
THE MATERIAL SIDES OF LIFE 99 
bowls and spoons, looms, and the like. It is however 
rarely decorated; and the carvings of men and animals 
that occasional tribes make on their implements, or as 
figurines, are distinctly rude. The specific cause of this 
aesthetic poverty of woodwork may be the greater 
prevalence of technique developed in bamboo, which 
material lends itself naturally to incisions and etchings, 
but searcely to true carving. None of the idols of the 
Tagalog and Bisaya have been preserved, but they 
appear to have been roughly made, perhaps not 
materially superior in artistic quality to those carved of 
porous fern root or stem by the modern Igorot tribes. 
Animal skins, whether of the deer, wild boar, or 
domestic buffalo, are very little used by the Filipinos, 
and a proper tanning or dressing art can scarcely be 
said to exist. 
Pottery. Pottery shares the just mentioned quali- 
ties. It is made almost universally, but is rarely orna- 
mented, and usually strictly utilitarian. The original 
type is represented among the Bontok and the Subanun 
in Luzon and Mindanao. The clay is pulverized, mois- 
tened, and beaten or kneaded, without tempering 
material other than perhaps chopped grass. A lump 
is indented with the fist, and the hole pushed out from 
within, the other hand modeling the exterior or piecing 
on to the margin. The Tinggian work the clay while 
revolving it on a winnowing basket set on the ground. 
It is not clear whether this device is aboriginal or a 
degenerate potter’s wheel imitated from the Christian 
llokano. The final shaping is done with a paddle that 
taps the outer surface while a smooth stone is held 
inside. Baking is in the open air, without a kiln, 
in a fire of dung, wood, or pine bark. The Bontok 
woman applies a resin to the red hot vessel, which pro- 
duces a lustrous coating and renders the walls less - 
porous. It is not a true glaze. 

