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Page 63 - ... strengthened the belief. There is nothing unusual about the shape of the stone. It is merely a large, round bowlder. Disease is usually considered a punishment for wrongdoing, the more serious diseases coming from the supreme anito, the lesser ones from the lesser anitos. If smallpox visits a rancheria it is because someone has cut down a tree or killed an animal belonging to a spirit which has invoked the aid of the supreme spirit in inflicting a more severe punishment than it can do alone.
Page 34 - Humming-birds. cies represented in Fig. 129 (p. 158). The muscles of their wings are larger, in proportion to the size of the body, than those of any other bird. Hence their extraordinary power of flight, enabling them to dart with the velocity of an arrow, or to remain suspended in the air over a flower while they extract the honey or take the insects which are there. The humming sound, from which their name comes, is produced by the exceedingly...
Page 62 - The Negritos have developed to a high degree a sense of the dramatic, and they can relate a tale graphically, becoming so interested in their account as to seem to forget their surroundings. For instance, a head man was giving me one night an account of their marriage ceremony. He went through all the motions necessary to depict various actions, talking faster and louder as if warming up to his theme, his eyes sparkling and his face and manner eager. They are much like children in their curiosity...
Page 46 - If two or more villages have hunted together the game is divided in the field. A bed of green rushes or cane is made on which the animal is placed and skinned. This done, the head man of the party, or the most important man present, takes a small part of the entrails or heart, cuts it into fine bits and scatters the pieces in all directions, at the same time chanting in a monotone a few words which mean "Spirits, we thank you for this successful hunt. Here is your share of the spoils.
Page 169 - ... Immense fields of tobacco, which they introduce into the provinces. The consequence is the ruin of the tobacco revenue, the necessity of maintaining guards and troops to check this lawlessness, the extortions which these very officials commit in the towns, and, in short, so many expenses and troubles that it has been necessary more than once to send out special commissioners, and that this has come to be a question of arduous solution. In other regions they molest the peaceful Christian towns...
Page 179 - They have long, kinky hair and thick lips, and some have hairy faces and bodies. The hair stands out over the head like a bush. They are small in stature, but well formed. The men are slender, but the women are usually fat. Fatness seems to be a mark of beauty among the young women. They live close to nature. They do not cultivate the soil except to set out a few plants which yield edible roots, and in a few places plant small fields of rice.
Page 58 - With a yell he leaped up, swinging his unsheathed bolo over his head, and in a frenzy jumped over the fire, passed through the human arch, and with a final yell threw his arms around his wife in a long embrace. The ceremony as above described contains many details which I did not meet with in Zambales, but the main feature, the sitting down of the bride to receive her gifts, is the same. POLYGAMY AND DIVORCE As might be expected among the Negritos, a man may marry as many wives as he can buy. His...
Page 32 - Aeta nose may be described as broad, flat, bridgeless, with prominent arched alas almost as high, as the central cartilage of the nose and with the nostrils invariably visible from the front. The nasal index obtained by dividing the nasal breadth by the height from the root of the nose to the septum and multiplying the quotient by 100 serves to indicate the group to which the individual belongs. Thus it will be seen that races with a nasal index of more than 100 have a nose wider than it is long....
Page 53 - Layos" (flood). Usually the most striking object near at hand is selected. Like most primitive peoples, the Negritos use only one name. If the child is sickly or cries very much, the name is changed, because the Negritos believe that the spirit inhabiting the place where the child was born is displeased at the choice of the name and takes this means of showing its displeasure, and that if the name is not changed the child will soon die. Apparently no distinction is made between the names for the...
Page 186 - And so it happened; to this day the people are greatly afraid to hurt or kill the chameleon, that sometimes turns green and puffs out his throat upon the approach of man. Should one of these little harmless animals fall on the right arm of a man it is considered a sign that the entire family of this man will soon die; but should it fall on the left arm it signifies the death of some relative only. When this god separated himself from these people after the curse, they substituted for him the god...

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