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 Negros. They are very short of stature, 4 ft. 10 in. being about the average height of a full-grown man, and the women are shorter. Their colour is black, their skull decidedly round, their hair thick and frizzly, their legs thin and almost without calves, and their toes so prehensile that they can use them nearly as well as their fingers. They tattoo themselves and wear very little clothing, usually only a gee string. They have no fixed abodes but roam about in groups of a few families. They are skilful with the bow and in throwing stones, and they can easily kindle a fire, even in the wet season, by rubbing together two pieces of dry bamboo. Their food consists principally of game, roots and wild fruits. The women, who do all the work, collect wax and honey, which are their principal staples in trade. Few Negritos live to be fifty years of age. The brown race, which came from the south in successive waves of immigration beginning in prehistoric times, is composed of twenty-three distinct tribes varying widely in culture, language and appearance; their languages however belong to one common stock and there is a general resemblance in physical features and in quality of mind. The great bulk of the population, approximately 90%, is included in seven Christian tribes as follows: Visayan, 3,219,030; Tagálog, 1,460,695; Ilocano, 803,942; Bicol, 566,365; Pangasinan, 343,686; Pampangan, 280,984; and Cagayán, 159,648. The Visayans are the principal inhabitants of the islands in the central part of the archipelago (Panay, Cebú, Negros, Leyte, Bohol, Samar, Masbate and Paragua) and on the north and east coasts of Mindanao; they were perhaps the most civilized people in the archipelago when discovered by the Spaniards, by whom they were originally called Pintados because they were in the habit of painting their bodies; but since then their progress has been less rapid than that of the Tagálogs—who constitute the bulk of the population of Manila and central Luzon and the majority of the population of Mindanao—who are now the most cultured of the brown races in the Philippines. Most of the Ilocanos are in the western half of north Luzon; most of the Bicols in south Luzon; most of the Pangasinaus in the province of Pangasinan, which borders on the Gulf of Lingayén; most of the Pampangans in the province of Pampanga, which borders the north shore of Manila Bay; and most of the Cagayáns in the valley of the Cagayán river. More than three-fourths of the wild population is included in the Moro, Igorot and Negrito tribes. The Igorots (197,938 wild and 13,582 civilized) are the chief representatives of the early Malay immigration to the archipelago. They are the principal inhabitants of the provinces of Lepanto-Bontoc and Benguet in north Luzon and are numerous in the mountain districts of neighbouring provinces. Among the wildest of them head-hunting is still a common practice; but the majority are industrious farmers laying out their fields on artificial terraces and constructing irrigation canals with remarkable skill. The Moros (275,224 wild and 2323 civilized) were the last of the Malays to migrate to the islands; they came after their conversion to the Mahommedan religion, and their migration continued until the Spanish conquest. More than one-half of them are in Mindanao and they are the principal inhabitants of the small islands of Jolo, Basilan, Siassi and Tawi Tawi south-west of Mindanao. Slavery is common among them. They are generally miserably poor, cruel and haughty. Nearly three-fourths of the foreign-born and 97.5% of the representatives of the yellow race come from China. The mixture of the races is principally that of the Chinese with the Malays or the Spaniards with the Malays. More than half the representatives of the white race (1903) were Americans. Most of the inhabitants live in groups of villages. In 1903 there were 13,400 villages and nearly three-fourths of them contained fewer than 600 inhabitants each. Laoag in north Luzon with a population of 19,699, Iloilo in Panay with a population of 19,054, Cebú with a population of 18,330, and Nueva Cáceres in south Luzon (10,201), were the only towns with a population exceeding 10,000; and Manila (219,928) was the only city. After the 1903 census many towns were enlarged by annexation of suburbs.

Government.—At the beginning of the American occupation, in August 1898, a purely military government was established; but in May 1899 the military authorities began the re-establishment of civil courts, and in July of the same year they began the organization of civil municipal governments. To continue the work of organizing and establishing civil government the president of the United States appointed in February 1900 a Philippine Commission of five members, with William H. Taft as chairman. On the 1st of September 1900 this body assumed the legislative functions of the central government at Manila; on the 4th of July 1901 the executive authority was, by order of the president, transferred from the military governor to Judge Taft, whom he had appointed civil governor; on the 6th of September 1901 the Philippine Commission, by authority of the president, established the four executive departments, of interior, commerce and police, finance and justice, and public instruction; and on the 29th of October 1901 the president appointed a vice-governor. The Congress of the United States, in an act approved on the 1st of July 1902, ratified and confirmed the government as thus established, but required that future appointments by the president of the governor, vice-governor, members of the commission and heads of the executive departments should be made with the consent of the Senate. The organic act contained a bill of rights, provided for the establishment of a popular assembly two years after the completion of a census of the Philippines, and more definitely provided for the organization of the judiciary. The first popular assembly, of 80 members, was opened at Manila on the 16th of October 1907, and since then the legislature has been composed of two branches, the Philippine Commission (five Americans and four, formerly three, Filipinos), and the Philippine Assembly. The members of the Assembly are elected by districts (the population of which is approximately equal) for a term of two years. A voter must be twenty-three years of age, must have been a resident of the municipality for six months, must not be a citizen or subject of any foreign country, and must possess at least one of the following qualifications: have been an office-holder under Spanish rule, own real estate worth 500 pesos, pay taxes amounting annually to 30 pesos, or be able to speak, read and write either Spanish or English. The legislature meets annually; a regular session is limited to 90 days, and a special session to 30 days.

Justice is administered principally by a supreme court, courts of first instance, and courts of justices of the peace. The supreme court consists of seven members, four Americans and three Filipinos; and the chief justice and associate justices of the supreme court are appointed by the president of the United States with the consent of the Senate. The judges of the courts of first instance are appointed by the governor with the consent of the Philippine Commission. A judgment of the supreme court of the Philippines which affects any statute, treaty, title, right or privilege of the United States may be reversed, modified or affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States; an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States may also be had in any cause in which the value in controversy exceeds $25,000.

The most common form of provincial government is that by a governor, who is elected biennially by the municipal councillors in convention, and a secretary, a treasurer, a supervisor, and a fiscal or prosecuting attorney, who are appointed by the Philippine Commission. Each municipality is governed by a president, a vice-president, and a municipal council, all of whom are elected biennially by the qualified electors of the municipality. The Philippine “municipality” is an administrative area, often sparsely settled, is often called a town, and may be compared to a New England township; the municipalities are the units into which the provinces are divided. Each municipality is made up of barrios or small villages (about 13,400 in the entire archipelago) and of one, or more, more thickly peopled areas, each called a poblacion, and resembling the township “centre” of New England.

Education.—The establishment of an efficient system of elementary schools has been an important part of the work of the American administration. Under Spanish rule the Church established colleges and seminaries for training priests, but the Spanish system of secular schools for elementary instruction, established in 1863, accomplished little; the schools were taught by unqualified native teachers and the supervision of them was very lax. The American