The Bontoc Igorot

Dancing

The Bontoc Igorot dances in a circle, and he follows the circle contraclockwise. There is no dancing without gang′-sa music, and it is seldom that a man dances unless he plays a gang′-sa. The dance step is slower than the beats on the gang′-sa; there is one complete “step” to every full 4/4 count. At times the “step” is simply a high-stepping slow run, really a springing prance. Again it is a hitching movement with both feet close to the earth, and one foot behind the other. The line of dancers, well shown in Pls. CXXXI, CLI, and CLII, passes slowly around the circle, now and again following the leader in a spiral movement toward the center of the circle and then uncoiling backward from the center to the path. Now and again the line moves rapidly for half the distance of the circumference, and then slowly backs a short distance, and again it all but stops while the men stoop forward and crouch stealthily along as though in ambush, creeping on an enemy. In all this dancing there is perfect rhythm in music and movements. There is no singing or even talking—the dance is a serious but pleasurable pastime for those participating.

As is shown also by the illustrations, the women dance. They throw their blankets about them and extend their arms, usually clutching tobacco leaves in either hand—which are offerings to the old men and which some old man frequently passes among them and collects—and they dance with less movement of the feet than do the men. Generally the toes scarcely leave the earth, though a few of the older women invariably dance with a high movement and backward pawing of one foot which throws the dust and gravel over all behind them. I have more than once seen the dance circle a cloud of dust raised by one pawing woman, and the people at the margin of the circle dodging the gravel thrown back, yet they only laughed and left the woman to pursue her peculiar and discomforting “step.” The dancing women are generally immediately outside the circle, and from them the rhythm spreads to the spectators until a score of women are dancing on their toes where they stand among the onlookers, and little girls everywhere are imitating their mothers. The rhythmic music is fascinating, and one always feels out of place standing stiff legged in heavy, hobnailed shoes among the pulsating, rhythmic crowd. Now and again a woman dances between two men of the line, forcing her way to the center of the circle. She is usually more spectacular than those about the margin, and frequently holds in her hand her camote stick or a ball of bark-fiber thread which she has spun page 194for making skirts. I once saw such a dancer carry the long, heavy wooden pestle used in pounding out rice.

A few times I have seen men dance in the center of the circle somewhat as the women do, but with more movement, with a balancing and tilting of the body and especially of the arms, and with rapid trembling and quivering of the hands. The most spectacular dance is that of the man who dances in the circle brandishing a head-ax. He is shown in Pls. CLII and CLIII. At all times his movements are in perfect sympathy and rhythm with the music. He crouches around between the dancers brandishing his ax, he deftly all but cuts off a hand here, an arm or leg there, an ear yonder. He suddenly rushes forward and grinningly feigns cutting off a man's head. He contorts himself in a ludicrous yet often fiendish manner. This dance represents the height of the dramatic as I have seen it in Igorot life. His is truly a mimetic dance. His colleague with the spear and shield, who sometimes dances on the outskirts of the circle, now charging a dancer and again retreating, also produces a true mimetic and dramatic spectacle. This is somewhat more than can be said of the dance of the women with the camote sticks, pestles, and spun thread. The women in no way “act”—they simply purposely present the implements or products of their labors, though in it all we see the real beginning of dramatic art.

Other areas, and other pueblos also, have different dances. In the Benguet area the musicians sit on the earth and play the gang′-sa and wooden drum while the dancers, a man and woman, pass back and forth before them. Each dances independently, though the woman follows the man. He is spectacular with from one to half a dozen blankets swinging from his shoulders, arms, and hands.

Captain Chas. Nathorst, of Cervantes, has told me of a dance in Lepanto, believed by him to be a funeral dance, in which men stand abreast in a long line with arms on each other's shoulders. In this position they drone and sway and occasionally paw the air with one foot. There is little movement, and what there is is sluggish and lifeless.

Games

Cockfighting is the Philippine sport. Almost everywhere the natives of the Archipelago have cockfights and horse races on holidays and Sundays. They are also greatly addicted to the sport of gambling. The Bontoc Igorot has none of the common pastimes or games of chance. This fact is remarkable, because the modern Malayan is such a gamester.

Only in toil, war, and numerous ceremonials does the Bontoc man work off his superfluous and emotional energy. One might naturally expect to find Jack a dull boy, but he is not. His daily round of toil seems quite sufficient to keep the steady accumulation of energy at a natural poise, and his head-hunting offers him the greatest game of skill and chance which primitive man has invented. page 195

Formalities

The Igorot has almost no formalities, the “etiquette” which one can recognize as binding “form.” When the American came to the Islands he found the Christians exceedingly polite. The men always removed their hats when they met him, the women always spoke respectfully, and some tried to kiss his hand. Every house, its contents and occupants, to which he might go was his to do with as he chose. Such characteristics, however, seem not to belong to the primitive Malayan. The Igorot meets you face to face and acts as though he considers himself your equal—both you and he are men—and he meets his fellows the same way.

When Igorot meet they do not greet each other with words, as most modern people do. As an Igorot expressed it to me they are “all same dog” when they meet. Sometimes, however, when they part, in passing each other on the trial, one asks where the other is going.

The person with a load has the right of way in the trail, and others stand aside as best they can.

There is commonly no greeting when a person comes to one's house, nor is there a greeting between members of a family when one returns home after an absence even of a week or more.

Children address their mothers as “I′-na,” their word for mother, and address their father as “A′-ma,” their word for father. They do this throughout life.

Igorot do not kiss or have other formal physical expression to show affection between friends or relatives. Mothers do not kiss their babes even.

The Igorot has no formal or common expression of thankfulness. Whatever gratitude he feels must be taken for granted, as he never expresses it in words.

When an Igorot desires to beckon a person to him he, in common with the other Malayans of the Archipelago, extends his arm toward the person with the hand held prone, not supine as is the custom in America, and closes the hand, also giving a slight inward movement of the hand at the wrist. This manner of beckoning is universal in Luzon.

The hand is almost never used to point a direction. Instead, the head is extended in the direction indicated—not with a nod, but with a thrusting forward of the face and a protruding of the open lips; it is a true lip gesture. I have seen it practically everywhere in the Islands, among pagans, Mohammedans, and Christians.