Man, Past and PresentKeane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
History
Man, Past and Present
Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
Anthropology; Ethnology
3. The _Chinhwans_, "Green Barbarians"--that is, utter savages--the true
independent aborigines, of whom there are an unknown number of tribes,
but regarding whom the Chinese possess but little definite information.
Not so their Japanese successors, one of whom, Kisak Tamai[561], tells
us that the Chinhwans show a close resemblance to the Malays of the
Malay Peninsula and also to those of the Philippines, and in some
respects to the Japanese themselves. When dressed like Japanese and
mingling with Japanese women, they can hardly be distinguished from
them. The vendetta is still rife amongst many of the ruder tribes, and
such is their traditional hatred of the Chinese intruders that no one
can either be tattooed or permitted to wear a bracelet until he has
carried off a Celestial head or two. In every household there is a frame
or bracket on which these heads are mounted, and some of their warriors
can proudly point to over seventy of such trophies. It is a relief to
hear that with their new Japanese masters they have sworn friendship,
these new rulers of the land being their "brothers and sisters." The
oath of eternal alliance is taken by digging a hole in the ground,
putting a stone in it, throwing earth at each other, then covering the
stone with the earth, all of which means that "as the stone in the
ground keeps sound, so do we keep our word unbroken."
It is interesting to note that this Japanese ethnologist's remarks on
the physical resemblances of the aborigines are fully in accord with
those of European observers. Thus to Hamy "they recalled the Igorrotes
of North Luzon, as well as the Malays of Singapore[562]." G. Taylor
also, who has visited several of the wildest groups in the southern and
eastern districts[563] (_Tipuns_, _Paiwans_, _Diaramocks_, _Nickas_,
_Amias_ and many others), traces some "probably" to Japan (Tipuns);
others to Malaysia (the cruel, predatory Paiwan head-hunters); and
others to the Liu-Kiu archipelago (the Pepohwans now of Chinese speech).
He describes the Diaramocks as the most dreaded of all the southern
groups, but doubts whether the charge of cannibalism brought against
them by their neighbours is quite justified.
Whether the historical Malays from Singapore or elsewhere, as above
suggested, are really represented in Formosa may be doubted, since no
survivals either of Hindu or Muhammadan rites appear to have been
detected amongst the aborigines. It is of course possible that they may
have reached the island at some remote time, and since relapsed into
savagery, from which the Orang-laut were never very far removed. But in
the absence of proof, it will be safer to regard all the wild tribes as
partly of Indonesian, partly of proto-Malayan origin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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