Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-26
IGORROTES AT SCHOOL
CHILDREN OF HEADHUNTERS
TAUGHT BY UNITED STATES.
Teaching English to the Young Natives
Of Benguet Province, Island
Of Luzon.
From Public Opinion.

From Public Opinion.
1t may be considered fairly probable that
George Washington. even at the height OF
his career never dreamed that little
breech-clouted. pot-bellied sons Of the head
hunters in the mountains of Luzon would
some day. sitting under the flag which he
more than any other had made a national
emblem. read their first lessons about him
as the father of his country"
But this is what has come to pass, and
the Kaleidoscope of events has shifted SO
| rapidly in the Philippines these five years
past that most of US have not even heard
| about II. and none has paused to marvel or
comment. Two years ago American teach
| ers went among the Igorrotes Of Benguet.
Luzon. a little mountainous province, &C.
cupied mainly by quite peaceable and in
dustr!ous rice and coffee growers, though
pagans all Last year the invasion OF the
American primer swept further north into
Lepanto province, Igorrote and unchristian,
but still not wholly removed from the reach
of the settled towns of northwestern Luzon.
Very soon thereafter however, American
teachers carried the American flag and
tongue over the higher mountain ridges of
north central Luzon and planted them, the
first literally and the second fguratively,
among the still untouched prmitives of
Bontoc province. Here today Papa Igorrote
on bringing home the head OF at least one
of the neishboring tribes. while Igorrote
Junior is learning his A, b, C's after new
| methods OF teaching English.
Good Work Of Iowan.
The Bontoc Igorrotes got their first ac-
quaintance with Americans about whom
! they had heard all manner of things from
| the Ilocanos) when some discharged SOL
diers went into their mountains to prospect
in early 1900. The newcomers could not talk
| to them and were really I'm no little danger;
| but they were fellows OF common sense,
| conducted themselves well toward the ma
| tives; paid for all labor and food they got
at four times the prices the Spaniards had
| paid when they paid at all learned the Bon
toe dialects, and gradually got into their
confidence. This was particularly true of
one 7. X. Hunt, an Iowan with a medical
education, who, in less than year, was
father confessor and advisor to hundreds of
Igorrotes. Judging by him. they concluded
Americans could not be so bad. In the few
communities over which he exercisedv more
direct sway he actually succeeded in stop
ping all the headhunting raids and got them
| to submit their disputes to him.
The taking of heads is not so much an
evidence of untamable savagery and brutal-
ty among these people as it is a time-sanc
toned custom more honored in the observ-
| ance than the breach. To the Igorrotes of
one mountain valley the Ieorrotes of
|
| things, bad people" to take whose heads IL
| n virtue; has It not always been so with
1.-The fathers and plainly must IT not al
ways be so? Among themselves the people
| are sober sturdy citizens with a sublime
reverence for the law as laid down by the
| fathers of the tribe.
| Igorrotes at Manila.
Led by DR. Hunt, a band Of the Bontoc
Igorrotes including some OF the same men
who had been paraded with Aguinaldo's
army In front of Manila, came down to the
| capital in 1901 to see the civil commission
| and ask for some American flags and an
| American school teacher to take back.
| They We're given the flags and promised
| the teacher. During their short stay in
| Manila Uhey We're clad in irksome trou-
| sers, shirts, coats and shoes and pinned for
| the cool mountalns) they saw many amaZ-
| ing things. At Commissioner Worcesters
! house they were introduced to a piece Of
ice. Gravely and solemnly they listened
| to, but never believed. the story that I'm
| America water became like that in winter;
| gravely and solemnly each took the
| piece of ice in turn; and just as gravely
| and solemnly, but not the less speedily, hs
showed it on to his neighbor. The last man
| announced that he was going to take 10
| back home and show 1t to the others, that
| they might believe, thrusting 1t Herewith
| into his new-found trousers pocket. Very
| quickly thereafter he was observed to
| move it surreptitously with every evidence
| Of anxiety on his face.
| The Bontoc people got their schools after
| q start had been made with the nearer and
| further advanced Igorrotes of Benguet. An
| Igorrote school is something worth seeing.
| with its benches covered with bare-legged
| and bare-bodied brown boys with shiny,
| mischievous black eyes The little red
| school house" is. as has been proved before,
| a very adaptable institution, both outs de
and inside. In these mountains 1t is made
of rough-hewn boards of pine (Which grows
In virgin splendor at this alt'tude) or OF
interlaced split bamboo. and is matched
with cogon dall mountain grass. The fur
niture is simple and plain.
On the outset, the teacher knows no
"Igorrote," the pupils no English, not a
dozen Igorrotes ever learned to read, write,
OF even speak Spanish or to read and write
| any language. Sticks stones, a base ball
tfor which the boys are all eyes,, grass and
| various natural objects are pressed into
| service. Progress is amazing, when in
| stuction is thus reduced to the very ele-
mentals of understanding.
| Albert Patrick, the first teacher to begin
| work in Benguet, in two weeks time had
| every one of his thirty boys able to under
! stand and execute such commands
| Bring me the ball." Put the ball on the
desk" Jump on the bench" and able TO
say and answer simple sentences. Every ono
could also read from fifty to two hundred
words for the Objects in a primer. The
| three brightest boy lged twelve to fourteen,
| could read from /. up-to-date Baldwin =
| primer such sentences as George Wash
| lHStOn WAS the ldlHeT OF MS country, anu
| that 1t was not all visual memorzing of the
| written signs seemed to be shown by the
| fact that they hesitated over the sentences
| In English script where they read right on
| the same sentences in Roman type.
Habit of Natives.
The Igorrote boy, like his father wears
a breech-clout. Mornings and nights when
| it is chilly in the mountains he wears lit
| tie cotton blanket knotted over his Shout
| ders. The first day of school sees a band
| of embryo little savages march out each
| proudly bearing a Baldwin primer under
| his blanket his first picture-book. Gradual
| ly, as the teacher gets on better terms with
the boys and can talk with them better, lie
| inculcates habits of personal cleanliness
| ian Igorrote never battles except when he
| chances to ford a mountain stream), ana
| new ideas on clothes. Teachers eau
| toned to go slowly with innovations. When
| the schools were first started the Igorrote
| fathers would come and squat on their
heels out side, to watch proceedings; they