The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-02-08
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THE PHILIPPINE TRIBES
Personal Observations of One Who Studied
Them While Serving in the u. S. Army
By Mr. E. E. E.
THE PHILIPPINE TRI

muscled and clean tribe of people.
The ordinary dress of the men
at the time saw them was long.
dark-blue clout, sometimes with
and sometimes without white
stripes and scarlet figures. In ad-
dition, men who could afford to do
so, often carried more or less
elaborately woven blankets. Their
chests, neck. and sometimes their
legs, were ornamented with tattoo
patterns peculiar to the tribe. Their
hair was worn in highly character
istic fashion. One is tempted to
suspect that in cutting it a bowl
was jammed down over the shock
of hair to be barbered, and the
hair outside first cut short and
then shaved off. Huge ornaments
of brass are often worn in the ears
and spirals of highly polished brass
wire adorn the legs above the
calves. The "cabeciIlas,'' or petty
chiefs, and some other wealthy in.
dividuals as we'll, wear bighly or
namented girdles made from the
opercula of certain marine shells.
The costume of the women is even
more simple than that of the men,
consisting solely of a very abbre-
waited skirt, held in position by
being wrapped around the body
far below the waist. Brass ear
rings and simple strings of beads
worn about the neck or in the hair
complete the ordinary costume of
the women, who may nevertheless
wear blankets if they are fortunate
enough to possess them. The
women tattoo their arms, and more
especially their forearms, follow
ing fern leaf pattern never to be
found among the people of any
other Philippine tribe.
With a few exceptions, the peo-
pie of this tribe live in very small,
compact villages, strategically
placed among steep walled rice
terraces, so as to be easily defend
ed. Their window-less, neatly
built houses are placed we'll above
the ground on strong posts, which
are often rudely carved. Access
to them is had by means of light
strong ladders, which are drawn
up at night. Each house has two
rooms. one above the other, the
upper one of which extends into
the peak of the roof and is used as
a store-room. Each house has
rude fire. place, over which may be
placed the skulls of wild pigs and
deer and those of carabaos eaten at
feasts, as we'll as the skulls of enc
mics killed in war. I have seen
skulls of head-hunters exhibited
on shelves beside the doors of their
houses, hanging in baskets under
the caves, and also extending
around their houses in ornamental
friezes at the floor level.
The Ifugaos are very skillful in
the raising of rice. which they
grow on wonderful terraces, con-
structed with infinite pains on the
steepest mountain sides, and irri-
gated by water brought into
bitches which are often of consid-
erable length. The terrace walls
are usually made of dry stones,
and the skill and industry which
these comparatively primitive peo-
pie have displayed in thus building
walls from ten to forty feet high,
which stand up not only under irri-
cation water, but the floods caused
by terrific rain-storms. in which
water sometimes falls for day or
more at the rate of an inch an
hour, are greatly to their credit.
Many centuries of hard, continuous
work must have been required to
construct these terraces. They
must be seen to be appreciated,
and the more one sees of them, the
more he will appreciate the high
degree of intelligence and the ex-
traordinary industry of their
builders.
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