have, on various occasions, mentioned this probable pre-Malayan, or at least proto-Malayan, population which stands in nearest relation to the settling of Polynesia. Here I will merely mention that the Polynesian sagas bring the progenitor from the west, and that the passage between Halmahera (Gilolo) and the Philippines is pointed out as the course of invasion.
At any rate, it is quite probable that the skulls from Lanang, Cragaray and other Philippine islands are the remains of a very old, if not autochthonous, prehistoric layer of population. The present mountain tribes have furnished no close analogies. As to the Igorrotes, which Blumentritt attributes to the first invasion, I refer to my description[1] given on the ground of chronological investigations; according to the account given by Hans Meyer[2] the disposal of the dead in log coffins and in caves still goes on. Of the skulls themselves, none were brachycephalous; on the contrary, they exhibit platyrrhine and in part decidedly pithecoid noses. On the whole, I came to the conclusion, as did earlier Quatrefages and Hamy, that ‘they stand next in comparison with the Dayaks of Borneo,’ but I hold yet the impression that they belong to a very old, probably pre-Malay, immigration.[3]
- ↑ Schädel der Igorroten. Verhl. der Berliner Anthrop. Gesellsch., 1883, pp. 300, 399. [On the Igorrotes see A. B. Meyer, Negritos, 1899, p. 12, note 2.—Translator.]
- ↑ Die Igorroten von Luzon, p. 386.
- ↑ With this study of crania should be read Dr. A. B. Meyer, on craniological data and their value, in The Distribution of the Negritos, Dresden, 1899, in which he says: “The form of the skull in general is variable and can not be regarded as a permanent character in the development of the races.” The reader must not neglect Dr. Meyer's publications, since in them he has the results of careful studies on the spot: Volume VIII, of the folio publications of the Dresden Royal Ethnographic Museum, 1890, on the tribes of Northern Luzon; Volume IX, of the same, on the Negritos, 1893; Album of Philippine Types, 1885, 32 plates, 4°; ditto, 1891, 50 plates; and The Distribution of the Negritos in the Philippine Islands and Elsewhere, Dresden. The last three are published by Stengel & Co., Dresden. The little book on distribution is in English, and contains, in addition to most useful information, a list of Blumentritt's publications.—Translator.
