The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-02-01
OF
PHILIPPINES
Its Inhabitants from 1892 to
1858.
Some Interesting Facts About
Their Life and Customs by Hon.
John Whitehead.
Continued.

| They excelled, however. in their
ability to make fire and in the use
of the bow and lance. In color, coun-
tenance and hair they would seem to
be of pure negro blood, their lips, how
ever were not so prominent. They live
on roots. fruits and the product of
the chase. Theil only dress was
girdle, less than foot broad and made
of the bark of trees. They cate their
food nearly raw and live in small
communities of about fifty or sixty in
number. The old women. who are
hideous in their appearance, and chill
dren sit around the fire, while the men
of the tribe go hunting with their
bamboo lance, palm wood bow and
poisoned arrows, and at night they
lie promiscuously in the ashes. No
more degraded human beings are to be
found in the whole habitable globe.
They have no religion, worship no
deity, not even the sun, moon or stars,
nor any idol divinity. Sometimes, it
would seem that they adore, or pay
some sort of homage to particular
tree or rock, where they may have
remained for few days, but they
cease this worship or homage so soon
as they remove. But they pay great
respect to their old people and their
dead. For years after the decease of
relative, they place betel root and
tobacco AZ his grave imagining that
the dead man will come out of his
grave at night. and above his burial
place they bury his bow and arrow.
But it one of the community is sick
of an incurable disorder, or has been
wounded by 8 poisoned arrow they
bury them alive. Their weapons are
all poisoned and wound from them
produces an unquenchable thirst which
cannot be cured and surely ends in
death. M. de Gironiere had some
evidence of the effect of this poison.
He stole one of the skeletons, which
these savages were preserving, of an
ancestress, and attempted to escape
with it, intending to present it to
one of the museums in Paris. The
theft was discovered, pursuit fol-
lowed and the doctor was slightly
wounded. At first he experienced
no pain, but on his return to Manila,
several days afterward acute inflam-
nation set in, accompanied by excess
sIve pain, almost unbearable. and
which it seemed impossible to relieve.
A surgeon was called in but was un-
able with all his art to aid the good
physician. The poison so far pro-
gressed and the symptoms of approach
ing death were SO pronounced that a
priest was called in to administer
extreme unction. Nevertheless, M.
de Gironiere recovered and carried
his skeleton to Paris where 1t was re-
naming at the time of writing his
book, in the Museum of Anatomy.
A great contrast with these Ajetas
was found by the doctor in another
race of natives, equally as savage but
more barbarous. These people lived
in the northern part of the island and
were called the Tingumnes and Igar-
roks. The author says they were
little known but much talked about.
Their complexion was not much
darker than that OF the Inhabitants of
Southern Europe, they had hair in
stead of wool on their heads. Their
habits were much more ferocious than
those of the Ajetas. They were can
nibals and the author while with them
was obliged to partake of one of their
horrible feasts. They were comely
race; some of their women were hand
some but all disfigured by singular
custom. In early youth a bracelet
reaching from wrist to elbow was
tightly grasped around their arms and
never removed. The effect of this
was to increase the size of their hand
and wrists immensely but also to
attenuate their arms. Their dress
was of the most primitive character,
the men wore a girdle around their
waist, which was supplemented
with an apron by the women, wbo
however, made up for the lack Of
clothes by profuse ornamentation Of
the hair by beads of gold, coral and
glass. They painted the backs of theil
hands with blue pigment and tattooed
the other parts of the body. In appear.
ance they were not alarming, but by
nature, were cruel and ferocious. Oi
great cleanliness of habit, bathing
night and morning, they still had 6
most unpleasant aroma which render
ed their presence exceedingly unplea
SAINT to an European.
Doctor Gironiere heard of strange
people dwelling in apparently an un
approachable part of the islands at s
locality called Tapuzi, really refuge
for desperadoes and outlaws. This
locality was really inhabited by
criminals who had escaped and Other
fugitives from justice. They govern
ed themselves as sort of republic
defying the whole power of thu
Spanish government in the islands
The doctor determined to visit Tapuz