The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

24 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES

I. Negritos, belonging to the negroid race, with kinky hair
and black skins. They never could reach the mainland, for
the interesting reason that they were afraid of water. They
will not go near it to this day. When they wish to shoot a
fish they attach a long string to the arrows so they may pull
the fish out without themselves coming in contact with the
stream. They wore no clothes, excepting a tapa made of bark.
They built no houses, save temporary shelters of branches and
leaves. They did no farming, but lived on wild forest animals, fruits and roots.
2. The second class of pygmies had straight hair. They
should not be called Negritos, for they had Mongoloid affinities. They did practice agriculture, and they traded and intermarried with other people freely.
3. The third class of pygmies had hairy bodies. They
are extinct, but traces of them may still be seen in the pygmies
of Apayao and Zambales. They remind one of the hairy Ainu
of Japan.
The prehistoric religions of the second and third classes
have long since vanished, leaving no traces behind them. We
therefore bid them farewell without further consideration.
The first class, the true Negritos, never mixed freely with
the later immigrants, but fled into the deep forests. Some
of their ancient customs have therefore survived to the present
day. For example a little group (about 500) in Northern
Palawan practice polyandry and use blow-guns. Mr. William
Allen Reed2 has made a study of the pygmies of Zambales
which are chiefly of class I. They are polygamous if they
can afford the luxury, but only the wealthier men can support
more than one wife. "All evidence goes to show that the
Negritos are virtuous." Death is the penalty for adultery,
though offenders usually buy off the aggrieved parties. Among
the pygmies in the mountains of Bataan "sexual relations
outside of marriage are exceedingly rare. A young girl suspected of it must forever renounce hope of finding a husband." 3

'Philippine Ethnological Survey Publications, 90o5.
3 Montafio, "Voyage aux Philippines," p. 71.