human
Not like our other accession from Spain, Hamilton commented.
gpt
I mean the Philippines; you certainly couldn't call the Filipinos peaceful, it seems to me that they come just about as wild as they make them.
human
Wild? You do not know the half! said the excitable little editor, who, despite the frequency of his gestures and the volubility of his explanations was busily working with diagrams the while.
gpt
You know there was a census in Porto Rico in 1899?
human
I didn't until this morning, the boy answered
gpt
There was a census, the editor went on, after a pause during which he had been working over a column of figures,
human
Only by name,
gpt
He was in the Porto Rico census, too. Then in 1903 he went to assist in the census of the Philippines. It was done by the War Department, because the fighting was hardly over. You think the census difficult? You should hear my uncle! The Dattos were not all stopped fighting, because just as soon as the Philippine Commission thought it safe, the census began.
human
Did any one get killed by hostile natives?
gpt
Several wounded, one badly, but no one killed. But --and he waggled a finger warningly--
human
They are really wild?
gpt
I think the wildest people in the world, the most savage, are in those jungles. My uncle had to go to the haunts of the Pygmies.
human
Pygmies! exclaimed Hamilton in surprise.
gpt
I didn't know that the Stars and Stripes floated over Pygmy tribes! I thought they were only in Africa!
human
The Negritos are pygmies, answered the editor,
gpt
How do they live? asked Hamilton.
human
We have got used to thinking of the Red Indians as a part of the United States races, but the Pygmies seem outlandish. Have they huts or do they live in caves, or how?
gpt
Nothing! was the answer.
human
A few have rough huts, but most of them wander in the forests.
gpt
But where do they sleep?
human
On the ground.
gpt
I should think they would be afraid of wild beasts,
human
There are very few in the Philippines,
gpt
How about snakes, then?
human
They have to take chances on snakes. But you know a snake will scarcely ever strike unless alarmed or attacked. No snake will bite a sleeping man. Wild animals only attack for food, and man is left alone as much as possible.
gpt
Haven't they pythons there? And a python could easily strangle and swallow a man.
human
He could, but he doesn't, the Porto Rican pointed out;
gpt
What do they live on?
human
Fish, mostly, together with roots and berries; and they can get all they want with bow and arrow, or with a stone. They can throw a stone as straight as you could shoot a bullet.
gpt
We ought to import some of them for baseball pitchers, suggested Hamilton with a grin.
human
But it really must have been an awful job enumerating them. And when it comes to poisoned arrows!--No thank you, I'd rather stick to old Kentucky. Are there many of them?
gpt
No, was the reply,
human
But there are more natives than that in the Philippines?
gpt
Hundreds of thousands. You see there are really three different types of savages in the Philippines, according to the census reports. The aboriginal tribes are the Negritos, perhaps as close to primitive man as any people on earth; those are the ones I have been telling you about, and they are a race all to themselves, as different from the rest of the Filipinos as the negro is from the white man. The true Filipinos are Malays.
human
Even the head-hunters?
gpt
Certainly. There are Filipinos of two grades,--apparently of two periods of migration. The first came and settled the islands away a long time back, driving the Pygmies to the forests, and occupying the coasts themselves. These tribes, the Igorots, the Ilongots, the Bilans, and so forth, are of the same general type as the head-hunters of Borneo, and some,--like the Ilongots--to this day carry out the savage custom that 'no young man can be accepted in marriage until he has presented his bride with a human head.'
human
That is certainly savage, Hamilton agreed;
gpt
It is, though, the Porto Rican replied.
human
The third group, he continued,
gpt
It seems strange, the boy said,
human
Of course, the editor reminded him,
gpt
They were a little different, he explained,
human
That is about as far back, I should think, as any one could go, in the way of census-taking, the boy said.
gpt
I thought some of my up-country negro farmers were barbaric--especially when I came across some voodooism, but now I see I didn't know what barbarism meant.
human
There's just as much savagery--of a kind--right in the heart of civilization, said the Porto Rican.
gpt
The slums of a great city are little less dangerous than a Philippine jungle, and you will do well to remember it.
human
Why should I remember it especially?
gpt
Mr. Burns, who has been made an Inspector, told me the other day that he expected to start soon for some of the larger cities, where reports of census frauds had been made, and that he thought he would take you along, if the Director was willing.
human
You mean the Mr. Burns I was with in New Haven?
gpt
Yes, he seems to want to have you as his assistant in that work.
human
That would be just splendid, said Hamilton, his eyes shining,
gpt
I think I can manage it, the other replied, endeavoring to suppress a smile,
human
Yes, sir, the boy answered,
gpt
I can finish it in a couple of days.
human
That will be in plenty of time, the editor assured him.
gpt
I don't think Mr. Burns intends to start until some time next week.