Abstract
AMONG the queries that were submitted to M. Milukho-Maclay before his departure fron Europe, was one of Karl von Baer, who advised the traveller to visit the Philippine Islands, and to bring home several skulls of the natives, in order to ascertain whether the primitive inhabitants of these islands are brachiocephalic, or not. During a five days' stay of the clipper Izumrud at Manila, M. Maclay visited the Mariveles mountains, and discovered there Negritos who lived in their pondos, or small huts made out of palm-tree leaves. Numerous measurements (favoured by the custom of the men shaving the back of the head) proved that they really are brachiocephalic, the index being no less than 87.5 to 90 Their size is altogether small; one wooaan, mother of two children, measured only 1.30 metre. Their faces proved to be very much like those of the Papuans of New Guinea, while their customs are much akin to those of the inhabitants of many Melanesian islands. For intance, when M. Maclay threw some remains of food in the fire, the Negritos immediately extinguished it, and asked him not to do so again. The same prejudice exists with regard to spitting in the fire (a very widely-spread prejudice, we may observe, as it exists also in Russia and Siberia). Another interesting custom of the Negritos is that everybody, before eating, must loudly shout out several times, an invitation to partake of his food, to all those who may be in proximity. This custom is very rigidly observed, and those who do not comply with it are punished, even by death.
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M. MIKLUKHO-MACLAY ON NEW GUINEA . Nature 27, 184–185 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/027184a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027184a0