The Bontoc Culture Group
Bontoc culture area
The Bontoc culture area nearly equals the old Spanish Distrito
Politico-Militar of Bontoc, presented to the American public in a
Government publication in 1900.[8]
The Spanish Bontoc area was estimated about 4,500 square
kilometers. This was probably too large an estimate, and it is
undoubtedly an overestimate for the Bontoc culture area, the northern
border of which is farther south than the border of the Spanish
Bontoc area.
The area is well in the center of northern Luzon and is cut off by
watersheds from other territory, except on the northeast. The most
prominent of these watersheds is Polis Mountain, extending along
the eastern and southern sides of the area; it is supposed to reach a
height of over 7,000 feet. The western watershed is an undifferentiated
range of the Cordillera Central. To the north stretches a large area
of the present Province of Bontoc, though until 1903 most of that
northern territory was embraced in the Province of Abra. The Province
of Isabela lies to the east; Nueva Vizcaya and Lepanto border the
area on the south, and Lepanto and Abra border it on the west.
The Bontoc culture area lies entirely in the mountains, and, with the
exception of two pueblos, it is all drained northeastward into the
Rio Grande de Cagayan by one river, the Rio Chico de Cagayan; but the
Rio Sibbu, coursing more directly eastward, is a considerable stream.
To-day one main trail enters Bontoc Province. It was originally
built by the Spaniards, and enters Bontoc pueblo from the southwest,
leading up from Cervantes in Lepanto Province. From Cervantes there
are two trails to the coast. One passes southward through Baguio in
Benguet Province and then stretches westward, terminating on the
coast at San Fernando, in Union Province. The other, the one most
commonly traveled to Bontoc, passes to the northwest, terminating on
the coast at Candon, in the Province of Ilokos Sur. The main trail,
entering Bontoc from Cervantes, passes through the pueblo and extends
to the northeast, quite closely following the trend of the Chico
River. In Spanish times it was seldom traveled farther than Bassao,
but several parties of Americans have been over it as far as the
Rio Grande de Cagayan since November, 1902. A second trail, also of
Spanish origin, but now practically unused, enters the area from the
south and connects Bontoc pueblo, its northern terminus, with the
valley of the Magat River far south. It passes through the pueblos
of Bayambang, Quiangan, and Banawi, in the Province of Nueva Vizcaya.
The main trail is to-day passable for a horseman from the coast
terminus to Tinglayan, three days beyond Bontoc pueblo. Practically
all other trails in the area are simply wild footpaths of the
Igorot. Candon, the coast terminus of the main trail, lies in the
coastal plain area about 4 1/4 miles from the sea. From the coast to
the small pueblo of Concepcion at the western base of the Cordillera
Central is a half-day's journey. The first half of the trail passes
over flat land, with here and there small pueblos surrounded by rice
sementeras. There are almost no forests. The latter half is through
the coastal hill area, and the trail frequently passes through small
forests; it crosses several rivers, dangerous to ford in the rainy
season, and winds in and out among attractive hills bearing clumps
of graceful, plume-like bamboo.
From Concepcion the trail leads up the mountain to Tilud Pass, historic
since the insurrection because of the brave stand made there by the
young, ill-fated General del Pilar. The climb to Tilud Pass, from
either side of the mountain, is one of the longest and most tedious in
northern Luzon. The trail frequently turns short on itself, so that
the front and rear parts of a pack train are traveling face to face,
and one end is not more than eight or ten rods above the other on the
side of the mountain. The last view of the sea from the Candon-Bontoc
trail is obtained at Tilud Pass. From Concepcion to Angaki, at the
base of the mountain on the eastern side of the pass, the trail is
about half a day long. From the pass it is a ceaseless drop down
the steep mountain, but affords the most charming views of mountain
scenery in northern Luzon. The shifting direction of the turning trail
and the various altitudes of the traveler present constantly changing
scenes -- mountains and mountains ramble on before one. From Angaki
to Cervantes the trail passes over deforested rolling mountain land,
with safe drinking water in only one small spring. Many travelers
who pass that part of the journey in the middle of the day complain
loudly of the heat and thirst experienced there.
Cervantes, said to be 70 miles from Candon, is the capital of the dual
Province of Lepanto-Bontoc. Bontoc pueblo lies inland only about 35
miles farther, but the greater part of two days is usually required to
reach it. Twenty minutes will carry a horseman down the bluff from
Cervantes, across the swift Abra -- if the stream is fordable --
and start him on the eastward mountain climb.
The first pueblo beyond Cervantes is Cayan, the old Spanish capital of
the district. About twenty-five years ago the site was changed from
Cayan to Cervantes because there was not sufficient suitable land
at Cayan. Cayan is about four hours from Cervantes, and every foot
of the trail is up the mountain. A short distance beyond Cayan the
trail divides to rejoin only at the outskirts of Bontoc pueblo; but
the right-hand or "lower" trail is not often traveled by horsemen. Up
and up the mountain one climbs from about 1,800 feet at Cervantes to
about 6,000 feet among the pines, and then slowly descends, having
crossed the boundary line between Lepanto and Bontoc subprovinces to
the pueblo of Bagnen -- the last one before the Bontoc culture area
is entered. It is customary to spend the night on the trail, as one
goes into Bontoc, either at Bagnen or at Sagada, a pueblo about two
hours farther on.
Only along the top of the high mountain, before Bagnen is reached,
does the trail pass through a forest -- otherwise it is always
climbing up or winding about the mountains deforested probably by
fires. Practically all the immediate territory on the right hand of
the trail between Bagnen and Sagada is occupied by the beautifully
terraced rice sementeras of Balugan; the valley contains more than a
thousand acres so cultivated. At Sagada lime rocks -- some eroded into
gigantic, massive forms, others into fantastic spires and domes --
everywhere crop out from the grassy hills. Up and down the mountains
the trail leads, passing another small pine forest near Ankiling
and Titipan, about four hours from Bontoc, and then creeps on and
at last through the terraced entrance way into the mountain pocket
where Bontoc pueblo lies, about 100 miles from the western coast,
and, by Government aneroid barometer, about 2,800 feet above the sea.
Marks of Bontoc culture
It is difficult and often impossible to state the essential difference
in culture which distinguishes one group of people from another. It
is more difficult to draw lines of distinction, for the culture of
one group almost imperceptibly flows into that of another adjoining it.
However, two fundamental institutions of the people of Bontoc seem to
differ from those of most adjoining people. One of these institutions
has to do with the control of the pueblo. Bontoc has not developed
the headman -- the "principal" of the Spaniard, the "Bak-nan'"
of the Benguet Igorot -- the one rich man who becomes the pueblo,
leader. In Benguet Province the headman is found in every pueblo,
and he is so powerful that he often dominates half a dozen outlying
barrios to the extent that he receives a large share, often one-half,
of the output of all the productive labors of the barrio. Immediately
north of the Bontoc area, in Tinglayan, the headman is again found. He
has no place whatever in Bontoc. The control of the pueblos of the
Bontoc area is in the hands of groups of old men; however, each
group, called "intugtukan," operates only within a single political
and geographic portion of the pueblo, so that no one group has in
charge the control of the pueblo. The pueblo is a loose federation
of smaller political groups.
The other institution is a social development. It is the olag,
an institution of trial marriage. It is not known to exist among
adjoining people, but is found throughout the area in which the
intugtukan exists; they are apparently coextensive. I was repeatedly
informed that the olag is not found in the Banawi area south of Bontoc,
or in the Tinglayan area east, or among the Tinguian to the north,
or in Benguet far southwest, or in Lepanto immediately southwest --
though I have some reason to believe that both the intugtukan and
olag exist in a crumbling way among certain Lepanto Igorot.
Besides these two institutions there are other differing marks of
culture between the Bontoc area and adjoining people. Some of these
were suggested a few pages back, others will appear in following pages.
Without doubt the limits of the spread of the common culture have
been determined mainly by the physiography of the country. One of the
two pueblos in the area not on the common drainage system is Lias,
but Lias was largely built by a migration from Bontoc pueblo -- the
hotbed of Bontoc culture. Barlig, the other pueblo not on the common
drainage system (both Barlig and Lias are on the Sibbu River), lies
between Lias and the other pueblos of the Bontoc culture area, and so
naturally has been drawn in line and held in line with the culture
of the geographic area in which it is located -- its institutions
are those of its environment.
The Bontoc man
Introduction
The Bontoc Igorot has been in Bontoc longer than the endurance of
tradition, for he says he never lived elsewhere, that he never drove
any people out before him, and that he was never driven; and has
always called himself the "I-pu-kao'" or "I-fu-gao'" -- the "people."
This word for people survives not only throughout the Province
of Bontoc but also far toward the northern end of Luzon, where it
appears as "Apayao" or "Yaos." Bontoc designates the people of the
Quiangan region as "I-fu-gao'," though a part of them at least have
a different name for themselves.
The Bontoc Igorot have their center in the pueblo of Bontoc,
pronounced "Ban-tak'," a Spanish corruption of the Igorot name
"Fun-tak'," a common native word for mountain, the original name
of the pueblo. To the northwest their culture extends to that of
the historic Tinguian, a long-haired folk physiographically cut off
by a watershed. To the east of the Cordillera Central the Tinguian
call themselves "It-neg'." To the northeast the Bontoc culture area
embraces the pueblo of Basao, stopping short of Tinglayan. The eastern
limit of Bontoc culture is fixed by the pueblos of Lias and Barlig,
and is thus about coextensive with the province. Southward the area
includes all to the top of the watershed of Polis Mountain, which
turns southward the numerous streams feeding the Rio Magat. The
pueblos south of this watershed -- Lubong, Gisang, Banawi, etc. --
belong to the short-haired people of Quiangan culture. To the west
Bontoc culture extends to the watershed of the Cordillera Central,
which turns westward the various affluents of the Rio del Abra. On
the southwest this cuts off the short-haired Lepanto Igorot, whose
culture seems to be more allied to that of Benguet than Bontoc.
The men of the Bontoc area know none of the peoples by whom they
are surrounded by the names history gives or the peoples designate
themselves, with the exception of the Lepanto Igorot, the It-neg',
and the Ilokano of the west coast. They do not know the "Tinguian"
of Abra on their north and northwest by that name; they call them
"It-neg'." Farther north are the people called by the Spaniards
"Nabayuganes," "Aripas," and "Ipugaos;" to the northeast and east
are the "Caylingas," "Comunanges," "Bayabonanes," "Dayags," and
"Gaddannes" -- but Bontoc knows none of these names. Bontoc culture
and Kalinga culture lie close together on the east, and the people of
Bontoc pueblo name all their eastern neighbors It-neg' -- the same
term they apply to the Tinguian to the west and northwest, because,
they say, they all wear great quantities of brass on the arms and
legs. To the south of Bontoc are the Quiangan Igorot, the Banawi
division of which, at least, names itself May'-yo-yet, but whom Bontoc
calls "I-fu-gao'." They designate the people of Benguet the "Igorot
of Benguet," but these peoples designate themselves "Ib-a-loi'" in
the northern part, and "Kan-ka-nay'" in the southern part, neither
of which names Bontoc knows.
She has still another set of names for the people surrounding her
-- people whom she vaguely knows are there but of whom or of whose
lands she has no first-hand knowledge. The people to the north are
"Am-yan'-an," and the northern country is "La'-god." The "Day'-ya"
are the eastern people, while "Bar'-lig" is the name of the eastern
and southeastern land. "Ab-a-ga'-tan" are the people of the south, and
"Fi'-lig ab-a-ga'-tan," is the south land. The people of the west are
"Loa'-od," and "Fi'-lig lao'-od," or "Lo'-ko" (the Provinces of Ilokos
Norte and Ilokos Sur) is the country lying to the west and southwest.
Some of the old men of Bontoc say that in the past the Igorot people
once extended to the seacoast in the Provinces of Ilokos Norte
and Ilokos Sur. This, of course, is a tradition of the prehistoric
time before the Ilokano invaded northern Luzon; but, as has been
stated, the Bontoc people claim never to have been driven by that
invasion, neither have they any knowledge of such a movement. It is
not improbable, however, that traditions of the invasion may linger
with the people nearer the coast and farther north.
Historical sketch
It is regretted that the once voluminous historical records and data
which the Spaniards prepared and kept at Bontoc were burned -- tons of
paper, they say -- probably late in 1898 or early in 1899 by Captain
Angels, an insurrecto. However, from scanty printed historical data,
but mostly from information gathered in Bontoc from Igorot and resident
Ilokano, the following brief sketch is presented, with the hope that it
will show the nature of the outside influences which have been about
Bontoc for the past half century prior to American occupation. It is
believed that the data are sufficiently truthful for this purpose,
but no claim is made for historical accuracy.
It seems that in 1665 the Spanish governor of the Philippines,
Governor-General D. Diego de Salcedo, sent an expedition from Manila
into northern Luzon. Some time during the three years the expedition
was out its influence was felt in Fidelisan and Tanolang, two pueblos
in the western part of the Bontoc culture area, for history says they
paid tribute.[9] It is not probable that any considerable party from
the expedition penetrated the Igorot mountain country as far as the
above pueblos.
After the year 1700 expeditions occasionally reached Cayan, which,
until about twenty-five years ago, as has been stated, was a Spanish
capital. In 1852 the entire territory of present Lepanto-Bontoc and a
large part of northern Nueva Vizcaya were organized as an independent
"distrito," under the name of "Valle de Cayan;"[10] and a few years
later, though the author does not give the date, Bontoc was established
as an independent "distrito."
The Spaniards and Ilokano in and about Bontoc Province say that it
was about fifty years ago that the Spaniards first came to Bontoc. The
time agrees very accurately with the time of the establishment of the
district. From then until 1899 there was a Spanish garrison of 200
or 300 men stationed in Bontoc pueblo. Christian Ilokano from the
west coast of northern Luzon and the Christian Tagalog from Manila
and vicinity were the soldiers.
The Spanish comandante of the "distrito," the head of the
political-military government, resided there, and there were also
a few Spanish army officers and an army chaplain. A large garrison
was quartered in Cervantes; there was a church in both Bontoc and
Cervantes. In the district of Bontoc there was a Spanish post at
Sagada, between the two capitals, Bontoc and Cervantes. Farther to the
east was a post at Tukukan and Sakasakan, and farther east, at Basao,
there was a post, a church, and a priest.
Most of the pueblos had Ilokano presidentes. The Igorot say that the
Spaniards did little for them except to shoot them. There is yet a
long, heavy wooden stock in Bontoc pueblo in which the Igorot were
imprisoned. Igorot women were made the mistresses of both officers and
soldiers. Work, food, fuel, and lumber were not always paid for. All
persons 18 or more years old were required to pay an annual tax of 50
cents or an equivalent value in rice. A day's wage was only 5 cents,
so each family was required to pay an equivalent of twenty days' labor
annually. In wild towns the principal men were told to bring in so
many thousand bunches of palay -- the unthreshed rice. If it was not
all brought in, the soldiers frequently went for it, accompanied by
Igorot warriors; they gathered up the rice, and sometimes burned the
entire pueblo. Apad, the principal man of Tinglayan, was confined six
years in Spanish jails at Bontoc and Vigan because he repeatedly failed
to compel his people to bring in the amount of palay assessed them.
They say there were three small guardhouses on the outskirts of Bontoc
pueblo, and armed Igorot from an outside town were not allowed to
enter. They were disarmed, and came and went under guard.
The Spanish comandantes in charge of the province seem to have remained
only about two years each. Saldero was the last one. Early in the
eighties of the nineteenth century the comandante took his command
to Barlig, a day east of Bontoc, to punish that town because it had
killed people in Tulubin and Samoki; Barlig all but exterminated
the command -- only three men escaped to tell the tale. Mandicota, a
Spanish officer, went from Manila with a battalion of 1,000 soldiers
to erase Barlig from the map; he was also accompanied from Bontoc
by 800 warriors from that vicinity. The Barlig people fled to the
mountains, losing only seven men, whose heads the Bontoc Igorot cut
off and brought home.
Comandante Villameres is reported to have taken twenty soldiers and
about 520 warriors of Bontoc and Samoki to punish Tukukan for killing
a Samoki woman; the warriors returned with three heads.
They say that in 1891 Comandante Alfaro took 40 soldiers and 1,000
warriors from the vicinity of Bontoc to Ankiling; sixty heads adorned
the triumphant return of the warriors.
In 1893 Nevas is said to have taken 100 soldiers and 500 warriors to
Sadanga; they brought back one head.
A few years later Saldero went to "clear up" rebellious Sagada with
soldiers and Igorot warriors; Bontoc reports that the warriors returned
with 100 heads.
The insurrectos appeared before Cervantes two or three months after
Saldero's bloody work in Sagada. The Spanish garrison fled before
the insurrectos; the Spanish civilians went with them, taking their
flocks and herds to Bontoc. A thousand pesos was the price offered
by the Igorot of Sagada to the insurrectos for Saldero's head when
the Philippine soldiers passed through the pueblo; but Saldero made
good his escape from Bontoc, and left the country by boat from Vigan.
The Bontoc Igorot assisted the insurrectos in many ways when they
first came. About 2 miles west of Bontoc is a Spanish rifle pit,
and there the Spanish soldiers, now swelled to about 600 men, lay
in wait for the insurrectos. There on two hilltops an historic sham
battle occurred. The two forces were nearly a mile apart, and at that
distance they exchanged rifle bullets three days. The Spaniards finally
surrendered, on condition of safe escort to the coast. For fifty years
they had conquered their enemy who were armed only with spear and ax;
but the insurrectos were armed with guns. However, the really hard
pressing came from the rear -- there were still the ax and spear --
and few soldiers from cuartel or trench who tried to bring food or
water for the fighting men ever reported why they were delayed.
The feeling of friendship between the Igorot and insurrectos was so
strong that when the insurrectos asked the Igorot to go to Manila
to fight the new enemy (the Americans), 400 warriors, armed only
with spear, battle-ax, and shield, went a three weeks' journey to
get American heads. At Caloocan, just outside Manila, they met the
American Army early in February, 1899. They threw their spears, the
Americans fired their guns -- "which must be brothers to the thunder,"
the Igorot said -- and they let fall their remaining weapons, and,
panic stricken, started home. All but thirteen arrived in safety. They
are not ashamed of their defeat and retreat; they made a mistake when
they went to fight the Americans, and they were quick to see it. They
are largely blessed with the saving sense of humor, and some of the
warriors who were at Caloocan have been known to say that they never
stopped running until they arrived home.
When these men told their people in Bontoc what part they and
the insurrectos played in the fight against the Americans, the
tension between the Igorot and insurrectos was at its greatest. The
insurrectos were evidently worse than the Spaniards. They did all
the things the Spaniards had done, and more -- they robbed through
falsehood. Consequently, insurrectos frequently lost their heads.
Major Marsh went through Bontoc close after Aguinaldo in December,
1899. The Igorot befriended the Americans; they brought them food
and guided them faithfully along the bewildering mountain trails
when the insurrectos split and scattered -- anywhere, everywhere,
fleeing eastward, northward, southward, in the mountains.
When Major Marsh returned through Bontoc, after following Aguinaldo
into the heart of the Quiangan area, he left in the pueblo some sixty
shoeless men under a volunteer lieutenant. The lieutenant promptly
appointed an Ilokano presidente, vice-presidente, secretary, and
police force in Bontoc and also in Sagada, and when the soldiers left
in a few weeks he gave seven guns to the "officials" in Bontoc and
two to those in Sagada. A short time proved that those "officials"
were untrustworthy men; many were insurrectos who had dropped
behind Aguinaldo. They persecuted the Igorot even worse than had the
insurrectos. They seemed to have the American Army behind them --
and the Igorot stood in awe of American arms.
The crisis came. An Igorot obtained possession of one of the guns,
and the Ilokano chief of police was killed and his corporal wounded.
This shooting, at the time apparently unpremeditated, but, in reality,
carefully planned and successfully executed, was the cause of the
arrival in Bontoc pueblo of the first American civilians. At that time
a party of twenty Americans was at Fidelisan, a long day northwest
of Bontoc; they were prospecting and sightseeing. The Ilokano sent
these men a letter, and the Igorot sent a messenger, begging them to
come to the help of the pueblo. Three men went on August 27, 1900;
they were Truman K. Hunt, M.D., Mr. Frank Finley, and Mr. Riley. The
disagreement was settled, and several Ilokano families left Bontoc
under the protection of Mr. Riley.
August 9, 1901, when the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands
was organized, Dr. Hunt, who had remained in Bontoc most of the
preceding year, was appointed "superintendent of public vaccination
and inspection of infectious diseases for the Provinces of Bontoc
and Lepanto." He was stationed at Bontoc. About that time another
American civilian came to the province -- Mr. Reuben H. Morley, now
secretary-treasurer of the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, who lived nearly
a year in Tulubin, two hours from Bontoc. December 14 Mr. William
F. Smith, an American teacher, was sent to Bontoc to open a school.
Early in 1902 Constabulary inspectors, Lieutenants Louis A. Powless and
Ernest A. Eckman, also came. May 28, 1902, the Philippine Commission
organized the Province of Lepanto-Bontoc; on June 9 Dr. Hunt was
appointed lieutenant-governor of the province. May 1, 1903, Dr. Hunt
resigned and E. A. Wagar, M.D., became his successor.
The Spaniard was in Bontoc about fifty years. To summarize the Spanish
influence on the Igorot -- and this includes any influence which the
Ilokano or Tagalog may have had since they came among the people under
Spanish protection -- it is believed that no essential institution of
the Igorot has been weakened or vitiated to any appreciable degree. No
Igorot attended the school which the Spaniards had in Bontoc;
to-day not ten Igorot of the pueblo can make themselves understood
in Spanish about the commonest things around them. I fail to detect
any occupation, method, or device of the Igorot which the Spaniards'
influence improved; and the Igorot flatly deny any such influence.
The Spaniard put the institution of pueblo presidente pretty well
throughout the area now in province, but the presidente in no way
interferes with the routine life of the people -- he is the mouthpiece
of the Government asking for labor and the daily necessities of a
nonproductive, resident foreign population.
The "tax" levied was scarcely in the nature of a modern tax; it was
more the means taken by the Spaniard to secure his necessary food. In
no other way was the political life and organization of the pueblo
affected. In the realm of religion and spirit belief the surface
has scarcely been scratched. The only Igorot who became Christians
were the wives of some of the Christian natives who came in with the
Spaniard, mainly as soldiers. There are now eight or ten such women,
wives of the resident Ilokanos of Bontoc pueblo, but those whose
husbands left the pueblo have reverted to Igorot faith.
In the matter of war and head-hunting the effect of the Spaniard was
to intensify the natural instinct of the Igorot in and about Bontoc
pueblo. Nineteen men in twenty of Bontoc and Samoki have taken a human
head, and it has been seen under what conditions and influences some of
those heads were taken. An Igorot, whose confidence I believe I have,
an old man who represents the knowledge and wisdom of the people, told
me recently that if the Americans wanted the people of Bontoc to go out
against a pueblo they would gladly go; and he added, suggestively, that
when the Spaniards were there the old men had much better food than
now, for many hogs were killed in the celebration of war expeditions
-- and the old men got the greater part of the meat. The Igorot is a
natural head-hunter, and his training for the last sixty years seems
to have done little more for him than whet this appetite.
Somatology
Man
The Bontoc men average about 5 feet 4 1/8 inches in height, and have
the appearance of being taller than they are. Again and again one
is deceived by their height, and he repeatedly backs a 5-foot-7-inch
Igorot up against a 6-foot American, vainly expecting the stature of
the brown man to equal that of the white. Almost never does the Bontoc
man appear heavy or thickset, as does his brother, the Benguet Igorot
-- the human pack horse seen so constantly on the San Fernando-Baguio
trail -- muscularly one of the most highly developed primitive people
in the world to-day
Of thirty-two men measured from Bontoc and vicinity the shortest was
4 feet 9 1/8 inches and the tallest was slightly more than 5 feet 9
inches. The following table presents the average measurements of the
thirty-two men:
Average measurements of Bontoc men
Measurements
CM.
Stature
160.287
Spread of arms
165.684
Head length
19.212
Head breadth
15.203
Cephalic index (per cent)
79.1328
Nasal length
5.25625
Nasal breadth
4.1625
Nasal index (per cent)
79.191
From these measurements it appears that the composite man --
the average of the combined measurements of thirty-two men -- is
mesaticephalic. Among the thirty-two men the extremes of cephalic index
are 91.48 and 67.48. This first measurement is of a young man between
20 and 25 years of age. It stands far removed from other measurements,
the one nearest it being 86.78, that of a man about 60 years old. The
other extreme is 67.48, the measure of a young man between 25 and 30
years of age. Among the thirty-two men, nine are brachycephalic -- that
is, their cephalic index is greater than 80; twenty of the thirty-two
are mesaticephalic, with cephalic index between 75 and 80; and only
three are dolichocephalic -- that is, the cephalic index is below 75.
The nasal indexes of the thirty-two men show that the Bontoc man
has the "medium" or mesorhine nose. They also show that one is
very extremely platyrhine, the index being 104.54, and one is very
leptorhine, being 58.18. Of the total, five are leptorhine -- that
is, have the "narrow" nose with nasal index below 70. Seventeen men
are mesorhine, with the "medium" nose with nasal index between 70
and 85; and ten are platyrhine -- that is, the noses are "broad,"
with an index greater than 85.
The Bontoc men are never corpulent, and, with the exception of the
very old, they are seldom poor. During the period of a man's prime he
is usually muscled to an excellent symmetry. His neck, never long, is
well formed and strong and supports the head in erect position. His
shoulders are broad, even, and full muscled, and with seeming ease
carry transportation baskets laden with 75 to 100 pounds. His arms
are smoothly developed and are about the same relative length as the
American's. The hands are strong and short. The waist line is firm
and smaller than the shoulders or hips. The buttocks usually appear
heavy. His legs are generally straight; the thighs and calves are those
of a prime pedestrian accustomed to long and frequent walks. The ankles
are seldom thick; and the feet are broad and relatively short, and,
almost without exception, are placed on the ground straight ahead. He
has the feet of a pedestrian -- not the inturned feet of the constant
bearer of heavy burdens on the back or the outturned feet of the
man who sits or stands. The perfection of muscular development of
two-thirds of the men of Bontoc between the ages of 25 and 30 would
be the envy of the average college athlete in the States.
In color the men are brown, though there is a wide range of tone from
a light brown with a strong saffron undertone to a very dark brown
-- as near a bronze as can well be imagined. The sun has more to do
with the different color tones than has anything else, after which
habits of personal cleanliness play a very large role. There are men
in the Bontoc Igorot Constabulary of an extremely light-brown color,
more saffron than brown, who have been wearing clothing for only one
year. During the year the diet of the men in the Constabulary has
been practically the same as that of their darker brothers among whom
they were enlisted only twelve months ago. All the members of the
Constabulary differ much more in color from the unclothed men than
the unclothed differ among themselves. Man after man of these latter
may pass under the eye without revealing a tint of saffron, yet there
are many who show it faintly. The natural Igorot never washes himself
clean. He washes frequently, but lacks the means of cleansing the skin,
and the dirtier he is the more bronze-like he appears. At all times his
face looks lighter and more saffron-tinted than the remainder of his
body. There are two reasons for this -- because the face is more often
washed and because of its contrast with the black hair of the head.
The hair of the head is black, straight, coarse, and relatively
abundant. It is worn long, frequently more than half way to the hips
from the shoulders. The front is "banged" low and square across the
forehead, cut with the battle-ax; this line of cut runs to above and
somewhat back of the ear, the hair of the scalp below it being cut
close to the head. When the men age, a few gray hairs appear, and
some old men have heads of uniform iron-gray color. I have never seen
a white-haired Igorot. A few of the old men have their hair thinning
on the crown, but a tendency to baldness is by no means the rule.
Bontoc pueblo is no exception to the rule that every pueblo in the
Philippines has a few people with curly or wavy hair. I doubt whether
to-day an entire tribe of perfectly straight-haired primitive Malayan
people exists in the Archipelago. Fu-nit is a curly-haired Bontoc
man of about 45 years of age. Many people told me that his father
and also his grandfather were members of the pueblo and had curly
hair. I have never been able to find any hint at foreign or Negrito
blood in any of the several curly haired people in the Bontoc culture
area whose ancestors I have tried to discover.
The scanty growth of hair on the face of the Bontoc man is pulled
out. A small pebble and the thumb nail or the blade of the battle-ax
and the bulb of the thumb are frequently used as forceps; they never
cut the hair of the face. It is common to see men of all ages with
a very sparse growth of hair on the upper lip or chin, and one of
50 years in Bontoc has a fairly heavy 4-inch growth of gray hair on
his chin and throat; he is shown in Pl. XIII. Their bodies are quite
free from hair. There is none on the breast, and seldom any on the
legs. The pelvic growth is always pulled out by the unmarried. The
growth in the armpits is scant, but is not removed.
The iris of the eye is brown -- often rimmed with a lighter or darker
ring. The brown of the iris ranges from nearly black to a soft hazel
brown. The cornea is frequently blotched with red or yellow. The
Malayan fold of the upper eyelid is seen in a large majority of the
men, the fold being so low that it hangs over and hides the roots of
the lashes. The lashes appear to grow from behind the lid rather than
from its rim.
The teeth are large and strong, and, whereas in old age they frequently
become few and discolored, during prime they are often white and
clean. The people never artificially stain the teeth, and, though
surrounded by betel-nut chewers with dark teeth or red-stained lips,
they do not use the betel.
Since the Igorot keeps no record of years, it is impossible to know
his age, but it is believed that sufficient comparative data have
been collected in Bontoc to make the following estimates reliable:
At the age of 20 a man seems hardly to have reached his physical best;
this he attains, however, before he is 25. By 35 he begins to show the
marks of age. By 45 most of the men are fast getting "old"; their faces
are seamed, their muscles losing form, their carriage less erect, and
the step slower. By 55 all are old -- most are bent and thin. Probably
not over one or two in a hundred mature men live to be 70 years old.
The following census taken from a Spanish manuscript found in Quiangan,
and written in 1894, may be taken as representative of an average
Igorot pueblo:
Census of Magulang, district of Quiangan
Years
Females
Males
0 to 1
191
200
1 to 5
209
210
5 to 10
144
123
10 to 15
132
159
15 to 20
129
114
20 to 30
121
134
30 to 40
212
239
40 to 50
118
126
50 and over
79
62
Total
1,335
1,367
From this census it seems that the Magulang Igorot man is at his
prime between the ages of 30 and 40 years, and that the death rate
for men between the ages of 40 and 50 is nearly as great as the
death rate among children between 5 to 10 years of age, being 52.7
per cent. Beyond the age of 50 collapse is sudden, since all the men
more than 50 years old are less than half the number of those between
the ages of 40 and 50 years.
Woman
The women average 4 feet 9 3/8 inches in height. In appearance they
are short and stocky. Twenty-nine women from Bontoc and vicinity were
measured; the tallest was 5 feet 4 3/4 inches, and the shortest 4 feet
4 3/4 inches. The following table presents the average measurements
of twenty-nine women:
Average measurements of Bontoc women
Measurements
CM.
Stature
145.800
Spread of arms
149.603
Head length
18.593
Head breadth
14.706
Cephalic index (per cent)
79.094
Nasal length
4.582
Nasal breadth
3.608
Nasal index (per cent)
78.744
These measurements show that the composite woman -- the average
of the measurements of twenty-nine women -- is mesaticephalic. The
extremes of cephalic index are 87.64 and 64.89; both are measurements
of women about 35 years of age. Of the twenty-nine women twelve
are brachycephalic; twelve are mesaticephalic; and five are
dolichocephalic.
The Bontoc woman has a "medium," or mesorhine, nose, as is shown by
the above figures. Four of the twenty-nine women have the "narrow"
leptorhine nose with nasal index below 70; seven have platyrhine or
the "broad" nose with index greater than 85; while seventeen have the
"medium" or mesorhine nose with nasal index between 70 and 85. The
broadest nose has an index of 97.56, and the narrowest an index
of 58.53.
The women reach the age of maturity well prepared for its
responsibilities. They have more adipose tissue than the men, yet are
never fat. The head is carried erect, but with a certain stiffness
-- often due, in part, no doubt, to shyness, and in part to the fact
that they carry all their burdens on their heads. I believe the neck
more often appears short than does the neck of the man. The shoulders
are broad, and flat across the back. The breasts are large, full,
and well supported. The hips are broad and well set, and the waist
(there is no natural waist line) is frequently no smaller than the
hips, though smaller than the shoulders. Their arms are smooth and
strong, and they throw stones as men do, with the full-arm throw from
the shoulder. Their hands are short and strong. Their legs are almost
invariably straight, but are probably more frequently bowed at the
knees than are the men's. The thighs are sturdy and strong, and the
calves not infrequently over-large. This enlargement runs low down,
so the ankles, never slender, very often appear coarse and large. In
consequence of this heavy lower leg, the feet, short at best, usually
look much too short. They are placed on the ground straight ahead,
though the tendency to inturned feet is slightly more noticeable than
it is among the men.
Their carriage is a healthful one, though it is not always graceful,
since their long strides commonly give the prominent buttocks a jerky
movement. They prove the naturalness of that style of walking which, in
profile, shows the chest thrust forward and the buttocks backward; the
abdomen is in, and the shoulders do not swing as the strides are made.
It can not be said that at base the color of the women's skin differs
from that of the men, but the saffron undertone is more commonly
seen than it is in the unclothed men. It shows on the shaded parts
of the body, and where the skin is distended, as on the breast and
about certain features of the face.
The hair of the head is like that of the man's; it is worn long, and
is twisted and wound about the head. It has a tendency to fall out
as age comes on, but does not seem thin on the head. The tendency to
gray hairs is apparently somewhat less than it is with the men. The
remainder of the body is exceptionally free from hair. The growth in
the armpits and the pelvic hair are always pulled out by the unmarried,
and a large per cent of the women do not allow it to grow even in
old age.
Their eyes are brown, varied as are those of the men, and with the
Malayan fold of the upper eyelid.
Their teeth are generally whiter and cleaner than are those of their
male companions, a condition due largely, probably, to the fact that
few of the women smoke.
They seem to reach maturity at about 17 or 18 years of age. The
first child is commonly born between the ages of 16 and 22. At 23 the
woman has certainly reached her prime. By 30 she is getting "old";
before 45 the women are old, with flat, pendent folds of skin where
the breasts were. The entire front of the body -- in prime full,
rounded, and smooth -- has become flabby, wrinkled, and folded. It is
only a short time before collapse of the tissue takes place in all
parts of the body. An old woman, say, at 50, is a mass of wrinkles
from foot to forehead; the arms and legs lose their plumpness,
the skin is "bagged" at the knees into half a dozen large folds;
and the disappearance of adipose tissue from the trunk-front, sides,
and back -- has left the skin not only wrinkled but loose and flabby,
folding over the girdle at the waist.
The census of Magulang, page 42, should be again referred to, from
which it appears that the death rate among women is greater between
the ages of 40 and 50 years than it is with men, being 55.66 per
cent. The census shows also that there are relatively a larger number
of old women -- that is, over 50 years old -- than there are old men.
Child
The death rate among children is large. Of fifteen families in Bontoc,
each having had three or more children, the death rate up to the age
of puberty was over 60 per cent. According to the Magulang census
the death rate of children from 5 to 10 years of age is 63.73 per cent.
The new-born babe is as light in color as the average American babe,
and is much less red, instead of which color there is the slightest
tint of saffron. As the babe lies naked on its mother's naked breast
the light color is most strikingly apparent by contrast. The darker
color, the brown, gradually comes, however, as the babe is exposed
to the sun and wind, until the child of a year or two carried on its
mother's back is practically one with the mother in color.
Some of the babes, perhaps all, are born with an abundance of dark hair
on the head. A child's hair is never cut, except that from about the
age of 3 years the boy's hair is "banged" across the forehead. Fully
30 per cent of children up to 5 or 6 years of age have brown hair --
due largely to fading, as the outer is much lighter than the under
hair. In rare cases the lighter brown hair assumes a distinctly red
cast, though a faded lifeless red. Before puberty is reached, however,
all children have glossy black hair.
The iris of a new-born babe is sometimes a blue brown; it is decidedly
a different brown from that of the adult or of the child of five
years. Most children have the Malayan fold of the eyelid; the lower
lid is often much straighter than it is on the average American. When,
in addition to these conditions, the outer corner of the eye is higher
than the inner, the eye is somewhat Mongolian in appearance. About
one-fifth of the children in Bontoc have this Mongolian-like eye,
though it is rarer among adults -- a fact due, in part, apparently,
to the down curving and sagging of the lower lid as one's prime is
reached and passed.
Children's teeth are clean and white, and very generally remain so
until maturity.
The child from 1 to 3 years of age is plump and chubby; his front
is full and rounded, but lacks the extra abdominal development so
common with the children of the lowlands, and which has received from
the American the popular name of "banana belly." By the age of 7 the
child has lost its plump, rounded form, which is never again had by
the boys but is attained by the girls again early in puberty. During
these last half dozen years of childhood all children are slender and
agile and wonderfully attractive in their naturalness. Both girls and
boys reach puberty at a later time than would be expected, though data
can not be gathered to determine accurately the age at puberty. All the
Ilokano in Bontoc pueblo consistently maintain that girls do not reach
puberty until at least 16 and 17 years of age. Perhaps it is arrived
at by 14 or 15, but I feel certain it is not as early as 12 or 13 --
a condition one might expect to find among people in the tropics.
Pathology
The most serious permanent physical affliction the Bontoc Igorot
suffers is blindness. Fully 2 per cent of the people both of Bontoc
and her sister pueblo, Samoki, are blind; probably 2 per cent more
are partially so. Bontoc has one blind boy only 3 years old, but
I know of no other blind children; and it is claimed that no babes
are born blind. There is one woman in Bontoc approaching 20 years
of age who is nearly blind, and whose mother and older sister are
blind. Blindness is very common among the old people, and seems to
come on with the general breaking down of the body.
A few of the people say their blindness is due to the smoke in their
dwellings. This doubtless has much to do with the infirmity, as their
private and public buildings are very smoky much of the time, and
when the nights are at all chilly a fire is built in their closed,
low, and chimneyless sleeping rooms. There are many persons with
inflamed and granulated eyelids whose vision is little or not at all
impaired -- a forerunner of blindness probably often caused by smoke.
Twenty per cent of the adults have abnormal feet. The most common
and most striking abnormality is that known as "fa'-wing"; it is an
inturning of the great toe. Fa'-wing occurs in all stages from the
slightest spreading to that approximating forty-five degrees. It is
found widely scattered among the barefoot mountain tribes of northern
Luzon. The people say it is due to mountain climbing, and their
explanation is probably correct, as the great toe is used much as is
a claw in securing a footing on the slippery, steep trails during the
rainy reason. Fa'-wing occurs quite as commonly with women as with men,
and in Ambuklao, Benguet Province, I saw a boy of 8 or 9 years whose
great toes were spread half as much as those shown in Pl. XXV. This
deformity occurs on one or both feet, but generally on both if at all.
An enlargement of the basal joint of the great toe, probably a bunion,
is also comparatively common. It is not improbable that it is often
caused by stone bruises, as such are of frequent occurrence; they
are sometimes very serious, laying a person up ten days at a time.
The feet of adults who work in the water-filled rice paddies are dry,
seamed, and cracked on the bottoms. These "rice-paddy feet," called
"fung-as'," are often so sore that the person can not go on the trails
for any considerable distance.
I believe not 5 per cent of the people are without eruptions of
the skin. It is practically impossible to find an adult whose body
is not marked with shiny patches showing where large eruptions have
been. Babes of one or two months do not appear to have skin diseases,
but those of three and four are sometimes half covered with itching,
discharging eruptions. Babes under a year old, such as are most
carried on their mother's backs, are especially subject to a mass of
sores about the ankles; the skin disease is itch, called ku'-lid. I
have seen babes of this age with sores an inch across and nearly an
inch deep in their backs.
Relatively there are few large sores on the people such as boils
and ulcers, but a person may have a dozen or half a hundred itching
eruptions the size of a half pea scattered over his arms, legs,
and trunk. From these he habitually squeezes the pus onto his thumb
nail, and at once ignorantly cleans the nail on some other part of
the body. The general prevalence of this itch is largely due to the
gregarious life of the people -- to the fact that the males lounge in
public quarters, and all, except married men and women, sleep in these
same quarters where the naked skin readily takes up virus left on the
stone seats and sleeping boards by an infected companion. In Banawi,
in the Quiangan culture area, a district having no public buildings,
one can scarcely find a trace of skin eruption.
There are two adult people in Samoki pueblo who are insane; one of
them at least is supposed to be affected by Lumawig, the Igorot god,
and is said, when he hallooes, as he does at times, to be calling to
Lumawig. Bontoc pueblo has a young woman and a girl of five or six
years of age who are imbecile. Those four people are practically
incapacitated from earning a living, and are cared for by their
immediate relatives. There are two adult deaf and dumb men in Bontoc
pueblo, but both are industrious and self-supporting.
Igorot badly injured in war or elsewhere are usually killed at
their own request. In May, 1903, a man from Maligkong was thrown to
the earth and rendered unconscious by a heavy timber he and several
companions brought to Bontoc for the school building. His companions
immediately told Captain Eckman to shoot him as he was "no good." I
can not say whether it is customary for the Igorot to weed out those
who faint temporarily -- as the fact just cited suggests; however,
they do not kill the feeble aged, and the presence of the insane
and the imbecile shows that weak members of the group are not always
destroyed voluntarily.