Negritos in Jacques Vallée’s Passeport to Magonia

[sankara]

I a precedent intervention in the ‘origin of violence in Africa’ thread I had mentioned the negrito’s ‘mystery’. I don’t know if it is a kind of synchronicity… but the same day I receive a version of Passeport to Magonia which I started immediately to read. What a great book !( and surely not only because of this link to the Negritos).
But first I advise you to at least have a look at these selected links about the negritoes in many location in Asia and the beautiful picture of an Andamanese woman with steatopygia and her child :

http://olimu.com/Notes/Steatopygia.jpg
http://www.bohol.ph/books/nz/nz.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21852/21852-h/21852-h.htm
http://peoplesofthailand.wordpress.com/2008/04/
http://www.andaman.org/
http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/2005/V19n2/WanderingsInThePhilippines3.htm
http://agta.4t.com/literatureandlegends.html
http://www.stewartsynopsis.com/Synopsis%206.htm
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter1/text1.htm
http://www.andamanese.net/jarawa.htm

It happens that on page 71-72 of the Secret of the Commonwealth chapter, references are made to negritos in the British Islands !

Quotes :

In spite of their Small size, they are understood to have been of considérable strength. They were not undersized in the same way that children are, but full grown individuals…

These dwarfs or pygmies are calles Na Amhuisgean or, more correctly, Na h-Amhuisgean….
« Were there or were there no trace of dwarfs living among the West and Middle European of antiquity ? Were the legends about the fayries and the Elves based on the fact that the ancient inhabitants of the northern part of the British Isles were such a race ? Historical and archeological researchers definitely say no, and we must agree with them. Yet several writers such as David Mac Ritchie, claim that there are indications in this direction, and of course such indications would be crucial to any theory concerning the nature of the humanoïds . »

In a book published in London in 1894, Tyson’s Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the ancient, Professor Windle of Birmingham, remarks that a race of dwrfs supplied the « best warriors » and body guard of several Kings. Tyson made an extensive study of the dwarfs races and quote the Greek historian Ctesias :

Middle India has black men, who are calles pygmies, using the same language as other Indians…of these Pygmies, the king of India has three thousand in his train ; for they are skillful archers. And he adds :
There seems to have been near lake Zerrah, in Persia, Negrito (pygmy black) tribes who are probably aboriginal, and may have formed the historic black guard of the ancient king of Susania. Tyson’s work, to which Windle provided the Preface, was written in the seventeenth century. After calling attention to the remark by Ctesias, it goes on :
Talentonius and Barthilinbe think that Ctesias relates of the pygmies, as their being very good archers, very well illustrate this text of Ezékiel.
…
Whitout going into further détails, it is clear that the Gaelic story of guard or dwarfs warriors is not an isolated case.
If we return to David MacRitchie’s quotation from the Flemish folklore jornal Ons Volksleven, we can learn more :
…The Fenlanders (a race dwelling in our country prior to the Kelts) were little, but strong, dexterous and good swimmers, they lived by hunting annd fishing. Adam of Bremen inthe eleventh century thus pictures their descendant of race : « they had large heads, flat faces, flat noses, large mouths. They lived in caves of the rocks, which they quitted at night-time for the purpose of commiting sanguinary outrage » The Keltic people, and later those of German race, sot all and strong, could hardlylook upon such little folks as human beings. They must have regarded them as strange, mysterious créatures. And when these negroes (emphases mine) or Fenlander had lived for a long enaugh time hidden, for fear of the new people, in their grottoes, especially when they at length fell into decay through poverty, or died out, they became changed in the imagination of the dreamy Germans into mysterious beings, a kind of ghost od gods.
Later on about the pygmy theory he adds :

« I believe we have at least established that there were open questions in the mind of the scolars of all epochs concerning such beings, and on the point Hartland docs not disagree with MacRitchie : « Nothing is more likely than the transfer to the mythical beings of the Celtic superstition of some features derived from alien races. »

There is more but I just can’t quote all :(.

And to end up for this time I think that we should ponder this amazing article in the Taipei Times :D

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/11/27/2003212815
In honor of the Little Black People

The Saisiyat tribe of Hsinchu and Miaoli will perform a solemn rite this weekend to commemorate a race of people that they exterminated
By Jules Quartly
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Nov 27, 2004, Page 16
Xiangtian Lake is one of two places to see the ritual.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Drinking, singing and dancing are expected to take place deep in the mountains of Miaoli and Hsinchu when the "Ritual of the Little Black People" (矮靈祭) is performed by the Saisiyat tribe once again this weekend.
For the past 100 years or so, the Saisiyat tribe (賽夏族) has performed the songs and rites of the festival to bring good harvests, ward off bad luck and keep alive the spirit of a race of people who are said to have preceded all others in Taiwan.
In fact, the short, black men the festival celebrates are one of the most ancient types of modern humans on this planet and their kin still survive in Asia today. They are said to be diminutive Africoids and are variously called Pygmies, Negritos and Aeta. They are found in the Philippines, northern Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra in Indonesia and other places.
Chinese historians called them "black dwarfs" in the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220 to AD 280) and they were still to be found in China during the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1911). In Taiwan they were called the "Little Black People" and, apart from being diminutive, they were also said to be broad-nosed and dark-skinned with curly hair.

PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
After the Little Black People -- and well before waves of Han migrations after 1600 -- came the Aboriginal tribes, who are part of the Austronesian race. They are thought to have come from the Malay Archipelago 6,000 years ago at the earliest and around 1,000 years ago at the latest, though theories on Aborigine migration to Taiwan are still hotly debated. Gradually the Little Black People became scarcer, until a point about 100 years ago, when there was just a small group living near the Saisiyat tribe.
Saisiyat tribe members perform the Ritual of the Little Black People in Wufeng
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
The story goes that the Little Black People taught the Saisiyat to farm by providing seeds and they used to party together. But one day, the Little Black People sexually harassed some Aboriginal women. So, the Saisiyat took revenge and killed them off by cutting a bridge over which they were all crossing. Just two Little Black People survived. Before departing eastward, they taught the Saisiyat about their culture and passed down some of their songs, saying if they did not remember their people they would be cursed and their crops would fail.
The Saisiyat kept their promise and have held the Ritual of the Little Black People every year, though they scaled down the ceremonies during the Japanese colonial period (1895 to 1945). Now the ritual is held every two years on the 10th full moon of the lunar calendar, with a big festival once every 10 years. At this time, the Saisiyat are not supposed to fight and they congregate in their ancestral areas of Miaoli and Hsinchu, in the mountains.
"I've seen it written of as a celebration, but to me it seemed quite a mournful affair, especially in the way the music came across, which was trancelike, a haunting kind of chant with a series of 10 to 15 songs," said long-term Taiwan resident Lynn Miles, who has been to the ritual three times and will be going again this year.
"There's nothing else quite like it in its tone and in its mood. I've been to other festivals but this is non-stop."
Miles said the dances were not set pieces but usually involved holding hands and moving around in a circle, chanting, with those who know the songs doing most of the singing and a shaman figure keeping order.
A spokeswoman at the Council of Indigenous Peoples (under the Executive Yuan) said that those who have "unclean thoughts" have their souls snatched by the spirits of the Little Black People and will pass out until the shaman revives them.
Miles said the shaman seemed to serve a public-order function by chasing off those who were too drunk or out of order.
The ceremonies are held in two places. The ritual began yesterday in Nanchuang Township, Miaoli County, and will carry on there until Monday. Rituals start today in Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County, and will last through tomorrow.
Getting there:
To Wufeng:
Route 122 to Wufeng can be accessed off No. 1 Highway near Toufen.
To Nanchuang:
Take western No. 1 Highway. Near Toufen, take Route 124 toward Sanwan to Nanchuang. Shuttle buses will take visitors to the ritual site at Xiangtian La

 

[sankara]

I posted this article in that section but feel free to transfer it because I am not sure it is the right place...
Thank you ;)

 

[Erna]

But first I advise you to at least have a look at these selected links about the negritoes in many location in Asia and the beautiful picture of an Andamanese woman with steatopygia and her child :

Well the most famous person in our South African history with this physique is Saartjie Baartman.

It happens that on page 71-72 of the Secret of the Commonwealth chapter, references are made to negritos in the British Islands !

Yes, how they ended up there is actually a very sad story, they were essentially exhibited and ridiculed and put on display to the masses, because of their physique.

I'm not familiar with the term Negritos or Andamanese, Sankara. We call them Khoikhoi, Khoisan or just bushmen in South Africa. They were the first people the Dutch encountered when they landed in the Cape in 1652. Interestingly enough, the bushmen are not called bushmen because they live in the bush, they're called bushmen because they used a certain bush for medicinal purposes.

 

[sankara]

Poor Saartjie,

Thank for the link on this sad alien abduction of a San. The Caucasian alien race has always demonstrated to be of predatory degenerated ruthless tendancies. In some cases, other aliens of same origin with a pale complexion and a fork tongue, dressed in different outfits and called priest or pastors did tell them a different tone, but to deceive them again. I think that in many instances in the middle of her European nightmare, if Saartjie could have spoken about her abduction to a fellow or a real ampathetic European, the story she would have given could have been paralleled with some of the weirdest 'UFO-Fayries' testimonies.

It is interesting that you don't seem to really understand that the people you can see on the pictures are not San, like you know them. Have you seen where the Andaman Islands are? I won't insult you asking if you know where the Philipinas, Thaïland, Taïwan are :)

I could also mention the mythical Vazimbas of Madagascar, which is supposed to be the remnants of the original population replaced and destroyed by alien "proto-Indonesians" and Bantus. It is said that they are still some of them hiding in the bush (they are very few roads and cars in that land and the bush is wide), living away from the different actual tribes of the Island and it's past colonial and neo-colonial white (or Koreans) masters.

Even if the text is in French (we were one of the evil alien invading sub-race :() there are interesting pictures of remote places very small populations and some theories about the Vazimbas (actually, the second link is Malagachy so it is not a western idea). The last one evoking the curious hypothesis that the Vazimbas were Homo florensiensis. Maybe you can find materials in English...

http://beedl.anthro.uga.edu/mikea/Francais.html
http://rajaofera.free.fr/Faune/histoire/lesvazimba.htm

The fact that they are similarities with San in South Africa and the different forest people known as pygmees in Central Africa is already interesting.

But the fact that there are mentions of them in the Gaelic, North European culture is rather astonishing isn't it.

So as I said, the case has rarely been considered by truth seekers.

So I will further on quoting Jacques Vallée. (I downloaded the book on internet and the typography is sometimes misleading)

Page 76:

"As for the seemingly impossibility that a tale could be transmitted for fifteen centuries and yet be historical, Mac Ritchie adds:

It ought to be remembered that the oral transmission of history and genealogy, with the most careful attention in language and details, was a perfect science among Gaelic speaking people.

But, then, what became of the dwarf race? According tp MacRichie, the dwarfs were destroyed and went into hiding toward the sixth century, when Colomba and his followers carried on areligious war against the Picts. At the same time, he says, the Irishmen were also using force against the same people in the north of Ireland. And since the new owners of the land felt for their ancient enemies a mixture of guilt and fear, numerous rumours were born concerning the ghosts of the Picts, still roaming through the land. And in turn led to Elves and fairies."

It is not unlike the Taïpei Times story, isn't it? almost the same pattern. Like in Madagascar (I have been their for a while doing a professional workshop on organic fertilisation in Fianarantsoa and I had many occasions to discuss about this subject and how it has impacted on the actual tribes mind) with the Vazimbas. If you take some time like I think the sunject deserves, to the above mentioned link, you read about the story of that Andamanese who has came close to the 'invaders' for a while and who has decided to go back to the bush advising his fellows not to interact with them.

Quote:

This theory, generally refered to as the "Pygmy theory" is however, no longer tenable in the face of the evidence historians have gathered about the Picts.

The name "Picti" (according to Wainwright) appears first in 297 AD, and from that time on, it is applied to all the people who lived in the north of the Antonine wall and were not Scots.In earlier times, we are actually concerned with the predecessors of the Picts, who formed various groups called "proto-picts." Could Macritchie 's pygmies have figured among the Proto-Picts? Wainwrght give sthe following translation of a passage from the Historic Hlowegiae already refered above:

These Islands were first inhabited by the Picts and the Ppae. Of these, one race, the Picts, little exceeded pigmies in stature; they did marvels, in the mornig and on the evening, il building (walled) towns, but at mid-day they entirely lost all their strength, and lurked through fear in little underground houses.

And Wainwright comments:
The story is interesting in that it brings together Picts, souterrains, and perhaps brochs, at once explaining the common belief that the Picts were a Pygmy people and providing an early exemple of the mistaken equation implicit in the names "Picts'houses" (souterrains) and Pictish Tower" (Brochs).

Should we belive that, among the Proto-picts, there were dwarfs who were mistaken for a native people? And, then, where did they come from? MacRitchie's theory offers only confusion, and it is amusing to observe his embarrassment when he must report that the Fenlanders were not only dwarfishs but black to. Could it be that there were ikals in Northern Europe at the down of the recorded history?

I believe we have at least established that there were no open questions in the minds of the scholars of all epochs concerning such beings, and on this point Hartland does not disagree with MacRitchie: "Nothing is more likely than the transfer to the mythical beings of Celtic superstition of some features derived from alien races."

In his conclusion to his discution on the Pygmy theory, which he rejects as Hartland does, Wentz remarks that it leaves all the problem of the historical origins of the fairy-faith unsolved, since it is clearly global , not limited to the Celtic lands. Thus A. Lang, in his introduction to the 1922 edition of Kirk's book, states that "to my mind at least, the subterranean inhabitants of the Mr Kirk's book are not so much a traditional recollection of a real dwarfish race living underground (a hypothesis of Sir Walter Scott's) as a lingering memory of chtonian beings, the Ancestors."

The case of the Asian negritos, Vazimbas fits quite well in this environment, doesn't it?

I must add that the Malagasy people didn't plaugh the soil with metal for fear of chtonian divinities. Until now, all readers who have some real knowledge of Madagascar know that the population lives in a very different psycho-spiritual worldview than the Westerners and that the ancestors play a great part. But the thing is of course more complicated. At the top of the pantheon stands Zanahari, usualy translated as God. I remember having seen when I was young a commandant Cousteau documentary where the Cousteau's crew had it's car stuck in the mud of a primitive pist. All their effort to drag the car out remained vain until someone came and using the name Zanahary made possible for the crowd to free the vehicule. Cousteau reported it, I will confirmed the source.

Anyway, much could be said about the Malagachy worlview that is of high interest.

We should also remember that the San are supposed to have populated most of Africa before being replaced by invading tall black populations who were agricultors and cattle herders and whom many, at least in West Africa (from my knowledge) have a link with ancient Egypt.

The Negrito case may deserve some ligns or more in the Secret History of the World as this networking gang (thank you very much and big respect) has been trying to unveil, and some more points to be linked may appear.

Learning is fun!

Respect

 

[shijing]

I'm not familiar with the term Negritos or Andamanese, Sankara. We call them Khoikhoi, Khoisan or just bushmen in South Africa. They were the first people the Dutch encountered when they landed in the Cape in 1652. Interestingly enough, the bushmen are not called bushmen because they live in the bush, they're called bushmen because they used a certain bush for medicinal purposes.

Just an aside: beyond what Sankara already mentioned, I think that the difference between these groups is primarily regional, cultural and linguistic. The Khoisan are the indigenous population of southern Africa (previously more widespread, as Sankara mentioned) and speak more or less related languages, whereas the Andamanese are called such because they live in the Andaman Islands, off of India (and speak languages that are not obviously related to any other languages, for the time being at least). 'Negrito' is a term used for people of this phenotype who are scattered throughout South and Southeast Asia, often speaking the languages of other groups who have moved into their territories (as in the Philippines, for example).

 

[Erna]

The Caucasian alien race has always demonstrated to be of predatory degenerated ruthless tendencies.

All races unfortunately “demonstrate predatory degenerated ruthless tendencies”. Boy would our dilemma be simplified if we could pinpoint it on race.

It is interesting that you don't seem to really understand that the people you can see on the pictures are not San, like you know them.

Forgive me, I promptly responded to your post after viewing only the first photograph (without viewing the rest), about the steatopygia. I was under the impression it was an exclusively Khoikhoi physique though – after the Saartjie Baartman story broke.

Have you seen where the Andaman Islands are?

I can honestly say I have never heard of those islands.

But the fact that there are mentions of them in the Gaelic, North European culture is rather astonishing isn't it.

Oh indeed! One thing I realised when I read Tim Butchers book about the Congo, is that vast sections of Africa don’t have an institutionalised history (fairly recent history I mean – past couple of centuries). Butcher described it as events happening (massacres etc), and then it just drifts into the jungle. It’s not documented. Africans are not as obsessive about documenting everything as we Caucasians are.

I learned about the pygmies in the Congo in Butchers book – Blood River. He allocated a portion of the book to their plight. They helped him on his motorcycle stretch of the journey.

But when it comes to African tribes, I think it’s impossible to familiarize oneself with them all. I always go to this local African art market close by, and this one Congolese guy had a book with all the Congolese tribes, their religions, art etc.etc. When I asked him to get me one as well, he said it’s out of print looong time ago, but said if I returned the next Sunday he would photocopy the whole book for me – at a healthy fee of course. Shit I’m actually going off topic here - again, but according to this book, ‘Zaire’ alone had 300 different ethnic groups, a large portion of them still in the oral tradition. Amazing, and of course problematic for historians and scolars.

Nigeria same story – hundreds of ethnicities. Africa is just huge – interesting link, this one.

Let me read up on these people you speak of. If there's a story there, I want to know. ;)

 

[sankara]

Erna,

The statement I made about the Caucasians is rather objective and backed by historical, psychological datas. Since we are essentially souls, I have no problem with this kind of aknowledgement . The Bantus have invaded Africa and I guess the way they dealt with the San was less than tender, but still there are no datas as to how it happened. All I can do is witness the fact that nowadays in West Africa, San physical traits resurface sometimes amazingly in the local actual ethnies (rather reddish complexion, pepper hair, smallness).

Maybe Erna, could you have a look at Michael Bradley's work.
http://www.michaelbradley.info/books/discovery.html

Anyway this topic is not dealing with African history per se. Before I further on, I will quote Jacques Vallée on page 109 where another reference is made of mythical little black people in...Mexico:

"It is not necessary to spend time here to point out in detail the parallele traditions of the Island of Avalon, Morgan the Fay, the legend of Ogier the Dane, and the magical travel of King Arthur. All these traditions insist on the peculiear nature of time in the "other world". Nor is this limited to European history, as Hartman again points out:

"Many races having traditions of a Culture God - that is, of a superior being who has taught them agriculture and the arts of life, and led them to victory over their enemies - add that he has gone away from them for awhile, and that he will some day come back again. Quetzacoatl and Viracocha, the culture gods of Mexico and Peru, are familiar instances of this."

Similarly, Vishnu has yet a tenth incarnation to accomplish the final destruction of this worl's wicked. At the end of the present age, he will be revealed in the sky, seated on a white horse and holding a blazing sword.

Such great traditions are common knowledge, like the abduction of Enoch, Ezekiel, Elijah and others in the bible. What is not commonly known is that such legends have been built on the popular belief in numerous actual stories of the less glorious, more ordinary and "personnal", type we have reviewed here. For instance, while all the books about Mexico mention Quetzacoatl, they usually ignore the local belief in little black beings, the Ikals, whose pranks we have already mentioned, and who, while their relationship with modern Latin American UFO lore is clear, also provide an obvious parallel to the fairy-faith.

In his study of the tales of Tenejapa, Brian Stross reports

"They are believed to be beings from another world, and some have been seen flyinhg with some kind of rocket-like attached to the back. With this rocket to the back. With this rocket they are said occasionally to have carried off people."

Similarly, Gordon Creighton reports:

"The Ikal of the Tzotzilss flies through the air . Sometime she steals women, and the women so taken are remarkably prolific, and may bear a child once a week, or once a month, or even daily. The offsprings are black, and they learn the art of flying inside their father's cave.

brian Stross's Indian informants reported that a flurryof Ikals was sighted"about twenty years ago"- which would take us back to 1947, a very important year in UFO history."

End of Vallée's quote.

First the story of the Ikal as being able to fly with a device on their back reminds me something. Three years ago, a good french friend of mine who is a serious person, experienced a UFO over Tacharane, 15 kilometers from Gao, Mali.

When I asked Malian peasants friends of mine about this case, explaining to them the UFO mystery and the theory that it might be extraterrestrial technology, my friends smiled like if I had been a child demonstrating a high level of naivete:

"What Agnès has seen was not a technology from another planet. What she has seen was a Tyarkaw (usually translated as sorcerer), flying. If one goes to the Islands (on the Niger river) one can witness their departures, they have fire coming from their ass (sic). The Gao sand dune "La Dune Rose"is the center of an existing worldwide network of sorcerers. At night, they travel from one place to another on the planet. Sorcerers from the whole world come to the Pink Dune."

http://www.visitgaomali.com/VGM_Sites_DuneRose_English.htm

(the village of Tchintinomé part of the website deals with our activities ;)...)

Maybe I could write the whole story when I have more time.

Anyway, once again, the little black people are on the "front of the stage of our most ancient history; our deepest memory expressed thu myth;). So we find references to little black mythical/ historical creatures in Northern Europe and the British Islands, Mexico, China, maybe Japan (Shijin or Gotogo might have something to say since I have heard that an old Japanese saying was "It takes black blood to make a good Samouraï"), Madagascar. Populations of little black humans can be found lingering in Central Africa, South Africa, Andaman Island, Thaïland...and possibly Madagascar.

Thus we have a rather strange connection of mysteries associated with little black people, on different layers of reality and different continents. Magical/mythical (even at the basis of major civilisational myths if we are to believe Vallée), historical (the importance of San in ancient history is evident and the Homo Florensiensis discovery is questionning even researchers in Madagascar as to an historical link with Vazimbas), Mythical/historical like in the Taïpei story. The fact that some negrito women display steatopygia, thus ressembling the Hollendorfer Venus is also a myhical/historical link to negritos...

Finally, some very same little black people, negritos have resurfaced very recently in the global human awarness even in unexpected places like the Andaman Islands.

I would add that a fictionnal negrito has had a major impact on western culture: "Countryman"
http://www.unitedreggae.com/movies/m8,countryman

As the poster of this Jamaican movie said: "A modern tale and ancient magic"
We should not be mislead into believing marijuana is the most important part of that story! And anyway it is not dealing with a recreative use of that plant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khxOiIN_6Ng

 

[Erna]

The statement I made about the Caucasians is rather objective and backed by historical, psychological datas. Since we are essentially souls, I have no problem with this kind of acknowledgement.

I'll admit I was a bit ticked off by that line of yours. Apologies. I think it's because you grouped the Dutch and the British together under the general term 'Caucasians', which is a huge insult to us. Silly, I know, given that we're all souls. Where South Africa's conquer period is concerned, the Dutch and British were arch enemies - and traces of that sentiment are still very present to this day. The Dutch didn't resort to the level of cruelty that the British were capable of - conquer by all means. The Dutch actually legitimately bought land from the natives, whereas the British just plundered. Things unfortunately went a little South (no pun intended) when the Dutch encountered Shaka and his brother...where dialogue was not exactly at the order of the day.

I'll attend to the rest of your post a little later. :)