Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-22


/ T. MIEAAIHL//jl people have main
'tlAMl'H "W/| tained their indepen-
kxka dence for centuries
~ST&i refusing to be civil
| lied or to submit to
the yoke of the foreign Invader. They dwell
| in the Businesses of the mountains and
| some Of them are head hunters Bags of
| peculiar network are manufactured by them
| expressly for the purpose of carrying such
| he ads as may he secured incidentally to
| their occasional warlike forays. and one of
their chiefs, when about to be executed by
| the Chinese, who had captured him. said:
II have no fear of death; I have taken
nirety-four heads. and only wanted six
more to make the hundred"
These savages are of Malay stock. They
| say that they did not belong originally in
| Formosa, and describe their origin by
pointing to the south and showing copies of
| the canoes in which their ancestors are al
legged to have arrived. Their garb ranges
| from nudity to gay-colored garments of
| their own weaving, made from the fibers of
the banana and ramie plants. They tattoo
| their faces and build elegant huts of bam-
| be o. over the doorways of which are hung,
| as trophies, skulls of wild boars and apes,
| ard sometimes tufts of Chinamens pigtails
| 1t is only in their territory, which stran-
gers rarely dare to invade, that the cam
| phorbearing laurel grows. Consequently,
| the camphor can only be obtained with
| their consent and money is paid to the
| CT iefs to refrain from destroying the dis
t.lling 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 negotiate
with the savages through the Intervention
| of the semi-civilized Hakkas or HilImen.
| They make advances to the Hillmen on con-
dition that the latter shall set up certain
| number of stills and supply monthly fixed
| amount of camphor at price agreed upon.
| The laurel is a large forest tree. 1t Is
| felled and the trunk and branches are cut
| into small pieces with ADDE'S, the giant of
| the woods being soon reduced to a heap of
| clips. The chips are subjected with water
| to crude process of distillation, the cam
| phor crystals deposited in the condensing
| jars beirg scraped out and packed in bas-
| kets incidentally to the operation an es-
| sental oil is obtained, which is exported
under the name of 'camphor OIL and is
used for chemical purposes.
Land of Wonderful Fertility.
Formosa is 235 miles long and 10 miles
wide, being as big as Sardinia and Corsica
| rolled into one. Estimates of the popula-
! ton vary from -2,009.0OO to 3,O0o,0G0, be-
| cause the number of savages is unknown.
| The soil is bursting with fatness and no.
| where is finer duality of tea produced. 1t
| full fiber is obtained from the leaves of that
| plant. The eastern half of the island is
| covered with jungles in which grows the
| valuable creeper called rattan. The Span
| iards took possession of Formosa in 1926
but were expelled by the Dutch in 1912. In
| 1861 Chinese pirate chief named Koxinga
| drove away the Dutch and proclaimed him.
| self king. Twenty-Five years later the Chi
! pese dethroned his successor, and from
| then until now the island has been prov
| ince of the middle kingdom.
Formosa is part of the great archipel-
| ago 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, doubt
| less exterminated there by the Malays
| Pigmies of the same race still inhabit the
| Philippines. They were called Negritos, or
| Little Negroes, by the early Spanish set
| entirely peopled by them. They call them
| selves 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 so tiny, they are very muscular
| using with ease bows which the strongest
white men cannot string. They are Won
| derful runners. and their senses are as
tonishingly 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.
| IheSe QWar1S are supposed 10 nave Detn
the earliest inhabitants of the Malay Arch
| ipelago. They invented canoes the nautical
| qualities Of which have astonished English
sailors. Eventually they became widely
| scattered over the seas of that part OF the
| world and on the mainland as we'll Some
| tribes of them still exist in the most in
| accessible and unwholesome parts of India
where they are known as man apes or
men of the jungleS" Once upon time
| they were numerous in Java. where they
were wiped out by Malays, who Joined to
| murderous propenSities civilization cap
| able of erecting the thousands of gigantic
| temples whose ruins Today amaze the
| archaeological explorer in that Island
| Some anthropologists are of the opinion
| that the remains of so-called fossil man
| recently found in Java are actually the
| bones of a Little Negro.
| Poisoned Arrows of the Dwarfs.
Bigger and stronger peoples gradually
drove out and killed off these pigmies who
now are found occupying the interior OF
some Of the largest Islands, finding a
refuge among the mountains. while the
| plains and coastal regions are inhabited by
| intruding races. This is true of Luzon, the
| largest member of the group of Philippines.
The dwarfs We're found there by the first
| Spanish settlers, as we'll as in the interior
| of the four other principal islands. They
| will have nothing to do with the Spanish,
| Malay or Chinese inhabitants, and intru-
| sion upon their territory is vigorously re-
sented. Armed as they are, with poisoned
| arrows, the slightest scratchSfrom which
means DEATH they are well able to defend
| themselves. There are parts of Luzon in
which no white man dares to set foot, and
| some of the smaller isles of the group re-
main to this day uneXplored for the same
| reason.
| The dwarfs trade to some extent with
| Chinese peddlers, but in very peculiar
| fashion. The peripatetic merchant deposits
money In designated spot and goes away
| to distance. In return for it the savages
leave in the same place such merchandise
| as rare gums, fine woods and the leaves
and roots of valuable plants. which the
| peddler is able to dispose of in the cities
at a great profit. They always scrupu-
lously honest, and even liberal in their
dealings. The respective territories Of the
hills or belts of jungle, which must not be
crossed without formal invitation or spe-