BATAK (not to be confused with the Batta [q.v.] or Battak of Sumatra), a tribe of apparently pre-Dravidian stock, with pos sibly a Negrito blend, inhabiting the interior of Palawan in the Philippines. They live by hunting, supplemented by meagre patches of occasional cultivation ; one house is occupied by several families whose limits are defined by lines on the floor; govern ment is by chiefs or old men. Breech-clouts and petticoats of bark cloth are the only garments, dancing the only diversion. Bamboo, shells and grasses are used as ornaments, the blowgun and the bow and arrow as weapons. Food is cooked by broiling in embers, cooking utensils being unknown.
See Miller, "Bataks of Palawan," Ethnologic Survey of the Philip pines, ii., iii. (1905) .