Abstract
THE last number of the China Review contains the first part of an article by Mr. G. Taylor on that interesting and little-known subject, the aborigines of Formosa. The writer has lived in the extreme south of the island, in daily communication with the people thre for four years, and has therefore more experience of the southern type than all previous writers put together. He divides the Formosans south of Takow—that is, the southern peninsula—into four parts: the Faiwans, inhabiting the extreme south; the Pepohuans, or half-castes, of the plains; the Tipuns, inhabiting the great plain inland from Pilam.; and the Ameirs, who have scattered themselves in small villages along the east coast down to South Cape. Of these, he can speak of the Paiwans from intimate personal observation; the Arneirs he is also acquainted with; but in the case of the others he has gathered his information from straggling members who have been found domiciled among the Paiwans. The present instalment is devoted wholly to the latter, Paiwan being the generic name of all the savage tribes on the south coast, and on the west up to Tang-Kang. These, at least, show no traces of the Negrito mixture which is supposed to exist among certain Formosan tribes. They are of a bright copper complexion, with black, straight hair, of a coarse texture. Mr. Taylor describes their physical features, their traditions of their origin, their arts (which are disappearing through contact with the Chinese), their superstitions and customs. They have a dim belief in the transmigration of souls, probably derived from Buddhist sources, and think that some souls are, as a mild punishment for minor misdeeds, condemned to pass into certain animals, where they remain for a time. The Subongs, a northern tribe of the Paiwans, are still almost absolutely independent, and still preserve the practice of head-hunting. They have known and wrought iron as far back as their traditions extend; they wear a ring in the lobe of the ear inserted in a hole formed by gradual expansion, and these ear-rings are the true mark of aboriginal descent, half-castes and Chinese not being allowed to wear them. One tribe of Paiwans, the Koaluts, has the custom of killing off infants when the tribe increases beyond a certain number, the saying being that whenever their tribe increases beyond the traditional limit they are certain to be visited by a pestilence. The paper is very interesting, and the whole promises to be a work of much ethnological value.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 33, 612 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/033612a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033612a0