Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. II.pdf/17



SMOKING is a favourite pastime among the Pepohoan of Formosa, men, women, and children all smoke alike. Their pipes they cut out of the nearest bamboo brake, carving and ornamenting them to suit their respective tastes. The pipe is their solace when labouring in the fields, and the companion which beguiles them when at rest. A pipe is among them as acceptable a love token as a jewelled ring would be with us. My readers therefore, looking at No. 9, will all allow that the pipe in the lady's mouth, which might, but for this explanation, appear a violation of good taste, is a characteristic as essential to her as a sunshade in summer to an English beauty. The two figures represent an old and a young woman of Baksa. The face of the younger is well formed and lit up with a mild and kindly expression, common to her race. Time deals hardly with the old women of Baksa; they soon become haggard with toil and exposure, and lose all trace of the comeliness which graces their early years; but there are many who, like the crone in the illustration, tight a stubborn battle against fate, dressing always with neatness and care, and gathering their jet black and glossy hair beneath their smooth blue turban folds. All honour to these matrons of Baksa. Theirs is a good honest struggle in the open field against the ravaging inroads of time. The most battered veteran of the tribe would scorn to shield her weakness and infirmities from the enemy behind the earthworks of paint and powder, false fronts, or dye. The bronzed and furrowed cheek, and the grey locks of old age meet everywhere with respect, and would even command a safe passport through the territory of a hostile tribe. The short blue or white jackets with their bright coloured borders are alike in both figures. The custom is to bring the flap of the jacket over the left breast and to fasten it. Whereas their Chinese neighbours bring the upper fold of the jacket over to the right and then button it. The lower robe or covering of the Pepohoan women resembles the Laos longuti, and the sarong of the Malays. The material is a dark blue cotton cloth. It struck me that in dress, in general appearance, and in many other points, the aborigines of Formosa bear a remarkable resemblance to the Laos tribes of Cambodia and Siam.

Unlike the Chinese, the marriage ceremony of the Pepohoan is a very simple rite, indeed, the woman seems most decidedly (in places where Dr. Maxwell's mission labours are unknown) to carry off the better half of the transaction. She it is who selects a husband to suit her own fancy. If provident she will choose a man noticed for his health and industry, as it will be his task to till the ground and to make himself generally useful in her father's household. Should he fail to come up to her expectations, she may divorce him at any moment and marry anew.

As to their religion, the fetish worship anciently practised is fast giving place before the zeal of one or two devoted Protestant missionaries, who have made many converts. According to their original faith the world has existed from eternity and will endure without end. They also believe in the immortality of the soul, and that the wicked will be punished, and the good rewarded, after death. Their chief idols are supposed to represent a male and a female spirit. The only example of their idois which I was allowed to view were in a house at Konganah, and were exposed to our vulgar gaze with the greatest possible reluctance. These images were standing against the wall of a dimly-lighted chamber, alive with spiders and festooned with cobwebs. The female idol looked like a stunted may-pole, with the skull of a deer fixed by the antlers to the top. The