Guade, Ifugao go-between and priest

Guade, Ifugao go-between and priest

A Negrito shack

A Negrito shack

Often a Negrito’s dwelling is the merest mockery of a house. This is an unusually good one, since it has a thatched roof. Often the roof is no more than a few curled banana leaves and the dwelling without walls of any kind. At the side of the door are seen two or three bows. The Negrito puts into making his bow and arrows all the pains that he neglects to put into the construction of his house.

Pure-blood Negrito and American

Pure-blood Negrito and American

The height of the American is 5 feet 9½ inches. Many of the Negritos are of mixed blood and consequently the average height of the tribe is above what one would expect to find in a tribe of dwarf blacks. These wiry little men are at home in the tropical jungle. Slipping through it noiselessly and speedily on their quest for game or on missions of vengeance, they inspire no little fear in their neighbors. The Ifugaos have quite poignant traditions of the time when the Negritos lived in the surrounding forests. To this day in the general welfare ceremonials, they call a deity that is a Negrito spirit, and address him as follows: “We also are Negritos. Do not shoot us with your bow and arrow. Shoot our enemies instead because we are all Negritos together.”

Benguet Igorot woman

Benguet Igorot woman

The Benguet Igorots live to the south of the Ifugao. Notice that the hair is banged over the forehead.

A Benguet girl of the better class

A Benguet girl of the better class

The Benguet and Lepanto women are the only women of the mountain tribes that habitually wear a garment above the waist.

Lepanto Women

Lepanto Women

Among the Lepanto the upper garment is frequently padded with rags and patched and repatched until it becomes “a coat of many colors.” The women are stocky and hardy. They do a greater portion of the work than do the women of other tribes.

A Bontoc Man

A Bontoc Man

The Bontoc tattoo is exceedingly elaborate. Neither a man nor a woman may be tattooed except when a successful head-hunting expedition has returned to the village or ward.

A Bontoc Girl

A Bontoc Girl

The saucy, undomesticated expression of the face is characteristic of the Bontoc Igorot. To describe with a single word the dispositions of the three upper mountain tribes of northern Luzon, it could be said that the Kalinga is a rake, the Bontoc a dare-devil, and the Ifugao a mystic.

Bontoc Houses

Bontoc Houses

The room proper of the Bontoc house is above the level of the eaves. It rests on piles. It is used only as a granary and storeroom. Beneath this room and protected from the inclemency of the weather by two or three planks on each side the family cooks and eats. At one corner of this space beneath the house proper is a tight box in which husband, wife, and baby, if there be one, sleep. The other children sleep in the dormitories of the unmarried.

Note the sweet-potato patches all about the house. Sharpened reeds are stuck up in these to impale the serpent eagle should he swoop down upon the chickens.

A Kalinga Man and Woman

A Kalinga Man and Woman

Note the red flowers above the man’s ears, the feathers in his hair, and the gong which is held by a jawbone taken from an enemy’s head. The woman’s ear-ornaments and the spangles on her skirt are mother-of-pearl. Around her wrists are wrapped strand upon strand of beads. The Kalingas are the wealthiest of the mountain tribes and the fondest of ornaments.

A Lepanto village

A Lepanto village

This village is on the border line between Bontoc and Lepanto. Igorots of both these tribes live in large compact villages and have a rudimentary political organization. The Ifugaos, on the other hand, live in very small villages or in isolated groups of two or three houses and have not even a vestige of political organization.

Ifugao of Pinduangan Village

Ifugao of Pinduangan Village

Ifugao of Umbul Village

Ifugao of Umbul Village

Patikwal, a strong character, famous in the whole region as a go-between and as a priest.

Ifugao of Pinduangan Village

Ifugao of Pinduangan Village

According to Ifugao custom, Kuyapi must wear his hair long because he has not avenged the death of his father. The coming of the Americans prevented this vengeance.

Three Ifugao Belles

Three Ifugao Belles

A Tattooed Ifugao of Kababuyan District

A Tattooed Ifugao of Kababuyan District

The following conventional tattoo patterns may be distinguished. The dog, eagle, centipede (running up from each breast), scorpion, lightning (zigzag), shield.

An Ifugao House

An Ifugao House

This is one of the best houses built by a Philippine population. Note the fenders on the piles to prevent ingress of rats. The house is so constructed that its very weight holds the frame together.

Kiangan Valley. Looking East

Kiangan Valley. Looking East

This valley is not hemmed in by such steep mountains as most other districts of Ifugao. The view is surpassingly beautiful, combining as it does the rugged mountain ranges, the fields and huts—the work of man—and the palms and feathery bamboos in the foreground. The picture illustrates a feature that bears out the statement made in the text as to the Ifugao’s skill as a mountain agriculturist. Note the fields in the right foreground. The hive-shaped hummocks comprise the superior six inches of the field’s soil. This soil has been heaped up by the women working with their bare hands in order that it may be aËrated and the decomposition of partially decayed vegetable matter completed.

Hunduan Valley, Ifugao

Hunduan Valley, Ifugao

Asin Valley, Ifugao

Asin Valley, Ifugao

Although this valley does not make so striking a panorama as does the Benaue valley, the view is really even more magnificent. From the river to the top of the terraced area one may count 110 rows of terraces.

A Picturesque Nook in Hunduan, Ifugao

A Picturesque Nook in Hunduan, Ifugao

Note that the height of the terrace walls usually exceeds the width of the fields. This is very frequently the case throughout Ifugao-land.

Planting Time, Kiangan

Planting Time, Kiangan

Young rice plants are taken from the seed beds and transplanted in the field. Women do most of this work, since their hands are nimbler than men’s. The men do most of the work of preparing the fields.

Preparation for Ifugao hagabi Ceremony

Preparation for Ifugao hagabi Ceremony

The hagabi, or lounging bench, is the rich man’s insignia of rank. The rice is thrown into the air for the poor to scramble for.

Ifugao Mother and Child

Ifugao Mother and Child

This picture shows how the Ifugaos carry their babies. The oban blanket with which the child is held on the back is of great importance in cases of illegitimate birth, since its gift by the father to the mother constitutes a recognition of the child.

Two Ifugaos Dressed for the Cock-fight Dance

Two Ifugaos Dressed for the Cock-fight Dance

The man on the left has recently killed an enemy. About his neck he wears a string of crocodile teeth. In his costume may be discerned suggestions of the cock’s comb, his wings, and his tail. The two men are about to perform a mimic dance, in which one, representing a full-grown cock, overcomes the other, representing a half-grown cock. Priests near by pray that the warriors of their village may be like unto the full-grown cock.

Ifugao Priests at a Head-taking Ceremony

Ifugao Priests at a Head-taking Ceremony

Priests are reciting myths and invocations against the enemy during the progress of the cock-fight dance.

Funeral Procession of a Slain Ifugao

Funeral Procession of a Slain Ifugao

This is one of the most stupendous spectacles that the life of a barbarian people has to offer. The front of the shields is striped with zigzag white lines. The processions are often a mile long and 1000 or even 2000 people frequently take part in them. The men wear gaudy head-dresses, women’s beads, and strips of white fiber about the legs and arms. The participants dance along their way, turning from one side to the other. Viewed from a distance, one of these processions as it dances slowly along on a rice-field dike looks like nothing so much as a gigantic, squirming centipede.

Body of Murdered Ifugao Girl

Body of Murdered Ifugao Girl

In one hand she holds a knife, in the other a spear. Corpses of the murdered are always propped up against a house pile—never put in a death chair, as are corpses of those dead from natural causes. The corpse, too, is neglected in order to make the soul angry and incline it to vengeance.

Ifugao Hot-water Ordeal

Ifugao Hot-water Ordeal

One of the participants is dipping his hand into the pot of boiling water. His party stands beside him, spears pointed toward the earth. The other member and his party are on the other side of the pot. The go-between squats directly back of the pot.

An Ifugao Fine

An Ifugao Fine

Note the 8 rice-wine jars, the knives and spears, the 2 pigs, the 6 rude cages containing chickens, the 8 copper pots, the 2 coats (formerly part of the uniform of American soldiers), the baskets and dishes.

Participants in Ifugao uyauwe Ceremony

Participants in Ifugao uyauwe Ceremony

The boy and girl in the center have been recently married and are being elevated to the rank of kadangyang, or wealthy. The boy carries a cock hanging from his belt, the girl a hen in her hand. The men and women are kindred of the boy and girl.

Ifugao Corpse in the Death Chair

Ifugao Corpse in the Death Chair

When a person of kadangyang rank is placed in the death chair he is dressed in the costume of that rank. These bodies are sometimes kept in the chair for as many as 13 or 15 days. At the right of the picture may be seen the monwahiwa (primitive undertaker), whose business it is to care for the body and finally to carry it on his shoulders to the sepulchre on the mountain side. For these services he receives a very trifling compensation. Note that the treatment of the bodies of those dead from natural causes is very different from the treatment of the bodies of the murdered or those dead by violence. The former are shown great care and respect; the latter are neglected and bereft of the usual dignities of death.