The National tribune., 1901-11-21
AN IGORROTE FEAST.
Weird Ceremonies Accompanying a Three
Days Orgy.
IHarper's Weekly

Carrino, a full-bIood fgorrOte who keeps
his wealth of $4,000 to 100000 silver dol
lars buried in the ground, and his $4,000
worth of gold dust (which is worth double
the price at the COAST carefully concealed
| under rocks.
When we arrived the first pig was going
through the death-throes, in full view OF
the guests, who sat squatted on their heels
IN little groups over the graSS-dlveSted
plot in front of Mateo's substantial pine
house.
The old priestess who takes charge OF
the barbaric religious rites which attend
all these ceremonies was carefully saving
some of the gushing blood. and later it was
she alone who laid hands on the heart and
tore it from the body. These important
preliminares attended to, the men gather
ed around the pig, scalded, and cut him
into uneven chunks for the great iron
caldron filed with water already steam
| ing over a hot pine-wood fire.
During daylight of the first day little
that was interesting took place. The wo-
men kept indoors most of the time, eH.
cept that a few of them served the men
with drinks. The pig was eaten, and a
dance or two was held, but we will pass
over the midday hours to sunset, when
| fresh fire was heaped beneath the kettle,
newly filed with water, and two more
| hogs were slain.
The great seething kettle. filed high now
with meat, sputtered and frothed over its
edges, as the barelegged men prOdded the
meat with short sticks, or held some more
than usually tempting piece mp to the gaze
of the appreciative gathering. Most OF
the shock headed and dirty men sat con-
tentedly near the warmth of the fire, now
and again lighting their tiny hand-carved
wooden pipes with live Goals, and sucking
| away with much energy upon the vilest
| tobacco imaginable. A suggestion Of COM
| ing geniality was visible on their usually
stolid faces, and more than one would
break into a droning cultural song as the
effects of the tuba set his sluggish blood
| in motion.
Away from the common herd sat the
hereditary chiefs attending the gathering,
mostly in wicker chairs, the handsomest
and almost the sole articles of furniture in
MateO's house. There is but one proper
way to sit in a chair comfortably, accord
ing to IgOrTOte ideas, and that is to pull
the heels up under one in the seat. 1t was
amusing to see a line of these dignitaries,
whom no poor man dares to recognize un-
ill he is first spoken to-, sitting on their
heels on a hardwood bench gossiping away
for dear life, and becoming more conf
Dental with each succeeding hour Of tuba
drinking.
As the sun sank to the horizon, the
priestess, dressed in flowing g-sleeTed short
striped native-woyer fabric, her head en-
circled with red ,turban, came to the
door, at the head of the short householder,
stood a mOmeut waFing the loose end of
small bldnketh thrown over the
shoulder, and holding high a small
china bowl In the other hand. She
then descended as majesticaliy as it is pos
sible for woman handicapped by skirts
TO come down the rungs of ladder, and
staiked out into the open. Mate0 and his
wife and his nine children moved to meet
her.
With moving lips, but no sound escap-
ing, she began a short incantatiOn, TO
exercise the bad spirits whom the
Jgorrotes fear, and then with a fierce step
forward, she grasped a piece Of bloody
heart from the little bowl and daubed first
one and then fhe other of Mateo's checks.
The operation was repeated until the
tenderest tOddlero of the family had
blood -smeared face.
The dance was beginning. In front of
a small framework, carrying tuft of the
giant grass of the mountain. used as an
emblem Mt all festivities. and signifying
that the house is open to all corners, sat
two men with curious drums over their
knees whose tightly stretched skin heads
struck from time to time n glancing bioy
with the fore part of all the fingers.
These drums are typical and interesting.
being really a small hollow log some three
feet long and six inches in diameter. with
a tapering orifice running through them,
four inches IN diameter at the skin heads,
tightly stretched and held in place by lash
ings on the outer edge, and an inch Oriticel
at the bottom. end. Many of them are
deliberately carved, and they vary in size
sufficiently to produce different notes.
In beating them the fingers of the left
hand arc held partially over the face to-
Oh tba InpO of hn tiJnp
of each note. The right hand is the drum
stick, and the four fingers Of the right
hand are used to strike the glancing blow.
There seems to be little modification in
the heating being usually one, two, inter
val, one, TIVE. and so on; the brass pans, of
different keys. TO which the drums are an
accompaniment. are depended upon toI
give the varying character to this eXceS
sivcly rude music.
Two men. with shoulders draped in
their blankets, march ont into the space
near the bubbliug pot holding high in the
air by leathern loops circular disks of
brass with turned edges; in the other
hand they hold II short stick. Twice around
in small circle they march. to the tom
ton, of the drums, making motions, but not
striking tn" disks until the third round,
and then begins weird music of three
notes. not always in chord, and in one,
two hop, one. two, hop step. Hour after
hour the music goes Oil, with brief inter
vaiS of rest. while the drummcrs tighten
the rum-hcads by heating them in front
Of the fire. or the musicians are changed.
Mateo will open the evening dance, hay-
ing become properly mcllowed by thei
small doses of tuba assiduously taken
every few minutes during the day. Two
handsome blankets, folded lcngthwise un-
Ill they are only six inches wide are hung
over either shoulder, and he slowly strides
out to the circle Travelled by the brass-disk
men. Around the circle he goes once
slowly behind them, and then, spreading
out his arms and raising fist one foot and
then the other, he begins to dance; it is
the same step over and over, with abso-
lutely no variation.
4 woman comes climbing down the lad
der from the house, winds a plaid blanket
about her so that it falls straight from the
h9Soms to the ground, and then steps into
the circle behin,l him. She too makes
the round once walking, and then catching
the time, and raising her hands upward in
the air. executes a side swing on her tGcs.
and bow, which is exceedingly graceful, |
and tHkes up the EmOnotonOus Shufiiing |
dance. repeating at each completion of the |
circle the same ,huwe she began with.
One man and one woman dance to-
gether and no more, and the woman must
have the commensurate caste or rank of
the man. or it would be considered an in |
suit TO him. Tho origin or significance of |
this primitive dance among the igorrOtes
IS unknown, but the blankets thrown over
the mans shoulders like wings, the wo-
man fuIIoyyiu,s aoylv hphiud and tho druu, |