ow there are very few
Negritos actually living in these towns. One old man in Aglao, who once
went to Spain as a servant to an officer, speaks very good Spanish.

In spite of the reprisals made by the Guardia Civil and other
means employed by the Spaniards, Negrito raids went on without much
cessation until 1894. In that year the authorities induced a head
man named Layos to come down to the town of San Marcelino for an
interview. Layos came down about as nature had provided him and was
received with much ceremony by the town authorities. They dressed him
up from head to foot, made him presents, and feasted him for several
days. Then with the customary Spanish pomp, parade of soldiery, and
flare of trumpets, they presented him with a gaudy sash and named him
Capitan General del Monte. He was given charge of all the Negritos
in the district and charged to keep them under control. The sash was
a cheap print affair, but it answered the purpose. The effect of all
this on an untamed savage can be imagined. Layos was impressed. He
went back to the hills with his new treasures and an experience worth
relating. It is said that the robbing and killing of Christian natives
lessened materially after that.

When I was at Cabayan in that district I saw Layos. He was a heavy-set
man of about 38, harelipped, an old ragged shirt and breechcloth
his only apparel, and with nothing of his former grandeur but the
memory. The sash, his badge of office, he said had long since gone
in breechcloths.

In the same year (1894) all Negritos in the Botolan district who would
come down from the mountains were fed for five or six months in hope
that they would settle down and remain. But they were given nothing
to do and were not shown how to work, and when the feeding stopped
they all went back to the hills, the only place where they knew how to
secure sustenance. Although this experiment did not result as desired,
it probably had good effects, for the people of this region are the
farthest advanced to-day and are most inclined to live in villages. I
am informed that since my visit some of the Negritos have moved down to
the Filipino village of Pombato and there are several Negrito children
in the native school. The people of Tagiltil have even expressed a
desire for a school. The presence of several Zambal and halfbreeds
in this village and its nearness to the Filipinos probably account
for its being ahead of other villages in this as in other r