i82 Field Museum of Natural History Anth., Vol. XII. 



Below the bagani in rank come the warriors, a class which includes 

 practically all the able-bodied free men; and still below them are the 

 slaves. Slavery was an ancient institution with this people when the 

 Spaniards first visited their country, and it has continued to flourish 

 up to the present, in all districts a little removed from the influence 

 of the white man. The great majority of slaves are secured by capture, 

 but until recent years the Moro of the coast have carried on a lucrative 

 slave trade with this tribe. Girls and women become members of 

 their master's household, but their children are treated as slaves. 

 Captive boys and men aid their masters in the chase and in the fields, 

 and in most cases it would be hard indeed for a stranger to pick servant 

 from master. Sometimes the people of a neighboring village ransom 

 one of their fellows and in such a case the freed slave may return to his 

 old home or he may become a free member of the community in which 

 he has been serving. 



DWELLINGS 



The insecurity of life resulting from the conditions described has 

 caused the people to build their homes high in the branches of trees, 

 often so situated on the edge of cliffs that they can be approached only 

 from one direction (Plates LXXIII-LXXIV). 



Two sorts of dwellings are commonly seen. Of these, the rudest 

 rest on the limbs of trees, and conform in size and shape to the nature 

 of the supporting branches. Some few houses of this kind have 

 horizontal sides and sloping roofs, but more frequently a roof which 

 slopes directly from a central ridge pole to the edges of the platform 

 does away with the necessity of side walls. 



The second and more common type of house is shown in Plate 

 LXXIV. Here the top of the tree has been cut off some fifteen or 

 twenty feet above the ground leaving a stump to serve as a part of the 

 foundation. Many smaller poles help support the floor and then extend 

 upward to form the wall and roof stays. The upper flooring of beaten 

 bark rests on cross-beams which have been lashed to the uprights. 

 Above it are occasional horizontal poles, forming a skeleton to which 

 the walls of nipa palm are fastened. In some houses two or three of 

 the foundation poles extend above the floor to such a height that they 

 are used as the supports for the ridge pole. In others true king posts 

 rest on the beams, which in turn are supported by the corner poles. 

 From the ridge a number of smaller rods extend to or project out over 

 the side walls, and on them rests the roofing of nipa palm. A space 

 of several inches often intervenes between the roof and the side walls. 



