THE IFUGAOS OF QUINGAN AND VICINITY. 241 



pieces of cloth from which they make their skirts and a sort of jacket 

 without sleeves which they wear in the cold season. (Plate IX, fig. 1.) 

 The Ifugaos eat with the spoon in distinction from the natives of the 

 plain who eat with their fingers. They carve the spoons sometimes 

 with very objectionable figures in relief (Plate X) ; so also they carve 

 roughly the images of their false divinities (Plate X). 



For their work in the fields they are accustomed to gather in groups 

 of six, ten, or even twenty individuals, all relatives or friends, who work 

 one day for one and the next for another; the one for whom they work 

 furnishing food for all. The most influential get laborers by paying 

 them in hens, chickens and rice, the food being at the expense of the 

 one who manages them. They exchange, also in the same way, in their 

 small bnyings, sellings and other operations indispensable for life. I 

 must not omit to state that the Ifugaos of Quiangan even buy wood, 

 because all the little neighboring forests are private property. On the 

 occasion of marriages and deaths, and at various other times, they hold 

 frequent reunions in which they eat the flesh of fowls, hogs and cara^ 

 baos (the latter old and coming from the Christian towns) with the 

 indispensable accompaniment of drunkenness caused by a drink made of 

 water and rice boiled a little, and left to ferment; a very bad drink 

 because it causes a rabid drunkenness, a source of very many mis- 

 fortunes.^ 



2n"0bles and plebeians. 



I have already said that the Ifugaos have no king, nor ruler. They 

 pay tribute to no one. Each one is the absolute monarch of his house 

 and person, and although this individual liberty is one of the principal . 

 causes of their miserable and almost anarchical state, it is certain that 

 it is one of their most dominant passions. But although this is so, 

 nevertheless there is among them a certain class of nobles who exercise 

 in greater or less degree prestige and moral authority over those re- 

 garded as plebeians. This class is founded on the power of riches, 

 receiving greater respect if the rich man has acquired a reputation for 

 bravery by killing people and cutting off heads. It makes no difference 

 if he has employed treachery to this end, for dishonesty and meanness, 



' Curiously enough. Padre Juan has failed to make any mention of the dancing 

 which is so important a part of all these celebrations. The music is supplied by 

 gansa players, usually three in number who may stand close to the dancers but 

 more frequently are half hidden among the spectators who gather in a dense circle 

 about the performers. (Plate XI.) The dancers usually move in a circle, in 

 single file. Several men or several women commonly dance at one time, although 

 mixed groups of dancers are by no means uncommon. Ifugao dancers not only keep 

 perfect time to the music with their feet, moving forward as well, but spread 

 the arms, indulging in much flexing of the arms and wrists and moving of the 

 hands. (Plate VIII, fig. I.) (Dean C. Worcester.) 



