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Much of the iron now employed in the manufacture of Igorot weapons is Chinese bar iron coming from China to the Islands at Candon, in Ilokos Sur. However, the people readily make weapons from any iron they may acquire, greatly preferring the scraps of broken Chinese cast-iron pots, vessels purchased primarily for making sugar.
The other, the one most commonly traveled to Bontoc, passes to the northwest, terminating on the coast at Candon, in the Province of Ilokos Sur. The main trail, entering Bontoc from Cervantes, passes through the pueblo and extends to the northeast, quite closely following the trend of the Chico River.
In April at two different times twelve loads of Candon salt passed eastward through Bontoc on the shoulders of Tukukan men, but during the rainy season and the busy planting and harvesting months Mayinit salt supplies a large demand. In Bontoc and Samoki there are about one hundred and fifty gold earrings which came from the gold-producing country about Suyak, Lepanto Province.
There are probably not more than two or three dozen such boilers in Bontoc pueblo, though they are becoming much more plentiful during the past three years since the Igorot has more money and goes more often to Candon on the coast, where he buys them. Pottery Most of the pottery consumed in the Bontoc area is the product of Samoki, the sister pueblo of Bontoc.
It is commonly claimed that those of the Moro are made on the Asiatic mainland. It is my opinion that the Bontoc gong, or gang'-sa, originates in China, though perhaps it is not now imported directly from there. It certainly does not enter the Island of Luzon at Manila, or Candon in Ilokos Sur, and, it is said, not at Vigan, also in Ilokos Sur.
Candon, the coast terminus of the main trail, lies in the coastal plain area about 4 1/4 miles from the sea. From the coast to the small pueblo of Concepcion at the western base of the Cordillera Central is a half-day's journey. The first half of the trail passes over flat land, with here and there small pueblos surrounded by rice sementeras. There are almost no forests.
It does not go far north of Mayinit, or go at all regularly far west, because those pueblos within access of the China Sea coast buy salt evaporated from sea water by the Ilokano of Candon.
From Agawa the trail crosses the mountains, keeping its general southwest course. It turns westward at the Rio Balasian, which it follows to Ankiling on the Rio del Abra. The route is then along the main road to Candon on the coast via Salcedo.
Many travelers who pass that part of the journey in the middle of the day complain loudly of the heat and thirst experienced there. Cervantes, said to be 70 miles from Candon, is the capital of the dual Province of Lepanto-Bontoc. Bontoc pueblo lies inland only about 35 miles farther, but the greater part of two days is usually required to reach it.
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