ANTHROPOLOGIC LITERATURE
The Philippine Islands and their People. A Record of Personal Obser- vation and Experience, with a Short Summary of the More Im- portant Facts in the History of the Archipelago. By Dean C. Worcester, Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of Michigan. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1898. 8°, xix, 529 pp., 2 maps, ills.
While the greater part of this volume is a narrative of two expedi- tions through the Philippine islands, the first extending over eleven months and the second over more than two years, a considerable amount of valuable anthropologic material is scattered through the pages. The author is a well-known naturalist of the University of Michigan, and has done excellent work in ornithology and allied branches ; and his training in accurate observation gives special value to his notes on the natives. Besides the numerically trifling Caucasian popula-
tion of the Philippines, there are certain Chinese settlements, and a con- siderable number of Chinese and a few Japanese resident in some of the cities ; but by far the greater part of the population is native, representing more than eighty presumptively distinct tribes. These are grouped by Professor Worcester as Negrito, wild Malay, Mohammedan Malay or Moro, and civilized Malay. The Negritos, supposed to be true aborigines now nearly displaced by the Malay, exist in scattered remnants.
" They are a wretched, sickly race, of almost dwarfish stature. Their skins are black, their hair is curly, their features are coarse and repul- sive. They practice agriculture little, if at all, living chiefly on the fruits and tubers which they find in the forest, and on the game which they bring down with their poisoned arrows. Mentally they stand at the bottom of the scale, and experience seems to have proved them incapable of civilization " (p. 438).
Certain tribes, e. g. y the Tagbanua, are considered to be hybrids pro- duced by intermarriage between the Negrito and the Malay ; while cer- tain peoples are supposed to have descended from the Chinese invaders under Li ma Hong, who landed on Luzon about 1573. The Tagbanua are partly civilized, partly wild ; the latter received special attention. Their houses are of palm and bamboo, commonly small and often
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