[13] Stangl inserts here “iron fixtures” [enseres de hierro].
[14] The following paragraph begins chapter xli in Stangl.
[15] Ka-may-en is Mait or the modern Mindoro; and Pa-lao-yu, Paragua. “Pa-chi-neng” may also be read “Pa-kat-lung” and “Ba-ki-lung.” It seems to be the term for the true Visayans, while under the name San-hsii are understood the Visayans proper, together with the islands of Mindoro and Palawan.—B.
[16] I believe that the word “tribe” means here village or settlement; for I think that the author meant to say that the villages usually had one thousand families.—B.
[17] This phrase needs explanation. The Indians were accustomed to stain the teeth black, a custom quite general among many Malay nations. The Negritos, on the contrary, did not stain them.—B
In Chao Ju-kua’s description, Stangl translates “round eyes of a shining appearance,” instead of “round yellow eyes.”
[18] These “Hay-tan” are the Aetas, Itas, or Negritos of modern authors. The antiquity of this ethnographical name surprises us. The description of the Negritos seems to have been written yesterday. The Chinese author, in speaking of the nests of the Negritos, seems to have confused them with the houses that are built today in the forking of the branches of trees by some heathen tribes of Mindanao.—B.
Mr. James A. LeRoy, in a letter dated March 14, 1905, says that it is at least doubtful that the Negritos were ever tree-dwellers in the true sense of the word, i.e., building solid, defensible structures like those of the typical tree-dwellers. The Negritos do indeed spend a portion of their time in the treetops and often hunt their game in that way. It is probable that the tree-dwellers of the Philippines are Malays, although some of them may have a strain of Negrito blood.
[19] This refers to the Indians and not the Negritos.—B.
[21] By cotton, the author evidently means cotton textiles.—B.
This is not necessarily so. Stangl remarks that the author’s meaning must be the tree cotton, which is called kapok, basing his assertion upon the word that is used, presumably in the Chinese. The cotton plant is called kapas in Java. Apropos of tree cotton, Census of the Philippines, iv, p. 120, says: “A species of tree cotton (Ceiba pentandra) is found growing in a wild state in many of the islands; the cotton is useless for spinning purposes, the staple being very short, but it is used for making cushions and other articles.”