SS 

114 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
gold. This occurs in many of the islands, in fact on 
all the larger ones; never in great quantity, but suffi- 
cient to repay its extraction by a people whose labor 
possesses no great economic value. The gold was ob- 
tained both in placers and in bed rock. Northern 
Luzon was apparently the source of greatest supply, 
and when the Spaniards occupied the coast districts, 
they found the so-called Igorot in the habit of descend- 
ing from the mountains to exchange gold for the pro- 
ducts and imported trade articles of the lowlanders. 
In the region of Suyok in Lepanto, the Kankanai still 
mine some gold in this way. They use stone hammers 
for the purpose. Elsewhere in the islands gold is 
sometimes washed out of the river gravels; but this is 
among Christianized peoples. Ornaments of gold were 
also found in use among all the tribes by the Spaniards, 
and continue to be prized and worn by some of them. 
This development of the gold industry by no means 
argues a similar proficiency of the Filipino in the use of 
other metals. Gold usually occurs in the pure metallic 
state, and its softness renders it very easy to work by 
beating between stones. Neither smelting nor casting 
are necessary. In a sense, therefore, the gold industry 
as the Filipinos know it is not properly a metallurgical 
art. | 
It would be interesting to know whether the natives 
themselves discovered the presence of gold in their | 
country and the fact that it could be worked into orna- 
ments, or whether they became aware of its possibilities 
only after the knowledge of other metals had reached 
them from outside and stimulated them to the acquisi- 
tion of gold. | | 
Baskets and Mats. Without exception, every 
nationality in the Philippines makes baskets. The types 
of vessels and the techniques employed are curiously 

