Manila 1905

Letter of Transmittal

Department of the Interior, The Ethnological Survey,

Manila, February 3, 1904.

Sir: I have the honor to submit a study of the Bontoc Igorot made for this Survey during the year 1903. It is transmitted with the recommendation that it be published as Volume I of a series of scientific studies to be issued by The Ethnological Survey for the Philippine Islands.

Respectfully,

Albert Ernst Jenks,

Chief of The Ethnological Survey.

Hon. Dean C. Worcester, Secretary of the Interior, Manila, P. I. Page 5

Table of Contents

• Letter of Transmittal
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• The Igorot Culture Group
  • Igorot land
  • Igorot peoples
• The Bontoc Culture Group
  • Bontoc culture area
  • Marks of Bontoc culture
  • The Bontoc man
    • Introduction
    • Historical sketch
    • Somatology
• General Social Life
  • The pueblo
    • Ato
  • The family
    • Childbirth
    • Twins
    • Abortion
    • Child
    • Life in olag
    • Marriage
    • The aged
  • Sickness, disease, and remedies
  • Death and burial
• Economic Life
  • Production
    • Natural production
    • Cultural production
    • Division of labor
    • Wages, and exchange of labor
  • Distribution
    • Theft
    • Conquest
  • Consumption
    • Foods
    • Beverages
    • Salt
    • Sugar
    • Meals and mealtime
  • Transportation
  • Commerce
    • Barter
    • Sale
    • Medium of exchange
    • Measure of exchange value
    • Standard of value
    • Trade routes
    • Trade languages and traders
    • Stages of commerce
  • Property right
    • Personal property of individual
    • Personal property of group
    • Real property of individual
    • Real property of group
    • Public property
    • Sale of property
    • Rent, loan, and lease of property
  • Inheritance and bequest
  • Tribute, tax, and “rake off”
• Political Life and Control
  • Crimes, detection and punishment
• War and Head-Hunting
• Æsthetic Life
  • Dress
  • Decoration
    • Tattoo
  • Music
    • Instrumental music
    • Vocal music
  • Dancing
  • Games
  • Formalities
• Religion
  • Spirit belief
  • Exorcist
  • Lumawig, the Supreme Being
  • “Changers” in religion
  • Priesthood
  • Sacred days
  • Ceremonials
    • Ceremonies connected with agriculture
    • Ceremonies connected with climate
    • Ceremonies connected with head taking
    • Ceremony connected with ato
• Mental Life
  • Actual knowledge
    • Mensuration
  • Folk tales
    • The sun man and moon woman; or, origin of head-hunting
    • Origin of coling, the serpent eagle
    • Origin of tilin, the ricebird
    • Origin of kaag, the monkey
    • Origin of gayyang, the crow, and fanias, the large lizard
    • Owug, the snake
    • Who took my father’s head?
• Language
  • Introduction
  • Alphabet
  • Linguistic inconsistencies
  • Nouns
    • Pronouns
  • Verbs
  • Comparative vocabularies
  • Bontoc vocabulary
    • English, with Bontoc equivalent
• Plates

Illustrations

• Group of prominent men, Bontoc pueblo
• Sketch map of the Philippine Archipelago
• Sketch map of northern Luzon
• Sketch map of Bontoc culture area
• Section of the last long climb from Cervantes to Bontoc
• Tilud pass, east side
• A glimpse of Igorot land
• Ba-lu′-gan pueblo surrounded by rice sementeras
• Pueblo of Sagada
• The entrance to Bontoc pueblo
• Ku-lo-ku′-lo of Mayinit pueblo
• O-gang′-ga of Samoki pueblo
• Ku-lo-ku′-lo of Mayinit pueblo
• Bon-gao′ of Alap pueblo
• Bo-da′-da of Samoki pueblo
• U-dao′ of Bontoc pueblo
• Young woman of Bontoc pueblo
• Zag-tag′-an of Bontoc pueblo
• Ka-nay′-u of Bontoc pueblo
• Lang′-sa of Bontoc pueblo
• Sĭt-li′-nĭn of Bontoc pueblo
• Pĭt-ta′-pĭt of Bontoc pueblo
• Girls of Bontoc pueblo
• Blind woman of Bontoc pueblo
• Blind Ta-u′-li of Samoki pueblo
• Deformed feet of Bontoc men
• Bontoc pueblo viewed from Samoki
• Samoki pueblo viewed from Bontoc
• Plat of Bontoc pueblo, showing ato divisions
• Plat of section of a′-to Si-pa′-at
• Pa-ba-fu′-nan of a′-to Fi′-lĭg
• Fa′-wi of a′-to Si-pa′-at
• Fa′-wi of a′-to Cho′-ko
• O′-lâg
• Bontoc dwelling, the fay′-ü
• Timbers for a building seasoning in the mountains
• Fay′-ü showing open door
• Bontoc dwelling, the Kat-yu′-fong, a widow's house, showing pigpens which extend beneath it
• “In the shade of the low, projecting roof”
• “The mother who has come down with her babe on her back for an olla of water”
• The baby tenders
• Sam-kad′s' death chair
• Pine coffins
• The burial of Som-kad′
• Bûg-ti′ with his wild-cock snare
• Wire cock snare set, with lure cock in center
• Wild-cat caught in the snare kok-o′-lâng
• The bird snare Lĭng-ang′. (Snare set.) (Snare sprung.)
• Trap fishing
• Emptying the fish trap
• Fisherman examining his ob-o′-fu
• Rice sementeras at transplanting season
• Banawi rice sementeras
• A terrace wall
• Women weeding a terrace wall at soil-turning season
• Partial view of Bontoc irrigating works
• The main dam, showing irrigation troughs beyond
• River irrigation scheme
• Irrigating ditch which feeds the troughs secured to the mountain side shown at the left
• Turning the soil in a water-filed sementera, showing women transplanting rice
• Mud-spattered soil turners
• Soil turners tramping the turned soil smooth and soft
• Bontoc camote beds
• Men crossing the river with pig manure to fertilize the rice sementeras
• Woman digging her final camote crop and working dead grass beneath the soil for fertilizer
• The rice seed beds at transplanting time, with granaries immediately beyond
• Women transplanting rice
• The bird scarers, Ki′-lao, floating over a field of ripening rice
• An outlook to guard against wild hogs
• Harvesting the rice
• Two harvesters
• Camote harvest
• Rice granaries
• Bunches of palay curing on the roof of a dwelling
• Granaries
• Carrying home the camotes
• Philippine carabaos
• Bontoc pigpens
• Cage in which fowls are shut at night
• Hats and headband
• (a) The bag pocket carried in front; (b) The rain hat
• Cotton blankets woven by Igorot in the western part of the Bontoc area
• Kambulo bark-fiber blankets
• Woman spinning thread on her naked thigh
• Lepanto Igorot woman weaving
• Wooden “pig pails”
• Gourd and wooden spoons
• Samoki potters at the clay pit
• Transporting clay from the pit to the pueblo
• (a) Macerating the clays in a wooden mortar; (b) Beginning a pot
• Shaping the rim of a pot
• Expanding the bowl of a pot
• Smoothing and finishing a sun-dried pot
• Woman's large transportation basket and winnowing tray
• Household baskets (sûg-fi′, fa-lo′-ko, ki′-ûg, ko′-lûg)
• The traveling basket; so-called “head basket”
• Bontoc shields
• Bontoc shields
• The Kalinga shields
• Banawi shield, front and back
• Bontoc war spears (fal-fĕg′)
• Spears (fan′-kao and kay-yan′)
• Bontoc battle-axes, with bajuco ferrules
• Bontoc battle-axes, with steel ferrules
• The Balbelasan or northern battle-ax
• Agawa clay pipe maker
• Agawa clay pipes. (Those in the lower row are finished.)
• Finished Agawa clay pipes, with stems
• Roll of beeswax and three wax pipe models
• Metal pipe makers
• Metal pipes. (The lower row shows poorly the “anito” pipe.)
• Children paring camotes
• Women threshing rice
• Gourd for storing salt meats
• Bamboo tube for carrying basi
• Mayinit pueblo. (Long salt houses in the foreground.)
• (a) Woman washing salt; (b) salt-incrusted rocks
• Mayinit salt producer preparing salt cakes for baking
• A cane-sugar mill
• Methods of transportation
• Man's transportation basket (ki-ma′-ta)
• Woman's transportation baskets
• Women burden bearers
• (a) Tulubin men bringing home salt; (b) Samoki potters with ware
• Mayinit women on the trail to Bontoc to sell palay
• A ba′-si vender
• Mak′-lan, a Bontoc warrior
• Ko′-mĭs on war trail between Samoki and Tulubin
• “Anito head” post in a Ko′-mĭs
• The warrior's attack
• Battle-axes
• A head dance
• Ceremonial rice threshing in Samoki pueblo during the celebration of a captured head
• A fa′-wi, where skulls are kept
• Soot-blackened human skulls from ato Sigichan
• A beheaded human body on its way to burial
• Burial of a beheaded man in Banawi
• Man's headdress
• An ear plug of sugar-cane leaves
• Bead headdress
• Woman's bustle-like girdle
• Igorot woman, showing rolls of hair
• The “switch” held in place by beads
• A tattooed Bontoc man
• Two well-done tattooes. (one man bears the jaw band and the other the cheek crosses.)
• An elaborate tattoo
• A simple tattoo
• Bontoc woman's tattoo. (a) old; (b) new/Jenks
• An elaborate Banawi tattoo
• Tattoo of a Banawi woman
• Gang′-sa, showing human-jaw handle
• A dance, with contorting head-ax dancer in the center
• A dance, with head-ax dancer at the right
• The foundation of Lumawig's house in Bontoc
• Sacred grove (Pa-pa-tay′ ad so-kok′)

Page 13

Preface

After an expedition of two months in September, October, and November, 1902, among the people of northern Luzon it was decided that the Igorot of Bontoc pueblo, in the Province of Lepanto-Bontoc, are as typical of the primitive mountain agriculturist of Luzon as any group visited, and that ethnologic investigations directed from Bontoc pueblo would enable the investigator to show the culture of the primitive mountaineer of Luzon as well as or better than investigations centered elsewhere.

Accompanied by Mrs. Jenks, the writer took up residence in Bontoc pueblo the 1st of January, 1903, and remained five months. The following data were gathered during that Bontoc residence, the previous expedition of two months, and a residence of about six weeks among the Benguet Igorot.

The accompanying illustrations are mainly from photographs. Some of them were taken in April, 1903, by Hon. Dean C. Worcester, Secretary of the Interior; others are the work of Mr. Charles Martin, Government photographer, and were taken in January, 1903; the others were made by the writer to supplement those taken by Mr. Martin, whose time was limited in the area. Credit for each photograph is given with the halftone as it appears.

I wish to express my gratitude for the many favors of the only other Americans living in Bontoc Province during my stay there, namely, Lieutenant-Governor Truman K. Hunt, M.D.; Constabulary Lieutenant (now Captain) Elmer A. Eckman; and Mr. William F. Smith, American teacher.

In the following pages native words have their syllabic divisions shown by hyphens and their accented syllables and vowels marked in the various sections wherein the words are considered technically for the first time, and also in the vocabulary in the last chapter. In all other places they are unmarked. A later study of the language may show that errors have been made in writing sentences, since it was not always possible to get a consistent answer to the question as to what part of a sentence constitutes Page 14a single word, and time was too limited for any extensive language study. The following alphabet has been used in writing native words.

• a as in far; Spanish ramo
• â as in law; as o in French or
• ay as ai in aisle; Spanish hay
• ao as ou in out; as au in Spanish auto
• b as in bad; Spanish bajar
• ch as in check; Spanish chico
• d as in dog; Spanish dar
• e as in they; Spanish hallé
• ĕ as in then; Spanish comen
• f as in fight; Spanish firmar
• g as in go; Spanish gozar
• h as in he; Tagalog bahay
• i as in pique; Spanish hijo
• ĭ as in pick
• k as in keen
• l as in lamb; Spanish lente
• m as in man; Spanish menos
• n as in now; Spanish jabon
• ng as in finger; Spanish lengua
• o as in note; Spanish nosotros
• oi as in boil
• p as in poor; Spanish pero
• q as ch in German ich
• s as in sauce; Spanish sordo
• sh as in shall; as ch in French charmer
• t as in touch; Spanish tomar
• u as in rule; Spanish uno
• û as in but
• ü as in German kühl
• v as in valve; Spanish volver
• w as in will; nearly as ou in French oui
• y as in you; Spanish ya

It seems not improper to say a word here regarding some of my commonest impressions of the Bontoc Igorot.

Physically he is a clean-limbed, well-built, dark-brown man of medium stature, with no evidence of degeneracy. He belongs to that extensive stock of primitive people of which the Malay is the most commonly named. I do not believe he has received any of his characteristics, as a group, from either the Chinese or Japanese, though this theory has frequently been presented. The Bontoc man would be a savage if it were not that his geographic location compelled him to become an agriculturist; necessity drove him to this art of peace. In everyday life his actions are deliberate, but he is not lazy. He is remarkably industrious for a primitive man. In his agricultural labors he has strength, determination, and endurance. On the trail, as a cargador or burden bearer for Americans, he is patient and uncomplaining, and earns his wage in the sweat of his brow. His social life is lowly, and before marriage is most Page 15primitive; but a man has only one wife, to whom he is usually faithful. The social group is decidedly democratic; there are no slaves. The people are neither drunkards, gamblers, nor “sportsmen.” There is little “color” in the life of the Igorot; he is not very inventive and seems to have little imagination. His chief recreation—certainly his most-enjoyed and highly prized recreation—is head-hunting. But head-hunting is not the passion with him that it is with many Malay peoples.

His religion is at base the most primitive religion known—animism, or spirit belief—but he has somewhere grasped the idea of one god, and has made this belief in a crude way a part of his life.

He is a very likable man, and there is little about his primitiveness that is repulsive. He is of a kindly disposition, is not servile, and is generally trustworthy. He has a strong sense of humor. He is decidedly friendly to the American, whose superiority he recognizes and whose methods he desires to learn. The boys in school are quick and bright, and their teacher pronounces them superior to Indian and Mexican children he has taught in Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico.1

Briefly, I believe in the future development of the Bontoc Igorot for the following reasons: He has an exceptionally fine physique for his stature and has no vices to destroy his body. He has courage which no one who knows him seems ever to think of questioning; he is industrious, has a bright mind, and is willing to learn. His institutions—governmental, religious, and social—are not radically opposed to those of modern civilization—as, for instance, are many institutions of the Mohammedanized people of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago—but are such, it seems to me, as will quite readily yield to or associate themselves with modern institutions.

I recall with great pleasure the months spent in Bontoc pueblo, and I have a most sincere interest in and respect for the Bontoc Igorot as a man. Page 17

Introduction

The readers of this monograph are familiar with the geographic location of the Philippine Archipelago. However, to have the facts clearly in mind, it will be stated that the group lies entirely within the north torrid zone, extending from 4° 40′ northward to 21° 3′ and from 116° 40′ to 126° 34′ east longitude. It is thus about 1,000 miles from north to south and 550 miles from east to west. The Pacific Ocean washes its eastern shores, the Sea of Celebes its southern, and the China Sea its western and northern shores. It is about 630 kilometers, or 400 miles, from the China coast, and lies due east from French Indo-China. The Batanes group of islands, stretching north of Luzon, has members nearer Formosa than Luzon. On the southwest Borneo is sighted from Philippine territory.

Briefly, it may be said the Archipelago belongs to Asia—geologically, zoölogically, and botanically—rather than to Oceania, and that, apparently, the entire Archipelago has shared a common origin and existence. There is evidence that it was connected with the mainland by solid earth in the early or Middle Tertiary. For a long geologic time the land was low and swampy. At the end of the Eocene a great upheaval occurred; there were foldings and crumplings, igneous rock was thrust into the distorted mass, and the islands were considerably elevated above the sea. During the latter part of the Tertiary period the lands seem to have subsided and to have been separated from the mainland.

About the close of the subsidence eruptions began which are continued to the present by such volcanoes as Taal and Mayon in Luzon and Apo in Mindanao. No further subsidence appears to have occurred after the close of the Tertiary, though the gradual elevation beginning then had many lapses, as is evidenced by the numerous sea beaches often seen one above the other in horizontal tiers. The elevation continues to-day in an almost invisible way. The Islands have been greatly enlarged during the elevation by the constant building of coral around the submerged shores.

It is believed that man had appeared in the great Malay Archipelago before this elevation began. It is thought by some that he was in the Page 18Philippines in the later Tertiary, but there are no data as yet throwing light on this question.

To-day the Archipelago lies like a large net in the natural pathway of people fleeing themselves from the supposed birthplace of the primitive Malayan stock, namely, from Java, Sumatra, and the adjacent Malay Peninsula, or, more likely, the larger mainland. It spreads over a large area, and is well fitted by its numerous islands—some 3,100—and its innumerable bays and coastal pockets to catch up and hold a primitive, seafaring people.

There are and long have been daring Malayan pirates, and there is to-day among the southern islands a numerous class—the Samal—living most of the time on the sea, yet they all keep close to land, except in time of calm, and when a storm is brewing they strike out straight for the nearest shore like scared children. The ocean currents and the monsoons have been greatly instrumental in driving different people through the seas into the Philippine net.1 The Tagakola on the west coast of the Gulf of Davao, Mindanao, have a tradition that they are descendants of men cast on their present shores from a distant land and of the Manobo women of the territory. The Bagobo, also in the Gulf of Davao, claim they came to their present home in a few boats generations ago. They purposely left their former land to flee from head-hunting, a practice in Page 19their earlier home, but one they do not follow in Mindanao. What per cent of the people coming originally to the Archipelago was castaway, nomadic, or immigrant it is impossible to judge, but there have doubtless also been many systematic and prolonged migrations from nearby lands, as from Borneo, Celebes, Sangir, etc.

Primitive man is represented in the Philippines to-day not alone by one of the lowest natural types of savage man the historic world has looked upon—the small, dark-brown, bearded, “crisp-woolly”-haired Negritos—but by some thirty distinct primitive Malayan tribes or dialect groups, among which are believed to be some of the lowest of the stock in existence.

In northern Luzon is the Igorot, a typical primitive Malayan. He is a muscular, smooth-faced, brown man of a type between the delicate and the coarse. In Mindoro the Mangiyan is found, an especially lowly Malayan, who may prove to be a true savage in culture. In Mindanao is the slender, delicate, smooth-faced brown man of which the Subano, in the western part, is typical. There are the Bagobo and the extensive Manobo of eastern Mindanao in the neighborhood of the Gulf of Davao, the latter people following the Agusan River practically to the north coast of Mindanao. In southeastern Mindanao, in the vicinity of Mount Apo and also north of the Gulf of Davao, are the Ata. They are a scattered people and evidently a Negrito and primitive Malayan mixture. In Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, and perhaps Principe, of Luzon, are the Ibilao. They are a slender, delicate, bearded people, with an artistic nature quite different from any other now known in the island, but somewhat like that of the Ata of Mindanao. Their artistic wood productions suggest the incised work of distant dwellers of the Pacific, as that of the people of New Guinea, Fiji Islands, or Hervey Islands. The seven so-called Christian tribes,2 occupying considerable areas in the coastwise lands and low plains of most of the larger islands of the Archipelago, represent migrations to the Archipelago subsequent to those of the Igorot and comparable tribes.

The last migrations of brown men into the Archipelago are historic. The Spaniard discovered the inward flow of the large Samal Moro group—after his arrival in the sixteenth century. The movement of this nomadic “Sea Gipsy” Samal has not ceased to-day, but continues to flow in and out among the small southern islands.

Besides the peoples here cited there are a score of others scattered about the Archipelago, representing many grades of primitive culture, Page 20but those mentioned are sufficient to suggest that the Islands have been very effective in gathering up and holding divers groups of primitive men.3

Chapter I

The Igorot Culture Group