April 19, 1906] 



NATURE 



58; 



settlement of Bontoc is divided into thirteen wards 

 or political divisions, called ato ; each has its separate 

 governing council, which can declare war or make 

 peace. Each ato contains three kinds of buildings : — 

 (1) public edifices, fawi and pabafituan, for men and 



boys; (2) similar houses, ola, for girls and young 

 women before their permanent marriage; and (3) 

 private houses, afong, for families and widows. The 

 pabafunan is the home of the various ato ceremonies, 

 and is sacred to the male sex; it is the men's club bv 

 day and the unmarried men's dormitory; the fawi is 

 the council house, and as such is frequented mainly 

 by old men ; it is also the skull-house. Dr. Jenks 

 adds a note on the distribution of similar club-houses 

 in Eastern Asia and in Oceania. The olag is the 

 dormitory of the girls from the age of two years until 

 they marry, and where they receive their lovers. The 

 afong is the only primitive dwelling in the Philip- 

 pines which is built on the ground, but it contains a 

 small upper storey, and often an attic over this; these 

 an- used as store-rooms for cereals. The clothes, 

 ornaments, tattooing utensils, weapons, and the like 

 are described and figured. Of great interest are the 

 accounts of the ordinary domestic operations, especially 

 those connected with the cultivation of rice and the 

 regulation of irrigation; the rules seem to be framed 

 with common-sense, and the people appear to be 

 sufficiently law-abiding. The hill-sides are elaborately 

 terraced ; the author doubts whether this art has been 

 borrowed from the Chinese, and inclines to the view 

 that it is indigenous to the East Indian Archipelago, 

 having spread northwards to Japan. Various plants 

 an- cultivated, but rice is the most important vege- 

 table product, and in consequence most of the re- 

 ligious ceremonies are in connection with this crop, 

 and take place at stated occasions from seed-sow in- 

 to the close of the harvest. Also associated with the 

 importance of rice in the social economy is the 

 employment of palay, the unthreshed rice, as a 

 medium of exchange, and a measure of exchange 

 value, for articles bought and sold. Palay is at all 

 times a good currency; it is always in demand, being 

 the staple food; it keeps eight or ten years without 

 NO 1905 VOL. J$~\ 



deterioration; it is portable and infinitely divisible; 

 it is of very stable value, and cannot be counter- 

 feited. Certain villages have special commodities, 

 which are made or produced in superfluity for pur- 

 poses of barter, such as pots, cloths, -alt, pigs. The 

 Igorot has as clear a conception of the relative value 

 of two things bartered as has the civilised man when 

 he lm\s or sells with money; but whatever he trades, 

 be it a five-cent block of Mayinit salt or seventy-dollar 

 carabao (buffalo), the worth of the article is always 

 calculated on the basis of its value in palay, even 

 though the payment is in money. The standard of 

 value ol the palay currency is the handful- a small 

 bunch of palay tied up immediately below the heads 

 of -tain ; it is about 1 foot long, half head and half 

 straw. On the whole, there is great uniformity in 

 the size of the handful. 



The forces of nature are personified in the person 

 ol the only god known to the Igorot. He instituted 

 the club-houses and gave rules of conduct, telling 

 people not to lie or steal, and to have but one wife; 

 the home should be kept pure, and all men dwell as 

 brothers. 



Enough has been said to show the importance of 

 this work, which deals in a fairly thorough manner 

 with a people about whom nothing was previously 

 known, and who have lived their lives uncontaminated 

 1>\ foreign influence. Dr. Jenks candidly admits that 

 the time .at his disposal was insufficient to exhaust 

 the subject, and we can only hope that the work so 

 well begun will be thoroughly completed ere long. 

 The Igorot community seems a very favourable one 

 for an exhaustive sociological study. It would be 

 very desirable for an investigator to make an ex- 

 haustive census of each ato, recording the whole 

 genealogies of each family, according to the method 

 introduced by Dr. Rivers; by this means accurate 

 information could be obtained concerning- the real 

 nature of these wards, the reason for the social and 

 family functions of certain individuals would be made 

 clear, and the system of kinship and the regulation of 

 marriage would be demonstrated. 



On a previous occasion we have referred to the 

 memoir on the Negritos of Zamb.ales, by Mr. \Y. A. 

 Reed, which contains a large number of excellent 

 plates illustrating the general appearance and some 

 of the occupations of these very interesting and primi- 





live people. The Negritos were, without doubt, the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines, and they 

 and their congeners in the Malay Peninsula, and in 

 the Andamans, are the relics of one of the most 

 archaic of human stocks. This can only be regarded 



