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Updated: May 10, 2025
Outside the pueblo, along certain trails, there are simple structures also called "fa'-wi," shelters where parties halt for feasts, etc., while on various ceremonial journeys. The fa'-wi and pa-ba-fu'-nan of each a'-to are near together, and in five they are under the same roof, though there is no doorway for intercommunication.
The pa-ba-fu'-nan is the home of the various a'-to ceremonials. It is sacred to the men of the a'-to, and on no occasion do the women or girls enter it. All boys from 3 or 4 years of age and all men who have no wives sleep nightly in the pa-ba-fu'-nan or in the fa'-wi.
It is to the tops of these posts that the enemy's head is attached when a victorious warrior returns to his a'-to. Both the roofed and court sections are paved with stone, and large stones are also arranged around the sides of the court, some more or less elevated as seats; they are worn smooth and shiny by generations of use. In the center of the court is the smoldering remains of a fire.
The explanation of the obscurity of Chakong in the minds of the Igorot seems to be that the a'-to ceremonial is more important than the a'-to council that the emotional and not the mental is held uppermost, that the people of Bontoc flow together through feeling better than they drive together through cold force or control.
In Sagada, Agawa, Takong, and near-by pueblos the a'-to is said to be known as dap'-ay; and in Balili and Alap both names are known. The pueblo must be studied entirely through the a'-to. It is only an aggregate of which the various a'-to are the units, and all the pueblo life there is is due to the similarity of interests of the several a'-to.
It has its public buildings; has a separate governing council which makes peace, challenges to war, and accepts or rejects war challenges, and it formally releases and adopts men who change residence from one a'-to to another.
Border a'-to Fa-tay'-yan seems to be developing an offspring a new a'-to; a part of it, the southwestern border part, is now known as "Tang-e-ao'." It is disclaimed as a separate a'-to, yet it has a distinctive name, and possesses some of the marks of an independent a'-to. In due time it will doubtless become such.
What was said of the pa-ba-fu'-nan as a social center is equally true of the fa'-wi; each is the lounging place of men and boys, and the dormitory of unmarried males. In Samoki each of the eight a'-to has only one public building, and that is known simply as "a'-to."
Some are old and blackened; others are all but gone a short stump being all that projects above the earth. The tops of some posts are rudely carved to represent a human head; on the tops of others, as in a'-to Lowingan and Sipaat, there are stones which strikingly resemble human skulls.
The pa-ba-fu'-nan is the man's club by day, and the unmarried man's dormitory by night, and, as such, it is the social center for all men of the a'-to, and it harbors at night all men visiting from other pueblos. Each a'-to, except Chakong, has a pa-ba-fu'-nan. When the men of Chakong were building theirs they met the pueblo of Sadanga in combat, and one of the builders lost his head to Sadanga.
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