Abacas (12).
A small tribe living about Caranglan in the South Caraballo. They were formerly fierce and warlike, but have been pacified and converted to Christianity. They had a separate language which has died out, and their customs are now those of the Christian natives.
Italones (13).
These people live in the south-west corner of Nueva Vizcaya, about the head-waters of the River Magat. They are numerous, and occupy many towns and villages, amongst them Bayombong, Dupax, Bambang, and Aritas. They were formerly warlike head-hunters, and are said to have devoured the hearts and brains of their slain enemies in order to inherit their courage and wisdom. This is a Chinese idea, and is even now practised in Canton, where pieces of the heart and liver of a particularly hardened and desperate criminal are retailed by the executioner at a high price for the above purpose. They wear their hair long like the Ilongotes. Their weapons were the lance, shield, or wood-knife, and in their customs and religion they resembled the Igorrotes. They were said to ornament the hilts of their swords with the teeth of their slain enemies. All these detestable customs have now disappeared; they have been converted to Christianity, and now are peaceful agriculturists and hunters. Game and fish abound; a telegraph line runs through their territory with a station at Bayombong. This is part of the line from Manila to Aparri.
Ibilaos (14).
These savages inhabit the hilly country about the sources of the River Casepuan, which, according to D’Almonte’s map, is a tributary of the River Casiguran, which runs into the Bay of Baler; but, according to Olleros, is a tributary of the Rio Grande de Cagayan. However this may be, their habitat is on the borders of Nueva Écija and Nueva Vizcaya. Some of these people have been subjugated, but the others live a nomadic life in the mountain forests, and resemble the Negritos. Their pleasure is to lie in wait and shoot the passers-by with their arrows. Like the Italones they are said to ornament their weapons with the teeth of the slain, and, like them, wear their hair long. The independent Ibilaos live by the chase, and on jungle produce, and do no cultivation. They are small of stature and weak. It is possible that they are a hybrid Negrito Malay race. Their bloodthirsty propensities make them a curse to their neighbours.