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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



to come to some point within their own 

 territory to meet us, we have arranged 

 that the Igorots of Amburayan should go 

 to Cervantes, the capital of the neighbor- 

 ing subprovince, Lepanto. 



Cervantes is reached after a horse- 

 back ride of 41 miles, in the course of 

 which we climb upward through won- 

 derful tropical forests until at the crest 

 of the Malaya range we reach the pines 

 and lilies of the temperate zone ; we then 

 descend its eastern slope, and as we ap- 

 proach our destination are met by a great 

 gathering of Igorots on horseback and 

 on foot, who escort us into town. 



The plaza is already crowded and 

 new delegations are constantly arriving, 

 bringing with them their tapuy, a fer- 

 mented drink made from rice. They are 

 anxious to begin the fiesta and almost 

 immediately open the tapuy jars and 

 start the preliminary ceremonial dances 

 necessary to insure the good-will of the 

 spirits of the dead and to make it cer- 

 tain that the tapuy will have a proper 

 effect on those who partake of it ! 



THE BIRD DANCE 



Other dances of several kinds are soon 

 in full swing. The commonest of these 

 is the Benguet-Lepanto bird dance, the 

 music for which is furnished by two 

 long-barreled wooden drums with skin 

 heads, two gansas or bronze timbrels, a 

 stone, and a bit of iron and steel. Each 

 drummer squats on the ground with the 

 barrel of his drum held under his left 

 arm. He beats its head with his open 

 hands and gives considerable range to 

 its really musical notes by fingering its 

 head and by pressing on its barrel. The 

 remaining musicians dance while they 

 play. The gansa men beat their instru- 

 ments with sticks, while the man with 

 the steel and stone clicks them together. 



The musicians dance around a circle 

 of small diameter into which there pres- 

 ently steps a man with outstretched arms 

 from which hang blankets reaching to 

 the ground. He is supposed to represent 

 a bird, and hops and swoops about in 

 a peculiar fashion, occasionally letting 

 his arms drop and walking by way of 



change. His advent is promptly followed 

 by that of a woman, whose body is 

 draped in a long blanket, which gives her 

 much trouble by constantly slipping from 

 her shoulders, often making it necessary 

 for her to discontinue her dancing long 

 enough to readjust it. 



Her performance is usually stiff and 

 ungraceful. All of the participants in 

 the dance remain as solemn as if it were 

 a religious ceremony. 



The Lepanto Igorots also have a circle 

 dance, which is invariably in evidence on 

 festive occasions. Any number of per- 

 sons of both sexes may take part in it. 

 The men line up with their arms about 

 each other's necks. The women form a 

 -similar line immediately back of them. 

 The men sing and the women answer. 

 The voices of the men are harsh and 

 guttural. Those of the women are soft 

 and musical. The lines soon begin to 

 sway forward and back and then to 

 move slowly to the right or to the left. 

 The dancers sidestep and do a good deal 

 of vigorous stamping. The two lines 

 weave in and out, forming circles and 

 straightening again, and the performance 

 may continue for hours. 



This circle dance is a much more cheer- 

 ful performance than is the bird dance 

 previously described. Shouts of laugh- 

 ter from the participants sometimes in- 

 terrupt it. In the glare of the morning 

 sun it looks prosaic enough, but when 

 seen at night on some chilly, wind-swept 

 hilltop, by the light of a blazing fire of 

 pitch-pine, it becomes strangely attract- 

 ive. One wishes that he could under- 

 stand the words of the songs, which 

 often obviously refer to him, but is 

 forced to be content with watching the 

 play of fire-light and shadow, listening to 

 the strange harmonies of the barbaric 

 music, and wondering what it is all 

 about. 



THE WILD DANCES OF BONTOC 



Our next stop will be at Bontoc, 32 

 miles away, and for half that distance 

 we climb steadily. As we leave Sagada, 

 come out for a moment on the sky-line 

 and begin the real descent to the Rio 



