FIELD SPORTS OF NORTHERN LUZON 



221 



THE "BIRD" DANCE." CERVANTES (SEE PAGE 222) 



for lack of skill and alertness is that one 

 furnishes such a prize to some one else. 



It may seem flippant to call head- 

 hunting a field sport, yet the hard fact 

 is that it has been just that with many 

 of the northern Luzon hillmen. Fur- 

 thermore, the game has often been 

 played with close observance of very 

 stringent rules, under which bodies of 

 picked men from hostile rancherias met 

 at prearranged times and places and 

 fought to a finish. More commonly, 

 however, attacks were made from am- 

 bush and victims were outnumbered ten 

 to one by their assailants. 



It is needless to say that this particu- 

 lar form of sport, with its attendant train 

 of cowardly and ghastly murders of 

 women and children and of endless 

 bloody feuds, has not been smiled upon 

 by the American authorities. The effort 

 to suppress it has been unexpectedly suc- 

 cessful and head-hunting is rapidly be- 

 coming a thing of the past, but super- 

 abundant animal spirits will inevitably 



find an outlet, and in this case we have 

 tried, with a good deal of success, to 

 direct them into less turbulent channels 

 by teaching them American athletic 

 games and by encouraging their fond- 

 ness for dancing. 



All hillmen and most hill-women love 

 to dance, and each tribe has its own pecu- 

 liar dances. Indeed, there are special 

 dances which are confined to single set- 

 tlements or small groups of settlements. 

 Feasting, music, and dancing have gone 

 together since the world was young, and 

 we have frankly encouraged the continu- 

 ance of this good old custom. 



I invite you to take a trip with me, in 

 imagination, through northern Luzon, in 

 order that you may see for yourselves 

 the part which field sports are playing 

 among the wild people of that region. 



We leave Manila on a coast-guard boat 

 and 24 hours later land through the surf 

 at Tagudin, the capital of the subprov- 

 ince of Amburayan. As this is a Chris- 

 tian town, and as the wild men prefer 



