The Bontoc Igorot

The Bontoc Igorot occupy about thirty villages in the mountain districts of Northwestern Luzon. The whole territory is very precipitous, the forest scanty, and game and fish insufficient to support a large population. As a result the people have been forced to take up agriculture. In places this amounts only to the breaking of the soil, and planting of sweet potatoes and mountain rice, but near each settlement will be seen extensive rice terraces. These are produced by raising a stone wall on the mountain side, behind which the slope is cut away, and filled in until a step or terrace is made. At the back of this another wall is built, and so the fields rise, step above step, far up the mountain side. Water is conducted to the fields by means of flumes and ditches, while fertalizer is carried to them frequently. In this manner crops are producedsufficient to supply the population, and to put by a surplus against bad years. In addition to their highly developed agriculture, the Bontoc Igorot are excellent workers in iron and steel, and on their primitive forges turn out well tempered spears, head axes and knives; they are also conversant with the art of casting copper. the villages are generally of considerable size, and consist of compact clusters of houses which, from a distance, resemble hay stacks. One or two elevated rooms are constructed within the overhanging grass roof, but the real living quarters are on the ground. At the back of the house is a long narrow, pine box, with closely fitting door, in which the husband, wife, and children sleep at night. A town is divided into atos - political and exogamic divisions - each with its men's house and girl's dormitory, in which all the single members of the group reside until marriage. the system of trial marriage prevails and a permanent union seldom takes place until the irth of the child is assured. Until recent years, the men have been ardent head hunters, and the chief ambition of each youth was to wear tattoo marks which distinguish him as a successful warrior. The basis of Igorot religion is a belief in the spirit world. Wis own dead as well as spirits which have existed through all time, are always hear at hand ready to aid or injure the living. These he constantly entreats, seeks to appease, or in some cases threatens, in order to obtain their aid, or at least to keep them from doing him or his family injury.