A TYPICAL IFUGAO RICE PADDY WALL, SHOWING vSTEPS USED IN ASCENDING TO 

 TERRACES ABOVE ( SEE PAGE 882) 



Ifugao who had lost his head. He was 

 borne to his grave on his shield, which 

 was suspended from a pole by means of 

 rattans. The shield had been split in the 

 fight which cost him his life. His body 

 was covered with gaping wounds. 



The mourners followed in single file, 

 the men carrying black shields with zig- 

 zag white marks painted on them. An 

 old man at the head of the column beat 

 a series of tattoos on a piece of resonant 

 wood. The other men repeated his per- 

 formances exactly, in each case drum- 

 ming on their shields with pieces of wood. 

 When the open grave was reached the 

 body was deposited on the ground. The 

 neighbors shouted to the spirit of the 

 dead man, asking him why he had been 

 careless enough to get himself killed, and 

 why he had left his poor old mother and 



a house full of rice and tobacco. Even 

 the gray-headed mother herself berated 

 her careless son. Presently the men 

 produced a death blanket, in which they 

 chopped holes with their war-knives, at 

 the same time assuring the dead man that 

 they would serve his enemies as they 

 were serving the blanket. The blanket 

 was then used to bind his hands and 

 arms against his body, which was then 

 promptly buried, the site of the grave 

 being marked with white head-dresses 

 which had been worn to the funeral and 

 which were tied in a bunch to a pole 

 placed over the mouth of the grave. 



THE BONTOC IGOROTS 



The Bontoc Igorots inhabit a subprov- 

 ince in central northern Luzon which 

 bears the name of the tribe. Thev num- 



893 



