United States or Tunisia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


The root of the nose is often flat and the bridge concave; while wavy hair becomes the rule in the mountains. There is a slight decrease, in the Tinguian groups, of eyes showing the Mongolian fold, but in the Apayao the percentage again equals that of the Ilocano.

To-day the forges of the Bontoc Igorot, of the Tinguian-Kalinga border villages, and of Apayao, are turning out superior weapons, but elsewhere in the northwestern districts the pagan people have either lost the art, or make only very inferior articles.

Agsimao and other towns of the Tineg group, in the extreme northern end of Abra, are made up chiefly of Apayao mixed with Kalinga, while all the villages on the headwaters of the Binongan have received emigrants from the Kagayan side. The population of the towns properly classed as Tinguian is approximately twenty thousand individuals.

A punitive expedition, led by the same officer, afterward met with some success, but American popularity suffered in consequence. The Apayao country is the only sub-province under a native Governor, and its Governor, Señor Blas Villamor, is the only Filipino that has ever shown any interest in or sympathy for the highlanders.

"During the insurrection Lieutenant Gilmore, of the United States Navy, and his fellow-captives were taken into the southern part of it and there abandoned." "So far as is known, no white man had ever penetrated the southern and central portions of Apayao until" Mr. Worcester, suitably accompanied and escorted, crossed the Cordillera, in 1906, from North Ilokos.

Worcester into the Apayao country if he had asked us; but it is practically trailless as yet, and for a party as large as ours would have been, questions of supply and transportation would have been difficult, to say nothing of the impolicy of taking a large number into the country at all. And so, on Saturday morning, May 14th, we shook hands with Mr. Worcester and his companions.

Considering, for the moment, the Bontoc Igorot and the Tinguian, it is found that both have certain elements of culture which are doubtless old possessions, as, for instance, head-hunting, terraced rice-fields, iron-working, a peculiar type of shield, and a battle-axe which they share with the Apayao of Luzon and the Naga of Assam.

And what is said here of the Ifugao is true also of the Ilongot, the Igorot, the Kalinga, the Apayao, and of all the rest of the head-hunting highlanders of Northern Luzon. The results accomplished by Mr. Worcester with all these people simply exceed belief. But this subject, being worthy of more than passing mention, will be considered later.

The average index of the Apayao also falls in the latter classification; but the variation from Igorot is greater than is indicated, for the Apayao skull is actually considerably shorter and narrower. The bodily appearance of the Tinguian and Bontoc Igorot differs little, although the latter are generally of a slightly heavier build.

With the others it is a matter of vengeance, or else even of sport. "On the other hand, the people of Apayao have many good qualities. They are physically well-developed and are quite cleanly. They erect beautifully constructed houses. Their women are well clothed, and both men and women love handsome ornaments.