Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-07-17
JAPANESE NEGROES.
Black Pigmies of Her Newly Ac-
quired Formosa.
HOW WILL THE JAPS SUBDUE THEM2
Are Wild and Fierce Fighters, and In
vaders Have Never Been Able to
Approach Them.
HOW WILL THE JAPS SUBDUE THEM2

The Japanese Will accomplish task
hitherto deemed hopeless if they suo-
ceed in subduing the tribes Of savages
and dwarfs which inhibit the interior
Of their newly acquired island of
Formosa. These wild people have
maintained their independence for GEN.
turies. refusing to be civilized or to
submit to the yoke of the foreign in
vadeI.
They dwell in the Businesses of the
mountains. and some of them are head
hunters. Bags of peculiar net work
are manufactured by them expressly
for the purpose of carrying heads
secured in their warlike forays. One
of their chiefs when about to be ex-
ecuted by the Chinese said: 81 have
no fear of death; have taken ninety
four heads and only wanted six more to
make the hundred"
These savages are of Malay stock.
They say that they did not belong orig
ihally in Formosa, and describe their
origin by pointing to the south and
showing copies of the canoes in which
their ancestors are alleged to have
arrived. Their garb ranges from
nudity to gayly colored garments of
their own weaving, made from the
fibres of the banana and ramie plants
They tattoo their faces and build ele-
CANT huts of bamboo, over the doorways
of which are hung as trophies skulls of
wild boars and apes, and sometimes
tufts of Chinmen's pigtails.
1t is only in their territory, which
strangers rarely dare to invade, that
the camphor- bearing laurel grows.
Consequently, the camphor can only
be obtained with their consent, and
money is paid to the chiefs to refrain
from destroying the distilling plants
set up in their country. Nevertheless,
trouble frequently arises and the stills
are constantly being destroyed.
Several European firms are engaged
in the camphor trade, and they nego-
tiate with the savases through the in,
tervention of the emi-civilized
Hakkas, or Hillmen. They make ad-
vances to the Hillmen ON condition
that the latter shall set up certain
number of stills and supply monthly
fixed amount of camphor at price
agreed upon.
Formosa is 235 miles long and rs
miles wide, being as big as Sardinia
and Corsica rolled into one. Esti-
mates of the population vary from
100000 to 5000, 900, because the
number of savages is unknown. The
soil is bursting with fatness, and no.
where is finer quality Of tea pro-
duced. 1t is great pineapple coun-
try. and beautiful fiber is obtained
from the leaves of that plant. The
eastern half Of the island is covered
with jungles. in which grows the val
liable creeper called rattan.
Formosa is part of the great archi-
pelago which includes the Philippines,
long possessed and misgoverned by
Spain. In Japan's newly acquired
island have been found skulls and
skeletons of people who belonged to a
race of black dwarfs, doubtless exter-
minated there by the Malays. Pigmies
of the same race still inhabit the
Philippines. They were called Negri-
tos, or Little Negroes, by the early
Spanish settlers. Some of the smaller
islands were entirely peopled by them.
They call themselves Aetas; they are
active, very dark, woolly, small
headed, and average only four feet
and seven inches in height
They are distinct from any other
known people. Though 30 tiny, they
are very muscular, using with ease
bows which the strongest white man
cannot string. They are wonderful
runners. and their senses are astonish-
ingly acute. They distinguish by their
odor fruits hidden in the thick foliage
of the jungle, and recognize by smell
only from what flowers the bees have
gathered honey.
These dwarfs are supposed to have
been the earliest inhabitants of the
Malay Archipelago. They invented
canoes, the nautical qualities of which
have astonished English sailors.
Eventually they became widely scat
tered over the seas of that part of the
world and on the mainland as well.
Some tribes of them still exist in the
most inaccessible and unwholesomt
parts of India, where they are known
as "man apes" or "men of the jun
gle."
Once upon time they were numer
GUS in Java. where they were wipe'
out by Mslays who joined to murder
GUS propensities civilization capabl
Of erecting the thousands of giganti
temples whose ruins today amaze tn
archaeological explorer in that island
Some an thropologists are of the opin
ion that the remains of a so-calle
fossil man recently found in Java al
actually the bones of Little Negro.
Bigger and stronger people graduall
/ drove out and killed off these pigmie
who now are found occupying the IL
terror of some Of the largest island