The chief inquiry is this:  Whether there took place other and older invasions.  For this we are not only to draw upon the present tribes, but if possible upon the remains of earlier and perhaps now extinct tribes.  This possibility has been brought nearer for the Philippines through certain cave deposits.  We have to thank, for the first information, the traveler Jagor, whose exceptional talent as collector has placed us in the possession of rich material, especially crania.  To his excellent report of his journey I have already dedicated a special chapter, in which I have presented and partially illustrated not only the cave crania, but also a series of other skulls.  An extended conference upon them has been held in the Anthropological Society.

The old Spanish chroniclers describe accurately the mortuary customs which were in vogue in their time.  The dead were laid in coffins made from excavated tree trunks and covered with a well-fitting lid.  They were then deposited on some elevated place, or mountain, or river bank, or seashore.  Caves in the mountains were also utilized for this purpose.  Jagor describes such caves on the island of Samar, west of Luzon, whose contents have recently been annihilated.

The few crania from there which have been intrusted to me bear the marks of recent pedigree, as also do the additional objects.  Unfortunately, Dr. Jagor did not himself visit these interesting caves, but he has brought crania thence which are of the highest interest, and which I must now mention.

[Study of a giant skull.] The cave in question lies near Lanang, on the east coast of Samar, on the bank of a river, it is said.  It is, as the traveler reports, celebrated in the locality “on account of its depressed gigantic crania, without sutures.”  The singular statement is made clear by means of a well-preserved example, which I lay before you.  The entire cranium, including the face, is covered with a thick layer of sinter, which gives it the appearance of belonging to the class of skulls with Leontiasis ossea.  It is, in fact, of good size, but through the incrustation it is increased to gigantic proportions.  It is true, likewise, that it has a much flattened, broad and compressed form.  The cleaning of another skull has shown that artificial deformation has taken place, which obviously was completed before the incrustation was laid on by the mineral water of the cave.  I will here add that on the testimony of travelers no Negritos were on Samar.  The island lies in the neighborhood of the Bisayas.  Although no description of the position of the skull is at hand and of the skeleton to which it apparently belonged, it must be assumed that the dead man was not laid away in a coffin, but placed on the ground; that, in fact, he belonged to an earlier “period.”  How long ago that was can not be known, unfortunately, since no data are at hand; however, the bones are in a nearly fossilized condition, which allows the conclusion that they were deposited long ago.