Splendid appearance of the Kalingas.--Dancing.--Lubuagan.--_Basi_.
--Councils.--Bustles and braids.--Jewels and weapons.--Excellent
houses.
The sight that greeted us was stirring, suggesting to the piously
minded Bishop Heber's unmatched lines:
"A noble army, men and boys,
The matron and the maid."
There must have been thousands of people, as many women as men, and
almost as many children as women, all of whom set up a mighty shout
as our little column emerged. But what especially and immediately
caught the eye was the brilliancy of the scene. For, whereas the
people so far encountered had impressed us by the sobriety of color
displayed, these Kalingas blazed out upon us in the most vivid reds
and yellows. Many of them, women as well as men, had on tight-fitting
Moro jackets of red and yellow stripes; but whatever it was--skirt,
jacket, or gee-string--only one pattern showed itself, the alternation
of red and yellow, well brought out by the clear brown of the skin. As
though this were not enough, some men had adorned their abundant
black hair with scarlet hibiscus flowers, and all, or nearly all,
wore plumes of feathers, one over each ear. Each _ranchería_ has its
distinctive plume; as, red with black tips, black with red, all red,
white with black, and so on, some with notched and others with natural
edges. Many men had axes on their hips. The whole effect was startling,
and all the more that these people, erect, sinewy, of excellent build
like their comrades farther south, were perceptibly taller, men five
feet ten inches tall not being uncommon. Add to this a stateliness of
walk and carriage, combined with a natural, wholly unconscious ease
and grace of motion, and it is easy to imagine the fine impression
made upon us by our first look upon these assembled people. It is
not too much to say that the whole sight was splendid; but, more than
this, under the surface of things, it was easy to catch at once the
possibility of a real development by these people under any sort of
opportunity whatever.
We had hardly dismounted before the dancing began, in general against
the sun, as elsewhere. Each _ranchería_ of the many present had its
dancers, and all made a display. One event, if the sporting term be
permissible, seemed to be a sort of "follow-my-leader"; the motions,
however, being confined to the circle, across which the file would go
from time to time, thus differing from any other dance seen. In some
cases, the step was bold and lively; in others, slow and stately, with
arms outstretched. The _gansa_ music was not nearly so well marked as
that of the Ifugaos; it seemed to lack definition (an opinion advanced
with some hesitation, and which a professional musician might not
agree with). Sometimes women only appeared; in fact, up here the
sexes did not mix in the dance. If we had remained longer in this
part of the country, perhaps the differences and characteristics of
this expression of native genius would have stood out more clearly;
but in our short time, with so much dancing going on, impressions
necessarily overlapped. And, in any case, shortly after our arrival,
night fell, putting an end to the show, and we betook ourselves
to our quarters; Captain Harris, of the local Constabulary forces,
most kindly receiving some of us in his house.
_Kalinga_ is neither a race nor a tribe name, but a word meaning
"enemy" or "outlaw," as though the hand of the people that bear
it had been against everybody's else. These people have been great
head-hunters, and have not yet entirely abandoned the practice, though
it is steadily diminishing. It should be recollected, however, that
it is only within the last three or four years that we have had any
relations with them, Mr. Worcester's first visit to Lubuagan having
occurred in 1907. On this occasion, immediately on arriving, he was
shut up with his party in a house; and all night a lively debate went
on outside as to whether the next morning his head should be taken or
not, his native interpreter informing him of the progress of opinion
as the night wore on.
In some respects these Kalingas differed from the tribes already
visited. Their superior height has already been noted. It may be noted
further that they are sloe-eyed, and their eyes are wide apart. It
is said that they have an infusion of Moro blood, brought in, many
years ago, by exiles from Moroland turned loose on the north coast of
Luzon by the Spaniards, with the expectation that the local tribes
would kill them; instead, they intermarried. Among themselves they
call their important men _dato_, a Moro title, and their Moro dress
has already been mentioned. They will not marry outside of their own
blood, and their women, so we were told, would not look at a white man.
Lubuagan itself is extremely well situated on a gigantic terrace-like
slope, as though, as at Kiangan, an avalanche of earth had burst
through the rim of encompassing mountains. Here live the Governor of
the province and the inspector of Constabulary with a detachment; their
houses, with the _cuartel_ and public offices, are disposed around a
sort of parade, divided into an upper and a lower terrace. Aguinaldo
marched through the place during his flight, and left behind seventeen
of his men, sick and wounded. He had no sooner gone than these were
all taken out and beheaded. The native town lies above and just back
of the parade, with its houses running well up on the slopes. These
are, everywhere possible, terraced for rice, and so successfully
that two crops are made every year, as against only one at Bontok
and elsewhere. It follows that the Kalingas have more to eat than
their relatives to the south, and that is perhaps one reason of their
greater stature.
The morning of the 12th, our one full day at Lubuagan, broke clear,
bright, and hot, and so the day remained. Events during the next few
hours had no particular axis. We looked on mostly, though, of course,
here as elsewhere, business there was to be dispatched. The upper
terrace was the scene of crowded activity, being packed with people
from sunrise to sunset. Dancing went on the whole day; the sound
of the _gansa_ never ceased. A particularly interesting dance was
that of a number of little girls, eight or ten years of age, who went
through their steps with the greatest seriousness and dignity, a very
pretty sight. In yet another the performers, nine all told, grown men,
attracted attention from the fact that the handles of their _gansas_
were human lower jaws, apparently new, in the teeth of two of which
gold fillings glistened. The Ifugaos, who, it will be recollected,
had accompanied us from Banawe, also danced, their steps, motions,
and music forming a sharp contrast. This dance over, Comhit could
not restrain himself, but made a speech, in which he declared that
"These people up here, the Kalingas, are very good people indeed,
but not so good as the Ifugaos." Fortunately, only his own people
understood him. He had noticed on the way that the people we passed
offered nothing to drink to the traveller, and had commented freely to
Gallman on this lack of hospitality, so different from his country's
habits. We had nothing to complain of, however, on this score at
Lubuagan, for _basi_ circulated freely the whole day, being passed
along sometimes in a tin cup, at others in a bamboo; everybody drank
out of one and the same vessel. On the whole, this _basi_ was poor
stuff, not nearly so good as _bubud_. Harris told me after the day
was over, and we had taken innumerable tastes, at least, of the brew
(for one must drink when it is passed), that in preparing _basi_ a
dog's heart, [40] cut up into bits, is added to the fermenting liquid
to give it body. One man amused us by going around with a bamboo six
inches or more in diameter and at least eight feet in length over
his shoulder, and obligingly stopping to let his friends bend down
the mouth and help themselves--a "long" drink if there ever was one!
But it was not all _basi_ and dancing: councils were held, the visiting
_rancherías_ profiting by the opportunity of enforced peace to clear up
issues. At these councils, which came off in the open, on the parade,
the people of the _rancherías_ interested would sit on the ground
in a circle, maintaining absolute silence, while their spokesmen, a
head man from each, walked around in the circle. The man who had the
floor, so to say, would remain behind and address his adversary in
the debate, who meantime kept on walking around with his back turned
squarely on the speaker. As soon as the argument in hand had been
made, both would countermarch, and the listener would now become the
speaker. A great part of the debate was taken up on both sides by a
recital of the crimes and misdemeanors of which the other party had
been guilty. In one of these councils, one debater--wearing civilized
dress, by the way--suddenly broke through the circle and disappeared,
much to our astonishment, until it was explained that his opponent
in the debate had charged him with having recently poisoned six
persons; as this was perilously near the truth, the criminal simply
ran away. The accuser was a fine-looking man, splendidly dressed, of
a haughty countenance, displaying the greatest contempt for all the
arguments addressed to him, his impatience being marked by "_Hás!_"
accompanied by stamping on the ground the while and striking it with
the butt of his spear. This chief was in confinement at Lubuagan,
but, to save his face, Governor Hale had enlarged him during our stay.
Naturally there was an opportunity during the day of observing many
things in some detail. Who shall say, for example, that the Kalingas
are not civilized? The women and girls all wear bustles, a continuous
affair made of _bejuco_, an endless roll, in short, of varying radius,
that over the small of the back being considerably the greatest. The
top of the skirt is tucked in all round, instead of being directly on
the skin, as farther south. In further proof of the local civilization,
the women wear false hair. One matron was obliging enough to undo her
coiffure for our benefit, and held out by its end, for our admiring
inspection, a mighty wisp nearly three feet long. She put it back on
for us after the manner, as I have since been informed, of a coronet
braid. The men gave fewer evidences of civilization, unless smoking
cigars in holders will serve. However, one man brought up his wife
and children and regularly introduced them to us, the woman doing
her part with great coolness, while the children gave every sign of
terror. This incident struck me as being very unusual. Everyone had on
at least one necklace, and some three or four necklaces, of dog-teeth,
of agate beads (these being immensely prized, agate not being native to
the Philippines), or of anything else the form, color, and hardness of
which could make it answer for purposes of ornament. One young woman
had on sleigh-bells, the tinkle of which we heard before we saw its
source, an incongruous sound in those parts. These bells must have
been brought down by Chinese trading from the plains of Manchuria. Two
or three young men displayed what looked like lapis lazuli around
their necks, but what turned out at closer quarters to be pieces of
a blue china dinner-plate. They had cut out the white interior and
then divided the rim radially, the jewels thus formed being all of the
same size and shape, with perfectly smooth edges. Here, too, were the
same pill-box hats as those seen at Bontok, some elaborately beaded
and costing from one to five carabaos apiece; in one case the lid of
a tomato tin had been pressed into service as a hat. But the finest
thing of all was the head-ax, a beautiful and cruel-looking weapon,
the head having on one side an edge curving back toward the shaft, and
on the other a point. To keep the weapon from slipping out of the hand,
a stud is left in the hard wood shaft, about two-thirds of the way from
the head, the shaft itself being protected by a steel sheathing half
way down; the remainder being ornamented with decorative brass plates
and strips, and the end shod in a ferrule of silver. The top of the ax
is not straight, but curved, both edge and point taking, as it were,
their origin in this curve; the edge is formed by a double chamfer,
the ax-blade being of uniform thickness. All together, this weapon is
perhaps more original and characteristic than any other native to the
Philippine Archipelago. With it goes the Kalinga shield of soft wood,
made in one piece, with the usual three horns or projections at the
top and two at the bottom. These projections, however, are cylindrical,
and the outside ones are continued down the edge of the shield and so
form ribs. In the ordinary Igorot shield the horns are flat, merely
prolonging the surface of the shield, or else presenting only a very
small relief. As usual, a lacing of _bejuco_ across top and bottom
protects the shield against a separation in the event of an unlucky
stroke splitting it in two.
We found the town unusually clean. Public latrines exist, and public
drinking-tanks, both put in by Governor Hale, and highly approved of
the people. The houses themselves were the best we had seen, some of
them hexagonal in ground plan, and built of hard woods. The pigs stay
underneath, to be sure, but their place is kept clean. Rich men have
rows of plates, the dinner-plates of civilization, all around their
houses, and take-up floors of split bamboo are common, being rolled up
and washed in the neighboring stream with commendable frequency. All
together, Lubuagan made the impression of an affluent, not to say
opulent, center, inhabitated by a brave, proud, and self-respecting
people.