Formosa

“ Formosa, which is shaped somewhat like a huge sole, has a rugged, mountainous back-bone, in which Mount Morrison towers into the clouds to a height of twelve thousand feet. Throughout the wild penetralia of these mountains lurk a number of warlike tribes of varying strength, whose lives are devoted to hunting, fishing, and fighting with one another, their one community of interest being a passionate ardor in the collection of human heads, whether of their tribal enemies or of the Chinese coolies who live on the verge of the hills or are engaged in the camphor industry. ”

“ Earthquakes—frequent in Formosa—are supposed to be caused by a spirit in the shape of a great pig scratching himself against a pole, which extends from earth to heaven. Sun, moon, and stars were created by Dgagha and Bartsing—god and goddess, respectively. The earth the Ami believe to be flat; the sun goes under it at night, the moon and stars under it during the day.
The Ami seem more democratic in religion, as well as in politics, than the mountain tribes; that is, the theocracy of the priestesses seems less strong. ”

“ My guide, accustomed, as are all Chinese coolies—both in Formosa and on the mainland—to carrying burdens on his back, volunteered thus to carry me, declaring he could easily do so. I acquiesced; and thus “pick-a-back” fashion we started. ”

“ However, in Formosa it is—as far as the aborigines are concerned—the practically universal method of serenading one’s lady-love, and is apparently enjoyed both by the serenading warrior and by the young lady. The lover often keeps up the performance for hours at a time, and returns the next evening, and for many succeeding evenings, to repeat it. All this time he makes no attempt to pay any other form of address to the young lady, or to ingratiate himself with her parents. Finally, after some weeks of this nightly serenading, he leaves the bamboo jews’-harp one evening at the lady’s door. ”

“ Something of the early historical, or pseudo-historical, records of Formosa my Chinese-Formosan fellow-voyager on the Osaka Shosen Kaisha steamer also told me. It seems that the first mention in Chinese records of the island is in the Sui-Shu—the history of the Sui Dynasty, which lasted from A.D. 581 to 618, according to Occidental reckoning. At that time Chinese historians and also geographers believed Formosa to be one of the Lu-chu () group ”

“ The Japanese accepted 500,000 taels for their outlays in Formosa for roads, houses, and defences; agreeing thereupon to retire and leave the further punishment of the aborigines to the Chinese authorities. The two envoys left Peking, and this attempt at war was happily frustrated. ... The civilization of all parts of Formosa has since rapidly advanced by the extension of tea and sugar culture, the establishment of Christian missions, and the better treatment of the native tribes." S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, chapter 26 (volume 2) . ”

“ It is safe to consider that the population of Formosa is a continuance of the population of Luçon, and the Bashi islands. Of the island Lang-khiao, at the southernmost end of Formosa, I find, in Klaproth, an express statement that it is inhabited, and that its inhabitants are great breeders of sheep. ”

“ Formosa, being more completely isolated than either of the others, possesses a larger proportion of peculiar species of birds, while its tropical situation and lofty mountain ranges {408}have enabled it to preserve an unusual number of Himalayan and Malayan forms. Japan, almost equally isolated towards the south, and having a much greater variety of climate as well as a much larger area, possesses about an equal number of mammalia with Formosa, and an even larger proportion of peculiar species. ”

“ Indeed, the association is more close than in countries like England and America, or present-day Russia; since among the aborigines of Formosa there exists no registry office or other place where a civil marriage can be performed. In Formosa marriage means always a religious ceremony, one demanding the presence of the most powerful priestess of the local group. In some cases, several priestesses take part in the ceremony. This is especially true of certain of the groups among the Taiyal tribe, or nation. ”

“ Formosa lies about a thousand miles south of Kobe—six hundred and sixty miles, it is estimated, south of Kagoshima, the southernmost point of Japan proper—and the voyage of four days down through the Tung Hai (Eastern China Sea) was a warm one, the latter part especially. ”

“ Shell-fish form an important article of diet to both the Chinese and the aborigines along the coast—a species of Cyrena, a species of Tapes, Cytheraea petechiana and Modiola teres being most abundant.
Population.—The population of Formosa, according to a census in 1904, is estimated at 3,022,687, made up as follows: aborigines 104,334, Chinese 2,860,574 and Japanese 51,770. The inhabitants of Formosa may be divided into four classes: the Japanese, who are comparatively few, as there has not been much tendency to immigration ”

“ When Bishop Burnet asked him for proofs that he came from Formosa, he replied that the bishop, if chance took him to Formosa, would be placed in an awkward dilemma when, on his declaring himself an Englishman, he was asked to prove the statement. 'You say you are an Englishman,' the Formosan, according to Psalmanazar, would retort ; 'you look as like a Dutchman as any that ever traded to Formosa' (Pylades and Corinna, by Richard Gwinnet and Elizabeth Thomas ; Gent. Mag. 1765, p. 78) . ”

“ From Guam I shaped our course for the island of Formosa, to which we had a long and melancholy voyage, as our sickness daily increased; so that, on the 3d November, when we got sight of that island, both ship and company were almost entirely worn out. Next day we doubled the south Cape of Formosa, passing within a league of the rocks of Vele-Rete, where we were sensible of a very strong current. As we passed in sight, the inhabitants of Formosa made continual fires on the coast, as inviting us to land ”

“ The resemblance between the Tagalogs and the Taiyal [49] tribe of northern Formosa is particularly striking as regards physical characteristics. The resemblance, however, ends here. The Tagalogs, as the result of Spanish influence, are so-called “Christians”; the Taiyal are not. The latter (Taiyal of Formosa) are a singularly chaste, honest, and fair-dealing people; the former (Tagalogs) are singularly—otherwise.
At least one Formosan tribe—the Ami, of the east coast—has a tradition that its forbears came “in boats across a great sea from an island somewhere in the south.” ”

“ Formosa, as its name implies, is a very lovely, picturesque island, and the Spaniards, who first made it known to Europeans, named it "Isla Formosa," which, in their language, means "beautiful island." Takow seemed to abound in tropical vegetation, palm-trees being very conspicuous. The gong, used everywhere in China, was much in use here also; and as in other places men carried things by balancing them across their shoulders, so also they did here. ”

“ Before it was ceded to Japan the island was ruled over by a Taotai resident at Tai-wan-fu, and appointed by the Central Government. The Taotai of Formosa was the only officer of the same rank in the Empire who enjoyed the privilege of direct appeal to the throne. The population is about three millions, viz., two and a half millions Chinese and half a million aborigines. Naturalists suppose that Formosa was originally joined to the mainland; and what confirms them in this view is the great similarity of its flora and fauna to that of the nearest provinces of China. ”

“ Their course was still southward, and they soon came in sight of the large island of Formosa, a name which signifies “fair.” It belongs to China. The western portion of it is very fertile and inhabited by a civilized people. The eastern part is rugged and mountainous, and is occupied by savages, who tattoo their skins, sleep in caves on beds of leaves, and have scarcely any clothes or furniture.
While the ship was passing by the island, the Russian merchant asked Alexis if he had ever heard of Psalmanazar. To this the youth replied in the negative ”

“ Most things in Formosa were made of bamboo, such as tables, chairs, beds, pails, rice-measures, jars, hats, pipes, chop-sticks, goblets, paper, and pens. Many of the Pepohoans' habitations were built on three sides of a four-cornered spot, with a yard in the centre, where the families sometimes [120] passed their evenings together. The natives assembled here, in numbers, at about nine o'clock, where they made a fire when it was cold. Old and young people here often formed a circle on the ground, sitting together with their arms crossed, smoking, and talking. ”

“ Whether the losing of these arts implies that the tribes since they have been in Formosa have not had material as suitable for making either seaworthy boats or uncrumbling pottery as they had in the land whence they came, or whether [197] it implies that they are an “ageing” people, a people who have lost their “grip on life,” and have no longer either inventive ability or mechanical skill, is a question which I shall not attempt to answer. ”

“ Formosa was ceded to Japan by the Chinese in 1895; it is an island of much natural beauty, and is traversed N. and S. by a fine range of hills; is famed for its bamboos, and exports coal, rice, tea, &c. Name also of a large territory in the Argentine.
Fornarina, a Roman lady of great beauty, a friend of Raphael's, and who frequently posed as a model to him.
Forres (3) , a royal burgh in Elginshire, on the Findhorn, 2 m. from the sea and 10 m. SW. of Elgin by railway; has ruins of a castle—once a royal residence—and a famous “Stan'in Stane,” Sueno's Stone, 25 ft. high, placed in the year 900. ”

“ The Dutch were the first, however, to take footing in the island; in 1624 they built a fort, Zelandia, on the east coast, where has since risen the town of Taiwanfu, and the settlement was maintained for thirty-seven years. On the expulsion of the Ming dynasty in China a number of their defeated adherents came over to Formosa, and, under a leader called in European accounts Coxinga, succeeded in expelling the Dutch and taking possession of a good part of the island. In 1682 the Chinese of Formosa recognized the emperor Kanghi, and since then it has formed part of the empire. ”

“ The work is done by Chinese-Formosan coolies under the supervision of Japanese officials. The manufacture of camphor, like that of opium, is a Japanese Government monopoly.
As a matter of fact, the only people ever dominant in Formosa who seem to have treated the aborigines with either kindness or equity were the Dutch during their thirty-seven years’ over-lordship in the seventeenth century. The story of this period of just and kindly rule in their island has been handed down among the aborigines from parent to child and still remains a tradition among them—one of a Golden Age long past ”

“ The aborigines had already incidentally felt the force of Japanese arms in 1874, when an expedition was sent under General Saigō to chastise them for the murder of some shipwrecked fishermen.
Formosa, as sufficiently indicated above, falls naturally into two unequal parts. To the west a narrow r alluvial plain, richly cultivated by industrious Chinese living in towns and villages, slopes gently to the sea. Eastwards the country rises into mountain ranges covered with virgin forests of camphor laurel and other huge trees, beneath whose shade wild beasts and wild men fight for a subsistence. ”

“ The inhabitants of Formosa may be divided into three classes:—the Chinese, many of whom have immigrated from the neighbourhood of Amoy and speak the dialect of that district, while others are Hakkas from the vicinity of Swatow; the subjugated aborigines, now largely intermingled with the Chinese; and the uncivilized aborigines of the eastern region, who refuse to recognize the Chinese authority, and carry on raids as opportunity occurs. ”

“ Certainly as far as the Formosan aborigines are concerned, there seems no trace of anything of the sort, except possibly among the Ami, of the east coast; and such hazy idea of a Supreme Being as they may perhaps be considered to hold seems probably derived from teachings of the Dutch missionaries given to their ancestors. When questioned at all closely as to their religious belief, they speak of several deities. ”

“ There is a very amusing account of conversations with him at Oxford, in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxv. p. 78., in which, before a large company of ladies and gentlemen who were curious as to the customs of Formosa, he gravely defended the practice which he said existed in that country, of cutting off the heads of their wives and eating them, in case of misconduct. "I think it is no sin," continued he, "to eat human flesh, but I must own it is a little unmannerly." He admitted that he once ate part of a black; but they being always kept to hard work, their flesh was tough and unsavoury. ”

“ Inadequate as the treatment of the subject may seem to the anthropologist, I venture to hope that such information as the book contains may stimulate interest, and perhaps encourage further investigation, before it is too late, into the tribal customs and habits of a little-known, and rapidly disappearing, people.
A writer—signing himself “P. M.”—discussing the aborigines of Formosa, in the China Review (vol. ii) for 1873, says: “Decay and death are always sad sights to contemplate, and when decay and death are those of a nation or race, the feeling is stimulated to acuteness. ”