The age-herald., 1898-08-26
PRIMITIVE FILIPINOS
 AS THEY STILL EXIST

ippineS in search of rare or new DirdS ana mammals and his errand took him into the widest and least-eKplored lands, where he saw as few foreigners have done, the saw age tribes that inhabit them.
 "Without doubt" he says, "the most primitive of Philippine people are the Aetas or Negritos, race of blacks of al- most dwarfish stature, with fiattened noses, thick lips and closely curling black hair. They are believed. and with reason, to be the true aboriginies of the islands, who. even at the time of the Spanish conquest, had begun to go to the wall in the fierce struggle for existence which was then being waged between them and the en- croaching Malay tribes on the one hand and between the Mohammedan and pagan Malays on the other. We encountered them but once. They wander through the forest, living for the most part on what they can pick from the trees or dig out of the ground, although the men sometimes make use of bows and arrows or rude lances in hunting. They sleep wherever night overtakes them, often without troubling to build so much as a leaf shelter. They are becoming extinct"
 The most interesting of the Malayan tribes encountered by Prof. Worcester's party were the Mangyans, who people the inter for of Mindoro.
 Although it's capital is distant, but 120 miles from Manila" he writes, "Mindoro is one of the least-known islands in the archipelago, it's pestiferous climate and the unsavory reputation of the renegade Tega- logs who inhabit its coasts having com bined to discourage exploration, while there has been little to encourage explora- tion on the part of the Spanish, for the Mangyans have nothing to steal and could not be taxed.
 Even in the days of its greatest pros perity the cultivated district in Mindoro was restricted to belt along the coast. The interior of the island stands today as it was in the beginning. Under the perpetual shadows of the mighty low1and forests and in little clearings on the mount ain sides dwell tribe of natives who show little kinship in speech or customs and none whatever in dress with the remaining Philippine people,
 Of their dress and habits Prof. Worcester says:
 'The men were clad in the usual clout. and in that alone. The dress of the women IS different from that of any other Philip tune tribe. It consists of numerous coils or a cord braided of split rattan or other similar vegetable substance wound around the body at the hips and supporting a clout of bark. This bark is made soft py careful pounding between stones, and at snort distance it looks exactly like cloth. The cord is usally stained black, aithough kind woven in black and yellow cneck IS especially prized. Married women are distinguished by the fact that they ex- pose the breasts, while unmarried girls cover them with a peel from one of the piantains, ornamented with finely braided rattan cord.
 During the dry season the lowiand Man. gyans often wander through the forest with no fixed place of abode. Where night oVertakeS them there they sleep each per son making a shelter for himself by cut ing on a couple of rattan leaves fasten- ing their butts together and sticking them into the earth at such an angle as to give the leaves suitable inclination Under tn1s quickly eKtemporized roof he sleeps usually squatting on his heels.'
 The Indigenous fruits, vegetables and roots supply the natives with food in plenty but, says Prof. Worcester:
 Tt should rot be supposed, however, that the Mangyan is vegetarian. He fashions lance, bow and arrows for himself, and makes the wooden tips of his weapons tre- mendously effective by dipping them in a Viruient poison. No bird or beast is too filthy for him to eat. Fish eagles. herons carrion crows and buzzards are acceptable luxurles, while crocodiles and certain spe- cies of snakes are delicacies to be highly prized The huge white grubs which bore In the trunks of the sago palms are regard ed Tn the light of confectionery. I fancy that the starch with which they are filled turns to sugar as it is digested, giving them sweet taste. but must admit that I never demonstrated this point experiment. ally The Mangyans eat them alive, with many evidences of great satisfaction, and evidently find the flavor delightful
 The knowledge of the Mangyans, as may be supposed, is very limited It would take them some time to learn to vote "The lowland Mangyans signal to each other by pounding upon the roots of certain trees with large clubs, thereby producing booming sound which can be heard for sey- efal miles under favorable circumstances Their standard for measuring distance is based on the carrying power of the human voice, a given thing being so many .caIls away.
 Their numerals usually stop at three but their professors Of mathematics are able to count up to twenty by making use of fingers and toes. As they always count in a definite direction, each digit comes to have a permanent numerical value. In actual practice if we desired to tell a man to return in five days, we used to tie five knots in a bit of rattan and direct him to unite one of them every morning until they were gone, and then return.
 When shown their own photographs they failed to recognize themselves, all though they at once pointed out the like nesses of their friends. They made the most ludicrous attempts to catch or find persons who stared back at them from our pocket mirrors Adult women would en- certain themselves for hours with rattles which we eKtemporized by putting few shots into small metal box. At Naujan lake the people came from miles around to watch the spinning of a top which we happened to have in our belongings" Of the strange lack of any religious in- stinct even, and of the moral code, Prof. Worcester says:
 'They fatalists The most dire mis- fortune serves only to call forth the re- mark So it is appointed. We never saw the slightest indication of worship of any kind, nor could we learn by the most dili- gent inquiry that they ever practiced any, thing of the sort They deny belief in a life after death. Persons who fall seriously