Note 4 — Customs of the Tagalogs

The Aetas, or Negritos, were the primitive inhabitants of the Philippine Islands; but their origin is not certainly known. It is perhaps most probable that they came from Papua or New Guinea. For various opinions on this point, see Zúñiga's Estadismo (Retana's ed.), i, pp. 422–429; Delgado's Historia general, part i, lib. iii, cap. i; and Report of U.S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, pp. 333–335. Invasions of the islands by Indonesian tribes, of superior strength and culture, drove the Negritos into the forest and mountain regions of the islands where they dwelt; they still remain there, in a state of barbarism, but in gradually decreasing numbers. See the Report above cited (pp. 347–351), for habitat and physical characteristics of this race.