David P. Barrows

“ For the last fortnight the people have been clearing in the jungle for sementeras.4 I wish you might hear the sweet melody of the songs of boys and women at work in the clearings, songs sung to the spirits of the trees and for good crops. Ilongot society is much simpler than that of the Igorote; there is little if any of what may be called village life. ”

“ An Ilongot once said to me “A man may during his life take three, four or even five heads, but he must take one, and that before he marries. This head he carries to the relations of his intended wife to prove that his heart and body are strong to defend her.” Furthermore, after the palay harvest each year the bundles of unthreshed rice or palay are neatly piled into a stack about a tall stake which is set up in the “kaingin.” Then, for some ungodly reason, a human head is very desirable to place on top of this pole. ”

“ One peculiarity of the face is noticeable: it narrows rapidly from the cheek bones to the chin, giving the face a pentagonal shape. The color may be a little lighter than in the Igorot, who is more exposed to sunlight than the Ilongot of the forest, and it is much lighter than in the Negrito, but by no means light enough to justify any likeness to either white or Mongol races. [375]
In these people we have, I am quite sure, a mixture of primitive Malayan and Negrito, with more Negrito than in the case of the Igorot. ”

“ In persons of mixed Negrito-Malayan blood the hair, if left uncut, grows into a great wavy or frizzly mop standing up well from the head.
The Negrito is seldom prognathous, nor is the lower part of his face excessively developed. His profile and features on the whole are comely and pleasing, especially in the pure type, which is less “scrawny” than in mixed individuals. The body, too, is shapely [362] and the proportions good, except that the head appears a little large, the legs too short, and the arms, as above noted, excessively long. ”

“ The term Igorot is used to include all the wild, headhunting, mountain-dwelling peoples of the great cordillera of Luzon, a region some two hundred miles in length by forty across. This mountain area is divisible into regions wherein the culture, physical type, and language of the inhabitants are homogeneous or nearly so. These regions, in reports made some years ago on the wild tribes of the Philippines, I have called “culture areas,” and they may serve, in the absence of the tribal relation, as the basis of classification. ”

“ This is a condition similar to what we find in Negrito speech, where, with a preponderance of terms occurring in Malayan languages, are often a number of totally distinct and usually eccentric words and sounds.
Finally, it is manifest that the Ilongot are a problem to the government of the islands. What is to be done with such people as these? They can not be allowed to continue, as they have done, to harass and murder the peaceful population of Nueva Ecija, northern Pangasinan and Nueva Vizcaya. Some means must be found to restrain them. Humanity does not permit their extermination. ”

“ The great trees are girdled, men ascend their smooth clean trunks a hundred feet or more and daringly lop away their branches and stems that the life of the tree may be destroyed and the sunlight be admitted to the earth below. ”

“ The culture of the Igorot has been greatly modified and advanced by the rigors of his habitat, but it is Malayan at base, as are the languages which he speaks. Except in one or two localities where there has been recent mixture with the still existing Negrito he does not make use of the bow and arrow, which are Negrito weapons, but uses the shield and spear for close fighting and the jungle knife or an interesting modification, the “headax,” for both fighting and work. ”

“ The descriptive characters were much the same as for the Benguet group. There was occasional marked supraorbital development, retreating chin, and prognathism.
Two of the men deserve special remark. One was the very small fellow—a true pigmy (1413 mm.) . He was named “Mokyao” and was born in Wagan. He suggested the Negrito in stature, in arm-reach (65 mm. in excess of stature) , in nasal index (125) , and in the slightly wavy quality of his hair. ”

“ Both men and women wear the long rattan waist belt wound many times about the loins with clouts and skirts of beaten bark cloth. The men also use a curious rain hat not unlike a fireman’s helmet, made of rattan and deerskin, the light frame neatly decorated with carving, and a deerskin rain coat to cover their backs in the dripping forest. ”

“ The wavy hair on head, face and limbs strongly suggests the Negrito.
The most considerable body of Ilongot appears to be those living east of the towns of Nueva Vizcaya from Mount Palali south, along a high-wooded range to the district of “Biruk,” nearly east of Karanglan. [529] Here are some important occupied sites that go by the names of Kampote, Kanatwan, Kanadem, Makebengat, Oyao and Biruk, as well as others. Homes are shifted from time to time as new clearings have to be made, and the name of a community’s home will vary and can not always be relied on. ”

“ This work of social development, here as in a thousand similar places in the Philippines, will be best done by the American teacher, but the task is inviting only to the man in whom the spirit of youth and adventure and fascination with human problems runs strong. ”

“ From this comparison I think we may assert that in the mountain people of the southern half of the cordillera of Luzon we have [372] a very short, long-armed, muscular race of dark brown color varying to saffron, with coarse black hair that is usually straight but in Bontok is sometimes wavy, and in Kiangan regularly so, full lips, retreating chin, flat, broad noses rounding at the end and deeply depressed at the root, with an extraordinarily high nasal index, and heads that have great variation in shape but are usually mesaticephalic or brachycephalic. ”

“ In May, 1909, the writer, accompanied by Lieutenant Coon and six native soldiers, reached a small community of Ilongot east of Pantabangan, called “Patakgao.” This community seemed to be composed of renegades and outlaws from several other communities. Certainly their hand was against every man. They were charged by a small group of Ilongot living near Pantabangan with the murder of two of their number a few weeks earlier and they themselves professed to be harried and persecuted by unfriendly Ilongot to the north and east of them. ”

“ They are fast being absorbed by the Manobo, who join their communities and intermarry with them. In a little village called Kicharao in the forest near Lake Mainit are Mamanua men married to Manobo women and Manobo men married to Mamanua women, the children of these unions sometimes presenting Negroid and sometimes Malayan characters. The opportunity to observe the immediate results of mixture between two different races is very unusual. Naturally this group is of mixed race, some individuals looking like pure Negritos and from this type varying all the way to primitive Malayan. ”

“ Most of these are not characteristics of the ordinary forest Malayan; on the contrary, they suggest the Negrito, and occasion the belief, in my own mind, that the Ilongot is, like many other peoples of the Philippines and Malaysia, a mixed race resulting from the union of Negrito and Malayan.
From what has already been said it is apparent that in Ilongot society we have a most rudimentary stage of political development. There is no tribe. There is no chieftainship. ”

“ The muscular development of these men is very strong, robust, or “stocky.” The skin color is coffee brown with saffron undertone, lighter on trunk. Their hair is coarse and in nearly every case straight, in one case only being slightly wavy. The hair is usually scant on the body and about the face, but two men have relatively hairy bodies and legs. The eye in some cases appears to be oblique. The ear in every case is attached and normal. The chin is retreating and in one case the face is somewhat prognathic. ”

“ This is especially true of the Manobo of the lower waters of the river Agusan. I have no measurements of these people, but the appearance of nearly every individual in their communities is Negritic rather than Malayan. The stature is very low and frail, hair black and wavy to frizzly, features negroid, and behavior that of the pacified Negrito. Similar characters, though in a less marked degree, display themselves among the tribes southward and about the gulf of Davao. There is no doubt that there is a large amount of absorbed Negrito stock in the pagan peoples of all this great island. ”

“ Why might their ancestors or those of others not have lived in such in ages past and left evidences of an earlier culture? Many Ifugao burials are in sepulchres on mountain sides and the practise is no doubt very old. Places like these and those of rock shelters in other lands have given fruitful results and might they not in these islands?6 I am having a pleasant time with these people. They are the wildest of any people that I have yet come across in Luzon. But like all wild people, they are cordial and hospitable. ”

“ The people of Patakgao since my visit have accepted an invitation, then made, to send their young men and boys to the barrio of San Juan, a village in the mountains back of Pantabangan, where a school is conducted and where several of these youth are now living in charge of a native man in whom the Ilongot have confidence. ”

“ The height of these men presents a wider variation, as would be expected in the larger number (1601 to 1437) , but the mean and the general results are the same. The head index is brachycephalic except in the case of three, and all are platyrhinian, or nearly so, except one. Thus in these Ilongot we have a short race, even shorter than the Igorot, brachycephalic and platyrhinian. Their hair is wavy, except when it is curly. It is usually worn long. The face is occasionally hairy; a few individuals have been seen with sparse but quite long, curly beards. ”

“ Few communities have as many as twenty houses or 200 souls; the most are isolated groups of four or five married couples and their immediate relations. The harsh nature of their country, unsanitary life, occasional epidemics and most of all their perpetual warfare contribute toward their diminution rather than their increase.
A Young Woman of Oyao, Nueva Vizcaya.
Photograph taken in 1904.
Like other primitive Malayan people who live in the forest, the Ilongot support life by cultivating a forest clearing or “kaingin.” ”

“ They appear to the eye to be more slender and handsomely built, with finer features, especially in the case of the Tinggian. I am of opinion, however, that these dissimilarities are apparent rather than real, and that measurements and careful observation will demonstrate unity of physical type throughout the entire cordillera. This unity does not refer of course to manner of dressing the hair, ornamentation, artificial deformations, etc., in which there is wide variation. The ethnological origin of these Igorot peoples is at first very puzzling. They are obviously not typical Malayans. ”

“ These people are wilder than the Igorrotes. We made friends at the beginning and the friendship has grown wider and stronger every succeeding day. I have a shack high up on poles where I dwell with great comfort. And plenty of food is to be had always; wild hog and venison in the jungle on either side of the river ”

“ And yet, in the face of what would seem to be the obvious and natural supposition that the Sakay is a half-breed of the Semang and Jakun, our authors, following Professor Rudolf Martin [376] (Die Inlandstämme der malayischen Halbinsel) , discover in the Sakay a distinct race of wholly different origin from the Semang and Jakun—but allied to the Veddahs of Ceylon! This seems to me to be creating a far-fetched theory where none is necessary. ”

“ They stated that prayer is a frequent observance; that they prayed when some one is sick or injured. “When an animal is killed we pray before cutting up the animal,” and as stated above prayer is offered before the dangerous ascent of trees. ”

“ For most of these reports there is no foundation. My experience with this people is limited to two visits to two different communities, in 1902 to a group in the jurisdiction of Nueva Vizcaya and in 1909 to a community in the mountains back of Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija. On the first visit measurements and notes were made of four men and three women. Their stature was found to be as follows:
The average stature of these men was 1535, a little less than the average stature of Igorot, and so a very short human height. ”

“ Their homes are in thick mountain jungle where it is difficult to follow them, but, from time to time they steal out of the forests to fall upon the wayfarer or resident of the valley and leave him a beheaded and dismembered corpse. ”

“ On September 29th of the same year, at Wagan, a small town in Kayapa, I measured fifteen Igorot of that town and of Losod. Eight were women and seven were men. The measurements and indices of these follow: [367]
The mean stature (1550) and the average (1526) were a little higher than in Benguet. In every case the arm-reach exceeded the height. The shape of head in men and women shows a wide variation. Seven are brachycephalic and seven are mesaticephalic while one is dolichocephalic (73.2) . The nasal index varies from 84 to 140—a truly astonishing series of noses! ”

“ At Patakgao I was shown some beautiful long [531] pieces of the rattan an inch and a half in diameter with elaborately woven loops at the ends. These are swung from one tree top to another and serve as passage-ways for the men at work. To cross they stand on the slack cable, one hand grasping it on each side, and so, crouching, pass along it at a height above the ground of 80 to 100 feet. ”

“ They are of a markedly pure type. While it is usual to find Negrito communities considerably affected by Malayan blood, in this case I doubt if there is more than a single individual who is not of pure Negrito race. ”