572 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
bark. The joists are not selected for fitting to the posts as supports, 
but are roughly held in place by the forked heads of the posts.” You 
notice also that the rafters are not mortised but are merely crossed 
and fastened by bamboo binders. The tie-beams are fastened in the 
same way. The ridge, nothing more than the mere laying together 
of some narrow strips, is covered with a bamboo mat extending 
down, about 18 inches on eacheside of the roof. 
At Bolo I first observed how the Lolos weave their mantles and 
their leggings. I asked the chief’s daughter, who had charge of this 
kind of work, to show me the implements for spinning and weaving. 
The spindle was a thin rod with a little disk in the center serving as 
a grasp for the fingers. One of the ends of the spindle was length- 
ened with iron to a point for attaching the mass of wool. The thread 
that was made was very coarse. The loom consists of three or four 
rods or stretchers for intercrossing the threads and a large wooden 
plate or blade for the underweaving. It was the primitive of primi- 
tives, without balancing apparatus, properly speaking, with neither 
“harness” nor ‘‘comb.” The threads constituting the warp are 
brought together in a bundle at a stake driven in the ground. 
T also saw them make a thread garment, in the meshes of which are 
worked fibers of the palm, Trachycarpus excelsa. This is the Lolo’s 
mackintosh, the cape that he needs while guarding his sheep in rainy 
weather. The overlapping of the fibers is so effectively done that 
the surface offers no chance for water to settle in it, and heavy drops 
of rain run off without penetrating it at all. It is really a very 
original kind of waterproof. 
PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
The Lolos are, as a whole, a vigorous and healthy race. Living as 
they do in the high mountains, where they are exposed to extremes 
of temperature, with mild days and icy nights, in miserable shelters, 
natural selection has played and still plays an important réle in 
this group of humanity. The weak do not survive, they quickly 
disappear. 
Giving to their fields only the minimum of time needful, and 
being occupied mostly with their cattle and in hunting for wild 
animals, the Lolos practically pass all their lives outdoors. They 
leave home in the morning to return only at nightfall. The steep 
slopes of the mountains and the abrupt sides of the plateaus cut into 
deep ravines make walking very difficult, so that this people have 
acquired an extreme suppleness of muscles, the agility of a deer. So 
also their favorite habit of the raid and the feud, the circuitous tramp 
required, keep the men in constant activity, developing a vigor and 
endurance rare in any other race, even the most warlike on the earth. 
