100 GIBBS AND AGCAOILI. 
reason, considered very probable, is that the sugar-cane was crushed in the 
month of March. 
Jenks * has noted that basi is made by the Bontoc Igorots. He describes 
the process as follows: 
“The Bontoc man makes his ba-si in December. He boils the expressed 
juice of the sugar cane about six hours, at which time he puts into it a 
handful of vegetable ferment obtained from a tree called ‘tub-fig’.’ This 
vegetable ferment is gathered from the tree as a flower or young fruit; 
it is dried and stored in the dwelling for future use. The brewed liquid 
is poured into a large olla, the flat-bottom variety called ‘fu-o-foy” manu- 
factured expressly for ba-si, and then is tightly covered and set away 
in the granary. In five days the ferment has worked sufficiently, and the 
beverage, may be drunk. It remains good about four months, for during 
the fifth or sixth month it turns very acid. 
“Ba-si is manufactured by the men alone. Tukukan and Titipan manu- 
facture it to sell to other pueblos; it is sold for about half a peso per 
gallon. It is drunk quite a good deal during the year, though mostly on 
ceremonial occasions. Men frequently carry a small amount of it with 
them to the sementeras when they guard them against the wild hogs 
during the long nights. They say it helps to keep them warm. One 
glass of ba-si will intoxicate a person not accustomed to drink it, though 
the Igorot who uses it habitually may drink two or three glasses before 
intoxication. Usually a man drinks only a few swallows of it at a time, 
and I never saw an Igorot intoxicated except during some ceremony and 
then not more than a dozen in several months. Women never drink ba-si.” 
EXPERIMENTAL. 
Three of the samples analyzed were collected by one of us 
(Ageaoili) in Piddig and one was secured by the Bureau of 
Internal Revenue, at Batak, both in the Province of Ilocos Norte. 
When judged by the taste, these samples were all considered 
very good. 
The analytical methods followed were those of the Association 
of Official Agricultural Chemists, except in the determination of 
esters, aldehydes, and fusel oil. These were made by Mr. Holmes 
of the Bureau of Science according to the methods previously 
described.?® f 
TABLE I.—Analyses of basi. 
Den- | Alco- | Total Nitro- | Sugars aaa a 
Source and age of sample. sity. hal saitGls: Ash. gen. Gane Seine 
tic. 
| Sample from Piddig; age 1 year________ 0.9990 } 11.61 3.39 0.41 0.03 0.43 | 0.62 
| Sample from Piddig; age 2 years_______ 0.9930 | 13.34 2.46 0. 52 0. 02 0.19} 0.45 
| Sample from Piddig; age 3 years_______ 0.9949 | 12.49 2.46 0.37 0. 04 0.17} 0.39 
| Sample from Batak; age 3 years _______ 0.9906 | 16.24 2.29 0.54} 0.16 0.18 | 0.42 
| ! i i 
® While the total acids are not acetic, this expression is merely used for the sake of com- 
parison. 
* Pub. Phil. Ethnol. Surv. (1905), 1, 144. 
* This Journal, Sec. A (1910), 5, 23. 
