Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/132

 1 20 Reviews.

The Negritos of Zambales. By W. A. Reed. Ethnological Survey Publications, vol. ii., Pt. i. Manila, 1904.

The Ethnological Survey of their new possessions, the Philippine Islands, continues to make excellent progress under the auspices of the American Government. The present instalment forms a useful monograph on the Negritos.

The author (p. 13) groups these people with the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, and more doubtfully suggests that they are connected with the Papuans of New Guinea, "very similar in many particulars to the Negritos of the Philippines, though authorities differ in grouping the Papuans with the Negritos. The Asiatic continent is also not without its representatives of black dwarfs, having the Sakai of the Malay Peninsula." Of the two theories of their origin — that they formed the population of a partly submerged continent, once connected with the Asiatic mainland, or that the archipelagoes have been gradually occupied by the Negritos, who made their way from island to island, Mr. Reed prefers the latter.

Including all the mixed breeds which have a preponderance of Negrito blood, he (p. 23) estimates that the Negrito population of the Philippines does not exceed 25,000. The largest and purest group is that occupying the Zambales mountain range of western Luzon. Some individuals, he thinks, may retain purity of blood, but nowhere are whole groups free from admixture with the Malay. Those of Panay, Negros, and Mindanao are fairly pure ; but on the east side of Luzon and in the island of Paragua there is marked evidence of admixture. These Zambales Negritos, to whom this monograph is specially devoted, have now lost their original tongue. Their physical characteristics are small stature, kinky hair, and almost black skin. The general impression that they are veritable dwarfs is incorrect, individuals sometimes attaining the stature of the shortest white men, and apparently only a small infusion of Malay blood causes them to equal the Malay in height. The Aeta of Zambales had an average stature of 4 feet 9 inches for males, and 4 feet 6 inches for females. They do not possess the abnormal arm-length of the African Pygmies (p. 33).