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Almost never does a person pass from one pueblo to another alone, and commerce is the chief thing which causes the interpueblo communication. These groups of traveling merchants consist of from two or three persons to a dozen or more as in the case of the Samoki pottery sellers. Wages, and exchange of labor The woman receives the same wage as the man. There are two reasons why she should.
The clay pits lie north of Samoki, between a quarter and a half of a mile distant, and the potters go to them in the early morning while the earth is moist, and dig and bring home the clays. The woman gathers half a transportation basket of each of the clays, and while at the pits crudely works both together into balls 4 or 5 inches in diameter. In this form the clay is carried to the pueblo.
On the west coast the Ilokano men do a great deal of the spinning, but the Igorot man has not imitated them in the industry, though he has often seen them. Women are the sole potters of Samoki, and they alone transport and vend their wares to other pueblos. In the Mayinit salt industry only the woman tends the salt house, gathering the crude salt solution.
Samoki pottery meets no competition down the river to the north until in the vicinity of Bitwagan, which makes and vends similar ware both up and down the river. To the south there is also competition, since Data makes and sells an excellent pot to Antedao, Fidelisan, Sagada, Titipan, and other near-by pueblos.
It is also similar in shape and size to the woman's transportation basket in Benguet which is worn on the back supported by a headband. The woman has two important a'-nis bamboo transportation baskets, which are constantly employed. One called "lu'-wa," the shallow lower basket shown in Pl. LXXV, is made only in Samoki; the other tay-ya-an', shown in Pl. XCIII, holds about three pecks.
On the Samoki side of the valley during a week or so of the driest weather in May, 1903, there were four "well sweeps," each with a 5-gallon kerosene-oil can attached, operating nearly all day, pouring water from a canal into sementeras through 60 or 80 feet of small, wooden troughs. Turning the soil
I measured several gang'-sa in Bontoc and Samoki, and find the co-ong'-an about 5 millimeters thick, 52 to 55 millimeters deep, and from 330 to 360 millimeters in diameter; the ka'-los is only about 2 to 3 millimeters thick. The Igorot distinguishes between the two very quickly, and prizes the co-ong'-an at about twice the value of the ka'-los.
The man has another basket called "ko-chuk-kod'," which is used frequently by him, also sometimes by women, for carrying earth when building the sementeras. The ko-chuk-kod' is made in Bontoc and Samoki. It is not shown in any of the illustrations, but is quite similar to the tay-ya-an', or large transportation basket of the woman, yet is slimmer.
It is made only in Bontoc and Samoki. Ag-ka-win' is the small rump basket almost invariably worn by women when working in the irrigated sementera. It is of fi'-ka bamboo, is made commonly in Bontoc and Samoki, and occasionally in Tulubin.
It is probable, also, that Lias and Barlig, to the east, are supplied with pottery, and, if so, that their source is Bitwagan. But Bitwagan and Data pots are really not competitors with those of Samoki; they rather supply areas which the Samoki potters can not reach because of distance and the hostility of the people. There are no traditions clustering around pottery making in Samoki.
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