ETHNOLOGY AND CUSTOMS. The inhabitants are unequally divided between blacks, browns, yel lows, and whites, and there is also a slight rep resentation of reds. The blacks comprise native tribes, with descendants of African negroes and Papuans introduced by Spaniards. The native blacks are of Negrito type, commonly called .Aeta, from a principal tribe; they are dwarfish in stat ure, and dwell in remote parts of the archipelago. They are usually regarded as the aborigines. and as remnants of a pigmy race; sonic students con sider them degraded Papuans. There are only twenty thousand of them. The brown race, either pure or mixed, constitutes nine-tenths of the population. A fraction are related to the Poly nesians; yet the distinctness of this type is prob lematical, and the ethnologist finds his surest identities in the vast numbers of Malay peoples in the islands. The first immigrants were uncul tured savages, whose descendants are now repre sented in the interior and the outskirts of the islands by living tribes. These were followed by in cursions in historic times of Malay peoples having alphabets and a primitive culture. About D.C. 200 en me the ancestors of many head-Minting tribes.
The immigration of the Tagal. Visaya, can°, and other industrial tribes is assigned to A.D. 100-500. Third and last came the Islamitie or \loro invasion, occurring in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of our era, and brought to an end by Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. At present the brown Malay is mixing with white and yellow peoples. The yellow or Mongoloid type exists in the Philippines partly as pure-blooded Chinese, Japanese, Siamese. and Cambodians, but principally in mixtures of vari ous sorts. The Chinese held sway in Luzon for centuries. and after their rule was thrown off trade continued between them 'and the natives.
it is improbable that these immigrations and blendings were numerous prior to the founding of Manila ( 1 57 1 ) and the coming of Mexican and Peruvian silver in trade. So vigorous was the Chinese invasion afterwards that it threatened to overthrow the Spanish rule, while it resulted in the creation of a large mestizo population. The red or American race found its way into the islands on the Spanish ships sailing annually between Acapulco and Manila in the sixteenth, seventeenth. and eighteenth centuries. It was not
so much a migration of peoples as of art,. There are evidences of small settlements of Mexican Indians in and about Luzon, and the civilized portions of the archipelago were enriched by maize, pineapples, tobacco, cacti, agaves, and the varied industries associated with them. The white race, in all its iamortant elements, Ham itic, Semitic, and Aryan, was permanently mingled with the brown during the 250 years of Spanish domination. In Northern Luzon and in the mountainous and central portions of other islands the native blood has not been changed, but elsewhere the term 'pure-blood' has little meaning. This blending has been most rapid in the Tagal, Vicol, and Visaya tribe's, which con stitute the largest fraction of the population.
The Negritos are small in stature, with closely curled hair, yellow sclerotic coat, and white teeth, w:jch they file. They are among the shortest of mankind. the average. stature being 1.47 meters (58 inches). Their cranial capacity is 1 100 to 1200 cubic centimeters, and their cranial index 85. The Malay or brown Filipinos are of dark chocolate color and average 1.50 meters (59 inches) in stature. Some are meagre in body, but most of them are sturdy.
Culture among the Filipinos extends from the low savagery of the Negrito tribes to a form of civilization fairly comparable with that of the countries on the continent adjacent. The indus trial life of the Filipinos is partly agricultural and mechanical, partly maritime. The outrigger canoe is in evidence about all the islands. Cloth ing is little needed as a defense against cold, belt the need of protection from the sun's rays and the rain has quickened inventive faculty in devis ing a style of headgear which combines the func tions of hat and umbrella, varying from island to island, with a rain cloak, also varying in form and material. The dwellings are made of bam boo, rattan. and palm leaves. The original fire making device WaS the fire-saw, consisting of a section of bamboo stem. notched and laid on the ground and rubbed crosswise by another piece in shape like a knife; the bamboo fire syringe is also common.