Their settlements are established on the peaks of the mountains, and on the roughest of them, whence afar off they can see all the paths, so that no one can approach them without being seen by their sentinels, who always guard their posts day and night. If there is any danger, they can easily retire without being seen, leaving behind nothing more than their miserable huts; and, not fearing whether any go to seek them, they defend themselves as they may by hurling down huge rocks which they have suitably placed, sharp-pointed reeds,[3] and stones; and especially do they seek the sure and convenient site. In the rainy season they fear firearms but little, for they know that they are of less effect than none at all.
The usual dress and clothing of that people is a loose shock of disheveled hair that reaches below the ears, and certain bands about one jeme[4] wide made from the bark of trees. Having wound these about the waist, they twist them so that they cover the privy parts. They call these bahaques, and they are worn by all classes of people, men and women. Besides the said bahaque, the chiefs wear Ilocan blankets, which they have inherited from their ancestors; this garment is crossed from the shoulder to the waist, where they knot it. Thus do they go, without any other clothes or shoes.[5] The chiefs of those natives are not differentiated from the rest of the people in other things than in the possession of more bones of animals that they have killed in their feasts, more clothes, and greater age. There are more chiefs than in other nations, for there is one in every ten or twelve houses, who is head of his kinsfolk. They inherit from father to children, or by blood, and do not recognize one as greater than the other. Those chiefs generally insert gold in the teeth, which is so well fitted that it does not hinder their talking or eating at all.
The Ygolotes are in general a very active people, bold, well built, and feared by the other nations surrounding them. As they have discovered that, and that others, even when numerous, always run from them, the Ygolotes attack with but few men. Whenever they kill anyone, scarcely has he fallen before his head is cut off. On that account they make many feasts, and at night light many fires on many peaks. They make cups of the skulls, from which they drink in their feasts and revelries; and leave them as household effects to their heirs. If any of them are killed, and they can conceal it, they endeavor to do so; for they grieve greatly and consider it as a very great insult if the bodies of their dead are not carried away.
The arms used by them consist of a pointed lance one-third of a vara long, which they generally carry, well polished, and set in a handle of strong wood more than one braza long. They have others with which they usually fight, made from heavy green poles, larger than the above. At the head they insert a bamboo knot, with its point well sharpened into two edges. They cover themselves with their shields, which consist of certain short and very light boards, about four or five palmos long and two or more wide. They use many sharp-pointed stakes with which they sow the ground, particularly about their haunts, and wherever harm might come to them.[6]
The Ygolotes are an idolatrous race. They say that their god is the sky, whom they call Cabunian; and they offer and sacrifice to him, in their banquets and feasts, swine and carabaos, but under no consideration cows or bulls. The method of sacrifice practiced by them is [as follows]. Having tied all the animals not prohibited about the house of the sacrificer, after the ceremony an old man or old woman, having placed on the ground a painted cloth that resembles a surplice, and which they call salili, they continue to kill the animals, and make a great feast. They keep that up for two or three days until they have finished eating what they have, when their feast or magunito also finishes. He who keeps up such entertainment longest and kills most of the said animals is most respected.
Their sages or philosophers are the oldest men and women, whom they respect and obey in an extraordinary manner, and most when they are occupied in the said feasts; for they say that then and even ordinarily those persons are wont to talk with the devil, who keeps them blinded.
That race lacks all good natural reasoning power. They cannot read, nor do they know what day, month, or year, or the increase and decline of the moon, signify. They govern themselves by one star that rises in the west, which they call gaganayan, while they call the natives of their neighborhood by the same name. On seeing that star they attend to the planting of their waste and wretched fields in order to sow them with yams and camotes, which form their usual and natural food. They do not have to plow or dig, or perform any other cultivation than that of clearing the land where they are to plant.
When any one of those barbarians dies, they do not bury him for many days, for, as they say, they pass one month, during which period they amass quantities of food about the deceased, to whom they give his share as well as the others. Then they continue to prick the body, and, as they say, they draw off or suck out the humors until the body is left dry. When that time comes they wrap it in their blankets, and fasten buyos and other things about the waist for the journey. Some are buried in a sitting posture and placed with their backs against their shields, in caves under the rocks, the mouths of which are stopped with stones. Others they set in the trees, and they carry food for so many days after having left them in either one of those places.
It is not very easy to ascertain the number of those people, who are scattered, for they are so intractable, and do not let themselves be seen, moving from one place to another on slight pretext, without any hindrance; for their houses, to provide which would be the chief cause of anxiety, they easily build anywhere, with a bundle of hay, while they move their fields of yams or camotes (on which they live well) from one place to another without much effort, pulling them up by the roots—for, because of the dampness of the country, these take root wherever they are placed. In the same manner, they carry their ornaments or bones;[7] and since their arms and clothes are but little or nothing, they are not embarrassed, because they always carry these with them. Yet it is known that, if those called Ygolotes reach one thousand men, that is a great number. They can scarcely gather in one body or live on friendly terms with one another. For those of Banaco and those of Atindao, villages of the same mountains, have little or no communication with them, as neither do those of Aytuy and Panaquy, villages on the other side of the said mountain-range—to whom it is said that they pay tribute or a sort of recognition; but both are hostile to those of Alrade, Vigan, and Oyrraya, so that, all those Ygolotes being so separated, cautious, malicious and treacherous, no message or despatch can at all be sent them. For if it be done with few Indians, they secure and kill them; and if there are many, they fight them, and will not listen to or believe them. If Spaniards go with an interpreter to talk to them, as I have sometimes attempted to do, they anticipate them on seeing them and no one remains in his house, but they flee from the Spaniards. Then, if perchance they hear some arguments that are shouted out to them, they laugh, and answer that we are deceiving them, and that they will not trust us; that they know us for people of bad faith; and that we must lay aside our firearms if we wish them to approach. And if we did that, they would employ their usual treachery and evil methods, as they generally do.
In the rainy season, that wretched race, most of whom are miners, unite with their wives and children to wash the sand of the streamlets that flow from the mountains, where with less work than in their mines, by avoiding the digging and crushing of the metal, they get some gold, although very little.[8] With what all of them get in one way or another, they go down peacefully to the villages nearest to them, to trade for certain animals or cattle. They do not trade the gold by weight, but by sight. Those cattle are the ones that they eat, with the solemnity above described, in a general assembly; for they do not breed any kind of cattle or any other living thing for their feast or sustenance, except certain small and very wretched dogs which we have often had a chance to see.