
THE MATERIAL SIDES OF LIFE 109 
because the islands seem to be naturally poor in iron 
ores. The mineral has been worked in Bulacan, but the 
mining here appears to be entirely post-Spanish. In 
Borneo, on the other hand, even the interior tribes 
mine and smelt iron ore, so that the industry is likely 
to have a considerable antiquity. The Filipino smith 
always remained dependent on importation of his raw 
material, and in this sense his entire industry may be 
described as a parasitic one. 
The plan of working is much the same among all the 
mountain tribes, and was no doubt followed in very 
similar form by the ancient~lagalog and Bisaya. The 
bar or ingot of metal is heated in a charcoal fire into 
which air is pumped from a bellows working in two or 
four bamboo cylinders. It is beaten with stone ham- 
mers, and the art of tempering by plunging into water is 
understood. In this way are made swords or battle 
axes, knives, the points or edges of agricultural imple- 
ments, and the like. Contrary to the custom of Africa, 
where a similar iron technique prevails, the metal is 
scarcely used for ornaments in the Philippines, in all 
likelihood because the trade that brought in the raw 
material also introduced brass. The African not only 
works his iron, but extracts it, so that his industry, 
whatever its origin, is long since a self-sufficient home 
institution. | 
The fine steel blades, often chased or inlaid with other 
metals, which are so conspicuous in ethnological collec- 
tions from the Philippines, are almost wholly the work 
of the Moros; in fact in part probably of non-Filipino 
Mohammedans in the islands farther west. Such weap- 
ons as the pagan tribes possess in this excellent work- 
manship—for instance, the Bagobo—are obtained from 
the Moros, or are made in inferior imitation of them. 
This is corroborated by the fact that in Luzon, and in 
