De Mas lays down as a principle that the Igorrotes of Luzon are heathens of the same race as the converted Indians, but in a savage state. The Aetas, or Negritos, are a separate race, not indigenous, but the descendants of invaders and conquerors. He had many opportunities of intercourse with them, and speaks favourably of his reception among them. The men had no other covering than a belt of bark fibres, the women a sort of petticoat of the same texture. Unmarried girls wore a species of collar made from the leaves of a mountain palm, whose ends met between their naked breasts. The females played on a rude guitar, the case being a piece of bamboo, with three strings from the roots of a tree, and which they tuned by tightening or loosening with their left hand. When it rained, they covered themselves with large palm-leaves, which they also used as shelter from the sun. He says they resisted all attempts upon their chastity. They brought wax, honey and deer, and sought for tobacco and rice in exchange. For money they cared not. The mode of showing respect is to offer water to the superior—no son can accept it from, but must hand it to, his father. They exhibit much fear of the evil spirits that are in the forests, but all information they gave was at secondhand. They had not seen the spirits, but others had, and there was no doubt about that. The friars report them to be short lived—their age seldom exceeding forty years. Father Mozo says: “They have their localities, in which they group themselves and which they unwillingly leave: fixed abodes they have none, but shift from place to place within a circumference of four to five leagues. They drive four rough sticks into the ground, surround them with the flexible branches of the ylib, fling down some palm-leaves, bring in a piece of wood for a pillow, and have their house and bed ready. The game killed by one belongs to all—the head and neck being thrown to the dogs. The community ordinarily consists of twenty to twenty-five persons, who select the most courageous of their number as chief. In the summer they locate themselves on the banks of rivers, but during the rainy and windy seasons they confine themselves to their rude huts. If a death take place, they bury the corpse, but flee from the locality, lest others be summoned away. When they seek wild honey in the woods, the finder of a swarm marks the tree where the bees are, and the property is deemed his own until he has time to return and remove the comb. A fire is lighted at the foot of the tree—the smoke drives away the bees—the Indian mounts, bearing a broad palm-leaf folded in the shape of a vase, into which he turns the honey-comb, ties it over, and descends. All his wants are supplied when, in addition to his matches for fire, his bow and arrows, and his rude cutlass, he has a small supply of tobacco for his luxury. If food be scarce, he drinks hot water and ties a cord tightly round his body; he eats also of a root called sucbao, but in the warm weather indigenous fruits are never wanting.” After a string of quotations from the classics, illustrating the pains, penalties and passions of civilized existence, with the serenity, stupidity and satisfaction of these children of nature, the padre says: “Finally, in admiration of their manner of life, if they were but enlightened by our holy faith—if they only suffered what they suffer for the sake of God—I verily believe they would not be paralleled by the austerest monk of the Thebaïd. True it is they commit the sin of divorce—true it is that a slip before marriage is seldom heard of; but they are cruel, they are murderers!” Such is the consistency of ecclesiastical judgment.

There are many speculations as to the origin of the darker, or black races, who now occupy the northern and central mountainous and little visited regions, and from whom one of the islands, Negros, takes its name. They principally dwell in the wilder part of the provinces of Ilocos South, Pangasinan, Cagayan, and Nueva Ecija. They are of small stature, have somewhat flattened noses, curled hair, are agile, have no other dress than a covering of bark over their genitals, are dexterous hunters, have no fixed dwellings, but sleep wherever sunset finds them. Their whole property consists of their bow, a bamboo quiver and arrows, a strip of skin of the wild boar, and the girdle, which the Spaniards call the tapa rabo (tail cover). The Negritos are held to be the aboriginal inhabitants of the islands, which were invaded by those now called Indios, who much resemble, though they are a great improvement on, the Malayan race. The Negritos retired into the wilder districts as the Tagáls advanced, but between the two races there exists a great intensity of hatred. The Negritos are the savages of the Philippines, and are divided into many tribes, and it is said every grade between cannibalism and the civilization of the Indian is found among them. They generally live on the wild fruits and vegetables which grow spontaneously, though some cultivate rice, and attend to the irrigation of their fields. Some make iron weapons, and the Itaneg, according to the friars, only want conversion to be in all respects equal to the Indios. This race has a mixture of Chinese blood, the Ifugaos of that of the Japanese. The ruder savages ornament their cabins with the skulls of their enemies. The Apayos live in comfortable houses, and employ for floors polished planks instead of the interwoven bamboos of the Tagáls. They carry on a trade in wax, cocoa and tobacco, and deck their dwellings with China earthenware. The Isinay Negritos profess Christianity. In the island of Luzon there are estimated to be 200,000 heathens, in that of Mindanao 800,000 idolators and Mussulmans. But it is impossible to follow out the mixed races in all their ramifications and peculiarities. Among the characteristics of the wilder races is the separation of the toes, which enables them to pick up even minute objects, so if they let anything fall they use foot or hand with equal facility; they will descend head downwards the rigging of a ship, holding on with their feet; the great toe is much more separated from the others than in the white races. Their sense of smelling is exquisite, and they profess, without the aid of language, to discover the state of the affections from the breath.

Though they have a pantheon of gods and goddesses (for most of their divinities have wives), they have no temples, and no rites of public worship. They consult soothsayers (usually old women) in their diseases and difficulties; and there are sacrifices, outpouring and mingling of blood, libations of fermented liquors, violent gesticulations, and invocations to Cambunian (God), the moon, and the stars, and the ceremonials end with eating and drinking to excess. They sacrifice a pig to pacify the Deity when it thunders, and adore the rainbow after the storm. Before a journey they kindle a fire, and if the smoke do not blow in the direction they intend to take they delay their project. The flight of birds is watched as an important augury, and the appearance of a snake as a warning against some approaching calamity.

The mountain tribes are subject to no common ruler, but have their separate chieftains, called barnaas, to whom a certain number of dependants is assigned. On the death of a barnaas, the intestines are extracted, examined and burnt, for the purpose of ascertaining by the arts of divination the future destiny of the tribe. The body is placed in a chair, relations and friends are invited, and a great festivity of eating and drinking provided from the flocks and rice-fields of the deceased, with shouts and songs celebrating the virtues of departed barnaas. The banquet closes with all species of excesses, and both sexes remain drunk, exhausted or asleep on the ground about the corpse. It is said that the flesh of the departed is distributed among the guests, and Buzeta avers that such a case lately occurred at Tagudin (Ilocos South); but as he attributes it to the poverty of the deceased who had not left behind wherewithal to provide for the festival, the carnal distribution could hardly have been deemed an honour. The stories of the cannibalism of the natives must be received with distrust, there being a great disposition to represent them as worse savages than they really are. The arms of a warrior are gathered together after his death, and his family will not part with them. A vessel into which wine has been poured is placed at the foot of the trophies, in order that it may imbibe the virtue and valour of the departed, and obtain his auspices.

In case of the murder of an individual, the whole of the tribe unite to revenge his death. Prisoners taken in war are made slaves, and sell for from ten to twenty-five dollars each. Old men are bought, upon whom to try the poisonous powers or sharpness of their weapons. Adultery and the third offence of robbery are punished with death. Polygamy is not allowed, but there is no difficulty about divorce.

A great variety of languages is to be found among the wild people of the interior; not only are dialects of the various tribes unintelligible to each other, but sometimes a language is confined to a single family group. Where there has been no intercourse there is no similitude. Words are necessary to man, and language is created by that necessity. Hence the farther the study of idioms is pursued back into antiquity, the greater will their number be found. Civilization has destroyed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of idioms, and is still carrying on the work by diminishing the number of languages in which man holds intercourse with man. It is no bold prophecy to aver that in the course of centuries the number of separate tongues will be reduced to a small amount. In France, the French; in Italy, the Tuscan; in Spain, the Castilian; in Germany, the Saxon; in Great Britain, the English;—are becoming the predominant languages of the people, and have been gradually superseding the multitude of idioms which were used only a few generations ago. Adelung recorded the names of nearly 4,000 spoken and existing languages, but a list of those which time has extinguished would be far more extensive.

That such large portions of the islands should be held by independent tribes, whether heathen or Mahomedan, is not to be wondered at when the geographical character of the country is considered. Many of their retreats are inaccessible to beasts of burden; the valleys are intolerably hot; the mountains unsheltered and cold. There is also much ignorance as to the localities, and the Spaniards are subject to be surprised from unknown ambushes in passes and ravines. The forests, through which the natives glide like rabbits, are often impenetrable to Europeans. No attempts have succeeded in enticing the “idolaters” down to the plains from these woods and mountains, to be tutored, taxed and tormented. Yet it is a subject of complaint that these barbarians interfere, as no doubt they do, with the royal monopoly of tobacco, which they manage to smuggle into the provinces. “Fiscal officers and troops,” says De Mas, “are stationed to prevent these abuses, but these protectors practise so many extortions on the Indians, and cause so much of discontent, that commissions of inquiry become needful, and the difficulties remain unsolved.” In some places the idolaters molest “the peaceful Christian population,” and make the roads dangerous to travellers. De Mas has gathered information from various sources, and from him I shall select a few particulars; but it appears to me there is too much generalization as to the unsubjugated tribes, who are to be found in various stages of civilization and barbarism. The Tinguianes of Ilocos cultivate extensive rice-fields, have large herds of cattle and horses, and carry on a considerable trade with the adjacent Christian population. The Chinese type is said to be traceable in this race. The women wear a number of bracelets, covering the arm from the wrist to the elbow. The heaviest Tinguian curse is, “May you die while asleep,” which is equivalent to saying, “May your death-bed be uncelebrated.” It is a term of contempt for an Indian to say to another, “Malubha ang Caitiman mo”—Great is thy blackness (negregura, Sp.). The Indians call Africans Pogot.

There are many Albinos in the Philippines. They are called by the natives Sons of the Sun; some are white, some are spotted, and others have stripes on their skins. They are generally of small intellectual capacity.

Buzeta gives the following ethnological table, descriptive of the physical characteristics of the various races of the Philippines:—

Pure Indians.Mestizos.Negritos.
SizeHandsome, middle, sometimes tall.The same.Handsome, small and thin.
SkinCopper or quince colour, fine.Lighter, somewhat yellow.Dark copper.
BodySlight, well-formed, strong.Heavy.Slight and agile.
HairBlack, even, thick, harsh.Less thick.Black, curly, but less so than the Africans.
HeadMedium or small, round, and flat behind.Generally large.Small and rounder.
ForeheadOpen, often narrow.Open.Narrow.
EyesBlack, brilliant.Less uniform.Large, penetrating, brilliant.
EyebrowsThick and arched.Less arched.
EyelidsLong.Very long.
NoseMedium, generally flat.Thicker.Medium, slightly flat.
MouthLarge, medium sometimes.Larger.Medium.
LipsMedium.Thicker.Medium, rounder.
TeethWhite, regular, strong.Strong and large.Long, very strong.
Upper MandibleOrdinary size.High, salient.Ordinary.
Lower MandibleOrdinary and strong.Strong, open.Well-formed.
BreastWide; woman’s hard and firm.Firm but narrow.Firm but narrow.
CarriageGraceful, elegant.Graceful.Easy and careless.
ButtocksBroad and hard.Broad, hard.Broad, hard.
MusclesSmall.Small.Small.
ThighsSmall.Small.Small.
FeetSmall.Small.Small and well-formed.
FleshHard.Hard.Hard.
Hair (body)Lightly spread.None.Little.
BeardNone.Little.Little.
GenitalsSmall.Small.Small.