Although these islands are bounded on the north by the Balintan Channel, through which some of the shipping passes from America to the southern part of China, they are seldom visited. This is because, as I have said before, there are no ports, not even good anchorages. During the typhoon season they are exposed to the full force of these great hurricanes, while the waters are infested with hidden rocks and coral ledges. The U. S. cruiser _Charleston_ ran aground on a coral reef east of the island of Camaguin in 1900 and sank immediately. During the Russo-Japanese war the fleet of the Russian Admiral Rojesvenski passed on either side of Batan Island. The Japanese had observers on the summit of Mt. Iraya on this island, who are supposed to have signaled by heliograph to Mt. Morrison in Formosa of the coming of the fleet. The great armada could be seen from this mountain for more than one hundred miles. CHAPTER VII AMONG THE HEAD-HUNTERS When the Americans first came to the Philippines, most of the mountain country could be reached only on foot over dangerous trails. Very large tracts were unexplored, and the head-hunting tribes, who are found nowhere but in this northern part of Luzon, pillaged the neighbouring towns. A state of order has now been established, except in parts of Kalinga and Apayao. The Mountain Province, the home of the head-hunters, includes the sub-provinces of Benguet, Lepanto, Amburayan, Bontoc, Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao. The officers of the provinces are a governor, a secretary-treasurer, a supervisor in charge of the road and trail work and the construction of public buildings, and seven lieutenant governors. All these officers are appointed by the governor general. They live on horseback, undergo great hardships and also take great risks. The manners and customs of these head-hunting tribes differ somewhat. Each one, for instance, has a different mode of treating the captured head when it is brought in, but all celebrate a successful hunt with a cañao, or festival. The Ifugaos place the head upon a stake and hold weird ceremonial dances around it, followed by speech making and the drinking of _bubud_, as they call their wine; afterward the skull of the victim is utilized as a household ornament. Venison and chicken are served at such feasts and the large fruit-eating bats, which are considered delicacies. If one of the tribe has been so unfortunate as to have his head taken, they berate the spirit at the funeral, "asking him why he had been careless enough to get himself killed." The most picturesque of the head-hunting tribes that my husband saw were the Kalingas, who are different from all other natives of Luzon. It is said that the Spaniards took fifteen hundred Moros into this part of the country more than a hundred years ago, so they may have founded this tribe. At all events, the Kalingas are superbly developed, tall and slight, some of the men having handsome and almost classical features.