A glimpse at the manners and customs of the Hill tribes of North Formosa
J. Dodd, a British resident in North Formosa who had discovered petroleum wells in the island’s interior in 1865, published this ethnographic sketch in 1885 as the first instalment of a multi-part account of the aboriginal hill tribes inhabiting the mountains behind Banca (Banqiao) and extending towards Su-oh Bay. The article offers a physical and material description of the northern Formosan aborigines, arguing for their distinct racial character and documenting their dress, weaponry, and ornamental practices as observed from the Chinese borderlands.
Summary
Dodd’s primary aim in this opening section is to establish the physical typology of the northern Formosan hill tribes and to position them within contemporary racial taxonomy. He systematically describes their stature (mostly under five feet six inches), complexion (a uniform intermediate hue he argues is neither negro nor Chinese), hair (dark and lank, not curly), and facial features (Malayan in general contour but with thinner lips and less flat noses than Malays). He explicitly rejects the possibility of negro admixture, comparing their features to those of the wrecked Pellew Islanders and to populations of the South Pacific, and speculates that the diversity of physiognomies observed—some with a “Jewish cast,” others with European profiles—may reflect ancient mixtures of Malay, Philippine, and Polynesian blood with indigenous stocks.
The second half of the article turns to material culture. Dodd describes the tattooing of horizontal lines on the forehead and chin of men, the piercing of ear lobes to admit bamboo plugs or cuttle-fish bone ornaments, and the widespread use of cuttle-fish bone as both decorative material and a “circulating medium” of exchange. He details the armament of the border tribes—matchlocks (pahtus), bows and arrows, and the indispensable lalao knife, whose scabbard often bore the tail of a slain Chinese enemy—and notes that matchlocks were still scarce in the interior. His account of dress covers the likus (a sleeveless hempen coat embroidered with scarlet or blue long-ells), the habbock (a woven hemp girdle), the fighting jacket, and the crude deer-skin rain coat worn at higher elevations. Throughout, Dodd situates these observations against the backdrop of ongoing Chinese encroachment and the tribes’ dependence on barter with Chinese border settlements for metal goods, long-ells, and camlets.
Key Findings
- The men of the northern tribes are mostly under five feet six inches in height, with a uniform intermediate skin colour that Dodd argues shows no trace of negro admixture (pp. 70–71).
- Cuttle-fish bone served as a “circulating medium” of exchange and was fashioned into necklaces, earrings, forehead ornaments, and bead strings (p. 73).
- Matchlocks (pahtus) were not very common in the interior; the majority of men were armed with bows and arrows, and not a man was without a lalao knife (p. 74).
- The lalao blade was approximately one and a half feet long, made by Chinese and obtained through barter for deer’s horns or taken from the bodies of Chinese killed in border encounters (p. 76).
- The likus coat was made of four pieces of native hempen cloth sewn together, open in front, reaching nearly to the knees, and embroidered from the waist down with blue or scarlet long-ells obtained from Chinese borderers (pp. 75–76).
- At elevations of 6,000 to 8,000 feet, significant differences in dress and manners became observable compared to the lower ranges (p. 77).
Conclusion
Dodd presents the northern Formosan aborigines as a physically distinct people whose material culture—tattooing, cuttle-fish bone currency, the lalao, and embroidered hempen dress—reflects a society in a state of partial contact with Chinese civilisation, dependent on barter for metal and textile goods while retaining a fundamentally hunter-warrior way of life shaped by daily insecurity from both hostile neighbouring tribes and Chinese expansion.
Context
- Dodd was a British subject residing in North Formosa during the 1860s–1880s, having discovered petroleum wells in the interior in 1865; his account is written from the vantage of a foreign resident with direct access to the border zones between Chinese settlements and aboriginal territory.
- The article is explicitly marked “To be continued,” indicating it forms the first part of a longer ethnographic series; the present section covers physical description and material culture, with further topics (likely social organisation, warfare, and religion) reserved for subsequent instalments.