United States or Japan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The rain hat of the Bontoc man is coated with beeswax coming in trade from Barlig, as does also the clear and pure resin used by the women of Samoki in glazing their pots. Towns to the east of Bontoc, such as Tukukan, Sakasakan, and Tinglayan, grow tobacco which passes westward in trade from town to town nearly, if not quite, through the Province of Lepanto.
Samoki ware seldom passes as far east as Sakasakan, only four or five hours distant, because similar ware is made in Bituagan, which supplies not only Sakasakan but the pueblos farther up the river. There are supposed to be between 280 and 290 families dwelling in Bontoc, and, at a conservative estimate, each family has eight fangas.
Fowl catching is an art she never learned to follow, although two or three of her boys annually catch half a dozen chickens each. The surrounding pueblos, as Tukukan, Sakasakan, Mayinit, and Maligkong, secure every year in the neighborhood of fifty to one hundred fowl each.
In the district of Bontoc there was a Spanish post at Sagada, between the two capitals, Bontoc and Cervantes. Farther to the east was a post at Tukukan and Sakasakan, and farther east, at Basao, there was a post, a church, and a priest. Most of the pueblos had Ilokano presidentes. The Igorot say that the Spaniards did little for them except to shoot them.
There is a formal way of breaking the peace between two pueblos: Should ato Somowan of Bontoc, for instance, wish to break her peace with Sakasakan she holds a ceremonial meeting, called "men-pa-kel'." In this meeting the old men freely speak their minds; and when all matters are settled a messenger departs for Sakasakan bearing a battle-ax or spear the customary token of war with all these Bontoc peoples.
Mayinit, the salt-producing pueblo, has her outlet on the main trail via Bontoc, but she also passes eastward to the main trail at Sakasakan, going through Baliwang, the battle-ax pueblo. She has no outlet to the north. Trade languages and traders Since the commerce is to-day nearly all interpueblo, the common language of the Igorot is used almost exclusively in trade.
'Did Sakasakan? asked the boys all was as before. They went over a list of towns at enmity with Bontoc, but there was no answer given them. At last they asked, 'Did the Moon? but still there was no answer. 'Did the Sun? the boys asked, and suddenly the piece of pork slid from the stick into the basi. And this was the way Lumawig had said a person should know who took his father's head.
The old men counseled together, and at last one of them said: 'Lumawig told the old men of the past, so the old men last dead told me, that should any son find his father beheaded, he should do this: He should ask, "Who took my father's head? Did Tukukan take it? Did Sakasakan take it?" and Lumawig said, 'He shall know who took his father's head.
Word Of The Day