News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-07-01
IN THE PHILIPPINES
A Visit to an Jgorrate Cemetery

l
An Extract of Letter from Herbert Sherwin
to his parents
A week ago 1 went away out beyon
Trinidad to an''old Igorrate cemetery.
have forgotten whether have ever writ
ten you that these people. especially tn
rich ones and prominent chiefs. mum
nifty their dead. Their method 10 rathe
peculiar, as they place the corpse in
sitting posture and then proceed to smok
it dry, which they do to perfection, afte
which the mummy is taken to its fina
resting place, which is, as rule, located
high up in the mountain in crevasse il
the rocks or cave dug out of the side of {
cliff and is seldom discovered by any ont
not in the tribe.
| The way came to know about it wal
due to the fact that bother constabu
larry officer who was on duty at Trinidad
had accidentally discovered the trail lead
ing to the cliff and invited me to accom-
pany him and take some pictures. You
may be sure was glad to 60 for this par
of Luzon has every thing to make horse
| back riding romantic and enjoyable
Fiue, cool mountain air, good roads and
poor trails, both doing fancy bends and
''tango" twists where you least expect
and every turn reveals view different
from any you have seen before, so with
pleasant anticipations my friend and
mounted our horses and road to the
mountain.
At this point we left our horses and
after two hours hike over the toughest
sort of trail we arrived at the cliff. Then
came the climb! We removed our shoes
for we needed all our 'fingers" to grip
the side of the cliff with. After about
fifteen minutes of hugging the rocks and
walking along like fly not knowing for
a certainty whether my heart was be-
meath my ribs or in my mouth we reached
a fiat ledge. On our right was a sheer
drop of 200 feet but we had plenty of
room to stand and besides we h ad reached
our goal for at our left was lateral
crack in the rock going in about thirty
five feet and high enough so we could
take a STOPPING posture.
In this place were many bodies some
in carved collins with the heads of diff
ferent animals carved on them, one of
the carvings represented horses head
with stones placed therein for eyes.
There were other bodies wrapped III
cloths and blankets. Then all about the
place were scores of skulls and bones that
had somehow become scattered about
giving the place a. decidedly CHASTITY ap-
pearance.
The Igorrate knows about as much
about what is going to take place beyond
the great "dvide' as we do, but they
reason like the American Indian, that
those material things that were essential
and the luxuries of this life will hold the
same in the next world, so within reach
ing distance of each mummy was water,
salt, rice, tobacco and matches.
The salt was in little bambo tubes. the
tobacco in some cases was rolled into
cigars, in others it was in twists; the
water was in all sorts of receptacles
One old mummy was we'll equipped with
money-Spanish coins.
1t was all very interesting and gave one
a great range of freedom for his magma
ton. Now comes the time to use fingers
and toes again in an attempt to get back
to earth. While creeping along the mar
now path my fingers pulled loose a piece
of ledge to which 1 was clinging and
promptly awoke to the fact that 1 was
no longer in the realm of roaming imagi-
nation, but up against real life ana all
it's problems and that the one that con-
fronted me then and there, was how to
get away from that region of mummies
without becoming subject for one my
self. thought of you people back home,
Of the Pacific Ocean and all the states
that lie between us, thought of all the
tricks 1 had played, the times had said
will not when should have said will
N fact about, every thing that Saint Peter
could hold against me, doomed up as big
rs life. and this in about ten seconds.
This letter is proof that got down all
right.