY (RIGHT).
(See page [107].)
WOMAN OF THE YAMI TRIBE OF BOTEL TOBAGO.
(The tiny island just south of Formosa proper.) Note the difference of type, as compared with the more northern tribes.
In considering the divisions of the Formosan aborigines, it would be well for present-day investigators to guard against the error into which some European writers on the subject, in the early numbers of the China Review (1873-4), seem to have fallen—that is, the error of regarding the Chinese terms of Pepo-huan (
Regarding the latter point—physical characteristics: while, broadly speaking, all the aborigines of Formosa conform to the general “Malay type,” yet one who has been much among the different tribes can distinguish without much difficulty—quite apart from difference in tattoo-marking—between the tall, rather prognathous Taiyal of the north; the more mongoloid type of the Ami and Paiwan on the east coast; the handsomer, aquiline-nose type—approximating to that of certain tribes of the American Indians—of the central mountain-range Bunun; and the ever-smiling, gentler, darker Yami,[52] of Botel Tobago (Japanese “Koto Sho”), the tiny island just south of Formosa proper (see illustrations showing types of the different tribes).