Article February 26, 1903 Issue

The Philippine Aborigines

The New York Sun

David P. Barrows, chief of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes of the Philippines, in a report received at the War Department on the ethnology of the Philippines, concludes that while the great majority of the population is unquestionably of Malayan origin, the aboriginal race of the archipelago is the dwarf black people known as "Negritos," or little Negroes. He says that the people of this race are almost the smallest on the globe, and are true savages. It was thought that their numbers were dwindling, and that not more than ten thousand remained in the islands, but inquiry shows not less than thirty thousand of these dwarfs. Some of them are four feet in height, but the greater number are under three feet. They feed upon roots and small game, and do not live in villages, but roam through the mountains in small groups of a few families each. They are timid and fearful of approach, and yet to a certain extent are feared by the more civilized tribes. Mr. Barrows says,—

"The number of problems presented to the ethnologist by these little blacks is almost bewildering. Their identity with the Sakais of the Malay Peninsula, and the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, is almost certain, but what is their relation to those other pygmies—the dwarfs of central Africa? And further, what may be their connection with the true Negro race of Melanesia, almost contiguous to them? The geographic distribution of the Negritos is such that we must conclude that at one time they were practically the sole possessors of the Philippine archipelago; and unquestionably the first to arrive and to dispute their possession of the soil and to drive them into the mountainous interiors which they now occupy, were the tribes of primitive Malayans which still constitute the most considerable element of the non-Christian population of the islands."

In contrast to the dwarfs are the tribes in the vicinity of the Gulf of Davao and Mount Apo in eastern Mindanao. They are very tall, with hair wavy rather than straight, a narrow and prominent nose, and a color of skin approaching that of the Polynesians, and according to Mr. Barrows, they are another non-Malayan element. He describes the seven Christian tribes, the Mohammedan Malays other Malayan peoples, and says,—

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