The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-11

from the Asiatic continent by numberless earthquakes. In this opinion Dr. Becker coincides with the late Prof. O. c. Marsh of Yale university, one of the most re- nowned geologists the world has ever known. It was he who expressed the be- lief that the Philippine Islands were, at all events, among the earliest localities inhabited by the human species, even if they did not really start there. Many other scientists of note concur in the opin- ion that homo sapiens, the true human being as distinguished from the typical ape-existed In the island of Luzon in the epoch called Pliocene. somewhere in the neighborhood of the end of the Tertiary period. This latter period ended about 100000 years ago with the great ice age, so what we are pleased to call prehistoric man. is after all, quite recent addition to the earth's creatures. He was nothing more or less than an animal of low intel ligence, as about this time he learned to hit his enemy with a club.
 Dr. Becker, in his report to the govern ment, declares that in his opinion the black dwarfs of Luzon, known as Me- gritos are descendants of the primitive man in question. These black pigmies, now nearly extinct, have not advanced nearly as far as the stone age. They are much nearer the monkey than the human and appear to be a cross between the two. They are very monkey-lfke in ap- pearance and characteristics. The short, sharp chattering cries they utter In place of language very much resembles the shrieks of those animals.
 Apparently they are not related to cer- tain savaSes discovered in the island of Borneo, not exceeding four feet in stature whose parchment-like, wrinkled skins are covered with hair, who live in caves and trees and prey upon what small animals and insects they can capture. the bodies of which they devour raw. These wild people of Borneo can not be tanned, much less civilized. Their language is nothing more or less than the snarling chatter of brutes What few of these strange crea- lures have been captured by the Borneo Dutch have always pined away and died in captivity.
 All through the larger island groups of the southwest Pacific are found more or less differentiated tribes of monkey-like dwarfs. There is no doubt of the fact that long ago all of the islands of this portion of the great Pacific were only pop ulated by these monkey men. Early in the 14th century this part of the world,
 
 Chinese who began the work of exter- minating them. They have been almost completely wiped out, with the exception of a surviving few in Luzon, Mindanao, Borneo and some few of the other larger islands where they still survive in small numbers in the mountainous and inaccess- ible interiors. They are wild men in ev- cry sense of the word; they run with in credible swiftness and will flee at the ap- proach of human" Among them are certain aborlgines of Sumatra, whose bodies are completely covered from head to foot with soft, dark hair. They wear not a particle of clothing have no Ian guage and learn with the utmost difficult ty few simple Malay words. They have not sufficient intelligence to learn to count above ten. They make themselves under stood by means of grimaces, signs and inarticulate grunts.
 These Undiscovered pigmy people, ac- cording to the beliefs of Dr. Becker and Professor Marsh. as well as other scien- lists too numerous to mention. are direct descendants of the original stock of the so-called missing link. To be sure the missing link was not an individual, but a species, and the authorities have quoted are of the opinion that the type were very much like the Chimpanzee, species of ape, now unfortunately almost extinct, but regarded as nearer to man than any of the other great anthropoids. This creature can have only one origin and that is evolution. Any way he bobbed up serenely on earth somenow, very proba- bly, on Luzon or somewhere in its vicinity, hut in all probabilitv LAlxon. as 1t s tha