War and Head-Hunting
En-fa-lok'-net is the Bontoc word for war, but the expression
"na-ma'-ka" -- take heads -- is used interchangeably with it.
For unknown generations these people have been fierce
head-hunters. Nine-tenths of the men in the pueblos of Bontoc and
Samoki wear on the breast the indelible tattoo emblem which proclaims
them takers of human heads. The fawi of each ato in Bontoc has its
basket containing skulls of human heads taken by members of the ato.
There are several different classes of head-hunters among primitive
Malayan peoples, but the continuation of the entire practice is
believed to be due to the so-called "debt of life" -- that is, each
group of people losing a head is in duty and honor bound to cancel
the score by securing a head from the offenders. In this way the
score is never ended or canceled, since one or the other group is
always in debt.
It seems not improbable that the heads may have been cut off first
as the best way of making sure that a fallen enemy was certainly
slain. The head was at all events the best proof to a man's tribesmen
of the discharge of the debt of life; it was the trophy of success
in defeating the foe. Whatever the cause of taking the head may have
been with the first people, it would surely spread to others of a
similar culture who warred with a head-taking tribe, as they would
wish to appear as cruel, fierce, and courageous as the enemy.
Henry Ling Roth[33] quotes Sir Spencer St. John as follows concerning
the Seribas Dyaks of Borneo (p. 142):
A certain influential man denied that head-hunting is a religious
ceremony among them. It is merely to show their bravery and manliness,
that it may be said that so-and-so has obtained heads. When they
quarrel it is a constant phrase, "How many heads did your father or
grandfather get?" If less than his own number, "Well, then, you have
no occasion to be proud!" Thus the possession of heads gives them
great considerations as warriors and men of wealth, the skulls being
prized as the most valuable of goods.
Again he quotes St. John (p. 143):
Feasts in general are: To make their rice grow well, to cause the
forest to abound with wild animals, to enable their dogs and snares
to be successful in securing game, to have the streams swarm with
fish, to give health and activity to the people themselves, and to
insure fertility to their women. All these blessings the possessing
and feasting of a fresh head are supposed to be the most efficient
means of securing.
He quotes Axel. Dalrymple as follows (p. 141)
The Uru Ais believe that the persons whose heads they take will become
their slaves in the next world.
On the same page he quotes others to the same point regarding other
tribes of Borneo.
Roth states (p. 163):
From all accounts there can be little doubt that one of the chief
incentives to getting heads is the desire to please the women. It may
not always have been so and there may be and probably is the natural
blood-thirstiness of the animal in man to account for a great deal
of the head-taking.
He quotes Mrs. F. F. McDougall in her statement of a Sakaran legend
of the origin of head-taking to the effect that the daughter of their
great ancestor residing near the Evening Star "refused to marry until
her betrothed brought her a present worth her acceptance." First
the young man killed a deer which the girl turned from with disdain;
then he killed and brought her one of the great monkeys of the forest,
but it did not please her. "Then, in a fit of despair, the lover went
abroad and killed the first man he met, and, throwing his victim's
head at the maiden's feet, he exclaimed at the cruelty she had made
him guilty of; but, to his surprise, she smiled and said that now
he had discovered the only gift worthy of herself" (p. 163). In the
three following pages of his book the author quotes three or four
other writers who cite in detail instances wherein heads were taken
simply to advance the slayer's interests with women.
As showing the passion for head-hunting among these people, St. John
tells of a young man who, starting alone to get a head from a
neighboring tribe, took the head of "an old woman of their own tribe,
not very distantly related to the young fellow himself." When the
fact was discovered "he was only fined by the chief of the tribe and
the head taken from him and buried" (p. 161).
Again (p. 159):
The maxim of the ruffians (Kayans) is that out of their own country
all are fair game. "Were we to meet our father, we would slay him." The
head of a child or of a woman is as highly prized as that of a man.
Mr. Roth writes that Mr. F. Witti "found that the latter (Limberan)
would not count as against themselves heads obtained on head-hunting
excursions, but only those of people who had been making peaceful
visits, etc. In fact, the sporting head-hunter bags what he can get,
his declared friends alone excepted" (p. 160).
The Ibilao of Luzon, near Dupax, of the Province of Nueva Vizcaya,
give the name "debt of life" to their head-hunting practice; but they
have, in addition, other reasons for head taking. No man may marry who
has not first taken a head; and every year after they harvest their
palay the men go away for heads, often going journeys requiring a
month of time in order to strike a particular group of enemies. The
Christians of Dupax claim that in 1899 the Ibilao took the heads of
three Dupax women who were working in the rice sementeras close to
the pueblo. These same Christians also claim that they have seen a
human head above the stacks of harvested Ibilao palay; and they claim
the custom is practiced annually, though the Ibilao deny it.
Some dozen causes for head-hunting among primitive Malayan peoples
have been here cited. These include the debt of life, requirements
for marriage, desire for abundant fruitage and harvest of cultivated
products, the desire to be considered brave and manly, desire for
exaltation in the minds of descendants, to increase wealth, to secure
abundance of wild game and fish, to secure general health and activity
of the people, general favor at the hands of the women, fecundity of
women, and slaves in the future life.
From long continuance in the practice of head-hunting, many beliefs
and superstitions arise to foster it, until in the minds of the
people these beliefs are greater factors in its perpetuation than the
original one of the debt of life. The possession of a head, with the
accompanying honor, feasts, and good omens, seems in many cases to
be of first importance rather than the avenging of a life.
The custom of head taking came with the Igorot to Luzon, a custom of
their ancestors in some earlier home. The people of Bontoc, however,
say that their god, Lumawig, taught them to go to war. When, a very
long time ago, he lived in Bontoc, he asked them to accompany him
on a war expedition to Lagod, the north country. They said they did
not wish to go, but finally yielded to his urgings and followed
him. On the return trip the men missed one of their companions,
Gu-ma'-nub. Lumawig told them that Gu-ma'-nub had been killed by
the people of the north. And thus their wars began -- Gu-ma'-nub
must be avenged. They have also a legend in regard to head taking:
The Moon, a woman called "Kabigat," was sitting one day making a
copper pot, and one of the children of the man Chalchal, the Sun,
came to watch her. She struck him with her molding paddle, cutting
off his head. The Sun immediately appeared and placed the boy's head
back on his shoulders. Then the Sun said to the Moon: "Because you
cut off my son's head, the people of the Earth are cutting off each
other's heads, and will do so hereafter."
With the Bontoc men the taking of heads is not the passion it seems
to be with some of the people of Borneo. It, is, however, the almost
invariable accompaniment of their interpueblo warfare. They invariably,
too, take the heads of all killed on a head-hunting expedition. They
have skulls of Spaniards, and also skulls of Igorot, secured when on
expeditions of punishment or annihilation with the Spanish soldiers.
But the possession of a head is in no way a requisite to marriage. A
head has no part in the ceremonies for palay fruitage and harvest,
or in any of the numerous agricultural or health ceremonies of the
year. It in no way affects a man's wealth, and, so far as I have been
able to learn, it in no way affects in their minds a man's future
existence. A beheaded man, far from being a slave, has special honor
in the future state, but there seems to be none for the head taker. As
shown by the Lumawig legend the debt of life is the primary cause
of warfare in the minds of the people of Bontoc, and it is to-day a
persistent cause. Moreover, since interpueblo warfare exists and head
taking is its form, head-hunting is a necessity with an individual
group of people in a state of nature. Without it a people could have
no peace, and would be annihilated by some group which believed it
a coward and an easy prey.
There is no doubt that the desire to be considered brave and manly has
come to be a factor in Bontoc head taking. In my presence an Igorot
once told a member of ato Ungkan that the men of his ato were like
girls, because they had not taken heads. The statement was false,
but the pronounced judgment sincere. In this connection, also, it
may be said that although the taking of a head is not a requisite
to marriage, and they say that it does not win the men special favor
from the women, yet, since it makes them manly and brave in the eyes
of their fellows, it must also have its influence on the women.
The desire for exaltation in the minds of descendants also has
a certain influence -- young men in quarrels sometimes brag of the
number of heads taken by their ancestors, and the prowess or success
of an ancestor seems to redound to the courage of the descendants; and
it is an affront to purposely and seriously belittle the head-hunting
results of a man's father.
There can be no doubt that head-hunting expeditions are often made
in response to a desire for activity and excitement, with all the
feasting, dancing, and rest days that follow a successful foray. The
explosive nature of a man's emotional energy demands this bursting of
the tension of everyday activities. In other words, the people get to
itching for a head, because a head brings them emotional satisfaction.
It is believed that now the people of the two sister pueblos, Bontoc
and Samoki, look on war and head-hunting somewhat as a game, as a
dangerous, great sport, though not a pastime. It is a test of agility
and skill, in which superior courage and brute force are minor factors.
Primarily a pueblo is an enemy of every other pueblo, but it is
customary for pueblos to make terms of peace. Neighboring pueblos are
usually, but not always, friendly. The second pueblo away is usually
an enemy. On most of our trips through northern Luzon cargadors and
guides could readily be secured to go to the nearest pueblo, but in
most cases they absolutely refused to go on to the second pueblo,
and could seldom be driven on by any argument or force. The actual
negotiations for peace are generally between some two ato of the
two interested pueblos, since the debt of life is most often between
two ato.
Bontoc and Samoki claim never to have sued for peace -- a statement
probably true, as they are by far the largest body of warriors in
the culture area, and their war reputation is the worst. When one
ato agrees on peace with another the entire pueblo honors the treaty.
The following peace agreements have been sought by outside pueblos in
recent years of the following ato of Bontoc: Sakasakan sued for peace
from Somowan, and Barlig from Pudpudchog; Tulubin, from Buyayyeng;
Bitwagan, from Sipaat; Tukukan sought peace from both Amkawa and
Polupo, and Sabangan also from Polupo; Sadanga, from Choko; and
Baliwang, from Longfoy.
The relations with two of these pueblos, Barlig and Sadanga, however,
are now not peaceful. Bontoc has many kin in Lias, some two days
to the east, the trail to which passes Barlig; but communication
between these pueblos of kin has ceased, because of the attitude of
Barlig. Communication between Bontoc and Tinglayan, northeast of the
Bontoc area on the river, has also ceased, because of the enmity of
Sadanga, which lies close to the trail between the two pueblos.
The peace ceremonial, to which a hog or carabao is brought by the
entreating people and eaten by the two parties to the agreement,
is called "pwi-din." The peace is sealed by some exchange, as of a
battle-ax for a blanket, the people sued having the better part of
the trade.
It now and then happens that of two pueblos at peace one loses a head
to the other. If the one taking the head desires continued peace,
some of its most influential men hasten to the other pueblo to talk
the matter over. Very likely the other pueblo will say, "If you wish
war, all right; if not, you bring us two carabaos, and we will still
be friends." If no effort for peace is made by the offenders, each
from that day considers the other an enemy.
There is a formal way of breaking the peace between two pueblos: Should
ato Somowan of Bontoc, for instance, wish to break her peace with
Sakasakan she holds a ceremonial meeting, called "men-pa-kel'." In
this meeting the old men freely speak their minds; and when all
matters are settled a messenger departs for Sakasakan bearing a
battle-ax or spear -- the customary token of war with all these Bontoc
peoples. The life of the war messenger is secure, but, if possible,
he is a close relative of the challenged people. There is no record
that such a person was ever killed while on his mission. The messenger
presents himself to some old man of the ato or pueblo, and says,
"In-ya'-lak nan sud-sud in-fu-sul'-ta-ko," which means, roughly,
"I bring the challenge of war."
If the challenge is accepted, as it usually is, an ax or spear is
given the messenger, and he hastens home to exclaim to his people,
"In-tang-i'-cha men-fu-sul'-ta-ko" -- that is, "They care to contest
in war."
A peace thus canceled is followed by a battle between practically all
the men of both sides. It is customary for the challenging people,
within a few days, to appear before the pueblo of their late friends,
and the men at once come out in answer to the challenging cries of
the visitors -- "Come out if you dare to fight us?" Or it may he that
those challenged appear near the other pueblo before it has time to
back its challenge.
If the challenged pueblo does not wish to fight, the spokesman tells
the messenger that they do not wish war; they desire continued
friendship; and the messenger returns to his people, not with a
weapon of war, but with a chicken or a pig; and he repeats to his
people the message he received from the old man.
After a peace has been canceled the two pueblos keep up a predatory
warfare, with a head lost here and there, and with now and then a
more serious battle, until one or the other again sues for peace,
and has its prayer granted. In this predatory warfare the entire
body of enemies, one or more ato, at times lays in hiding to take a
few heads from lone people at their daily toil. Or when the country
about a trail is covered with close tropical growth an enemy may hide
close above the path and practically pick his man as he passes beneath
him. He hurls or thrusts his spear, and almost always escapes with his
own life, frequently bursting through a line of people on the trail,
and instantly disappearing in the cover below. Should the injured
pueblo immediately retaliate, it finds its enemies alert and on guard.
At two places near the mountain trail between Samoki and Tulubin is a
trellis-like structure called "ko'-mis." It consists of several posts
set vertically in the ground, to which horizontal poles are tied, The
posts are the stem and root sections of the beautiful tree ferm. They
are set root end up, and the fine, matted rootlets present a compact
surface which the Igorot has carved in the traditional shape of the
"anito." Some of these heads have inlaid eyes and teeth of stone. Hung
on the ko'-mis are baskets and frames in which chickens and pigs have
been carried to the place for ceremonial feasting.
These two ko'-mis were built four years ago when Bontoc and Samoki had
their last important head-hunting forays with Tulubin. When Bontoc or
Samoki (and usually they fight together) sought Tulubin heads they
spent a night at one of the ko'-mis, remaining at the first one,
if the signs were propitious -- but, if not, they passed on to the
second, hoping for better success. They killed and ate their fowls and
pigs in a ceremony called "fi-kat'," and, if all was well, approached
the mountains near Tulubin and watched to waylay a few of her people
when they came to the sementeras in the early morning. If a crow flew
cawing over the trail, or a snake or rat crossed before the warriors,
or a rock rolled down the mountain side, or a clod of earth caved
away under their feet, or if the little omen bird, "i'-chu," called,
the expedition was abandoned, as these were bad omens.
The ceremony of the ko'-mis is held before all head-hunting
expeditions, except in the unpremeditated outburst of a people to
immediately punish the successful foray or ambush of some other. The
ko'-mis is built along all Bontoc war trails, though no others are
known having the "anito" heads. So persistent are the warriors if
they have decided to go to a particular pueblo for heads that they
often go day after day to the ko'-mis for eight or ten days before
they are satisfied that no good omens will come to them. If the omens
are persistently bad, it is customary for the warriors to return to
their ato and hold the mo-ging ceremony, during which they bury under
the stone pavement of the fawi court one of the skulls then preserved
in the ato.
In this way they explode their extra emotions and partially work off
their disappointment.
Occasionally a town has a bad strain of blood, and two or three men
break away without common knowledge and take heads. The entire body
of warriors in the pueblo where those murdered lived promptly rises
and pours itself unheralded on the pueblo of the murderers. If these
people are not warned the slaughter is terrible -- men, women, and
children alike being slain. None is spared, except mere babes, unless
they belong to the offended pueblo, marriage having taken them away
from home. Preceding a known attack on a pueblo it is customary for
the women and children to flee to the mountains, taking with them the
dogs, pigs, chickens, and valuable household effects. However, Bontoc
pueblo, because of her strength, is not so evacuated -- she expects
no enemy strong enough to burst through and reach the defenseless.
In the Banawi area, where the dwellings are built on prominences
frequently a hundred or more feet above the surrounding territory,
they say the women often remain and assist in the defense by hurling
rocks. They are safer there than they would be elsewhere.
Men go to war armed with a wooden shield, a steel battle-ax, and
one to three steel or wooden spears. It is a man's agility and skill
in keeping his shield between himself and the enemy that preserves
his life. Their battles are full of quick, incessant springing
motion. There are sudden rushes and retreats, sneaking flank movements
to cut an enemy off. The body is always in hand, always in motion,
that it may respond instantly to every necessity. Spears are thrown
with greatest accuracy and fatality up to 30 feet, and after the
spears are discharged the contest, if continued, is at arms' length
with the battle-axes. In such warfare no attitude or position can
safely be maintained except for the shortest possible time.
Challenges and bluffs are sung out from either side, and these
bluffs are usually "called." In the last Bontoc-Tulubin foray a fine,
strapping Tulubin warrior sung out that he wanted to fight ten men --
he was taken at his word so suddenly that his head was a Bontoc prize
before his friends could rally to assist him.
In March we were returning from a trip to Banawi of the Quiangan area,
and were warned we might be attacked near a certain river. As we
approached it coming down a forested mountain side three or four men
were seen among the trees on the farther side of the stream. Presently
they called their dogs, which began to bark; then our Bontoc Igorot
Constabulary escort "joshed" the supposed enemy by loudly caning dogs
and hogs. Presently the calls worked themselves into a rhythmic chorus
for all like a strong college yell, "A'-su, a'-su, a'-su, a'-su,
fu'-tug, fu'-tug, fu'-tug, fu'-tug." It is probable the men across
the river were hunting wild hogs, but at the time the Constabulary
considered the dog calls simply a bluff, which they "called" in the
only way they could as they continued down the mountain trail.
Rocks are often thrown in battle, and not infrequently a man's leg
is broken or he is knocked senseless by a rock, whereupon he loses
his head to the enemy, unless immediately assisted by his friends.
There is little formality about the head taking. Most heads are
cut off with the battle-ax before the wounded man is dead. Not
infrequently two or more men have thrown their spears into a man who
is disabled. If among the number there is one who has never taken a
head, he will generally be allowed to cut this one from the body,
and thus be entitled to a head taker's distinct tattoo. However,
the head belongs to the man who threw the first disabling spear,
and it finds its resting place in his ato. If there is time, men of
other ato may cut off the man's hands and feet to be displayed in
their ato. Sometimes succeeding sections of the arms and legs are
cut and taken away, so only the trunk is left on the field.
Frequently a battle ends when a single head is taken by either side --
the victors calling out, "Now you go home, and we will go home; and
if you want to fight some other day, all right!" In this way battles
are ended in an hour or so, and often in half an hour. However,
they have battles lasting half a day, and ten or a dozen heads are
taken. Seven pueblos of the lower Quiangan region went against the
scattered groups of dwellings in the Banawi area of the upper Quiangan
region in May, 1902. The invaders had seven guns, but the people of
Banawi had more than sixty -- a fact the invaders did not know until
too late. However, they did not retire until they had lost a hundred
and fifty heads. They annihilated one of the groups of the enemy,
getting about fifty heads, and burned down the dwellings. This is by
far the fiercest Igorot battle of which there is any memory, and its
ferocity is largely due to firearms.
When a head has been taken the victor usually starts at once for his
pueblo, without waiting for the further issue of the battle. He brings
the head to his ato and it is put in a small funnel-shaped receptacle,
called "sak-o'-long," which is tied on a post in the stone court of
the fawi. The entire ato joins in a ceremony for the day and night;
it is called "se'-dak." A dog or hog is killed, the greater part of
which is eaten by the old men of the ato, while the younger men dance
to the rhythmic beats of the gangsa. On the next day, "chao'-is,"
a month's ceremony, begins. About 7 o'clock in the morning the old
men take the head to the river. There they build a fire and place
the head beside it, while the other men of the ato dance about it
for an hour. All then sit down on their haunches facing the river,
and, as each throws a small pebble into the water he says, "Man-i'-su,
hu! hu! hu! Tukukan!" -- or the name of the pueblo from which the head
was taken. This is to divert the battle-ax of their enemy from their
own necks. The head is washed in the river by sousing it up and down
by the hair; and the party returns to the fawi where the lower jaw is
cut from the head, boiled to remove the flesh, and becomes a handle
for the victor's gangsa. In the evening the head is buried under the
stones of the fawi.
In a head ceremony which began in Samoki May 21, 1903, there was a
hand, a jaw, and an ear suspended from posts in the courts of ato
Nag-pi', Ka'-wa, and Nak-a-wang', respectively. In each of the eight
ato of the pueblo the head ceremony was performed. In their dances the
men wore about their necks rich strings of native agate beads which at
other dances the women usually wear on their heads. Many had boar-tusk
armlets, some of which were gay with tassels of human hair. Their
breechcloths were bright and long. All wore their battle-axes, two of
which were freshly stained halfway up the blade with human blood --
they were the axes used in severing the trophies from the body of
the slain.
On the second day the dance began about 4 o'clock in the morning, at
which time a bright, waning moon flooded the pueblo with light. At
every ato the dance circle was started in its swing, and barely
ceased for a month. A group of eight or ten men formed, as is shown
in Pl. CXXXI, and danced contraclockwise around and around the small
circle. Each dancer beat his blood and emotions into sympathetic
rhythm on his gangsa, and each entered intently yet joyfully into the
spirit of the occasion -- they had defeated an enemy in the way they
had been taught for generations.
It was a month of feasting and holidays. Carabaos, hogs, dogs,
and chickens were killed and eaten. No work except that absolutely
necessary was performed, but all people -- men, women, and children --
gathered at the ato dance grounds and were joyous together.
Each ato brought a score of loads of palay, and for two days women
threshed it out in a long wooden trough for all to eat in a great
feast. This ceremonial threshing is shown in Pl. CXXXII. Twenty-four
persons, usually all women, lined up along each side of the trough,
and, accompanying their own songs by rhythmic beating of their pestles
on the planks strung along the sides of the trough, each row of happy
toilers alternately swung in and out, toward and from the trough,
its long heavy pestles rising and falling with the regular "click,
click, thush; click, click, thush!" as they fell rebounding on the
plank, and were then raised and thrust into the palay-filled trough.
After heads have been taken by an ato any person of that ato -- man,
woman, or child -- may be tattooed; and in Bontoc pueblo they maintain
that tattooing may not occur at any other time, and that no person,
unless a member of the successful ato, may be tattooed.
After the captured head has been in the earth under the fawi court of
Bontoc about three years it is dug up, washed in the river, and placed
in the large basket, the so-lo'-nang, in the fawi, where doubtless it
is one of several which have a similar history. At such time there is
a three-day's ceremony, called "min-pa-fa'-kal is nan mo'-king." It
is a rest period for the entire pueblo, with feasting and dancing,
and three or four hogs are killed. The women may then enter the fawi;
it is said to be the only occasion they are granted the privilege.
In the fawi of ato Sigichan there are at present three skulls of men
from Sagada, one of a man from Balugan, and one of a man and two of
women from Baliwang. Probably not more than a dozen skulls are kept
in a fawi at one time. The final resting place of the skull is again
under the stones of the fawi. Samoki does not keep the skull at all;
it remains where buried under the ato court. As was stated before, a
skull is generally buried under the stones of the fawi court whenever
the omens are such that a proposed head-hunting expedition is given
up. They are doubtless, also, buried at other times when the basket
in the fawi becomes too full. Sigichan has buried twenty-eight skulls
in the memory of her oldest member -- making a total of thirty-five
heads taken, say, in fifty years. Three of these were men's heads
from Ankiling, nine were men's heads from Tukukan, three were men's
heads from Barlig, three were men's heads and four women's heads from
Sabangan, and six were men's heads from Sadanga. During this same
period Sigichan claims to have lost one man's head each to Sabangan
and Sadanga.
No small children's skulls can be found in Bontoc, though some other
head-hunters take the heads even of infants. In fact, the men of
Bontoc say that babes and children up to about 5 years of age are not
killed by the head-hunter. If one should take a child's head he would
shortly be called to fate by some watchful pinteng in language as
follows: "Why did you take that babe's head? It does not understand
war. Pretty soon some pueblo will take your head." And the pinteng
is supposed to put it into the mind of some pueblo to get the head
of that particularly cruel man.
The friends of a beheaded person take his body home from the scene
of death. It remains one day sitting in the dwelling. Sometimes a
head is bought back from the victors at the end of a day, the usual
price paid being a carabao. After the body has remained one day in
the dwelling it is said to be buried without ceremony near the trail
leading to the pueblo which took the head. The following day the entire
ato has a ceremonial fishing in the river, called "mang-o'-gao" or
"tid-wil." A fish feast follows for the evening meal. The next day
the mang-ay'-yu ceremony occurs. At that time the men of the ato,
go near the place where their companion lost his head and ask the
beheaded man's spirit, the pinteng, to return to their pueblo.
Pl. CXXXVI shows the burial of a beheaded corpse in Banawi in April,
1903.[34] After the head-taking the body was set up two days under the
dwelling of the dead man, and was then carried to the mountain side
in the direction of Kambulo, the pueblo which killed the man. It was
tied on a war shield and the whole tied to a pole which was borne by
two men, as is shown in Pl. CXXXV. The funeral procession was made
up as follows: First, four warriors proceeded, one after the other,
along a narrow path on the dike walls, each beating a slow rhythm
with a stick on the long, black, Banawi war shield, each shield,
however, being striped differently with white-earth paint. The corpse
was borne next, after which followed about a dozen more warriors,
most of whom carried the white-marked shield -- an emblem of mourning.
About half a mile from the dwelling the party left the sementeras and
climbed up a short, steep ascent to a spot resembling the entrance to
the earth burrow of some giant animal, and there the strange corpse was
placed on the ground. A small group of people, including one old woman,
was awaiting the funeral party. At the back end of the burrow two men
tore away the earth and disclosed a small wall of loose stones. These
they removed and revealed a vertical entrance in the earth about 2 feet
high and 2 1/2 feet wide. Through this small opening one of the men
crawled, and crouching in the narrow sepulcher scraped up and threw
out a few handfuls of earth. We were told that the corpse before us
was the fifth to be placed in that old tomb, all being victims of the
pueblo of Kambulo, and four of whom were descendants of the first man
buried at that place -- certainly "blood vengeance" with a vengeance.
We were without means of understanding the two or three simple oral
ceremonies said over the body, but the woman played a part which it
is understood she does not in the Bontoc area. She carried a slender,
polished stick, greatly resembling a baton or "swagger stick," and
with this stood over the gruesome body, thrusting the stick again
and again toward and close to the severed neck, meanwhile repeating a
short, low-voiced something. After the body was cut from its shield
a blanket was wrapped about it -- otherwise it was nude, save for a
flayed-bark breechcloth -- and it was set up in the cramped sepulcher
facing Kambulo, and sitting supported away from the earth walls by four
short wooden sticks placed upright about it. An old bamboo-headed spear
was broken in the shaft and the two sections placed with the corpse.
The stones were again piled across the entrance, and when all was
closed except the place for one small stone a man gave a few farewell
thrusts through the opening with a stick, uttering at the same time
a short low sentence or two. The final stone was placed and the earth
heaped against the wall.
The pole to which the corpse was tied when borne to the burial
was placed horizontally before the tomb, supported with both ends
resting on the high side walls of the burrow, and on it were hung a
dozen white-bark headbands which were worn, evidently, as a mark of
mourning, by many of the men who attended the burial.
How long it would be, in a state of nature, before the tomb would be
required for another burial is a matter of chance, but a relative,
frequently a son, nephew, or brother of the dead man, would be expected
to avenge the dead man on the pueblo of Kambulo, with chances in
favor of success, but also with equal chances of ultimate loss of
the warrior's head and burial where six kinsmen had preceded him.