﻿486 The Philippine Journal of Science i9H 



All Igorots have tapuy in their houses; it is for them a kind of a 

 household god; they always have tapuy set aside for drinking purposes, 

 and no matter how much they have on hand it is sometimes drunk 

 up in one day, because when the Igorots gather together and sit around 

 in the shade without having anything to do, and they just feel [like drink- 

 ing] it, they go from one house to another to hunt for tapuy, and when 

 they find some, although the owner may be absent, they drink it all 

 without regard to what the owner might say upon his return. When 

 the owner returns and finds his tapuy gone, he can't say anything, 

 because it is their custom to do so. (Plate II, fig. 2.) 



SUPERSTITIONS OF THE IGOROTS WHEN GOING AWAY FROM HOME 



When an Igorot goes anywhere and a bird of any kind flies across 

 the trail ahead of him he discontinues his journey because it predicts 

 a failure of his purpose or he might get into trouble; but, if he insists 

 on going ahead in order to avoid delay, he must stop for about a half 

 an hour right at the place where the bird crossed the trail, or else 

 he must return to his home and make a new start. 



IGOROT CUSTOMS 



The Igorots have a custom of going to sit nearly every day in a high 

 place from where all the trails and roads leading to the town can be 

 plainly seen ; ra there they do nothing but clean themselves of their head 

 and body lice (coto, head louse; toma, body louse) ; one Igorot cleans 

 the head of another and so on. While sitting around that way they do 

 also some simple work, such as making baskets, which are called taddo, 

 balloco, lab'ba, etc. 53 In each of the barrios there is a little house called 



"Alonso Martin Quirante (Blair and Robertson, ut supra, 20, 269) 

 says: "Their settlements are established on the peaks of the mountains, 

 and oh the roughest of them, whence afar off they can see all the 

 paths, so that no one can approach them without being seen by their 

 sentinels, who always guard their posts day and night." 



58 Labba is the term employed by the Uocanos for the large carrying 

 basket. The following information was furnished by the Bureau of 

 Education in Manila. "Relative to Lepanto-Igorot basketry in general 

 the following information can be given. Nearly all Igorot baskets are 

 made entirely of rattan. Other materials, such as nito, are sometimes 

 used in decoration. The rattan may be dyed black, red, or yellow for 

 decoration. Two methods of construction are used: binding and braiding. 

 The former is most common. It implies the employment of rather strong 

 strips bound together by smaller pliable strips. By this method rigidity, 

 beauty, and any desired shape can be secured. Large tampipis, vase- 

 shaped storage and carrying baskets, and small trinket baskets of all 

 kinds are made by this method. Baskets made by the latter method 

 are pliable and not so pleasing to the eye. They are made entirely of 

 narrow pliable strips braided together. Winnowing trays and rude carry- 

 ing baskets are the principal products of this method.'' The following 

 note was furnished by Dr. Merton L. Miller of the Bureau of Science: 

 "In the Philippine museum all the basketry from Benguet and Lepanto 

 is grouped together as there is very little, if any, difference between 

 the basketry of the two subprovinces. It consists of carrying baskets: 



