Figure 6.
Spoons and Ladles.
Baskets, varying considerably in material, size and type, are much used, and are often scattered about the dwelling or, as in the case of the men's carrying baskets, are hung on pegs set into the walls. Somewhere about the house will be found a coconut rasp ([Fig. 5], No. 11). When this is used, the operator kneels on the wooden standard, and draws the half coconut toward her over the teeth of the blade. The inside of the shell is thus cleaned and prepared for use as an eating or drinking dish. Torches or bamboo lamps formerly supplied the dwellings with light. Lamps consisting of a section of bamboo filled with oil and fitted with a cord wick are still in use, but for the most part they have been superseded by tin lamps of Chinese Page 367manufacture. Oil for them is extracted from crushed seeds of the tau-tau (Jatropha grandulifera Roxb.)
A very necessary article of house furnishing is the fire-making device. In many instances, the housewife will go to a neighboring dwelling and borrow a light rather than go to the trouble of building a fire, but if that is not convenient, a light may be secured by one or two methods. The first is by flint and steel, a method which is probably of comparatively recent introduction. The second and older is one which the Tinguian shares with all the neighboring tribes. Two notches are cut through a section of bamboo, and tree cotton is placed below them. A second section of bamboo is cut to a sharp edge, and this is rubbed rapidly back and forth in the notches until the friction produces a spark, which when caught on tinder can be blown into a flame.[8] At the door of the house will be found a foot wiper ([Fig. 5], No. 12) made of rice-straw drawn through an opening cut in a stick, or it may consist of coconut husks fastened together to make a crude mat, while near by is the broom made of rice-straw or grass. Rice-mortars, pestles, and similar objects are found beneath the dwellings.
The Village Spring.—Each village is situated near to a spring or on the banks of a stream. In the latter case deep holes are dug in the sands, and the water that seeps in is used for household purposes. In the morning, a number of women and girls gather at the springs, carrying with them the plates and dishes used in the meals, also garments which need to be laundered. The pots and dishes are thoroughly scoured with sand and water, applied with a bundle of rice-straw or grass. The garments to be washed are laid in the water, generally in a little pool near to the main spring or beside the stream. Ashes from rice-straw are then mixed with water and, after being strained through a bunch of grass, are applied to the cloth in place of soap. After being thoroughly soaked, the cloth is laid on a clean stone, and is beaten with a stick or wooden paddle. The garment is again rinsed, and later is hung up on the fence near the dwelling to dry.
Before returning to her home, the woman fills her pots with water, and then takes her bath in a pool below the main spring (Plate [XLII]). All garments are removed except the girdle and clout, and then water, dipped up in a coconut shell, is poured on to the face, shoulders, and body. In some cases sand is applied to the body, and is rubbed in with the hand or a stone; rinsing water is applied and the garments Page 368are put back on without drying the body. Every one, men, women, and children, takes a daily bath, and visitors will always stop to bathe at the spring or river before entering a village. Promiscuous bathing is common, and is accepted as a matter of course, but there is no indication of embarrassment or self-consciousness. When she returns to the village, the woman will often be seen carrying one or two jars of water on her head, her washing under her arm, while a child sets astride her hip or lies against her back (Plate [XLIII]). Page 369
[1] Each with its dormitory for bachelors, and usually for unmarried girls. See Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot, p. 49 (Manila, 1905).
[2] Combes, Historia de las islas de Mindanao (Madrid, 1667), translated by Blair and Robertson, Vol. XL, p. 160; Vol. XLVII, p. 300. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, Vol. II, p. 270, et seq.(London, 1896).
[3] For description of these villages, see Cole, Distribution of the Non-Christian Tribes of Northwestern Luzon (Am. Anthropologist, Vol. XI, p. 329).
[4] See Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot (Manila, 1906).
[5] Twenty years in the Philippines, p. 109 (London, 1853).
[6] See Traditions of the Tinguian, this volume, No. 1, p. 8.
[7] See Cole and Laufer, Chinese Pottery in the Philippines (Field Museum of Natural History, Vol. XII, No. 1).
[8] Despite frequent assertions to the contrary, the fire syringe is not used by the Tinguian. It is found among the Tiagan Igorot, the similarity of whose name has doubtless given rise to the error.