The Early Filipinos
THE LARLY FILIPINOS
The earliest Filipinos of whom we have historical record are the little black men whom the Spaniards called negrillos or negrito. They, however, called themselves simply dwellers, or lords of the lands; itself as indication of the antiquity of their settlement. When this was cannot say exactly, but it may we’ll have been when land bridges still connected the Philippines with the continent of Asia. It is reasonable to assume that their way of life has not changed much over the centuries. Certainly they are today as the Italian traveller Gemlli Caren described them towards the end of the seventh century.
1 The blacks, by the Spaniards called negrillos, who live on the mountains and in thick woods, whereof there is plenty in Manila, differ quite the rest. They are meer barbarians, on feed on such fruit and roots as the mountains afford, and upon they can kill, even to monkeys, snakes and rats. They go naked except their privities, which they cover with the bark of trees, by them called bahaques, and the women with a clot woven of the fibers of trees, called tapisse. They use no other ornament but bracelets made of rushes and Indian canes of several colours. They have no laws, letters or government but that which kindred makes, for they all obey the head of the family. The women carry their children in wallets made of barks of trees and ty’d about them with a cloth, as some women of Albania do in Italy, or like the Irish women.
But if the earliest Filipinos had not, as Gemelli Careri says, “laws, letters or government save that which kindred makes,” they had that which in time, among more fortunate peoples, give rise to all these things: a worship. Earliest in the seventeenth century, missionaries on the island of Mindoro observed the Mangyans performing their religious rites.
2 They wander through the forest fastness naked, save that nature prompts them to cover their private parts with the barks of trees… Gold
The earliest Filipinos of whom we have historical record are the little black men whom the Spaniards called negrillos or negrito. They, however, called themselves simply dwellers, or lords of the lands; itself as indication of the antiquity of their settlement. When this was cannot say exactly, but it may we’ll have been when land bridges still connected the Philippines with the continent of Asia. It is reasonable to assume that their way of life has not changed much over the centuries. Certainly they are today as the Italian traveller Gemlli Caren described them towards the end of the seventh century.
1 The blacks, by the Spaniards called negrillos, who live on the mountains and in thick woods, whereof there is plenty in Manila, differ quite the rest. They are meer barbarians, on feed on such fruit and roots as the mountains afford, and upon they can kill, even to monkeys, snakes and rats. They go naked except their privities, which they cover with the bark of trees, by them called bahaques, and the women with a clot woven of the fibers of trees, called tapisse. They use no other ornament but bracelets made of rushes and Indian canes of several colours. They have no laws, letters or government but that which kindred makes, for they all obey the head of the family. The women carry their children in wallets made of barks of trees and ty’d about them with a cloth, as some women of Albania do in Italy, or like the Irish women.
But if the earliest Filipinos had not, as Gemelli Careri says, “laws, letters or government save that which kindred makes,” they had that which in time, among more fortunate peoples, give rise to all these things: a worship. Earliest in the seventeenth century, missionaries on the island of Mindoro observed the Mangyans performing their religious rites.
2 They wander through the forest fastness naked, save that nature prompts them to cover their private parts with the barks of trees… Gold