416 The Tinguian 



axes, spear-heads, adzes, a few knives, and the metal ends for the 

 spear-shafts are the principal products of the forge. 



The blades are by no means of equal temper or perfection, but the 

 smiths of the Tinguian-Kalinga border villages seldom turn out poor 

 weapons, and as a result, their spears and head-axes have a wide distri- 

 bution over northwestern Luzon. 



In view of the wide distribution of this type of forge and method 

 of iron-working; of its persistence in isolated communities, while it 

 has vanished from the coast, or has been superseded by the Chinese 

 methods of work ; as well as of other details here described, the writer 

 is of the opinion that the art has not been introduced into the Philip- 

 pines through trade, but is a possession which many or all of the tribes 

 brought with them from their ancient home, probably somewhere in 

 southeastern Asia. The effects of trade, in historic times, are evident 

 throughout the Christianized regions, in Chinese and European forges 

 and in foreign types of utensils. Likewise the influence of the Moham- 

 medanized tribes is very marked in the Sulu archipelago, the western 

 coasts of Mindanao, and even among many of the pagan tribes of 

 that island, but the isolated forges throughout Malaysia and the 

 methods described by early explorers in this field, are practically 

 identical with those just reviewed. 



Spinning and Weaving. — That cotton (kapas) was being raised 

 and the fibre spun into cloth at the time of the Spanish occupation of 

 the Islands, is amply proved by many references in the early chronicles. 

 Also there was a considerable trade in cotton, silk, and the like, carried 

 on by the Chinese and the Brunei Moro. 1 



The weaving industry seems to have reached its height in the 

 Ilocos provinces, where the processes of ginning, carding, spinning, and 

 weaving were, for the most part, identical with those found in Borneo, 

 Java, the Malay Peninsula, Burma, and a large part of India. 2 The 

 same methods and utensils are used among the Tinguian, but side by 

 side with the more complicated devices, such as the ginning machine 

 and spinning wheel, are found more simple contrivances ; so it would 



1 Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands, Vol. II, pp. 116, 207; Vol. 

 Ill, pp. 203, 270; Vol. IV, p. 98; Vol. V, p. 145; Vol. VIII, p. 84; Vol. XII, 

 p. 187; Vol. XVI, p. 106. Zuniga, Estadismo (Retana's edition), Vol. II, 

 pp. 41, 04. 



2 Foreman, The Philippine Islands, p. 361 (London, 1892); Bezmer, Door 

 Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, p. 308 (Groningen, 1906) ; Skeat, Man, Vol. I. 1901, 

 p. 178; Raffles, History of Java, 2d ed., Vol. I, p. 186 (London, 1830) ; Bren- 

 don (Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. X, No. 82, pp. 17, et seq.). 



