The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 41

Furnaces for smelting copper.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Isinays (11).

A small tribe living in the northern part of Pangasinan, towards Mount Caraballo del Sur. They are now merged in the Pangasinanes, and have lost all distinctive customs.

Abacas (12).

A small tribe living about Caranglan in the South Caraballo. They were formerly fierce and warlike, but have been pacified and converted to Christianity. They had a separate language which has died out, and their customs are now those of the Christian natives.

Italones (13).

These people live in the south-west corner of Nueva Vizcaya, about the head-waters of the River Magat. They are numerous, and occupy many towns and villages, amongst them Bayombong, Dupax, Bambang, and Aritas. They were formerly warlike head-hunters, and are said to have devoured the hearts and brains of their slain enemies in order to inherit their courage and wisdom. This is a Chinese idea, and is even now practised in Canton, where pieces of the heart and liver of a particularly hardened and desperate criminal are retailed by the executioner at a high price for the above purpose. They wear their hair long like the Ilongotes. Their weapons were the lance, shield, or wood-knife, and in their customs and religion they resembled the Igorrotes. They were said to ornament the hilts of their swords with the teeth of their slain enemies. All these detestable customs have now disappeared; they have been converted to Christianity, and now are peaceful agriculturists and hunters. Game and fish abound; a telegraph line runs through their territory with a station at Bayombong. This is part of the line from Manila to Aparri.

Ibilaos (14).

These savages inhabit the hilly country about the sources of the River Casepuan, which, according to D'Almonte's map, is a tributary of the River Casiguran, which runs into the Bay of Baler; but, according to Olleros, is a tributary of the Rio Grande de Cagayan. However this may be, their habitat is on the borders of Nueva ecija and Nueva Vizcaya. Some of these people have been subjugated, but the others live a nomadic life in the mountain forests, and resemble the Negritos. Their pleasure is to lie in wait and shoot the pa.s.sers-by with their arrows. Like the Italones they are said to ornament their weapons with the teeth of the slain, and, like them, wear their hair long. The independent Ibilaos live by the chase, and on jungle produce, and do no cultivation. They are small of stature and weak. It is possible that they are a hybrid Negrito Malay race. Their bloodthirsty propensities make them a curse to their neighbours.

Ilongotes (15).

The Ilongotes inhabit the rocky fastnesses of the range of mountains on the east coast, called the Caraballo de Baler, the whole length of the Distrito del Principe, the north-east corner of Nueva Vizcaya and a strip of the southern part of Isabela.

Their neighbours on the east are the Negritos, who live along the sea-sh.o.r.e. These people are also their neighbours on the north, where they inhabit the mountains.

On the west they have the Ifugaos in the northerly part of their boundary, and civilised Indians of mixed races in the southern part. Their nearest neighbours to the south are some scattered Tagals.

Blumentritt describes them from a photograph lent him by Dr. A. B. Meyer, as having eyes long and deeply sunk, upper lip and chin hairy, the hair long plaited in a tail, and often reaching the hips. A Spanish authority describes them as similar to the other hillmen, but wearing long hair, and dirty and disagreeable in their aspect

Their dress is as primitive as that of the other savage races, the adult men wearing a band of beaten bark round the waist, the women wearing a tapis, and the children going quite naked. They wear rings or spirals of bra.s.s wire on their arms, necklaces, and other ornaments. But when the men have occasion to go into the Christian villages, they wear shirts and trousers. I have myself seen instances of this custom amongst the Tagbanuas in Palawan.

They are clever smiths and know how to temper their weapons. Their lances have different shaped heads, and the shafts are made of Palma Brava. Their swords are well-made and ornamented, and are carried in a wooden scabbard from a belt of webbing. This appears to be their favourite weapon. They never go unarmed, even for a few paces, and they sleep with their weapons beside them. Their shields are of light wood, carved, and painted red.

Their domestic life is not unlike that of the Christian natives, for they are not polygamists; they, however, are more careless and dirty. They purchase their wife from her parents. They subsist by hunting and fishing, and by cultivating rice, maize, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables. They grow tobacco, which they exchange for other goods with the Christian natives. They catch the wild carabaos in traps. They are ineradicably addicted to head-hunting, and wage a continual war with all their neighbours, but if an interval of peace occurs, they fight one family or clan against another, for they must have heads. The marriage ceremony cannot be completed till the bridegroom has presented the bride with some of these grisly trophies; heads of Christians for choice.

They signify war by placing arrows in the path and sprinkling blood upon it. Treaties of peace, or rather truces, are sometimes ratified by human sacrifices, and the ceremony of blood-brothership is practised.

They have few religious practices, although they believe in a Supreme Being, and in the ancestor-worship common to the country. The relatives a.s.semble to celebrate a birth by a feast. On the fifth day a name is given to the infant. They take care of the sick and endeavour to cure them with herbs, to which they ascribe medicinal virtues. If the patient dies, the relatives devour everything in the house in order to mitigate their grief, and they bury the corpse within twenty-four hours of death, placing some provisions upon the grave. From a statement in a Spanish official publication, the Ilongote dialect is spoken in two towns and twenty-two rancherias of Nueva Vizcaya, and in four rancherias in the district of Principe. This shows that at least on their western border they are now somewhat held in check. But the poor Negritos still have to suffer their incursions.

Mayoyaos and Silipanes (16).

These people are very numerous, and inhabit the north-west corner of Nueva Vizcaya, and the south-west corner of Isabela, between the Cordillera Central and the River Magat. For neighbours, they have on the east the Ifugaos, those deadly la.s.so-throwers; on the west, the Igorrotes are separated from them by the Cordillera; to the north they have the Gaddanes, and the Itetapanes, and to the south the Italones. In appearance, dress, arms and ornaments, they resemble the Igorrotes of Lepanto. The Ifugao language is spoken at the missions of Quiangan and Silipan, and in a large number of hamlets of these people. They were pacified and converted to Christianity about half a century ago, and are gradually improving in civilisation.

Ifugaos (17).

The Ifugaos, who bear a strong resemblance to the j.a.panese, inhabit a territory in central Nueva Vizcaya, and in the south of Isabela, mostly between the River Magat and the Rio Grande, but they have a great many hamlets on the left bank of the Magat. They cultivate rice, camote, and other crops, but prefer to live by robbery whenever possible. They are persistent head-hunters, frequently at war with the neighbouring tribes, or amongst themselves.

One notable peculiarity must be mentioned. Besides the lance, knife, and bow and arrows, they use the la.s.so, which they throw with great dexterity. Lurking near a trail, they cast the fatal coil over some unwary traveller, and promptly decapitate him, to add his skull to their collection, and decorate their hut.

It is their custom to wear as many rings in their ears as they have taken heads.

Major Galvez, after a skirmish with these people, found the corpse of one of their warriors who wore thirty-two death-rings in his ears.

Their religion is said to be after the style of the Igorrotes, and some other hill-tribes of Luzon. Their chief G.o.d Cabunian had two sons, Sumabit and Cabigat, and two daughters, Buingan and Daunguen, who married amongst themselves, and from them the human race is descended. Ancestor-worship is also practised. The Spaniards built and garrisoned a chain of forts in the Ifugao territory to keep them in order, and of late years their murderous incursions have been kept in check. It would require an enquiry on the spot to say whether there is any prospect of this tribe becoming civilised, and converted to Christianity.

Gaddanes (18).

The Gaddanes occupy the north-east quarter of Saltan and Bondoc, and their territory stretches over into Isabela in a south-easterly direction to the River Magat, thus bordering on the five-mile strip of Ibanag territory on the left bank of the Rio Grande. The upper part of the Rio Chico runs through their Saltan territory, and the River Libug through their Isabela territory.

In appearance they are darker than any other of the hillmen of Luzon. They are not as well built as the Igorrotes. They have round eyes, and large, flat noses. They are very dirty. Their houses are built on lofty piles, and the ladder is drawn up at night, or in war time. They are partly converted to Christianity, and are of a milder disposition than their neighbours.

Itetapanes (19).

These people live in Bontoc, almost the centre of Northern Luzon. On the west they have the Busaos Igorrotes, on the east the Gaddanes, to the north-west they have the Guinanes, and to the south the Mayoyaos. They are more like the Gaddanes than any other neighbours, especially in the eyes and hair, yet in other respects they are something like the Negritos in appearance, and much more so in their dispositions and customs, for it has not been possible to civilise them. Their arms are the same as the Busaos, and, like them, they wear a cylindrical shako, which they dye a brilliant red. They appear to be a hopeless race.

Guinanes (20).

These terrible neighbours of the peaceful Tinguianes inhabit both slopes of the Cordillera Central in Abra and Bontoc. They do not pa.s.s to the west of the River Abra, or its affluent, the Pusulguan.

On the south the Guinanes have the warlike Busaos, who are well able to defend themselves, and to retaliate on their aggressors. Consequently, the Tinguianes are the princ.i.p.al victims; in fact, some years back, they had no peace, and are not now free from danger.

The fame and respect enjoyed by a successful head-hunter is the great incentive to them to persevere in their sanguinary forays, which they conduct with the greatest cunning.

The return of the head-hunters to their village with their ghastly trophies is celebrated by prolonged and frantic orgies--feasting and drinking, singing war-songs, music and dancing. In fact, their rejoicings only differ in degree and intensity from those customary in Christian nations to celebrate the slaughter of their enemies.