THE SAVAGES OP FORMOSA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9117, 16 May 1891, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE SAVAGES OP FORMOSA.

A correspondent of a newspaper in China, the Hupao, who was sent on an expedition against the aborigines of Formosa, writes as follows:—"To the north of Taichen is a place called Pansien, occupied by the aborigines. The male and female savages delight in taking baths; at sunset every day the creeks are full of them —diving, running, sporting, and showing perfect content and pleasure for hours in the limpid water. Their bodies are tattooed in various colours, The women wear a piece of covering reaching from the waist down to the kness. Rich and poor are distinguished by the material of which the covering is made. It is usually either of embroidered silk or plain coloured cloth. Besides this piece of clothing, a sort of enlargement upon the primsoval fig-leaf, the ladies boast of no other wearing apparel, and a fashionable Ohinese tailor has no chance to start a' boom' among them. A stout and sharp knife is worn by everyone, an ornament as well as an indispensablo necessity. With it the aborigines hew wood, cut branches, and slice their meat. Moreover, all quarrels are settled by an appeal to the glittering blade. Beauty among the male sex consists of large ears. If nature has been grudging in sine, these appendages are enlarged by artificial means —a process reverse to the binding of the feet of Ohinese ladies. The savages' hair is allowed to grow to its utmost length without being attended to. It streams in full luxuriance over their shoulders and person. Civilisation has not taught them to borrow from or to trade with each other. Thus, even neighbours have little intercourse, and the poor live not upon the charity of the rich. Their sole occupation seems to be hunting. They give chase to wild animals which they literally run down and kill with their knives. To make themselves better adapted for running swiftly they encircle their waists very tightly with a strong belt. They rigorously keep down all signs of rotundity. In mountain climbing and speed of foot, no race can equal them. When a deer has been captured they make the carcase a present to their chieftain and retire to enjoy the entrails. After a harvest has been gathered in autumn, wine is brewed out of rice and millet. Men and women all gather round the festive board, drink the wine copiously, sing, dance, and gorge themselves for days and nights until at last they lie about like corpses all over the glass. When this festivity is over, there can be no other drinking bout during the year. Death is the penalty to anyone who offends against this unwritten law, Their language is unintelligible and seems to be largely composed of ' rolling rV They marry off their sons, and not daughters. A son-in-law, and not a. son, is the legal heir of the family into which he •is married. Both sexes are fond ot piercing fish with sharp reeds and singing quaint ditties, sometimes all night long. There are other manners and customs which are entirely out of concord with reason and sense,"