The Head Hunters of Northern LuzonWillcox, Cornélis De Witt
History
The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon
Willcox, Cornélis De Witt
Igorot (Philippine people); Luzon (Philippines) -- Description and travel
It is pertinent to remark that the Ifugaos treat their women well;
for example, the men do the heavy work, and there are no women
_cargadores_. In fact, the sexes seemed to me to be on terms of perfect
equality. The people in general appeared to be cheerful, good-humored,
and hospitable. Mr. Worcester pointed out that whereas most of the
men present were unarmed (at any rate, they had neither spears nor
shields), in his early trips through this country, as elsewhere,
every man came on fully armed, and the ground was stuck full of
spears, each with its shield leaning on it, the owner near by with
the rest of his _ranchería_, and all ready at a moment's notice to
kill and take heads. For although these people are all of the same
blood and speak nearly the same language, still there is no tribal
government; the people live in independent settlements (_rancherías_),
all as recently as five or six years ago hostile to one another,
and taking heads at every opportunity. This state of affairs was
undoubtedly partly due to the almost complete lack of communication
then prevailing, thus limiting the activities of each _ranchería_
to the growing of food, varied by an effort to take as many heads
as possible from the _ranchería_ across the valley, without undue
loss of its own. And what is said here of the Ifugao is true also
of the Ilongot, the Igorot, the Kalinga, the Apayao, and of all the
rest of the head-hunting highlanders of Northern Luzon. The results
accomplished by Mr. Worcester with all these people simply exceed
belief. But this subject, being worthy of more than passing mention,
will be considered later. The afternoon is wearing on, and we must
get at the two exceptions mentioned some little time ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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