weeding and care of the crops falls largely on the women and children, while the men take their ease or hunt and fish. The piece of ground for planting is regarded as the personal property of the head of the family which cleared it, and he can sell it or otherwise dispose of it at his pleasure. No one else would think of planting on it even though the owner has abandoned it, unless he declared that he had no more use for it, then it could be occupied by anyone else. An instance of the respect which the Negritos have for the property rights of others was given me by a native of the town of Botolan. His grandfather had acquired a piece of land near Mount Pinatubo from a Negrito who had committed some crime in his rancheria and fled to the pueblo to escape death. In return for protection the Negrito had given him the land. This fact became known to the other Negritos, but although the new owner made no use of the land whatever, and never even visited it, it has never been molested or cultivated by others. Now two generations later they have sent down to the grandson of the first Filipino owner asking permission to buy the land. Land may be sold to others, but of course there exists no record of such transactions other than that of memory. MANUFACTURE AND TRADE The Negrito knows little of the art of making things. Aside from the bows and arrows which he constructs with some degree of skill he has no ingenuity, and his few other products are of the most crude and primitive type. The bows of the Negritos of Zambales are superior to any the writer has seen in the Philippines. They are made from the wood of the well-known palma brava and are gracefully cut and highly polished. The strings are of twisted bark, as soft and pliable and as strong as thongs of deerskin. Although made from the same wood, the bows of the Negritos of Negros are not nearly so graceful, and the strings consist simply of one piece of bejuco with a small loop at either end which slips over the end of the bow, and, once on, can neither be loosened nor taken up. The Negritos of Panay generally use a bamboo bow, much shorter and clumsier than those of palma brava. Also, while the Negritos of the southern islands generally use arrows with hardwood points and without feathered shafts, those used in Zambales are triumphs of the arrow maker's art. In either case the shafts are of the light, hard, and straight mountain cane, but instead of the clumsy wooden points the Zambales Negritos make a variety of iron points for different purposes, some, as for large game, with detachable points. (See Pl. XLII.) The shafts are well feathered with the feathers of hawks and other large birds. Three feathers are placed about the arrow and securely wrapped at each end with a thin strip of The war arrows, in addition to having more elaborately barbed points, are further embellished by incised decorations the entire length of the shaft. These incisions consist simply of a series of lines into which dirt has been rubbed so that they offer a striking contrast to the white surface of the arrow. The women weave some coarse baskets out of bamboo, but they are neither well shaped nor pretty. Sometimes to adorn them one strand or strip of bamboo is stained black and the other left its natural color. Other objects of manufacture are their ornaments, already described in Chapter III, and musical instruments. (See Chap. VI.) The Negrito knows that the people of the lowlands for some reason have more food than he. He can not go down and live there and work as they do, because, being timid by nature, he can not feel secure amid an alien people, and, besides, he likes his mountain too well to live contentedly in the hot plains. He makes nothing that the lowlands want, but he knows they use, in the construction of their houses, bejuco, of which his woods are full, and he has learned that they value beeswax, which he knows where to find and how to collect. Moreover, there are certain mountain roots, such as wild ginger, that have a market value. His tobacco also finds a ready sale to the Filipinos. The bolo is the only tool necessary to cut and strip the bejuco, which he ties into bunches of one hundred and takes into his hut for safety until such a time as a trade can be made. These bunches never bring him more than a peseta each. He collects the beeswax from a nest of wild bees which he has smoked out, melts it, and pours it into a section of bamboo. It is not always necessary that he take his products down to the town, for the Filipinos are eager enough to trade with him to go out to his rancheria carrying the little cloth, rice, iron, or steel that he is willing to take for his hard-gained produce. Perhaps the townspeople go out because they can drive better bargains. However that may be, the Negrito always gets the worst of the deal, whether in town or at his own home. HUNTING AND FISHING The Negrito is by instinct, habits, and of necessity a hunter. Although he has advanced somewhat beyond that stage of primitive life where man subsists wholly from the fruits of the chase, yet it is so necessary to him that were he deprived of it the existence of his race would be seriously threatened. Since the chase has furnished him a living for centuries, it is not strange that much of the ingenuity he possesses should be devoted to the construction of arms and traps and snares with which he may kill or capture the creatures of the woods and streams. His environment does not supply a great variety of game, but there are always deer and wild boars in abundance. Then there |