THE IFUGAOS OF QUINGAN AND VICINITY. 255 



delay to pay their debts. The whole load, therefore^, goes to the orphans, 

 who have to pass nearly all their lives sweating blood in the Christian 

 towns to pay for the numberless buffaloes which are demanded of them, 

 as well as the pullets and hogs which their parents spent on their stupid 

 practices. 



Wlien I was at the mission of Quiangan a young fellow came to tell 

 me that he was going down to the towns. "What do you go to seek 

 there?" I asked. "I go to work in order to pay my debts, because if 

 I do not do it I fear that they may kill me or sell me." "What debts 

 are these?" "The debts that my father contracted when he was sick, 

 for the fowls and the hogs which he spent in order to be cured." "It 

 is a hard matter that you should have to pay for the caprice of your 

 father." "It is our custom." "And how much do you have to pay?" 

 "I do not know exactly; every one is after me and I reckon that it will 

 be a matter of 40 carabaos." Many years ago this young fellow went 

 down to the town. He has worked harder than a negro, he has paid 

 many of his debts; at the same time incurring others as the result of 

 following the customs and ijractices of his people. Although he should 

 die an old man, he could never pay them all. So it is that the rich 

 hold the poor enslaved. 



In other districts further in the interior of the mountaiiis, and extend- 

 ing to Japao,' in which, on account of the distance, the Ifugaos can not 

 or dare not go to the towns and earn money for paying their debts, a 

 few sweet potatoes, a quart of rice, or a fowl are frequently the cause 

 of the selling of the debtor or his children as slaves. A hundred of 

 them go to Isabela every year, and there they are bought or sold secretly 

 for a hundred dollars, or a carabao or two, each. Therefore, the value 

 of a few sweet potatoes, a handful of rice, or a pullet, ascends to a hun- 

 dred dollars plus a carabao, and, what is more, to the value of a man. 

 The usurers, who, in order to count a dozen have to make use of their 

 fingers and, when the number passes ten, to sit down in order to count 

 their toes, do not lose the count of the chickens which they lend, nor of 

 a single sweet potato. 



Ibung, January 31, 1879. 



Fr. Juan Villa vekde. 



ADDENDUM. 



Captain L. E. Case, of the Philippines Constabulary, who was stationed 

 for a number of years at Banaue, furnishes the following interesting 

 account of the story told him by an old Ifugao to explain the prevalence 

 of the custom of head-hunting among his people : 



' Sapao. 



