In January, 1909, a very important exploration was made by Governor Bryant, escorted by Captain Hunt with a detachment of soldiers, and accompanied by Mr. Murphy and Dr. M. L. Miller, chief of the ethnological survey. The party left Dupah, January 7, and traversed the wholly unknown country lying to the southwest. The course of the wild gorge of the “Kaseknan” river, the head of the Kagayan, was developed, several important communities of Ilongot were discovered and visited without hostilities and the first knowledge obtained of much of this region. After struggling for ten days with the difficulties of jungle, ravine and densely covered mountains, the party reached Baler on the Pacific coast.
In May, 1909, the writer, accompanied by Lieutenant Coon and six native soldiers, reached a small community of Ilongot east of Pantabangan, called “Patakgao.” This community seemed to be composed of renegades and outlaws from several other communities. Certainly their hand was against every man. They were charged by a small group of Ilongot living near Pantabangan with the murder of two of their number a few weeks earlier and they themselves professed to be harried and persecuted by unfriendly Ilongot to the north and east of them. They had wounds to exhibit received in a chance fray a few days before with a hunting party from near Baler. Altogether, their wayward and hazardous life was a most interesting exhibit of the anarchy and retaliation that reign in primitive Malayan communities which are totally “in want of a common judge with authority.” A series of measurements was obtained by me at Patakgao and vocabulary and notes extended.
With the above remarks as to what has been accomplished in throwing light upon these people some description of them will be given. For information of their location and condition I am indebted to several others, and particularly to Mr. Murphy, otherwise the facts are the results of my own investigation.
Ilongot can not be said to live in villages, for their houses are not closely grouped, but are scattered about within hallooing distance on the slopes of cañons where clearings have been made. Each little locality has its name and is usually occupied by families with blood or social ties between them, and several such localities within a few hours’ travel of one another form a friendly group. Outside of this group all other Ilongot as well as all other peoples are blood enemies, to be hunted, murdered and decapitated as occasion permits.
An Ilongot Man at Work in Clearing.
He wears the peculiarly shaped Ilongot knife, the usual head covering and a shell ear-ring. The wavy hair on head, face and limbs strongly suggests the Negrito.
The most considerable body of Ilongot appears to be those living east of the towns of Nueva Vizcaya from Mount Palali south, along a high-wooded range to the district of “Biruk,” nearly east of Karanglan. Here are some important occupied sites that go by the names of Kampote, Kanatwan, Kanadem, Makebengat, Oyao and Biruk, as well as others. Homes are shifted from time to time as new clearings have to be made, and the name of a community’s home will vary and can not always be relied on. All of these communities seem to be in fairly friendly relations with one another, though they are not bound together by tribal or political ties. Southeast on the rough hillsides of the Kaseknan River, the country first traversed by Mr. Bryant’s party in January, 1909, are several communities of very wild Ilongot, Sugak, Kumian and Dakgang. Those places were greatly alarmed by the approach of the party and used every effort to persuade it to pass without visiting at their houses. Conversations had to be held by shouting back and forth across deep gorges, and approach was very difficult. These people have scattered rancherias toward Baler and sustain trading relations with the Tagalog of that town, but are hostile with the Ilongot of the Nueva Vizcaya jurisdiction. Appurtenant to the towns of Karanglan and Pantabangan are a few minor communities, among them Patakgao. Finally, further north on the Rio Kagayan, toward the province of Isabela, we have the Ilongot communities in which Dr. Jones worked, and lost his life, Dumabato, Kagadyangan and others. It may be that these Ilongot communicate with the Tagalog town of Kasiguran. In all of these communities together there are probably only a couple of thousand souls at most. Few communities have as many as twenty houses or 200 souls; the most are isolated groups of four or five married couples and their immediate relations. The harsh nature of their country, unsanitary life, occasional epidemics and most of all their perpetual warfare contribute toward their diminution rather than their increase.
A Young Woman of Oyao, Nueva Vizcaya.