t heretofore that this region contained a
large number of people of pure blood. This was the opinion set forth
by Blumentritt. He says:

This coast is the only spot in the Philippines in which
the original masters of the Archipelago, the Negritos, hold
unrestricted possession of their native land. The eastern side
of the Cordillera which slopes toward this coast is also their
undisputed possession. However, the western slopes they have been
compelled to share with branches of Malay descendants. Here they
retain the greatest purity of original physique and character.

These statements stand much in need of verification. Inquiries
pursued by The Ethnological Survey do not bear them out--in fact,
point to an opposite belief.

There is a small body of what may be pure types near the boundary
between Isabela and Cagayan, west of the Cagayan River, but the coast
region, so far as is known, does not hold any Negritos.

As many as sixteen towns of Cagayan report Negritos to the total number
of about 2,500. They are known commonly as "Atta," but in the pueblo
of Baggao there are three groups known locally as "Atta," "Diango," and
"Paranan." They have been described by natives of Baggao as being very
similar to the ordinary Filipinos in physical characteristics except
that they are darker in color and have bushy hair. Their only weapons
are the bow and arrow. Their social status is in every way like that of
the Negritos as distinguished from the industrious mountain. Malayans
of northern Luzon. Yet future investigations may not associate these
robust and warlike tribes with the weak, shirking Negritos. Negritos
of pure type have not so far been reported from Cagayan.

At only two places in the western half of northern Luzon have Negritos
been observed. There is a small group near Piddig, Ilokos Norte,
and a wandering band of about thirty-five in the mountains between
Villavieja, Abra Province, and Santa Maria, Ilokos Sur Province, from
both of which towns they have been reported. It is but a question of
time until no trace of them will be left in this region so thickly
populated with stronger mountain peoples.

In the Southern Islands

Although Negritos were reported by the early Spanish writers to
be especially numerous in some of the southern islands, probably
more of them are found on Luzon than on all the other islands in the
Archipelago. Besides Luzon, the only large islands inhabite