Most of the Taiyal tribal groups believe--as do the majority of the other tribes of the island--that their ancestors sprang from the bamboo. But one of the Taiyal sub-groups--the Taruko, the “High-cliffs people,” to whom I have already referred as being of lighter colour and more regular feature than most of the Taiyal tribes-people--have a curious legend as to their origin. They believe that they are the descendants of a princess who was married to a dog “somewhere over the mountains.” A similar legend is said to be current among some tribes in Java and Sumatra, which is not surprising; nor is it surprising that the same belief should be held by many of the Lu-chu Islanders--these being obviously kindred peoples. But an interesting point is that the same folk-tale is said to exist among certain tribes in Siberia. The few remaining members of the Saisett tribe have adopted most of the practices, religious and otherwise, of their powerful neighbours, the Taiyal; so these need not be considered separately. So much, then, for the religious beliefs and observances of the aborigines of the main island. The Yami--the tribe living on the tiny thirty-mile-in-circumference island of Botel Tobago (or “Koto Sho,” as the Japanese call it), about thirty-five miles south of Formosa proper--differ somewhat in religion, as in other matters, from their neighbours of the large island. The Yami also observe a semi-annual religious festival; but in their case the celebration is in honour of the “Sea God,” offerings of fruit, of food, and of flowers being cast into the sea on these occasions. No offering of wine is made, as is the case with the other tribes at their religious festivals, for the reason that the Yami seem to know nothing of either the making or the drinking of wine--one of the few primitive peoples of whom this is true. They have a tradition that their ancestors “came up out of the sea”; hence their worship of the “Sea God”--a reminiscence probably of the fact that their ancestors came across the sea from some other island, possibly from one of the Philippine group, judging from the resemblance of the Yami, generally speaking, to a Philippine tribe--that of Batan island.[76] At the time of their celebrations in honour of the “Sea God” the Yami wear wonderful hats, or helmets, made of silver coins, beaten thin. These coins they obtain from the Japanese, in exchange for the products of their own marvellously fertile little island, when the Japanese boats stop at Botel Tobago, which they now do once a month. The beaten coins are pierced and strung together on grass fibres--or on wires, when these can be obtained from the Japanese. The stiff bands thus made are built up into enormous pyramid-shaped head-pieces, worn by both men and women.[77] These constitute the chief article of dress, the Yami being less skilled in weaving than the aborigines of the main island, although the women wear garlands of flowers and of shells.