The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Filipino
FILIPINO, fil-ĭ-pē'-nō, a native of the
Philippine Islands. The Filipinos form a very
mixed population, numbering in all about
8,000,000, and seem to represent almost every
type of the human race. Some of the tribes
have become more or less civilized, others
live in the same barbarism as prevailed before
the Spanish occupation. In the make-up of
the composite Filipino, the darker substratum
has been supplied by the Negrito, the Papuan,
and the African negro. A copper tint has been
added by the Malay and Polynesian. This
infusion of fierce blood has given to the islanders
their fighting qualities. There exist among
them certain arts of life, and a skin of a
paler hue, inherited from Japanese, Chinese and
Cambodian sources. Hamite, Semite and Aryan

are each said by ethnologists to contribute
some elements to the life, physical, intellectual
and religious of this strange people, and two
centuries of uninterrupted commerce between
the archipelago and South America has
introduced also a strain of American Indian blood
into the Filipino race.

When we come to analyze the tribes, as far
as they are at present known to scientific men,
it appears that the Indios, the more or less
civilized natives of the archipelago, divide
themselves naturally into four groups, namely,
Tagals, Vicols, Visayas and Llocanes. The
Tagals are palpably the most advanced in the
arts of life, and number about 1,500,000.
Most of them live in the island of Luzon,
preferring to settle in the low-lying plains, or
near streams and on the seacoast. From
Luzon they extend southward, in scattered
groups, through Mindoro, Marinduque, and
smaller islands farther south. They cultivate
the soil, raise large quantities of rice and are
bold and skilful fishermen; and this active
industrious life shows itself in their vigorous
physique and powers of endurance. The Tagalog
language is more widely spoken than any
other Filipino dialect. The Llocanes, who
number over 800,000, occupy territory in the
extreme northern peninsula of Luzon. They form
but a small tribe, and seem to be distinguished
from the Tagals merely by the dialect they use.
The island of Visaya is wholly occupied by the
tribe from which it takes its name, and the
Visayas are said to number some three millions
and a quarter and to speak a distinct language
which separates them from the other Malayan
races of the archipelago. The Vicols number
about 560,000 and are scattered over the
Camarines peninsula, and occupy also the
islands of Catanduanes, Burias, Ticao and a
half of the Masbate. In physical type and
habits of life they largely resemble the Tagals.
The Sulu chain of islands, which stretches
between Mindanao and North Borneo, is peopled
by the Moros, who are also found on the southwest
coasts of Mindanao and Balabec, as well
as on the south coast of Palawan, or Paragua
Island. Their original seat was undoubtedly
Borneo, from which they have derived their
Mohammedan faith and most of their social
usages. They have nothing in common with
the peoples farther north and have stoutly
resisted all attempts to Christianize them. They
were once the fiercest pirates of the archipelago
and lived by ravage and robbery. The natives
of the northern islands, upon whom they once
preyed, as they learned from the Spaniards the
use of firearms and modern methods of warfare,
were able successfully to repel the raids
of the Moros, whose primitive weapons could
not cope with repeating rifles and Gatling guns.

As the mountains are the last refuge of
liberty in a conquered country, so also are they
the last lurking place of savagery and barbarism.
The interior of Luzon and several other
islands is mountainous and uncultivated; here
lurk the savage tribes whom 200 years of Spanish
rule failed to civilize or even subdue. These
are reckoned at half a million souls, have many
languages and dialects, and are in greatest
force among the mountain fastnesses of central
Mindanao. While some of these tribes are
peaceful and inclined to commerce and industry,

a large section shows the warlike spirit that
urges them to live on rapine. The Negritos, or
Little Negroes, dwell in the higher ranges of
Luzon and Negro; they are black in skin, and
dwarfish in stature; they are of low mentality,
incapable of assimilation and are evidently
doomed to early extinction.

The Spaniards appear to have done very
little to investigate the antiquities of the Filipino
races. There is a vast field of exploration open
to ethnologists and archæologists in this
remarkable archipelago, which possesses a
literature of its own in poetry and folk-lore, and
has derived from Malay and Indian invaders
such arts as metallurgy and weaving, in both
of which arts many of the tribes are exceedingly
expert. The ethnologists of the Smithsonian
Institution have already turned their
attention in this direction, and the United States
Treasury Department is putting every possible
facility in the way of those who are trying to
unravel the story of the savage navigators who
first cruised in the channels of the Philippine
archipelago. (See ). Consult
Sawyer, F. C., ‘The Inhabitants of the Philippines’
(London 1900); Worcester, D. C., ‘The Philippines,
Past and Present’ (2 vols., New York
1914); and ‘The Philippine Islands and their
People’ (New York 1898); and the publications
of the Ethnological Bureau of Washington.