THE ILONGOT OR IBILAO OF LUZON 523 
northern Nueva Ecija. From the time of their establishment we find 
references to the “ Ilongotes ” who inhabited the mountains to the east 
and were spoken of as “savages,” “treacherous murderers,” “ canni- 
bals,” and wholly untamable. Much as described a hundred years ago 
they have continued to the present day. Their homes are in thick 
mountain jungle where it is difficult to follow them, but, from time to 
time they steal out of the forests to fall upon the wayfarer or resident 
of the valley and leave him a beheaded and dismembered corpse. 
Here are a few instances occurring in recent years which came 
under my own notice or investigation. In 1902, the presidente of 
Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, informed me that four women had been 
killed while fishing a short distance from the town. In March of the 
same year, a party of Ilongot crossed the upper part of Nueva Ecija 
and in a barrio of San Quentin, Pangasinan, killed five people and took 
the heads of four. In November, 1901, near the barrio of Kita Kita, 
Nueva Hcija, an old man and two boys were killed, while a little earlier 
two men were attacked on the road above Karanglan, one killed and 
his head taken. In January, 1902, Mr. Thomson, the superintendent 
of schools, saw the bodies of two men and a woman on the road, six 
miles south of Karanglan, who had been killed only a few moments 
before. The heads of these victims had been taken and their breasts 
completely opencd by a triangular excision, the apex at the collar bone 
and the lower points at the nipples, through which the heart and lungs 
had been removed and carried away. As late as a year ago (1909), 
on the trail to San José and Punkan, I saw the spot where shortly 
before four men were murdered by Ilongot from the “ Biruk district.” 
These men were carrying two large cans of “bino ” or native distilled 
liquor, from which the Ilongot imbibed, with the result that three of 
their party were found drunk on the trail-and were captured. These 
are only a few out of numerous instances, but they explain why the 
great fertile plains of northern Nueva Ecija are undeveloped and why 
the few inhabitants dwell uneasy and apprehensive. 
There have been no successful attempts to subdue or civilize these 
people. Between 1883 and 1898, the missionary friar, Francisco 
Eloriaga, founded the Mission of Binatangan in the forested hills east 
of Bayombong, and the Spanish government had the project of erecting. 
it into a “ politico-military commandancia,” but so far as I know did 
not reach the point of sending there an officer and detachment. Some- 
thing was Icarned about the most accessible Ibilao, but no permanent’ 
results followed.2 - Since the American occupation, however, progress 
has been made in our knowledge and control of this people. In October, 
1902, the writer,-at that time chief of the Bureau of Non-Christiam 
*A brief account of the people about Binatangan was published by a 
missionary in 1891 in “ El] Correo Sino-Annamita,.” Vol. XXV. “Una Visita 
4 los Rancherias de Ilongotes,.” by Father Buenaventura Campa. 
