AMONG THE HEAD-HUNTERS
When the Americans first came to the Philippines, most of the mountain
country could be reached only on foot over dangerous trails. Very large
tracts were unexplored, and the head-hunting tribes, who are found
nowhere but in this northern part of Luzon, pillaged the neighbouring
towns. A state of order has now been established, except in parts of
Kalinga and Apayao.
The Mountain Province, the home of the head-hunters, includes the
sub-provinces of Benguet, Lepanto, Amburayan, Bontoc, Ifugao, Kalinga
and Apayao. The officers of the provinces are a governor, a
secretary-treasurer, a supervisor in charge of the road and trail work
and the construction of public buildings, and seven lieutenant
governors. All these officers are appointed by the governor general.
They live on horseback, undergo great hardships and also take great
risks.
The manners and customs of these head-hunting tribes differ somewhat.
Each one, for instance, has a different mode of treating the captured
head when it is brought in, but all celebrate a successful hunt with a
cañao, or festival. The Ifugaos place the head upon a stake and hold
weird ceremonial dances around it, followed by speech making and the
drinking of _bubud_, as they call their wine; afterward the skull of the
victim is utilized as a household ornament. Venison and chicken are
served at such feasts and the large fruit-eating bats, which are
considered delicacies. If one of the tribe has been so unfortunate as to
have his head taken, they berate the spirit at the funeral, "asking him
why he had been careless enough to get himself killed."
The most picturesque of the head-hunting tribes that my husband saw were
the Kalingas, who are different from all other natives of Luzon. It is
said that the Spaniards took fifteen hundred Moros into this part of the
country more than a hundred years ago, so they may have founded this
tribe. At all events, the Kalingas are superbly developed, tall and
slight, some of the men having handsome and almost classical features.
Neither the men nor the women cut the hair, which, in the case of the
men, is banged in front and tied up with rags behind, some wearing nets
to keep it out of their eyes. Although the women have abundant hair they
use "switches," into which they stick beautiful feathers. The men also
decorate themselves in the same way. On the back of the head they often
wear little caps woven of beautifully stained rattan and covered with
agate beads, and these are used as pockets in which small articles are
carried. Great holes are pierced in the lobes of their ears, into which
are thrust wooden ear plugs, with tufts of red and yellow worsted.
Almost every Kalinga woman wears a pair of heavy brass ear ornaments and
sometimes a solid piece of mother-of-pearl cut like a figure eight.
The Kalingas are particularly warlike, their very name meaning "enemy"
or "stranger," and endeavours to bring them under government control
were begun only a few years ago. There are still some _rancherias_ which
the lieutenant governor has not yet visited, as it seemed best to wait
and bring the people to terms by peaceful means.
While we were enjoying ourselves at Baguio, the Secretary of War,
Governor Forbes, Secretary Worcester, General Edwards, and my husband
started north into the mountains to see some of the strange tribes that
were gathering from far and wide to meet the great _Apo_, or chief, as
they called Secretary Dickinson. I give the account of the trip in my
husband's own words:
On Saturday night, July 31st, after the Assembly baile, we motored to
the docks and went aboard the transport _Crook_ for the trip northward.
We were made very comfortable on this big transport, with deck cabins,
but we all slept on the open deck by preference and had a pleasant run
till in the morning we were entering Subig Bay, a splendid vast harbour
between great mountains, the narrow entrance guarded by Isola Grande.
Here we landed and visited the batteries, and although it was a small
island it was a stewing hot walk about it--especially as the Secretary
sets a great pace--till a torrential shower came up and drove us to the
commanding officer's house, where we had a bite of breakfast--and all
the breakfasts at the posts which we have visited have been so good!
General Duvall had come up from Manila on his yacht _Aguila_, and on
board of her we crossed the bay to Olongapo, where there is the present
naval station. The great hulk of the famous floating dock _Dewey_ was
looming up there, just floated again after her mysterious sinking
which, even now, they do not seem to be able to explain.
The guard was out with the band, and the honours were paid and the
marines paraded, but soon another severe tropical storm broke, and drove
some of us back to the ship while the others went on to another
breakfast at the Officers' Club. This storm suggested a typhoon, but
there had been no warning from the Jesuit observatory at Manila, and so
we rejoined the _Crook_ out by Isola Grande and went to sea without
fear.
This is the rainy and typhoon season but the warnings of severe storms
are so carefully given that they have lost their terrors now-a-days; and
this year, so far, there hasn't been a disturbance, much to our comfort,
as it has permitted the carrying out of all our plans. It is a most
unusual thing for such good weather to continue. The hot season is over,
and this is called the intermediate, but it is the time of rains on this
coast, the seasons differing slightly on the different coasts and in the
different islands. So all that night we cruised up the coast through
showers of rain and lightning, passing by Bolinao Light, which we had
first sighted as we approached the Philippines.
Before daylight we stopped off Tagudin, and through the darkness could
be seen the dim shadow of land and mountains, and a light burning on the
beach as a beacon. With dawn we saw a wonderful tropical shore develop
before us, of low land fringed with palm, surrounded by beautiful
mountain ranges, a tiny village on the beach, and a crowd of people
gathered together. Soon a surf-boat put out and brought aboard the
governors of the nearby provinces--Early and Gallman, brave, ready men,
who have taken these wild people in hand and become demi-gods among
them--and after a bite of breakfast we were all taken ashore through the
surf, very handily, and the Secretary was welcomed by a native band and
the chief men of the neighbourhood and crowds of half naked natives.
The Ilocanos of the northwest coast of Luzon are a fine, kindly race,
but there had also come down from the interior a lot of small brown men
to pack in our baggage, Bontoc Igorots, head-hunters and dog-eaters, of
whom we were to see more in their own country. These little fellows at
first seemed like dwarfs; but soon after, as we saw them better, they
proved small but well formed and well nourished, strong, gentle little
people. They ran forward and seized our packages and disappeared down
the trail in a wild, willing manner. Off they trotted while we were
packed into carromatos, dragged by weedy, diminutive native horses,
which are wonderfully powerful for their size. We went, after greeting
the people, off down the trail, through the outskirts of Tagudin (we
didn't go into the town, which was somewhat to one side, as there had
been some cholera there), with its nipa houses of plaited grass, perched
up above the ground, many decorated in honour of the occasion. We
rattled along an excellent road (for we have certainly done wonders in
road-building here), past paddy fields, where the slow carabao grazed
with little children perched on their backs, past troops of natives,
with their loads, standing alongside.
Governor General Forbes had made the most wonderful preparations for the
trip. It was the first time that any American officials (only Insular
officials previously) had gone in to these wild people, and of course
the Secretary is the highest in rank that can visit the Islands since he
is the one through whom the President governs the Philippines and the
President can never come. The trip was unique and all the arrangements
were extraordinary. For a new trail had been planned into the mountains
but was not due to be done for eight months, and yet thousands of these
wild men had been called in and helped to finish the road so much the
more quickly (for we were the first party to pass over it, and some of
the bridges had only been finished the night before we passed), eagerly
and willingly, when they were told that the great Apo was coming in to
visit them. Forbes had sent to Hongkong for some rick'shaws and had had
men trained to pull and push them, but these had not stood the test well
and we didn't have the need or the chance to use them; he also had had
palanquin chairs brought over from China and men taught in a way to
carry them, and these we did use on some of the steep descents. But we
rode horses, excellent ones, from Forbes's own stable, almost all the
way.
Every three kilometers, companies of Igorots and Ifugaos were stationed
to act as _cargadores_ and rush along the baggage by relays, and this
they did with shouts and cheers as quickly as we traveled. Tiffin and
breakfasts had been prepared all along the way. Every eventuality had
been anticipated, and it was really too well done, for it made our
traveling seem so easy that we had to think hard to realize into what
out-of-the-way places we were going. A few days before it would have
been necessary to work our way over the perpendicular old trails, with
difficulty finding bearers for our packs, and we would have been
compelled to carry our own food, a severe trip and a hard undertaking.
We went in absolutely unarmed and without escort, and yet nearly every
native that we saw, after we reached the hills, carried his spear and
head ax; but there wasn't a suggestion of danger. People were brought
together on this occasion from different tribes who two years ago would
have killed each other at sight, and yet to-day were dancing with each
other.
We were accompanied by the governors of the sub-provinces as we passed
through them, and an unarmed orderly and Sergeant Doyle, who had charge
of Governor Forbes's horses, and generally by a shouting horde of
natives. The Secretary proved a wonder; well mounted, as he was, he led
on at a great pace, till it seemed a sort of endurance test. I was more
than pleased to find that I stood it as I did, for we traveled four days
out of the five for forty miles a day, and rode most of it a-horseback.
I came out finally in much better form than when I went in.
And so, from the beach where we landed, the carromatos carried us across
the low coast plain, over new bridges on which the inscriptions stated
that they had been finished for the passage of the Secretary and his
party, and under triumphal arches made of bamboo which welcomed him; all
the natives whom we passed saluted, and many wished to shake hands or
only touch the hand as we passed, till we came into the foothills, and
over them into a little village of nipa huts among the bamboo and
tropical trees, where we found our horses waiting. Here we mounted and
started off at a good pace over the well built road that trailed around
cliff and crag as we worked into the mountains, a procession, a
cavalcade, winding in and out. We traveled along the valley of a river,
that later became a gorge with steep cliffs and precipitous sides; all
the natives were out to greet the Secretary; and finally we came to a
tiny village where we had a drink of refreshing cocoanut water, all the
people standing about or hanging out of the windows of the simple
houses, which looked very clean and neat. We trailed on along the narrow
road, cut into the rock in many places, really a remarkable road, and up
the gorge with the rushing river below us. The mountains rose high and
opened up in lovely velvety greens, and shaded away into the blues of
distance. We stopped at a little native rest house, above a ford in the
river, where we found a luncheon prepared for us, but it was a hurried
luncheon, and on we went climbing a winding trail that zigzagged up the
steep mountainside, through tropical tangle of bamboo and fern and great
overhanging trees with trailing parasites--the ghost tree, the hard
woods, and some with a beautiful mauve flower at the top that even Mr.
Worcester couldn't tell me the name of (he said he had been so busy
inventing names for the birds that he hadn't had time yet to find names
for trees). And below the views opened up wider and more splendid, and
range on range of mountains rose above each other, while the precipices
grew deeper and more terrifying.
And suddenly, as we came to a turn in the trail, there appeared above us
a most picturesque sight against the skyline, some Ifugao warriors,
lithe, beautifully formed men, whose small size was lost in their
symmetry, with spears in their hands, turbans of blue wrapped about
their heads, and loin cloths of blue with touches of red and yellow in
their streaming ends that hung like an apron before and like a tail
behind; their handsome brown bodies like mahogany. They had belts made
of round shells from which hung their bolos. These were the head men of
a company of Ifugaos who had come this far to greet the party and they
stood so gracefully on the point above us; and around the turn we found
the rest of the band, stunning looking fellows, standing at attention in
line behind their lances, which were stuck in a row in the ground. Here
we had another tiffin, while these warriors seized and scampered off
with our luggage.
From this time on, as we traveled, we found reliefs of these picturesque
people, waiting their turn at carrying, and then all would join in the
procession, and shouting a cheer like American collegians, their war
cry, they would rush on and frighten us to death with the risk of going
over the steep places. Away off in the distance, reëchoing through the
valleys, we could hear the cheers and cries, very musical, of others of
our party as they traveled along. Soon we began to be greeted by the
tom-toms of natives who had come out to honour the Secretary, and by
their singing as we approached, and then they would dance round in a
strange way as we passed on.
The Ifugaos had come to meet the Secretary from several days' journey
away, mostly through Bontoc Igorot country, all armed, and yet there
hadn't been a sign of trouble. And these Ifugaos, who two years ago were
wild head-hunters, have been brought into wonderful control by their
governor, Gallman. There are some one hundred and twenty thousand of
these picturesque people, among whom head-hunting is now nearly stamped
out; though there are sporadic cases doubtless. These little savages,
too, appear most gentle and tractable, most willing and laughing, in the
rough tumbling of the trail; and they have proved very clever, for they
were the builders of the roads over which we traveled (we were told that
they could drill rock better than Americans, on a few months' practice,
and that they have sat for a few days and watched Japanese bricklayers
set brick, and then done it as well as the Japanese). But indeed their
_sementeras_--their paddy fields--their terracing, which they have
practised for hundreds of years, is the most wonderful in the world, and
there is nothing even in Japan to compare with their work of this kind.
Their great game of head-hunting has taught them cleverness, and they
are full of snap and go.
The Ifugao is a great talker and has all the gestures of an orator. When
he begins a speech he first gives a long call to attract attention, then
climbs a stand fifteen feet high by means of a ladder. He generally
begins his remarks by stating that he is a very rich man, and goes on
to praise himself and his tribe, and at the end of his harangue he often
himself leads off in the applause by loudly clapping his hands. He has
become a fine rifleman and is a fearless fighter. In clout, coat and
cap, and a belt of ammunition, with legs bare, he travels incredible
distances and makes a good constabulary soldier. The Governor General is
anxious to form them into a militia, but they lose their grip, we were
told, when they are taken down from the hills to the plain.
[Illustration: CONSTABULARY SOLDIERS.]
And so we went on up to over four thousand feet, to where the pass broke
through the mountain, and there before us was a vast valley with a
splendid plain beyond, and in the middle of it, on a prominence, we
could see Cervantes, where we were to stop our first night. It seemed so
near and yet proved many miles away as we traced our way down the steep
coasts of the valley and the view of the plain below widened and the
ranges of mountains beyond rose into finer heights. We twisted and
trailed zigzag down the pine-clad slopes, for the change of vegetation
(due to the mountain range, which divided a different climate on either
side of it) in passing over the ridge had been remarkable, and though we
had seen rare orchids and begonias as we mounted, we descended from the
same height through pine and pasture.
When finally we reached the plateau and had crossed a river bed we were
met by the people of the village of Cervantes--many girls in gay dress
riding astride on their midget ponies, and men and boys on their rugged
little mounts. These escorted the party under the triumphal arches into
the grass streets of the pretty village, where the simple public
buildings were decorated, and the local band played, till we finally
were taken to the houses where we were to spend the night, the Secretary
and the Governor and Clark and myself going to the Lieutenant
Governor's. He was married to a Filipina wife. And here I must say that
we met several of these Filipina wives of white men, and they had most
perfect manners and self possession and real grace (and this one was a
good cook). The house was a best class native house and more comfortable
than we had anticipated, though there were sounds and smells that rather
disturbed us. There was a reception and baile at the municipal building
in the evening, where we had to go and dance a rigodon, each partnered
off with some dainty little Filipina lady. And then we did hurry home to
rest, for we had been up since half after four that morning and were to
start next morning a little after five.
The next day's trail was very fine, for we started off over a river
which we crossed on a flying bridge, a swinging car on a cable, while
the horses were forded; and then we had splendid but slow climbing up
the gorge of one river after another, coasting the mountainside, where
we could see the mark of the trail many miles ahead above us and part of
our procession trailing along in single file or rushing along with
distant shout, as the little willing native cargadores carried their
loads up and up. Above us rose Mount Data, with its mysterious waterfall
that seems to come right out of its peak, and clouds circled about us,
and below the valleys streaked away into the distance and the ranges
rose higher and higher, and the play of light and shadow was beautiful
on the greens and grays and browns and blues of the distances. We began
to see rancherias, the native villages, perched up on the hills, the
thatched roofs like haystacks, with blue smoke at times coming through;
and paddy fields began to climb the upper valleys in their terraces,
with the pale green rice, and fringes of the banana palm of which the
hemp is made. In places the red croton was planted on the terraces for
luck, and in the ravines which we crossed there were cascading falls
and pools.
We rose higher and higher over another range, and at the tip-top of the
trail another group of Igorots were dancing and playing their tom-toms
as we passed, and rushed alongside to touch fingers. Soon we passed
through a village built in a stony gorge where a river ran down. The
houses consisted of conical thatched roofs supported on four wooden
piers with ladders leading up into the roofs where the people lived. The
foundations were terraced in stone and the paths were stone-terrace, and
it all looked very neat and clean. On our way back we stopped for tiffin
at this same village and had the women come and show us how they weave,
for it was a place famed for its weaving. This time our tiffin was
farther on, at a rest-house with a splendid view, and it had been laid
out so prettily with temporary flower beds and bamboo arches. The
Belgian priest from a town nearby had come to join us at luncheon, and
although he spoke no English I had a pleasant time with him in French,
for he proved to be a sort of relative of our cousins the de Buisserets;
his name was Padre Sepulchre, one of a band of Belgians belonging to no
order but educated highly for missionary priesthood, who have been
sent out, since our occupation, by the Pope, and many of whom are rich
and gentlemen born. This one had already in two years spent some twenty
thousand dollars gold of his own money in his town. Another such
missionary we met at Bontoc, and several at other places, and all are
said to do good work.
[Illustration: RICE TERRACES.]
We started off after tiffin on the long trail that wound down the gorge
of El Chico de Cagayan River, on our way to Bontoc. Villages became more
numerous and were very picturesque, on the spurs of mountain above the
river, or embowered in coffee trees, where the mountain coasts were
patched with pineapple plantations. And the paddy fields grew in terrace
after terrace, most splendid engineering by these primitive people,
rising above each other up into the clouds, fitting into the contours of
the mountainsides, the terrace walls overgrown with green, and the pale
green paddy within, and little cascades carrying the water down from
terrace to terrace, most lovely, like some great hanging gardens; little
brown people were stooping at work in them, all naked, but with their
clothes covered by leaves and balanced on their heads, to be kept dry;
for there were showers and cloud effects that added to the beauty of
the panorama as we passed. The terraces add beauty and interest to the
eye by their succession of levels, and as we traveled into the country
they became more frequent and complete. Curiously enough, the Bontoc
Igorots have forest laws and a forest service of their own. The
mountainsides of their rough country are sparsely timbered with pine,
which has grown very scarce near some of the larger settlements. Forests
in the vicinity of such settlements are divided up into small private
holdings claimed by individuals, whose right thereto is recognized by
the other members of the tribe. In many places it is forbidden to cut
trees until they have reached a large size, although the lower branches
are constantly trimmed off and used for firewood. Forest fires are kept
down to facilitate reforestation, and young trees are planted. Such
foresight on the part of a primitive people is certainly unusual.
So we trailed all day, till toward half after five we turned a point and
came to Bontoc, after a procession of natives had come streaming out
some miles up the gorge to meet the party. Bontoc is the capital of the
Mountain Province and was the goal of our journey.
The native town is very dirty and is acknowledged to be one of the worst
of the native villages; in the more savage places the towns are said
to be cleaner. We walked through it, where the terraced stone walks pass
by stone pits where the pigs wallow, and by thatched houses which have
no exit for the smoke and so are filthy and in dreadful condition. We
saw the communal shacks in which the unmarried and widowed members live
with their peculiar rights, and the sties where the old men resort to
talk, and we stood outside the wretched place where the skulls are kept,
and some heads, all black and smoked, were brought out in a basket from
the secret recesses for us to see.
[Illustration: IFUGAO COUPLE.]
Some of these Bontoc Igorots are skilful smiths, and they make excellent
earthen pots and clay pipes. They have interesting athletic sports of
their own and take to those of the Americans. They are especially fond
of beads, which are wound in their hair or hung about the neck, and
greatly value large white stones, caring little for agates, so highly
prized by the Kalingas.
Into Bontoc for this great occasion had been brought warriors and women
from the Kalingas and Ifugaos, with Igorots from about, some from a
distance of several days' travel; and for the first time these warring
tribes, who only two years before were taking each other's heads, came
peacefully together, and watched each other with as much interest as
they watched us.
The adventures of the American lieutenant governors read like romances,
and here they were before us with their following: the Kalingas more
dangerous and warlike than the Ifugaos, and the Ifugaos more picturesque
and interesting than the Igorots, and all together making a
never-to-be-forgotten scene.
There were, too, several small companies of native constabulary, for
these hill men make splendid soldiers and take great pride in their arms
and uniform, and have proved loyal to the death. All the different
tribes and the constabulary had turned out to receive the Secretary, and
it was a vociferous and noisy yelling crowd that streamed about in
irregular procession. We were, some of us, taken to a government house
that was comfortable, and took our meals at a club which the officials
have built and which is quite pathetically complete, and that evening we
did little before turning in--the first evening since we had landed in
the Islands when we were able to turn in at a reasonable hour with the
prospect of sleeping as late as we pleased next day.
Next day was a day of festivities, a cañao, for from morning till night
there was dancing by these fantastic peoples, whom so few white men
have ever seen. We were waked early enough, alas! by the _ganzas_--the
tom-toms--and there were parades of the different tribes through the
town. A small grandstand had been erected in the plaza, and there we
stood with the Secretary and the few white teachers and the missionaries
from about, while the procession was reviewed.
The constabulary came first, dressed only in loin cloths of different
colours below the waist, but with the regulation khaki uniform blouse
and cap above. They are officered by Americans and a few natives, and
are most military, notwithstanding the strange appearance of their bare
legs. Some companies were very well drilled, and they gave exhibitions
of different manuals as well as any regular white soldiers might have
done.
The wild Kalingas came past next, most picturesque, with their feather
headdresses of red and yellow, and spears and head axes, and their
brightly coloured loin cloths, and the women in scant but gay garments,
and not at all ashamed in their nakedness. And these gave their
characteristic dances, with outstretched arms, hopping and prancing
about in a circle, all the time looking down into the center of the
circle about which they dance (where the head of the decapitated is
supposed to be). There were innumerable tom-toms, which they play with
variations, so as to make much rhythm and movement, and the women joined
in the dancing, more moderately, some with big cigars in their mouths
and looking extremely indifferent. Then, when they danced in a circle,
some would prance into the center with shield and ax and pretend attacks
upon each other, and leap about and grow excited; and this sort of thing
they kept up all day (and part of the night, too) off and on.[21]
[Illustration: IFUGAO HEAD DANCE.]
The Ifugaos followed and passed by, and gave their dances, which are the
same with a difference, but each was ended with a mighty shout, after
which one of the head men would step forward and deliver a rattling
speech, and they greeted the Secretary variously but cordially--for they
like our American rule, indeed, they have never had any other, for the
Spaniards never attempted to come in and control them.
Then the Bontoc Igorots followed and gave exhibitions with noisy
demonstrations, and two _presidentes_, or chiefs, who six months before
were trying to kill each other, danced and pranced together, while the
tom-toms beat and others hopped and circled round. Most of the men were
tattooed, each tribe in its own peculiar manner, certain marks
indicating that their bearer had killed his man and taken a head--some
bore marks of many heads; one man dancing was known to have taken
seventeen. Many of the women, too, were tattooed with a feather-like
pattern.
And so the dances went on. In some the participants postured fighting
and then represented wounded men; in others all were head men together;
some were rapid in motion, some slow, but all had real grace, that grace
of the wild man; and all were finely formed and well-nourished and
healthy looking. When the dancing was over, the groups of savages in
their fantastic dress squatting around the plaza behind their spears
stuck in the ground, with bolo and head-ax and tom-tom, and the women
standing about, made a wonderful scene.
After the dances and speeches the head men came up to the Secretary and
handed him weapons as gifts, sometimes their own, with which they had
often fought. Mr. Dickinson, of course, received the chiefs and the head
men and women afterward, and presented them with shells and blankets and
plumes in return. The bartering among them was rather amusing, as they
tried to exchange what they had received and didn't want.
[Illustration: WEAPONS OF THE WILD TRIBES.]
At the club in the evening of the second day, they gave us a remarkable
dinner; all the Americans in the district were present; and the few
Filipinos entertained us at a baile, and so our day was finished.
We started out at daylight next morning and hiked back by the same
trail; but the views seemed finer in their repetition than even when we
first passed through them. We had had most superb weather, although it
was the rainy season, and had enjoyed the grand panoramas to the full;
but the last afternoon it came on to pour down in torrents, which we
enjoyed too as an experience, for we came safely to Tagudin, where the
people and the band joined in sending us off, as they had received us,
and we were safely taken out through quite a heavy surf and put on board
the Coast Guard boat _Negros_, and had a glass with ice in it again.