Negritos

Negritos (Negrillos), Spanish diminutive of Negro, applied originally to the dwarfish Negro or Negroid aborigines of the Philippine Islands (Aetas or Ifcas), then by extension to the other populations of similar type in Malaysia, such as the Sakais of the Malay peninsula, the Karons of New Guinea, and the extinct Kalangs of Java; lastly to all dwarfish Negroid peoples, and more especially to those of Africa, Bushmen in the extreme south, Obongos in the extreme west, Batwa and many others scattered over the forest zone of the Congo basin. A Negrito element appears to have formed the substratum of the population in India, and this element has been traced by De Quatrefages and other ethnologists up the southern slopes of the Himalayas and as far west as the Sistan district on the Perso-Afghan frontier. Everywhere they are regarded as the true aborigines, probably sprung from a single stock which, in the early quaternary period, spread over the African, Oceanic, and South Asiatic regions at a, time when a great part of the Indian Ocean was still dry land (the Lemurian continent), so that migrations could easily take place across the southern hemisphere from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Later these regions were invaded by higher or more powerful races, Negroes and Hamites in Africa, Papuans, Malays, and Polynesians in Oceana, Kolarians in India, by whom the Negritos were everywhere exterminated, dispersed, and broken into isolated groups and scattered fragments, as is now their normal condition in Malaysia and Central and South Africa, where alone they survive as distinct racia] communities. These communities have been separated for so many ages that they no longer possess any kind of linguistic unity, if it ever existed, and many, as in the Philippines, the Malay peninsula and the Welle basin (North-east Congo Land) speak the languages of the more civilised intruders in their domain, either exclusively or jointly with their mother tongue. The physical type also differs considerably, though nearly all have in common a yellowish-brown complexion, never dark enough to be called black, a very pronounced prognathism, quite ape-like amongst the Simangs of the Malay Peninsula, the Javanese Kalangs, and the Akkas of South Mangbattuland (Welle basin), short, black woolly hair, usually spread in separate tufts over the scalp; disproportionately large head and small extremities; lastly, low stature, falling considerably below that of all other races, and ranging generally from about 3 to 4 feet, but always under 5 and above 3 feet. Socially they stand also at the lowest stage of culture, with no arts, no religion, no agriculture, or stock-breeding, scarcely any fixed abodes, and these mostly frail huts or windward screens of branches and foliage; no food except the produce of the chase, vermin, roots and berries.

On the other hand, many of the African groups display extraordinary skill, courage, and activity in. attacking large game, such as the elephant and buffalo, with their bows and poisoned arrows, almost the only weapon of all Negrito tribes.; They also show much natural intelligence, but are extremely difficult to domesticate, and scarcely any have ever been induced to adopt settled lives or conform to a rudimentary standard of culture.