Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-30
MANKIND'S EARLIEST HOME
THE PHILIPPINES MAY HAVE EN-
JOYED THIS DISTINCTION.
Traces of Land Bridge Between Luzau
and Asia-Primeval Man May Haye
Made Ills way Across 1t Interest
ing Discoveries By u scientist.

ing Discoveries By "a scientist.
! DR. George +. Becker, the distinguished
government gcologist sent to the Philip
pines not long ago, has just returned with
a very interesting account of the origin
or the archipelago. says Eehe Bachc in
tho Boston Transcript. But the most no
table feature of the report submit ted 10y
him TO the interior depattmo mas rela-
ton to the presence of ancient man in Lu-
zOn and other islands of the group. His
opinion Is that the ape-like creature term.
ed the missing link may nave mad its ear
lest haunts in these isles of the sea. at
time when, not less than 100000 years
ago. they were connected with the main-
land of Asia by sort of land bridge, via
Borreo.
In this opinion Or. Becker comedies with
the late Prof O. c. Marsh OF Yale Uni
versity. who expressed a belief that the
Philippines were, at all event., among the
earliest localities inhabited DY the human
species, even If the latter dld not actually
start there The time may have been half
million years ago. but science always
wishes to be conservative. There are cN-
cellent reasons. however, for believing
tEat homo sapions-the true human being.
as distinguished from the typical ape
existed on the island Of Lu2on. or in that
immediate neighborhood, in the epoch call
ed the Piocene. along toward the end q
the Tertiary period. Now, the Tertiary
ended about 2coD0 years back, with the
great Ice Age. and thus one yats n no.
ton Of the extreme antiquity assignable
To- the first families Of the Philipnincs
Or Becker surmiSes that the black
dwarts of Luzun and other Islands Of tho
group, known as NcRritos. are actually
descended from the primitive human stock
,.i.,
nearly extinct, who have not advanced
even as far as the Stone Age are aston-
lshlngly monkey-like in aspect and in their
ways. the sounds they utter in Ecu of
lar guage resembling the short and sharp
shrleks of those animals. Apparently
they are not diS.dntly related to certain
savages discovered in the lutercc of i3or-
nco, not exceeding four feet in stature
whose wrnltled skins are covered with
hair, and who sl""p i'm caves or IN trees
living on mice and such other small ami
mails as they can catch. These wild peo-
pie of Borneo IAN either be tanned nor en-
ployed for any work, and thcir speech is
tho sahblo Of brutes.
All through the larger island groups Of
the Southwest Pacific are found. more or
less differentiated. tribes of monkey like
dwarfs. There is no question of the fact
that most of that part Of tn" world now
called Occanica vas inna1ited hv these
=
came in boats and began the work of oX-
terminating them. They have been wiped
out entirely on all but she largest Islands
such as LuZon and Mindana5. where tiev
still survive in small numb RS in the
mountains and Inaccessible interior
Among them are certain IboriGines of SUI
rntra. whose bodies are covered all over
with soft. daCk hair, and VINO wear no
clothing, have no language of their Cwn
and learn with the utmost difficulty to
pronounce a few Malay words As far
away as C"ylon the wild folk of the noun
tains. knovn as Neddahs. make thcms les
understood by signs, enhances ;ud mar
ticuiatc grunts
These pigmy peoples, according to the
belief of DR. Becker ana Prof Marsh are
descended directly from the original stock
OF the so-called missi1g link. or course
the missing link was not an individual
but n species. and the best authorities ave
Of the opuion that the TYP. was not un-
Ike the chimranHee-a kind of ape now
almost extinct, unfortunately. but regald-
ed as nearer to man shan any other Of
the great Inthropoids. Nobody will ever
Know how he came about, hut ne aI'ry Il
s"mcEow-very likely in Iuzon or it's noar
neiEhborhood- it soon became appar-
ent that he was there to stay. He was
smarter than the other monkeys, and so
could get a better living; he learned how
to grasp stick and use il as u club, and
thus he was enabled to whip all corners
in fghts
Now. this missing link is no theory
That h. and his kinda whole tribe. cou-
stituting a new ana improved spec es-dId
actually exist has been proved by the dis
coNcry, in Java, not very far from the
Philippines, of a fossil specimen. one
should rather say. a fnW Of the bones Of
an individual, but they were enough to
show his physical and even his montal
- in 10Th
was the upper part of II skull, a molar
tooth and a left thign-bone- all completely
loSslllzed, ana found IN q volcanic depos.t
Of approximately known age, on the
banks of tho Bcngdwdn River. The earth
surrounding these interesting remains had
turned to solid rock. and 1T is a surmiSC
that the cataclysm whicn destroyed this
individual may have wipel out an entire
ration of his kind. Certainly, the crea-
ture in question was not human, but in
SIZE, brain power and erect posture he an-
preached much nearer to man than any
othev animal hitherto known. The capaci-
~ of his skull seems TO have been ABOUT
two-thirds that Of the average human be-
Ag
1t may be imagined-such a notion being
not in the least improba ble-tn1t the trst
really man-like monkey ard his wife re-
sided in the neighborhood OF Manila. They
were exceptionally clever people for an
thropoids, and they had reason to be
proud of themselves inasmuch as they
were-if they had only known 1.-THE SUI
periors. Intellectually and otneINse. of
all other existing animals, In word,
they We're at the tip-top Of the geological
/ heap. or course they lived IN trce-a
very convenient kind of domicilc under
primitive conditions, by reason of the pro-
lection it gives against enemies. while
affording large outlook. All Of the great
nan-like monkeys to-day, such as tho
chimpanzee and orang, seek safety in
trees. But this particular pair mad less
/ trouble to got along in the world than
their simian acqulintances, because they
were smarter; they were more clever at
procuring and storing food supplies and
the gentleman of the household knew how
TO use a club.
The first human-like family increased
rapidly, and soon spread oVeG a wide ter
rtory, being much nelped toward survival
by the superior cleVerness and prowess of
its members. From generation to genera
tion, they improved, physically and men
tally. Their arms grew shorter, their legs
lcrgcr, and their brain-rlns bigger, until
at length tho type represented by the bones
dug up in Central JaVa-the Pithcclnthro-
lus erectus, or upright monkey man. as
scientists have named the animdl-was
evolved. Here at last was the destined
ancestor of the monkey-like Negritos of
LuZon.
All of this took a great length of time
and hundreds of thousands Of years may
l.. ,.lF,.