Pas-ta'ai

[1] According to the legends, the short people had magical skills and brought luck to the Saisiyat if treated with respect or handled well.

[2][3] The southern ceremony takes place one day earlier than its northern counterpart, and the two slightly differ in detail.

[2] Traditional costumes with ornate decorations and bells (which enable a connection to the spirit world) are worn for the ceremony.

[1] The description of the Little People as dark-skinned and pygmy-like in stature has led to theories and associations with the Negritos of Southeast Asia.

Some anthropologists suggest these may have been Proto-Australoid people who possibly arrived from Africa during the early Southern Dispersal 60,000 years ago.

[4] The Tsou, Bunun, and Paiwan peoples of Taiwan (amongst others) also hold oral traditions of the existence of similar pygmy-like short peoples who possess similar anthropometric traits with Negritos, possibly suggesting widespread Negrito presence on Taiwan prior to the Austronesian migration, though no physical evidence has been found that attests to their existence.

Although the molecular variation of D6a2 determines its presence in Taiwan back to middle Neolithic, other markers, Y-SNP haplogroups C-M146 and K-M9, warrant further analysis.

"[4] Anthropologist Gregory Forth proposes that a common origin lies between the Taiwanese traditions and similar Malayo-Polynesian accounts of little people.