396 The Tinguian 



to again subject the rice culture to careful scrutiny, in the hope that it 

 may afford some clue as to the source from which it spread into this 

 region. It is possible that the Tinguian may have brought it with them 

 from their early home, which may be supposed to have been in south- 

 eastern Asia ; they may have acquired it through contact with Chinese 

 or Japanese traders, or through commercial relations with the islands 

 to the south ; or again it may have developed locally in the Tinguian, 

 Igorot, and Ifugao territory. 



It should be noted at the outset that highly developed terrace cul- 

 tivation is found in Japan and China to the north ; in parts of Borneo, 

 in the Nias archipelago, in Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumatra, Burma, and 

 India proper, and it is probable that all within this broad belt developed 

 from a single origin. 



When we compare the construction of Igorot and Tinguian ter- 

 races and the methods of irrigation, we find them quite similar, 

 although those of the former are somewhat superior and of much 

 greater extent. The planting of the seed rice and the breaking of the 

 soil in the high fields are also much alike, but here the resemblances 

 cease. In the lower fields, the Tinguian employ the carabao, together 

 with the plow and harrow ; the Igorot do not. The Igorot fertilize their 

 fields, the Tinguian never. In harvesting, the Tinguian make use of 

 a peculiar crescent-shaped blade to cut the stalk, the Igorot pull each 

 head off separately. The Tinguian and Ilocano granaries are of a 

 distinctive type radically different from the Igorot, while the methods 

 of thrashing in the two groups are entirely different. Finally, the cere- 

 monial observances of the Tinguian, so far as the rice is concerned, 

 are much more extensive and intricate than have been described for 

 the Igorot. In a like manner there are many striking differences 

 between the methods or handling the grain by the Tinguian and 

 those found in Japan and China. On the other hand, when we come to 

 compare the rice culture of this region with the islands to the south, the 

 similarities are very striking. The short description given by Marsden 

 for Sumatra 1 would, with a few modifications, apply to the situation 

 in Abra. The use of the plow and harrow drawn by carabao is found 

 in Java and Sumatra ; the common reaping knife of both these islands 

 is identical with the Tinguian, although there is a slight difference in 

 the way it is utilized ; the peculiar type of granary found in Abra 

 again appears in Sumatra, while the Tinguian ceremonial acts as- 



1 History of Sumatra, pp. 65, et seq. 



