The Philippines was once a part of mainland Asia. The first sign of man in the Philippines dates back to at least 35,000 years ago. Since prehistoric times, the islands have been populated by peoples of the Malay race. Most of them lived simply in scattered villages at river mouths. Their houses were made of bamboo and palm-thatch and they grew rice and fished for a living.

The Australoid Negritos from Borneo was the first group of people to reach the Philippines. The pigmy blacks, the Negritos or “Little Negroes”, one of the most diminutive peoples in the world, were nomadic hunters armed only with bows and arrows and blow guns and settled in Luzon, Palawan, Mindoro and Mindanao. Like the African negro, they have crispy hair and wide noses. They rarely attain a stature of five feet, and seldom live to be 50 years old. For the most part…