AEsthetic Life
There is relatively little "color" in the life of the Bontoc
Igorot. In the preceding chapter reference was made to the belief
that this lack of "color," the monotony of everyday life, has to
do with the continuation of head-hunting. The life of the Igorot is
somber-hued indeed as compared with that of his more advanced neighbor,
the Ilokano.
Dress
The Bontoc Igorot is not much given to dress -- under which term are
considered the movable adornments of persons. Little effort is made
by the man toward dressing the head, though before marriage he at
times wears a sprig of flowers or of some green plant tucked in the
hat at either side. The young man's suklang is also generally more
attractive than that of the married man. With its side ornaments of
human-hair tassels, its dog teeth, or mother-of-pearl disks, and its
red and yellow colors, it is often very gay.
About one hundred and fifty men in Bontoc and Samoki own and sometimes
wear at the girdle a large 7-inch disk of mother-of-pearl shell. It is
called "fi-kum'," and its use is purely ornamental. (See Pls. LXXX and
XXX.) It is valued highly, and I have not known half a dozen Igorot to
part with one for any price. This shell ornament is widespread through
the country east and also south of the Bontoc area, but nowhere is it
seen plentifully, except on ceremonial days -- probably not a dozen
are worn daily in Bontoc.
Other forms of adornment, though only a means to a permanent end, are
the ear stretchers and variety of ear plugs which are worn in a slit in
the ear lobe preparing it for the earring -- the sing-sing, which all
hope to possess. The stretcher consists of two short pieces of bamboo
forced apart and so held by two short crosspieces inserted between
them. The bamboo ear stretcher is generally ornamented by straight
incised lines. The plugs are not all considered decorative. Some
are bunches of a vegetable pith (Pl. CXXXVIII), others are wads of
sugar-cane leaves. Some, however, are wooden plugs shaped quite like
an ordinary large cork stopper of a bottle (Pl. CXXXVII). The outer
end is often ornamented by straight incised lines or with red seeds
affixed with wax or with a small piece of a cheap glass mirror roughly
inlaid. The long ear slit is not the end sought, because if the owner
despairs of owning the coveted earring the stretchers and plugs are
eventually removed and the slit contracts from an inch and one-half
to a quarter of an inch or less in length. The long slit is desired
because the people consider the effect more beautiful when the ring
swings and dangles at the bottom of the pendant ear. The gold earring
is the most coveted, but a few silver and many copper rings are worn
in substitution for the gold.
FIGURE 8
Metal earrings.
(A, gold; B, copper (both are two or three generations old and their
patterns are no longer made); C, copper; D, silver.)
This is practically the extent of the everyday adornment worn by the
boys and men. Small boys sometimes wear a brass-wire bracelet; but
the brass wire, so commonly worn on the wrists, ankles, and necks of
the people east, north, and south of the Bontoc area, is not affected
by the people of Bontoc.
As has been mentioned, there is an unique display of dress by the
man at the head-taking ceremony of the ato, when some of the dancers
wear boar-tusk armlets, called "ab-kil'," and a boar-tusk necklace,
called "fu-yay'-ya."
The necklace quite resembles the Indian bear-claw necklace, but it
is worn with the tusks pointing away from the breast, not toward
it, as is the case with the Indian necklace. There are about six of
these necklaces in Bontoc, and it is almost impossible to buy one,
but the armlets are more plentiful. They are worn above the biceps,
and some are adorned with a tuft of hair cut from a captured head.
The movable adornments of the woman are very similar to those of
the man.
The unmarried woman wears the flowers or green sprigs in the hair,
though less often than does the man. She wears the ear stretchers, ear
plugs, and earrings exactly as he does. Probably 60 per cent of men and
women in some way dress one ear; probably half as many dress both ears.
The chief adornment of the woman is her hairdress. It consists of
strings of various beads, called "a-pong'." The hair is never combed
in its dressing, except with the fingers, but the entire hair is
caught at the base of the skull and lightly twisted into a loose roll;
a string of beads is put beneath this twist at the back and carried
forward across the head. The roll is then brought to the front of the
head around the left side; at the front it is tucked forward under the
beads, being thus held tightly in place. The twist is carried around
the head as far as it will extend, and the end there tucked under the
beads and thus secured. One and not infrequently two additional strings
of beads are laid over the hair, more completely holding it in place.
The first string of beads placed on the head usually consists of
compact, glossy, black seeds. Frequently brass-wire rings are regularly
dispersed along the string. These beads are shown in Pl. CXLII. The
second string, with its white, lozenge-shaped stone beads (Pl. CXXXIX),
is very striking and attractive against the black hair. This string
reaches its perfection when it is composed solely of spherical agate
beads the size of small marbles and the longer white stone beads
placed at regular intervals among the reddish agates. It is practically
impossible to purchase these beads, since they are heirlooms. The third
string is usually of dog teeth. They are strung alternately with black
seeds or with sections of dog rib. This string is worn over the hair,
running from the forehead around the back of the head, the white teeth
resting low on the back hair, and making a very attractive adornment
as they stand, points out, against the black hair. (See Pl. CLII.)
Igorot women dress their hair richly in their important ceremonials. In
an in-pug-pug' ceremony of Sipaat ato in Bontoc I saw women wearing
seven strings of agate beads on their hair and about their necks. The
woman loves to show her friends her accumulated wealth in heirlooms,
and the ato or pueblo ceremonies are the most favorable opportunities
for such display. All these various hairdress beads are of Igorot
manufacture.
I have seen Tukukan women come to Bontoc wearing a solid diadem about
the hair. It consisted of a rattan foundation encircling the head,
covered with blackened beeswax studded with three parallel rows of
encircling bright-red seeds. It made a very striking headdress.
Now and then a woman is seen wearing beads around the neck, but the
Bontoc woman almost never has such adornment. They are seen frequently
in pueblos to the west, however. The beads for everyday wear are
seeds in black, brown, and gray. There is also a small, irregular,
cylindrical, wooden bead worn by the women. It is sometimes worn in
strings of three or four beads by men. I believe it is considered of
talismanic value when so worn.
Many women in Mayinit and some women of Bontoc wear the heirloom
girdle, called "a-ko'-san," made of shells and brass wire encircling
a cloth girdle (see Pl. CXL). The cloth is made in the form of a long,
narrow wallet, practically concealed at the back by the encircling wire
and shells. Within this wallet the cherished agate and white stone
hairdress is often hidden away. In Mayinit this girdle is frequently
worn beneath the skirt, when it becomes, in every essential and in
the effect produced, a bustle. I have never seen it so worn in Bontoc.
Decoration
Under this head are classed all the forms of permanent adornment of
the person.
First must be cited the cutting and stretching of the ear. Whereas
the long, pendant earlobe is not the end in itself, nor is the long
slit always permanent, yet the mutilation of the ear is permanent
and desired. In a great many cases the lobe breaks, and the two,
and even three, long strips of lobe hanging down seem to give their
owner certain pride. Often the lower end of one of these strips is
pierced and supports a ring. The sexes share alike in the preparation
for and the wearing of earrings.
The woman has a permanent decoration of the nature of the "switch"
of the civilized woman. The loose hair combed from the head with the
fingers is saved, and is eventually rolled with the live hair of the
head into long, twisted strings, some of which are an inch in diameter
and three feet long; some women have more than a dozen of these twisted
strings attached to the scalp. This is a common, though not universal,
method of decorating the head, and the mass of lard-soaked, twisted
hair stands out prominently around the crown, held more or less in
place by the various bead hairdresses. (See Pls. CXLI and CXLII.)
Tattoo
The great permanent decoration of the Igorot is the tattoo. As has
been stated in Chapter VI on "War and Head-Hunting," all the members
-- men, women, and children -- of an ato may be tattooed whenever a
head is taken by any person of the ato. It is claimed in Bontoc that
at no other time is it possible for a person to be tattooed. But
Tukukan tattooed some of her women in May, 1903, and this in spite
of the fact that no heads had recently been taken there. However,
the regulations of one pueblo are not necessarily those of another.
In every pueblo, there are one or more men, called "bu-ma-fa'-tek,"
who understand the art of tattooing. There are two such in Bontoc --
Toki, of Lowingan, and Finumti, of Longfoy -- and each has practiced
his art on the other. Finumti has his back and legs tattooed in an
almost unique way. I have seen only one other at all tattooed on the
back, and then the designs were simple. A large double scallop extends
from the hip to the knee on the outside of each of Finumti's legs.
The design is drawn on the skin with ink made of soot and water. Then
the tattooer pricks the skin through the design. The instrument used
for tattooing is called "cha-kay'-yum." It consists of from four to
ten commercial steel needles inserted in a straight line in the end
of a wooden handle; "cha-kay'-yum" is also the word for needle. After
the pattern is pricked in, the soot is powdered over it and pressed in
the openings; the tattooer prefers the soot gathered from the bottom
of ollas.
The finished tattoo is a dull, blue black in color, sometimes having a
greenish cast. A man in Tulubin has a tattoo across his throat which
is distinctly green, while the remainder of his tattoo is the common
blue black. The newly tattooed design stands out in whitish ridges,
and these frequently fester and produce a mass of itching sores
lasting about one month (see Pl. CXLVII).
The Igorot distinguishes three classes of tattoos: The chak-lag',
the breast tattoo of the head taker; pong'-o, the tattoo on the arms
of men and women; and fa'-tek, under which name all other tattoos
of both sexes are classed. Fa'-tek is the general word for tattoo,
and pong'-o is the name of woman's tattoo.
It is general for boys under 10 years of age to be tattooed. Their
first marks are usually a small, half-inch cross on either cheek or a
line or small cross on the nose. One boy in Bontoc, just at the age
of puberty, has a tattoo encircling the lower jaw and chin, a wavy
line across the forehead, a straight line down the nose, and crosses
on the cheeks; but he is the youngest person I have seen wearing the
jaw tattoo -- a mark quite commonly made in Bontoc when the chak-lag',
or head-taker's emblem, is put on.
The chak-lag' is the most important tattoo of the Igorot, since it
marks its wearer as a taker of at least one human head. It therefore
stands for a successful issue in the most crucial test of the fitness
of a person to contribute to the strength of the group of which he is
a unit. It no doubt gives its wearer a certain advantage in combat --
a confidence and conceit in his own ability, and, likely, it tends
to unnerve a combatant who has not the same emblem and experience. No
matter what the exact social importance or advantage may be, it seems
that every man in Bontoc who has the right to the emblem shows his
appreciation of the privilege, since nine-tenths of the men wear the
chak-lag'. It consists of a series of geometric markings running
upward from the breast near each nipple and curving out on each
shoulder, where it ends on the upper arm. The accompanying plates
(CXLIII to CXLIX) give an excellent idea of the nature and appearance
of the Igorot tattoo -- of course, reproductions in color would add
to the effect. The distinctness of the markings in the photographs
is about normal.
The basis of the designs is apparently geometric. If the straight-line
designs originated in animal forms, they have now become so
conventional that I have not discovered their original form.
The Bontoc woman is tattooed only on the arms. This tattoo begins
close back of the knuckles on the back of the hands, and, as soon
as it reaches the wrist, entirely encircles the arms to above the
elbows. Still above this there is frequently a separate design on
the outside of the arm; it is often the figure of a man with extended
arms and sprawled legs.
The chak-lag' design on the man's breast is almost invariably
supplemented by two or three sets of horizontal lines on the biceps
immediately beneath the outer end of the main design. If the tattoo
on the arms of the woman were transferred to the arms of the man,
there would seldom be an overlapping -- each would supplement the
other. On the men the lines are longer and the patterns simpler than
those of the women, where the lines are more cross-hatched and the
design partakes of the nature of patch-work.
It was not discovered that any tattoo has a special meaning, except
the head-taker's emblem; and the Igorot consistently maintains that
all the others are put on simply at the whim of the wearer. The face
markings, those on the arms, the stomach, and elsewhere on the body,
are believed to be purely aesthetic. The people compare their tattoo
with the figures of an American's shirt or coat, saying they both look
pretty. Often a cross-hatched marking is put over goiter, varicose
veins, and other permanent swellings or enlargements. Evidently they
are believed to have some therapeutic virtue, but no statement could
be obtained to substantiate this opinion.
As is shown by Pls. CXLVIII and CXLIX, the tattoo of both Banawi men
and women seems to spring from a different form than does the Bontoc
tattoo. It appears to be a leaf, or a fern frond, but I know nothing
of its origin or meaning. There is much difference in details between
the tattoos of culture areas, and even of pueblos. For instance,
in Bontoc pueblo there is no tattoo on a man's hand, while in the
pueblos near the south side of the area the hands are frequently
marked on the backs. In Benguet there is a design popularly said to
represent the sun, which is seen commonly on men's hands. Instances
of such differences could be greatly multiplied here, but must be
left for a more complete study of the Igorot tattoo.
Music
Instrumental music
The Bontoc Igorot has few musical instruments, and all are very
simple. The most common is a gong, a flat metal drum about 1 foot in
diameter and 2 inches deep. This drum is commonly said to be "brass,"
but analyses show it to be bronze.
Two gongs submitted to the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila,
consisted, in one case, of approximately 80 per cent copper, 15 per
cent tin, and 5 per cent zinc; in the other case of approximately 84
per cent copper, 15 per cent tin, 1 per cent zinc, and a trace of iron.
Early Chinese records read that tin was one of the Chinese imports
into Manila in the thirteenth century. Copper was mined and wrought
by the Igorot when the Spaniards came to the Philippines, and they
wrote regarding it that it was then an old and established industry
and art. It may possibly be that bronze was made in the Philippines
before the arrival of the Spaniard, but there is no proof of such
an hypothesis.
The gong to-day enters the Bontoc area in commerce generally from
the north -- from the Igorot or Tinguian of old Abra Province --
and no one in the Provinces of Benguet or Lepanto-Bontoc seems to
know its source. Throughout the Archipelago and southward in Borneo
there are metal drums or "gongs" apparently of similar material but
of varying styles. It is commonly claimed that those of the Moro are
made on the Asiatic mainland. It is my opinion that the Bontoc gong,
or gang'-sa, originates in China, though perhaps it is not now imported
directly from there. It certainly does not enter the Island of Luzon
at Manila, or Candon in Ilokos Sur, and, it is said, not at Vigan,
also in Ilokos Sur.
In the Bontoc area there are two classes of gang'-sa; one is called
ka'-los, and the other co-ong'-an. The co-ong'-an is frequently larger
than the other, seems to be always of thicker metal, and has a more
bell-like and usually higher-pitched tone. I measured several gang'-sa
in Bontoc and Samoki, and find the co-ong'-an about 5 millimeters
thick, 52 to 55 millimeters deep, and from 330 to 360 millimeters in
diameter; the ka'-los is only about 2 to 3 millimeters thick. The
Igorot distinguishes between the two very quickly, and prizes the
co-ong'-an at about twice the value of the ka'-los. Either is worth
a large price to-day in the central part of the area -- or from one
to two carabaos -- but it is quite impossible to purchase them even
at that price.
Gang'-sa music consists of two things -- rhythm and crude harmony. Its
rhythm is perfect, but though there is an appreciation of harmony as
is seen in the recognition of, we may say, the "tenor" and "bass"
tones of co-ong'-an and ka'-los, respectively, yet in the actual
music the harmony is lost sight of by the American.
In Bontoc the gang'-sa is held vertically in the hand by a cord passing
through two holes in the rim, and the cord usually has a human lower
jaw attached to facilitate the grip. As the instrument thus hangs
free in front of the player (always a man or boy) it is beaten on the
outer surface with a short padded stick like a miniature bass-drum
stick. There is no gang'-sa music without the accompanying dance,
and there is no dance unaccompanied by music. A gang'-sa or a tin
can put in the hands of an Igorot boy is always at once productive
of music and dance.
The rhythm of Igorot gang'-sa music is different from most primitive
music I have heard either in America or Luzon. The player beats 4/4
time, with the accent on the third beat. Though there may be twenty
gang'-sa in the dance circle a mile distant, yet the regular pulse
and beat of the third count is always the prominent feature of the
sound. The music is rapid, there being from fifty-eight to sixty full
4/4 counts per minute.
It is impossible for me to represent Igorot music, instrumental
or vocal, in any adequate manner, but I may convey a somewhat
clearer impression of the rhythm if I attempt to represent it
mathematically. It must be kept in mind that all the gang'-sa are
beaten regularly and in perfect time -- there is no such thing as
half notes.
The gang'-sa is struck at each italicized count, and each unitalicized
count represents a rest, the accent represents the accented beat
of the gang'-sa. The ka'-los is usually beaten without accent and
without rest. Its beats are 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1,
2, 3, 4; etc. The co-ong'-an is usually beaten with both accent and
rest. It is generally as follows: 1, 2, 3', 4; 1, 2, 3', 4; 1, 2,
3', 4; 1, 2, 3', 4; etc. Sometimes, however, only the first count
and again the first and second counts are struck on the individual
co-ong'-an, but there is no accent unless the third is struck. Thus
it is sometimes as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1,
2, 3, 4; etc.; and again 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2,
3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc. However, the impression the hearer receives
from a group of players is always of four rapid beats, the third one
being distinctly accented. A considerable volume of sound is produced
by the gang'-sa of the central part of the area; it may readily be
heard a mile, if beaten in the open air.
In pueblos toward the western part of the area, as in Balili, Alap,
and their neighbors, the instrument is played differently and the
sound carries only a few rods. Sometimes the player sits in very
un-Malayan manner, with legs stretched out before him, and places
the gang'-sa bottom up on his lap. He beats it with the flat of both
hands, producing the rhythmic pulse by a deadening or smothering of a
beat. Again the gang'-sa is held in the air, usually as high as the
face, and one or two soft beats, just a tinkle, of the 4/4 time are
struck on the inside of the gang'-sa by a small, light stick. Now
and then the player, after having thoroughly acquired the rhythm,
clutches the instrument under his arm for a half minute while he
continues his dance in perfect time and rhythm.
The lover's "jews'-harp," made both of bamboo and of brass, is found
throughout the Bontoc area. It is played near to and in the olag
wherein the sweetheart of the young man is at the time. The instrument,
called in Bontoc "ab-a'-fu," is apparently primitive Malayan, and is
found widespread in the south seas and Pacific Ocean.
The brass instrument, the only kind I ever saw in use except as
a semitoy in the hands of small boys, is from 2 to 3 inches in
length, and has a tongue, attached at one end, cut from the middle
of the narrow strip of metal. (The Igorot make the ab-a'-fu of
metal cartridges.) A cord is tied to the instrument at the end at
which the tongue is attached, and this the player jerks to vibrate
the tongue. The instrument is held at the mouth, is lightly clasped
between the lips, and, as the tongue vibrates, the player breathes a
low, soft tune through the instrument. One must needs get within 2 or
3 feet of the player to catch the music, but I must say after hearing
three or four men play by the half hour, that they produce tunes the
theme of which seems to me to bespeak a genuine musical taste.
I have seen a few crude bamboo flutes in the hands of young men,
but none were able to play them. I believe they are of Ilokano
introduction.
A long wooden drum, hollow and cannon-shaped, and often 3 feet and
more long and about 8 inches in diameter, is common in Benguet, and
is found in Lepanto, but is not found or known in Bontoc. A skin
stretched over the large end of the drum is beaten with the flat
of the hands to accompany the music of the metal drums or gang'-sa,
also played with the flat of the hands, as described, in pueblos near
the western border of Bontoc area.
Vocal music
The Igorot has vocal music, but in no way can I describe it -- to say
nothing of writing it. I tried repeatedly to write the words of the
songs, but failed even in that. The chief cause of failure is that the
words must be sung -- even the singers failed to repeat the songs word
after word as they repeat the words of their ordinary speech. There
are accents, rests, lengthened sounds, sounds suddenly cut short --
in fact, all sorts of vocal gymnastics that clearly defeated any
effort to "talk" the songs. I believe many of the songs are wordless;
they are mere vocalizations -- the "tra la la" of modern vocal music;
they may be the first efforts to sing.
I was told repeatedly that there are four classes of songs, and only
four. The mang-ay-u-weng', the laborer's song, is sung in the field
and trail. The mang-ay-yeng' is said to be the class of songs rendered
at all ceremonies, though I believe the doleful funeral songs are of
another class. The mang-ay-lu'-kay and the ting-ao' I know nothing
of except in name.
Most of the songs seem serious. I never heard a mother or other person
singing to a babe. However, boys and young men, friends with locked
arms or with arms over shoulders, often sing happy songs as they walk
along together. They often sing in "parts," and the music produced
by a tenor and a bass voice as they sing their parts in rhythm, and
with very apparent appreciation of harmony, is fascinating and often
very pleasing.
Dancing
The Bontoc Igorot dances in a circle, and he follows the circle
contraclockwise. There is no dancing without gang'-sa music, and it
is seldom that a man dances unless he plays a gang'-sa. The dance
step is slower than the beats on the gang'-sa; there is one complete
"step" to every full 4/4 count. At times the "step" is simply a
high-stepping slow run, really a springing prance. Again it is a
hitching movement with both feet close to the earth, and one foot
behind the other. The line of dancers, well shown in Pls. CXXXI, CLI,
and CLII, passes slowly around the circle, now and again following
the leader in a spiral movement toward the center of the circle and
then uncoiling backward from the center to the path. Now and again
the line moves rapidly for half the distance of the circumference,
and then slowly backs a short distance, and again it all but stops
while the men stoop forward and crouch stealthily along as though in
ambush, creeping on an enemy. In all this dancing there is perfect
rhythm in music and movements. There is no singing or even talking --
the dance is a serious but pleasurable pastime for those participating.
As is shown also by the illustrations, the women dance. They throw
their blankets about them and extend their arms, usually clutching
tobacco leaves in either hand -- which are offerings to the old men and
which some old man frequently passes among them and collects -- and
they dance with less movement of the feet than do the men. Generally
the toes scarcely leave the earth, though a few of the older women
invariably dance with a high movement and backward pawing of one foot
which throws the dust and gravel over all behind them. I have more than
once seen the dance circle a cloud of dust raised by one pawing woman,
and the people at the margin of the circle dodging the gravel thrown
back, yet they only laughed and left the woman to pursue her peculiar
and discomforting "step." The dancing women are generally immediately
outside the circle, and from them the rhythm spreads to the spectators
until a score of women are dancing on their toes where they stand
among the onlookers, and little girls everywhere are imitating their
mothers. The rhythmic music is fascinating, and one always feels out
of place standing stiff legged in heavy, hobnailed shoes among the
pulsating, rhythmic crowd. Now and again a woman dances between two
men of the line, forcing her way to the center of the circle. She is
usually more spectacular than those about the margin, and frequently
holds in her hand her camote stick or a ball of bark-fiber thread
which she has spun for making skirts. I once saw such a dancer carry
the long, heavy wooden pestle used in pounding out rice.
A few times I have seen men dance in the center of the circle somewhat
as the women do, but with more movement, with a balancing and tilting
of the body and especially of the arms, and with rapid trembling
and quivering of the hands. The most spectacular dance is that of
the man who dances in the circle brandishing a head-ax. He is shown
in Pls. CLII and CLIII. At all times his movements are in perfect
sympathy and rhythm with the music. He crouches around between the
dancers brandishing his ax, he deftly all but cuts off a hand here,
an arm or leg there, an ear yonder. He suddenly rushes forward and
grinningly feigns cutting off a man's head. He contorts himself in a
ludicrous yet often fiendish manner. This dance represents the height
of the dramatic as I have seen it in Igorot life. His is truly a
mimetic dance. His colleague with the spear and shield, who sometimes
dances on the outskirts of the circle, now charging a dancer and again
retreating, also produces a true mimetic and dramatic spectacle. This
is somewhat more than can be said of the dance of the women with the
camote sticks, pestles, and spun thread. The women in no way "act"
-- they simply purposely present the implements or products of their
labors, though in it all we see the real beginning of dramatic art.
Other areas, and other pueblos also, have different dances. In the
Benguet area the musicians sit on the earth and play the gang'-sa and
wooden drum while the dancers, a man and woman, pass back and forth
before them. Each dances independently, though the woman follows the
man. He is spectacular with from one to half a dozen blankets swinging
from his shoulders, arms, and hands.
Captain Chas. Nathorst, of Cervantes, has told me of a dance in
Lepanto, believed by him to be a funeral dance, in which men stand
abreast in a long line with arms on each other's shoulders. In this
position they drone and sway and occasionally paw the air with one
foot. There is little movement, and what there is is sluggish and
lifeless.
Games
Cockfighting is the Philippine sport. Almost everywhere the natives
of the Archipelago have cockfights and horse races on holidays and
Sundays. They are also greatly addicted to the sport of gambling. The
Bontoc Igorot has none of the common pastimes or games of chance. This
fact is remarkable, because the modern Malayan is such a gamester.
Only in toil, war, and numerous ceremonials does the Bontoc man work
off his superfluous and emotional energy. One might naturally expect
to find Jack a dull boy, but he is not. His daily round of toil
seems quite sufficient to keep the steady accumulation of energy at
a natural poise, and his head-hunting offers him the greatest game
of skill and chance which primitive man has invented.
Formalities
The Igorot has almost no formalities, the "etiquette" which one can
recognize as binding "form." When the American came to the Islands he
found the Christians exceedingly polite. The men always removed their
hats when they met him, the women always spoke respectfully, and some
tried to kiss his hand. Every house, its contents and occupants, to
which he might go was his to do with as he chose. Such characteristics,
however, seem not to belong to the primitive Malayan. The Igorot meets
you face to face and acts as though he considers himself your equal --
both you and he are men -- and he meets his fellows the same way.
When Igorot meet they do not greet each other with words, as most
modern people do. As an Igorot expressed it to me they are "all same
dog" when they meet. Sometimes, however, when they part, in passing
each other on the trial, one asks where the other is going.
The person with a load has the right of way in the trail, and others
stand aside as best they can.
There is commonly no greeting when a person comes to one's house,
nor is there a greeting between members of a family when one returns
home after an absence even of a week or more.
Children address their mothers as "I'-na," their word for mother,
and address their father as "A'-ma," their word for father. They do
this throughout life.
Igorot do not kiss or have other formal physical expression to show
affection between friends or relatives. Mothers do not kiss their
babes even.
The Igorot has no formal or common expression of thankfulness. Whatever
gratitude he feels must be taken for granted, as he never expresses
it in words.
When an Igorot desires to beckon a person to him he, in common with the
other Malayans of the Archipelago, extends his arm toward the person
with the hand held prone, not supine as is the custom in America,
and closes the hand, also giving a slight inward movement of the hand
at the wrist. This manner of beckoning is universal in Luzon.
The hand is almost never used to point a direction. Instead, the head
is extended in the direction indicated -- not with a nod, but with
a thrusting forward of the face and a protruding of the open lips;
it is a true lip gesture. I have seen it practically everywhere in
the Islands, among pagans, Mohammedans, and Christians.