We took advantage of these great gatherings to bring about the settlement of old difficulties between hostile towns and they have thus proved an important factor in the establishment of peace and order throughout the wild man's territory. Furthermore, they afford excellent opportunity to discuss past events and future plans under the most favourable conditions. I well remember the occasion on which the Ifugao headman of Quiangan requested that the public improvement tax be imposed upon them and their fellow tribesmen. There was at that time but one decent trail in this sub-province. It had been built by paid labour. Some of the headmen who had gone to Bontoc with me had seen excellent trails there and had asked why Ifugao could not have some just as good. I had replied that the Bontoc Igorots were more civilized than the Ifugaos and had come so to appreciate the benefit of trails that they were willing to build them without being paid for their labour. Vehement exception was taken to my contention that the Bontoc Igorots were further advanced than the Ifugaos. The latter insisted that they were much better men than the Igorots, and could and would build better trails. I explained to them in detail the practical working of the public improvement tax, and asked if they would be willing to have this contribution imposed on them. They insisted that they wanted it, and I finally gave it to them, although I doubted their ability to bring their people into line. On the following day there was a precisely similar occurrence at Banaue. I soon found that I had underrated the influence of the headmen. That year twenty thousand Ifugaos worked out their road tax. The following year twenty-four thousand men rendered the prescribed ten days' service; and the number has steadily increased year by year ever since, with the result that the sub-province is crisscrossed with trails, many of which are already wide enough for considerable distances to permit the passage of automobiles if they could be brought there, while the main line of communication with Bontoc on the one hand and the capital of Nueva Vizcaya on the other is open for cart travel from the western to the eastern boundary of the sub-province. At many of the cañaos we have athletic contests, which the wild men, with their splendid physical development, greatly enjoy. It is much better for two hostile towns to settle their differences by a tug-of-war, or a wrestling match, than by fighting over them, and they are now often quite willing to adopt these more pacific means provided the audience is sufficiently large and enthusiastic, for the average wild man has a very human love of playing to the gallery. He takes to the athletic contests of the American like a duck to the water, and soon learns to excel in them. No sooner is a cañao over than those who have taken part in it begin to look forward to the next one, and the small expense involved is repaid a thousand fold in the good feeling produced.