ierce little savages
from whom no danger could come, since they did not leave their mountain
fastnesses, but whose territory none dared enter.

Habitat of the Negritos

As has been stated, the present range of the Negritos of this territory
embraces the mountainous portion of the lower half of Zambales and
the contiguous Provinces of Tarlac and Pampanga, extending southward
even to the very extremity of the peninsula of Bataan.

This region, although exceedingly broken and rough, has not the
high-ridged, deep-canyoned aspect of the Cordillera Central of northern
Luzon. It consists for the most part of rolling tablelands, broken by
low, forest-covered ridges and dotted here and there by a few gigantic
peaks. The largest and highest of these, Mount Pinatubo, situated
due east from the town of Cabangan, holds on its broad slopes the
largest part of the Negritos of Zambales. Many tiny streams have their
sources in this mountain and rush down the slopes, growing in volume
and furnishing water supply to the Negrito villages situated along
their banks. Some of the larger of these streams have made deep cuts
on the lower reaches of the mountain slopes, but they are generally
too small to have great powers of erosion. The unwooded portions of
the table-lands are covered with cogon and similar wild grasses.

Here is enough fertile land to support thousands of people. The
Negritos occupy practically none of it. Their villages and mountain
farms are very scattered. The villages are built for the most part on
the table-land above some stream, and the little clearings are found
on the slope of the ridge at the base of which the stream runs. No
use whatever is made of the grass-covered table-land, save that it
offers a high and dry site for a rancheria, free from fevers.

Practically all of the Negrito rancherias are within the jurisdiction
of the two towns of Botolan and San Marcelino. Following the winding
course of the Bucao River, 15 miles southeast from Botolan, one comes
to the barrio of San Fernando de Riviera, as it is on the maps, or
Pombato, as the natives call it. This is a small Filipino village,
the farthest out, a half-way place between the people of the plains
and those of the uplands. Here a ravine is crossed, a hill climbed,
and the traveler stands on a plateau not more than half a mile wide but
winding for miles toward the big peak Pinatubo and almost imperceptibly
increasing in elevation. Low, barren ridg