Abstract
THE paper on the aborigines of Formosa, by Mr. G. Taylor, in the China Review, to which we have already adverted, is continued in the last number (vol. xiv. No. 4), and as it progresses it contains more and more information, especially with regard to the number of different tribes r.nd their various customs, which is wholly new, either in European publications or in those of the Far East. The number last noticed concluded with the Paiwans, the tribe with which the Dutch came in contact in the seventeenth century, during their temporary occupation of part of Formosa, and of which therefore we had the most information. The present instalment deals with several other tribes, including one very peculiar and hitherto unknown people, the Caviangans, who are comparatively few in number, inhabiting lofty mountains, and having many superstitions with regard to hills and the spirits which inhabit them. We have also an account of the Tipuns, the most powerful tribe in southern Formosa, inhabiting the great plain inland from the headland marked Double Peak on the charts of the east coast. These have a tradition that they came from some other country hundreds of years ago, but they appear now to differ little from their neighbours the Paiwans. But there is one very radical distinction, viz., that when a man marries he enters his wife's family, whereas amongst the Paiwans the reverse is the case. Amongst them tattooing is a mark of rank, and is strictly prohibited to the commonalty. Another tribe described is the Amias. The Chinese class these as aborigines, but the true aboriginal tribes look on them as foreigners. They have a curious tradition of their origin, but the aborigines have the more prosaic one of shipwreck, and it appears that the Amias do not consider themselves entitled to equal social rank with the other savages. In appearance and customs they differ much from their neighbours, and worship one Supreme Being, not a multitude of spirits. They believe in an after state, dependent on personal conduct in this life, and they have a sort of purgatory amongst their beliefs. They have a vague notion of lands and peoples where communication is carried on by means of other than oral speech. This, says Mr. Taylor, is the only trace in South Formosa of any original idea of writing. Their explanations of certain natural phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, sunset and sunrise, are curious. Earthquakes they believe to be caused by a pig scratching itself against an iron bar stuck into the earth. This paper leaves on the mind, even more strongly than its predecessor, the impression that in the future Formosa will offer ethnological problems as interesting and complicated as any equal area on the earth's surface. It is clear, too-, that all the divisions of the inhabitants of the island hitherto given by writers, whether Chinese or Europeans, are wholly incorrect and unscientific. There are wider differences amongst the tribes, and a far greater number of different tribes, than has ever been supposed. Moreover, it is obvious that in the present state of our knowledge of the tribes, it would be idle to theorise about them. Mr. Taylor, dealing only with a very small section in the south of the island, has described six or seven tribes; amongst these we find some calling themselves aborigines, and looking down as strangers and new-comers on others who have been generally supposed to be aborigines. In view of the wild and inaccessible nature of a large part of the eastern half of Formosa, and of the danger of entering it on account of the chronic state of war which exists, between the natives and their Chinese masters, it must be a long time before a clear or trustworthy ethnological account of Formosa can be written. It is quite possible that some of the largest ethnological problems of the Far East may be involved in Formosa; the knot may, perhaps, lie there. Meantime, Mr. Taylor deserves thanks for his careful and interesting collection of new facts which are vital to the discussion of Formosan ethnology.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 34, 156–157 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/034156b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/034156b0