The National tribune., 1901-11-21

cast ten feet rearward through tue air, SO
the festival goes on in babbie OF voices
and a carnival of yelps from stricken ours.
Mateo's daughters, with graceful hospi-
tality, pass the flowing bowl of a half
cocoanut-shell filled with tuba, from man
to man, each one taking a gulp or two
from the same shell. Over in corner n
wrinkled hag keeps guard ever the fer
to time, thrusts her withered arm and
hand into them to stir up the contents. 1t
may not be our idea of pleasant evening,
but there can be no doubt that the Igor
rOtes are enjoying themselves hugely, for
the grave, solemn faces of morning have
broken into smiles, and the man of few
words is attempting to monopolize all the
conversation not miDding in the least that
all his companions are talking at the same
time.
We are invited into the house to dine,
and to our surprise we find table set with
dishes, knives, forks, and spoons. Under
ordinary circumstances Mateo would dine
with us, but the priestess has set a
taboo" upon him that he shall eat alone
for several weeks. The taboo of various
sorts is much INDUCED in as a means OF
pacifying the evil spirits or the souls of
their dead, who are said to make an awful
row from time to time, as they become
dissatisfied with their resting-places in the
rocky chambers of the mountains, and
yeaTn for 4 trip to some new site. They
also take a direct interest in the material
welfare of their offspring, and woe be to
the foolish son or daughter who does not
heed the warnings of the departed sire!
We were given chicken, rice, cakes, and
the inevitable tuba, and it must be ad-
mitted that, in spite of the object les
SONS in cookery We had witnessed upon
the outside, we enjoyed the repast. On
the next day, coming suddenly into the
l.
amused to find all the brave chiefs sitting
in two rows upon the floor, eating with
their fingers and enjoying the meal in true
IgOrrOte fashion; it was irreSistibly funny,
as on the previous day, to do us honor,
they had sat uncomfortably at the table,
striving to use knives and forks like white
men.
Darkness had fallen, but the interior of
the house was dimly LIT up with cOcoanut-
oil lamps; all that could be seen upon the
outside was the great fire burning under
the pot, and the sihoutted figures OF squat
ting and recumbent Igorrotes huddled
closely to the grateful warmth of the blaze.
The dance went on, and the ruddy rays Of
light reflected from the bronzed faces Of
the dancers, gave them an uncanny savage
aspect; the circle of sitting men now and
then broke into a plaintive wall in time to
the music, and their voices fell low and
then rose until the cry was almost fierce
and intense shrek, ringing far over the
rolling hills and into the great silent pine
forests beyond.
Only a few women, with babies fast
asleep slung in a protecting blanket pocket
at their backs, crouched around the walls
of the house outside; the rest, with many
men, were crowded into the two back
rooms of the house. One who has seen
will never forget the grotesque conglOmera,
ton of humanity packed into those rooms,
making the air almost sitting with the
warmth of their bodies. Not a single
article of furniture, and a bare room,
about whose walls sat tightly wedged
lines of men and women. Around the
small rectangle left in the center, the cup
women bore the intoxicating fluid, which,
by the way, has a rather pleasant sweet
ish-sour taste. II was evident that after
an all-day bout, the liquor, with its small
percentage of alcohol, was slowly doing its
duty Here and there woman sat stupid
" sleeping. with her head hung upon her
barred breasts. but the majority were
hright-eyed, shouting and laughing, or in
the second stage Of inebriatiOn, smiling
with vacuous satisfaction.
The decrcpit, the middle-aged, and the
young-men, women, and children-tOOk
part in this orgie. AS the night wore on
they burst into sOng-stories, which is in
these festivals. An old man begins to
tell the story of his life, which he starts
in high quayering chant, running down
the scale to low tones as he finishes each
sentence. The assemblage intone his last
few words in low key, and so on and on
it runs When he has finished. some one
else takes it up, and many tales of pure
Imagination are related of great hunting
trips, the finding Of gold and buried treas
ura, fights with the wild lgOrrOte tribes,
and myths of their own tribe. The Igor
rotes, like all primitive peoples, talk very
freely in regard to themselves and their
exploits, and much of their naturalistlc
stories would have to be expunged if they
were intended for publication in religious
journals.
On the third and last day of this feast,
the participators had much the appear
ance Of men engaged in continuous
athletic performance. Their faces were
drawn and pinched and their eyes sunken.
Out in the yard men lay scattered, stretch
ed at full length, shrouded in their mantas.
sleeping off the effects of excessive tuba
The immense quantities of meat
and rice they had consumed would have
made a civilized man dyspeptic for the
rest Of his life The feast would be over
by daylight the next morning, and those
who had taken part in it, after dozen
hours sleep, would show no effect of their
debauch of food and. liquor, so great are
their reCuperative powers. Because this
picture deals with an apparently horrible
carOusal, the reader must not gain the inn
preston that the Igorrotes, as 4 race, areI