[1] It is but fair to add, however, that among tribes with whom the matrilocal custom exists, the position of the woman is apt to be better than among those that are patrilocal. This particularly as far as the treatment of the wife is concerned. The husband is regarded always more or less as a visitor—an “auslander”—among his wife’s people; one over whom the influence of his father-in-law and brothers-in-law has a chastening effect. In matrilocal tribes the real power lies usually in the hands of the father and the elder brother of the wife, who have absolute authority over her and over her children.

[2] Formosa is only 225 miles (approximately) north of Cape Engano, the northernmost point of the Philippine Islands, of which Manila is the capital.

[3] Some Chinese scholars maintain that Terrace Bay (i.e. a bay surrounded by terraces) is a more accurate translation than Terrace Beach.

[4] There is some difference of opinion as to the origin of the name. Shinji Ishii, the Japanese writer, suggests that the Chinese name, Taiwan, is a corruption of Paiwan, the name of one of the aboriginal tribes of the island. In this connection it must be remembered that the Japanese, generally speaking, are prone to deny to the Chinese capacity for poetic conception, or appreciation of beauty. I, however, who have lived among the Chinese, and know their genuine appreciation of the beautiful in nature, and their habit of fixing the poetic concept of a moment by crystallizing it in a word or phrase, think “Terrace Beach” or “Terrace Bay” the more probable meaning of Taiwan.

[5] I had gone to Japan under the glamour of the writings of Lafcadio Hearn.

[6] Vagabond—or wanderer—as nearly as that expressive Russian word “???????” can be translated into English.

[7] To be exact, I was, when in Kyoto, devoting my attention chiefly to the study of Shin-shu (not to be confounded with Shinto)—one of the many sects into which Mahayana Buddhism is now divided, the sect associated with the two great Hongwanji temples of Kyoto—and comparing these teachings with those of Zen-shu, another sect of Mahayana Buddhism, which I had previously studied in a Zen monastery in Kamakura.

[8] As a teacher in this school I ranked as a “two-button” official (soninkan) of the Japanese Government, and thus technically entitled to wear two buttons on the sleeve of my coat, and to carry a short sword with a white handle. The Director of the school, the Head Master and the heads of one or two departments and the other “foreign” teachers were also “two-button” officials. The majority of the teachers were “one-button” officials (hanninkan), entitled to wear only one button on the sleeve of their coats and to carry a black-handled sword. The “two-button” officials were “invited”—i.e. practically commanded—to attend official government banquets and similar functions, and to meet visiting princes and other notables from the “mother-country.” The “one-button” officials escaped these honours.

[9] The picturesque and interesting—because still untouristized—city in the extreme south of Japan, situated under the shadow of Sakurajima, the still active volcano, which early in 1914—the year that I was in Kagoshima—destroyed a portion of the city, and killed several hundred of its inhabitants.

[10] A school for the daughters of Japanese officials has also been established in Taihoku; but it is an interesting commentary upon the position of women in Japan, even at the present time, that while several “foreign” (English and American) teachers are engaged for the boys’ school, no “foreign” teacher is employed for the girls’ school. That would be “too expensive for a girls’ school,” the Japanese say. Also, while the curriculum of the two schools is—with the exception of English—practically the same, yet the boys’ school is called a Middle School (Chu Gakko), because the boys are expected to go later to a Higher School, for the completion of their education; while the girls’ school is called a Higher School (Koto Gakko) because the education of girls is supposed to be completed with the completion of the course in this school.

[11] Why the Japanese should restrict the term “foreigner” (seiyo-jin, or ijin-san, or ketto-jin, the last meaning literally “hairy barbarian”) to men and women of the white race, I do not know. A member of any other Asiatic race—liked or loathed—is not called a “foreigner.”

[12] Mt. Morrison—called by the Japanese Niitaka-Yama—is the highest mountain in the Japanese Empire, exceeding by nearly a thousand feet the world-famous Mt. Fuji, in Japan proper.

[13] That is, “as the crow flies.” In actually traversing the island, however, from northern to southern extremity, it is necessary, by the shortest route, to travel at least 350 miles.

[14] It is said that at this time the Formosans valued iron so highly that when throwing a spear tipped with this metal, they always pulled it back, by means of a raw-hide line, about 100 feet long, one end of which was held in the hand, the other attached to the spear-haft.

[15] Probably the harbour of Anping.

[16] The recent change of view-point on the part of the Japanese regarding Koksinga throws an interesting side-light on the psychology of that race. Previous to 1895 the name of Koksinga was in Japan held up to universal execration. He had been a “villainous Chinese pirate; one who had behaved in Taiwan with the usual cruelty of his race” (i.e. the Chinese). Since 1895 when the Japanese came into control of Formosa, and, in turn, dispossessed the Chinese, it has been discovered “in old Japanese records” that Koksinga had a Japanese mother. Therefore he was Japanese—and a hero. Temples have recently been erected in honour of this “Japanese hero” by the Japanese, in several places in Formosa. To one who knows how strictly patrilineal the Japanese are—how little relationship through the line of the mother is usually considered—“c’est À rire”!

[17] The name Formosa, as applied to the island, seems to have first become generally known in Europe through the book, Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, by the so-called impostor, Psalmanazar, published in London in 1704. How much credence can be given to the statements of Psalmanazar remains still an open question.

[18] The Japanese, of even the more educated classes—teachers and others—will say in all seriousness that their ancestors “came from heaven.” The ancestors of all other races they consider to have been earth-born. On this assumption they base their conception of the superiority of the Japanese race to all other races. There is a mountain in the southern part of Japan, near Kagoshima, to which the Japanese point as the actual spot on which their first ancestors alighted when they descended from heaven.

[19] Aus Brockhaus, Konversationslexikon: “Dido oder Elissa, die sagenhafte GrÜnderin von Karthago, war eine Tochter des tyrischen KÖnigs Mutto und die Gemahlin von dessen Bruder Sicharbas (bei Virgil SichÄus) einem Priester des Melkart. Ihr Bruder tÖtete ihren Gemahl, worauf Dido mit dessen SchÄtzen, begleitet von vielen Tyriern, entfloh, um einen neuen Wohnsitz zu suchen. Sie landete in Afrika, unweit der schon bestehenden phÖnizischen Pflanzstadt Ityke (Utika) und baute auf dem den Eingeborenen abgekauften Boden eine Burg Byrsa (das Fell). Die Bedeutung dieses Wortes wurde durch die Sage so erklÄrt: Dido habe so viel Land gekauft, wie mit einer Rindshaut belegt werden kÖnne, dann aber listig die Haut in dÜnne Streifen geschnitten und damit einen weiten Raum umgrenzt. An die Burg schloss sich hierauf die Stadt Karthago an. Hier ward Dido nach ihrem Tode, den sie sich selbst auf dem Scheiterhaufen gab, um dem Begehren des NachbarkÖnigs Hiarbas (Jarbas) nach ihrer Hand zu entgehen, gÖttlich verehrt, wie denn ihre mythische Gestalt offenbar derjenigen der grossen weiblichen Gottheit der Semiten entspricht, welche auch den Namen Dido fÜhrte. Virgil lÄsst, wie es schon NÄvius getan, den Äneas zur Dido kommen und giebt dessen Untreue als die Ursache ihres Todes an.”

Aus Weber, Weltgeschichte: “Die Sage von der Ochsenhaut bei GrÜndung der Stadt (Karthago) ist bezeichnend fÜr den Charakter der PhÖnizier, deren List und Verschlagenheit schon im Altertum berÜhmt war.”

Nach Gustav Schwab, Die SchÖnsten Sagen des klassischen Altertums, “War es eine Stierhaut (was dem Namen Byrsa entspricht).”

[20] The Moors captured the southern island of the Philippine Island group—Mindanao—and converted the natives to Mohammedanism. Their hybrid descendants now living on Mindanao are still called “Moros.”

[21] During the days of the Chinese over-lordship of the island there were several British consulates in Formosa; one in Takao, the southern port of the island, and one in Anping, the harbour on the west coast, as well as the one in Keelung. Since Formosa has been a part of the Japanese Empire, however, British trade with the island has steadily declined. No encouragement—in fact, every discouragement—is given it by the present masters of the island; hence there are no longer consulates at either Takao or Anping, and the great houses formerly occupied by the consuls, which were centres of both social and business activity in the British colonies at Takao and Anping, respectively, are now falling into decay, occupied only by bats, snakes, and homeless Chinese-Formosan beggars.

[22] The records speak only of male chieftains being invited to these feasts. It is possible that those tribal groups which have now—and probably had then—women chiefs sent male proxies to the feasts of the Dutch governors, as the latter would treat only with men.

[23] See footnote, p. 33.

[24] Curiously enough, this pack of starving dogs constituted my first impression of life in Formosa, teeming though the island is with richness of vegetable and animal life, and with all that makes for easy and comfortable living for both man and beast. At first the starvation and evident misery of these dogs puzzled me. I did not then fully understand—as later I was forced to do—the callousness and indifference of the great majority of both Chinese and Japanese to the sufferings of animals.

[25] All the Japanese in Formosa in Civil Service, including the teachers, wear military uniform and carry swords.

[26] All “writing” in Chinese characters is really painting, being done with a soft brush dipped in Indian ink.

[27] During my residence in Formosa, my Chinese-Formosan house-boy came to me, begging that Asa—the “sun,” or “shining lord”—in this case “female lord” (lady does not quite express the significance) of the household—would lend him 70 yen, with which to buy a “lily-footed” bride. His father had said it was time for him to marry, and with 40 yen—the amount of his savings—he could buy only a “big-footed” wife, something which would make him the laughing-stock of all his acquaintance.

[28] In Japan the police are drawn from the educated upper-class—the old Samurai.

[29] The Japanese when at home always sit, or rather kneel, on Zabuton (kneeling-cushions, or mats) on the floor.

[30] Rickshas—small man-drawn carriages—(see illustration) could be pulled only about the city and its immediate environs, and it was not city or suburban life in which I was interested.

[31] See illustrations.

[32] It is due to the efforts of Mr. Hosui and Mr. Marui that the skull of a recently decapitated member of the Taiyal tribe has been presented to the Museum of Oxford University.

[33] See map.

[34] Quite naturally, Christmas means nothing to the Japanese. Most of those who have not been missionized do not even know on what day this seiyo-jin matsuri (foreign festival) falls; those who live in country districts have not even heard of it. Their celebration of the winter solstice is at the New Year, which is the great festival time of the year. At this season interesting ceremonies are observed, and quaint and picturesque games played by old and young alike.

[35] See map.

[36] See map.

[37] See map.

[38] See map.

[39] See map.

[40] See Part II of this book.

[41] Winter is the rainy season in northern Formosa; summer the rainy season in the southern part of the island.

[42] One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Hakkas is that the women never “bind” their feet; whereas the feet of all the other Chinese-Formosan women are “bound,” i.e. crippled and distorted. This “sin of omission” on the part of the Hakkas seems to have something to do with the contempt in which they are held by the other Chinese, both in Formosa and on the mainland.

[43] The EncyclopÆdia Britannica, 11th edition, gives the aboriginal population of Formosa as 104,334. This is probably a fairly correct estimate, although the Japanese claim that 120,000 is more nearly correct, they wishing to give the impression that the aboriginal population is increasing, rather than diminishing.

[44] During my residence in Formosa I personally saw instances of the most hideous cruelty on the part of the Japanese toward the Chinese-Formosans, and of barbaric torture, officially inflicted, as punishment for the most trivial offences (as later—in the spring of 1919—I saw the same thing in the other Japanese colony, Korea, on the part of the Japanese toward the gentle Koreans). But this is an aspect of Japanese colonization with which in this book I shall not deal.

[45] The camphor “factories” established in the mountains—such as the one illustrated—for the extraction of crude camphor from the camphor wood are naturally of a primitive kind. The crude camphor is brought down to Taihoku to be refined.

[46] This actually happened during my residence in Formosa, the Japanese boasting of the cleverness of the expedient, and ridiculing the aborigines for believing—as they did—that the aeroplane was a huge bird, and the bomb its poisonous excrement.

[47] In connection with the care, especially the medical treatment, which Father Candidius gave to the native people, naturally many stories of miracles have grown up.

[48] See Part I, p. 29.

[49] The Taiyal tribe is the same as that which Swinhoe, who spent a few days among them in 1857, calls the Tylolok (see Hastings’ EncyclopÆdia of Religion and Ethics, vol. vi. p. 85).

[50] Stakes driven into the ground, extending upward to a height of six feet, or more (see illustration of Yami house).

[51] See Part I, p. 70.

[52] The colour of the skin, the shape of the features, and the occasionally curly hair of certain members of the Yami suggest that the people of this tiny island—Botel Tobago—have in them an admixture of Papuan blood, which modifies the predominant Malay strain. This admixture is also suggested by certain features of their arts and crafts.

[53] During the days of the Chinese government of Formosa when there was a British consulate at Takao.

[54] See illustrations from snapshots taken by the author, showing how these very small women keep their heads covered—bound with cloths—as much as possible, in order to conceal their hair.

[55] That is, of the same tribal group, which constitutes a social unit.

[56] This, of course, does not apply to a forced oath, extorted through terror.

[57] This constitutes part of the puberty initiation ceremonies.

[58] See illustration of Paiwan skull-shelf, at the side of doorway of chief.

[59] See Formosa under the Dutch, by Campbell.

[60] See illustration of bachelor-house facing page 97.

[61] See Primitive Society, by Robert H. Lowie, Ph.D., Assistant Curator in Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History.

[62] Some groups of the Taiyal use pounded ginger-root, instead of salt, for flavouring their food.

[63] This duration varies among the different tribes, as will be explained in the chapter dealing with Marriage Customs.

[64] A tribal group, or unit, usually consists of several villages near together, under the same rulership, and having the same organization and regulations.

[65] See map.

[66] Sometimes called the Story of Kaguya-Hime.

[67] See illustration.

[68] See illustration, p. 116.

[69] See p. 115.

[70] See p. 118.

[71] See map.

[72] The word “nation” is here used in the sense that it is commonly used in connection with the tribal groupings of the American Indians.

[73] See Totemism and Exogamy (vol. i), by Sir James Frazer.

[74] Even under “conditions of civilization,” however, eugenists hold that more male infants than female are born, but fewer reach maturity. Among primitive peoples the disproportion seems greater; that is, except among those tribes where the women are deliberately fattened—supposedly to enhance their beauty—as is the case with certain of the African tribes; or except among those where polygamy exists, which Frazer suggests may tend to increase the proportion of females (see Totemism and Exogamy, vol. i.).

[75] This attitude of reverencing the priestesses as rain-destroyers is in curious contrast with that of certain African tribes (e.g. the Dinkas and Shilluks, according to Dr. Seligman), with whom the king—who is also chief priest—is called “rain-maker”; this difference of point of view of course being due to difference of climatic conditions.

[76] The resemblance of certain members of the Yami tribe to the Papuans—such as those of the Solomon Islands—has already been noted (p. 103).

[77] See frontispiece.

[78] Melia japonica.

[79] Or “the low-born,” her words might also be translated.

[80] Hesiod, Works and Days, verse 825 (as translated by Miss E. J. Harrison).

[81] The different methods of house-building will be dealt with under Arts and Crafts.

[82] Among a few groups living in the eastern section of the territory inhabited by the Taiyal, there is a special “bride-house,” i.e. a hut erected on piles, some twenty feet above ground. In this “bride-house” every newly married couple of the tribal group must spend the first five days and nights after marriage. The house is exorcised by the priestesses before the entrance of the bridal pair.

[83] The newly married couple among the Paiwan—the tribe adjoining the Piyuma—live for a short time only with the parents of the bride, before building a home of their own. According to tradition, this tribe was once altogether matrilocal, as the Piyuma still are. Among certain groups of the Ami also, the newly married couple live for a time with the parents of the bride.

[84] I have never heard that a woman was supposed to be responsible for illness. Just what would happen in such a case—if a living woman were suspected—I do not know.

[85] The bridge referred to on p. 147.

[86] See illustration.

[87] See illustration.

[88] See p. 124.

[89] Rats and mice are a greater curse on Botel Tobago than on the main island of Formosa, as on the former there are not—or certainly were not, up to a very short time ago—either dogs or cats. An opportunity for a twentieth-century Dick Whittington suggests itself, although the reward of the modern Dick Whittington would probably consist of flowers and sweet potatoes—possibly of boiled millet, wrapped in banana-leaves.

[90] See Part I, p. 41.

[91] See p. 125.

[92] See illustration of author in the dress of a woman of the Taiyal tribe.

[93] Cloth thus ornamented with crimson yarn is reserved for the making of coats and blankets for successful warriors and hunters.

[94] See illustration of Ami woman making pottery.

[95] See illustration.

[96] The ear-plugs worn by men of the Paiwan tribe are perhaps even larger than those worn by the men of other tribes. For this reason the Chinese-Formosans call the Paiwan Tao-he-lan (“Big Ears”).

[97] Needles obtained by barter from the Japanese are now sometimes substituted for thorns.

[98] See Part I, p. 52.

[99] “In the early Cyprian tombs clay models of chariots have been found; these are modelled with solid wheels; sometimes spokes are painted on the clay; other models are almost certainly intended to represent vehicles with block wheels....

“Prof. Tylor figures an ox-waggon carved on the Antonine column. It appears to have solid wheels, and the square end of the axle proves that it and its drum wheels turned round together.... Tylor also says that ancient Roman farm-carts were made with wheels built up of several pieces of wood nailed together.” (Haddon, Study of Man.)

[100] Called by the missionaries “Lake Candidius,” after Father Candidius, the Dutch missionary explorer, of the seventeenth century, who discovered it.

[101] It is possible, however, that if Mr. Russell had been in Korea in March 1919, and had seen the hideous cruelty practised at that time—cruelty which took the form of peculiarly ingenious and diabolical modes of torture on the part of Japanese officialdom towards unarmed Koreans, women and children as well as men—he might have modified his statement to the extent of saying that present-day Japan is copying Christian morals of the age of the Inquisition. That Japan is not a “Christian country” has no bearing on the question, since Buddhism, quite as much as Christianity, enjoins forbearance and gentleness, and stresses—as its key-note—“harmlessness.” But the teachings of Gautama, like those of Christ, have little effect upon “the direction taken by the criminal tendencies,” as Mr. Russell puts it, of the nominal followers of these teachings—in Orient or Occident.

[102] In this connection I speak of the aborigines of this particular island—Formosa. Among many of the Melanesian aborigines of other islands of the South Pacific—as among many tribes of equatorial Africa, and certain tribes of American Indians—every form of torture is applied to the vanquished enemy before death releases him from suffering.

[103] See Das Mutterrecht, by J. J. Bachofen.

[104] On this subject see Les Formes ÉlÉmentaires de la Vie Religieuse, by E. Durkheim.

[105] See Sex and Character, by Otto Weininger.

[106] The Dora of Dickens’s David Copperfield.

[107] See The Female of the Species, by Kipling.

[108] A Japanese silver coin, equivalent to about a sixpence in value.

[109] A Japanese coin, equivalent to about a shilling in value.