Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/202

 mc gee] ANTHROPOLOGIC LITERA TURE 173

admixture of Negrito blood ; the tallest of the men measure five feet one and a half inches, and the tallest of the women four feet ten inches ; the weapons are bows and poisoned arrows, while fish and small animals are trapped. The highlanders abandon the sick in fear, returning after the death to carry the body into the woods and protect it with a bit of fence and thatch. No evidence was found of belief in future life. They have an ordeal by fire for the detection of theft, while man- slaughter within the tribe is punished by forfeiture of property ; po- lygyny prevails, while polyandry is forbidden ; children marry at eight years or older, the marriage being arranged by the elders. The lowland Mangyan are omnivorous, delighting in crocodile-meat, con- suming carrion on occasion, and reveling in immense white grubs from the sago palm, taken alive and swallowed squirming ; yet they have a rather elaborate process of extracting sago starch for food. They also abandon the sick, but sometimes steal back ; if the patient is improved they succor him, but if death has occurred they flee, deserting the house with its contents, and closing paths leading to it. Afterward the relatives conceal themselves in the jungle and change their names. They place profound faith in fetishes, and evidently are controlled chiefly by fear of vague mythical potencies, though the author was un- able to obtain definite ideas of their cheerless faith. The Mo- ro form the most conspicuous element of the Filipino population ; they comprise a number of tribes of varying characteristics. They profess Mohammedanism, but most of them retain savage traits, some- times intensified by the curious fanaticism accompanying barbaric belief ; they furnish occasional examples of the culminating self-sacri- fice of Mohammedan martyrdom in devotees who seek to buy eternal happiness by running amok and slaying Christians until they are them- selves slain. Some of the Moro are head-hunters ; others set out on the death of a relative to kill the first person they meet as a sacrifice to the manes. The civilized Malay, as a rule, are kindly and hospitable, tolerant of any but the harshest government, fairly honest and susceptible of industrial and social improvement, although of course without the vigorous physical, mental, and moral characteristics of the Caucasian. Though not professedly a scientific book, the work is based on personal observation and was written by a scienti- fic man, and is accordingly well worth the attention of students. It is handsomely printed, fairly illustrated by photomechanical reproduc- tions, and artistically bound.

W J McGee.

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