170 THE .IM1:HI('.1.\ MI'SKIM .lOlllSAL 



factors of soil and altitude, suiisliiiic ami iiioistiifc, not only tlic licrcditary 

 tendencies of the Ha^oho had a share in pfodiicing their rich and \aricd 

 arts: another contributing element was the simple stanflard of living that 

 satisfied them and thus left them free to follow their icsthetic interests. 

 When one can stc]) out, cut down a l>anil)oo tree, split it lengthwise, and tie 

 together the sections with rattan to make the house floor, and then sew 

 palm leaves in lengths for the wall: when the furniture of that house con- 

 sists of a loom, a family altar, a lien's nest, and three stones for a stove — 

 then, other things being equal, there may come about an economic situation 

 in which the whole tribe becomes a leisure class, to the extent that although 

 e\eryl)()dy has to work yet every woman and every man has time to give 

 play to artistic iin])ulses. There, grouped in their mountain \illages, fairly 

 isolated from the con(|uests of Islam, merely grazed by Spanish ei\ ilizatiou. 

 the Hagobo people evoK'ed their eidture: they worked and played and 

 worshipped and created beauty in rhythmic response to tlieir environment — 

 on, through the long centuries, until the shock of the American occupation 

 changed their life, when the demands of labor set \\\) strange standards of 

 conduct, when the breaking uj) of mountain homes made lia\(»c of arts and 

 customs which had so slowly and so harmoniously developed. 



\ rX v\vn now some excellent handiwork is done. The arts of the women 

 — basketry, weaxing, dyeing — hold their ground the longest. Particularly 

 in weaving, where the Bagobo woman has attained a high skill in technique, 

 there she continues to produce the classic patterns that she learned from 

 her mother and from her grandmother. I-'rom time out of mind men 

 stripped hemjj, and women wo\e it into skirts and jackets and trousers. 

 The Hagobo songs and ancient tales contain many references to the work 

 of the weaver and to the beautifid textiles. In southern ^lindanao the 

 hemp industry grew up naturally enough: nowhere in the world is there a 

 climate better fitted to the needs of hemj:), for there is contimied warmth 

 without excessive heat, and gentle daily showers furnish a natural irrigation 

 throughout the entire year. That decorative art should lia\e found its 

 fidlest expression in the products of the loom does not seem remarkable to 

 atiyone who looks at tlu' freshly stripped fibre from the stalk of the hemp — 

 creamy-white, glistening, strong, pliable; the mere handling makes the 

 manual process a pleasure, and stinnilates the woman artist to experiment 

 with this or that new motive. 



The more complex figures are made liy tying the warp before the weav- 

 ing. The hemp fibre is stretched on a long frame of bamboo, and then to 

 make lier pattern the woman ai'tist picks out a cluster of strands at \arying 

 intervals: four strands here, seven there, two groups of strands near together, 

 two others widely separated, and each cluster she l)inds and knots with short 



