88 BULLETIN 137^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Mrs. M. C. Cole writes that " all Bagobo warriors are under the 

 special protection of two spirits, Mandarangan and his wife, Darago, 

 who dwell in the fissures of Mount Apo. They bring success in 

 battle and give to the victors loot and slaves, but in return for these 

 favors they demand at certain times the sacrifice of a human being. 

 The Government is trying to persuade these spirits to accept a pig 

 in place of a human life. Near the coast they are willing to do so, 

 but they are more particular in the less accessible places. Datu 

 Tongkaling claims to have killed more than 30 of his enemies in fair 

 fight and to have assisted in an even greater number of human 

 sacrifices." 



As with most primitive peoples, attacks are made only when some 

 advantage will accrue to the attacker. Ambushes of various sorts 

 are devised. At such times no distinction is made between the 

 able-bodied fighting members of the tribe and the children or the 

 old people. A head is a head, regardless. Head-hunting was for- 

 merly as widely distributed as the Malayan ethnic stock, from the 

 Nages of Assam across the Sunda Islands to the Moluccas and the 

 Philippines. Certain symbols in the clothing of the Nagas indicate 

 the number of captured heads ; on the Mentawi Islands bodily tattoo 

 marks increase with the accumulation of human heads. In certain 

 areas in Luzon when a new family dwelling is to be constructed 

 human sacrifices are in order, enemy heads are selected and buried 

 under the foundation posts. This custom was formerly practiced by 

 the Batak, but more recently pieces of red cloth came to be sub- 

 stituted for the bloody heads. Among some tribes the captured heads 

 are artificially prepared and are hung up in the young men's dormi- 

 tories. 



Elsewhere in the Philippine Islands tribal units were always 

 small and feuds were petty and continuous. Here, again, the rugged 

 character of the terrain, especially in northern Luzon and in Pala- 

 wan and in Mindoro, sufficed to keep the small political or tribal 

 units from uniting. Often the local feuds and combats degener- 

 ated into a purely family undertaking. Among the Ifugao of 

 northern central Luzon, who dwell south and east of the Bontok 

 Igorot and northeast of the Benguet Igorot, not even the authority 

 of headmen was recognized. The population, however, is here espe- 

 cially dense, totaling over 100,000, and the density to the square 

 mile is that of an industrial rather than an agricultural district. 

 Although the system of law worked out by the Ifugao is remark- 

 able, the lack of competent authority leads to perpetual feuds. The 

 individual or family suffering the affront must seek its own revenge. 

 If their retaliation should take the form of an excess numl^er of 

 deaths meted out to their adversarj'^, their act may lead to addi- 



