The Bontoc Igorot

Sickness, disease, and remedies

All disease, sickness, or ailment, however serious or slight, among the Bontoc Igorot is caused by an a-ni′-to. If smallpox kills half a dozen persons in one day, the fell work is that of an a-ni′-to; if a man receives a stone bruise on the trail an a-ni′-to is in the foot and must be removed before recovery is possible. There is one exception to the above sweeping charge against the a-ni′-to—the Igorot says that toothache is caused by a small worm twisting and turning in the tooth.

Igorot society contains no person who is so malevolent as to cause another sickness, insanity, or death. So charitable is the Igorot's view of his fellows that when, a few years ago, two Bontoc men died of poison administered by another town, the verdict was that the administering hands were directed by some vengeful or diabolical a-ni′-to.

As a people the Bontoc Igorot are healthful. It is seldom that an epidemic reaches them; bubonic plague and leprosy are unknown to them.

By far the majority of deaths among them is due to what the Igorot calls fever—as they say, “im-po′-os nan a′-wak,” or “heat of the body”—but they class as “fever” half a dozen serious diseases, some almost always fatal.

The men at times suffer with malaria. They go to the low west coast as cargadors or as primitive merchants, and they return to their mountain country enervated by the heat, their systems filled with impure water, and their blood teeming with mosquito-planted malaria. They get down with fever, lose their appetite, neither know the value of nor have the medicines of civilization, their minds are often poisoned with the superstitious belief that they will die—and they do die in from three days to two months. In February, 1903, three cargadors died within two weeks after returning from the coast.

Measles, chicken pox, typhus and typhoid fevers, and a disease resulting from eating new rice are undifferentiated by the Igorot—they are his “fever.” Measles and chicken pox are generally fatal to children. Igorot pueblos promptly and effectually quarantine against these diseases. When a settlement is afflicted with either of them it shuts its doors to all outsiders—even using force if necessary; but force is seldom demanded, as other pueblos at once forbid their people to enter the afflicted settlement. The ravages of typhus and typhoid fever may be imagined among a people who have no remedies for them. The diseased condition resulting each year from eating new rice has locally been called “rice cholera.” During the months of June, July, and page 72August—the two harvest months of rice and the one following—considerable rice of the new crop is annually eaten. If rice has been stored in the palay houses until it is sweated it is in every way a healthful, nutritious food, but when eaten before it sweats it often produces diarrhea, usually leading to an acute bloody dysentery which is often followed by vomiting and a sudden collapse—as in Asiatic cholera.

In 1893 smallpox, ful-tâng′, came to Bontoc with a Spanish soldier who was in the hospital from Quiangan. Some five or six adults and sixty or seventy children died. The ravage took half a dozen in a day, but the Igorot stamped out the plague by self-isolation. They talked the situation over, agreed on a plan, and were faithful to it. All the families not afflicted moved to the mountains; the others remained to minister or be ministered to, as the case might be. About thirty-five years ago smallpox wiped out a considerable settlement of Bontoc, called La′-nao, situated nearer the river than are any dwellings at present.

About thirty years ago cholera, pĭsh-ti′, visited the people, and fifty or more deaths resulted.

Some twelve years ago ka-lag′-nas, an unidentified disease, destroyed a great number of people, probably half a hundred. Those afflicted were covered with small, itching festers, had attacks of nausea, and death resulted in about three days.

Two women died in Bontoc in 1901 of beri-beri, called fu-tut. These are the only cases known to have been there.

About ten years ago a man died from passing blood—an ailment which the Igorot named literally “ĭn-ĭs′-fo cha′-la or ĭn-tay′-es cha′-la.” It was not dysentery, as the person at no time had a diarrhea. He gradually weakened from the loss of small amounts of blood until, in about a year, he died.

The above are the only fatal diseases now in the common memory of the pueblo of Bontoc.

It is believed 95 per cent of the people suffer at some time, probably much of the time, with some skin disease. They say no one has been known to die of any of these skin diseases, but they are weakening and annoying. Itch, ku′-lĭd, is the most common, and it takes an especially strong hold on the babes in arms. This ku′-lĭd is not the ko′-lud or gos-gos, the white scaly itch found among the people surrounding those of the Bontoc culture area but not known to exist within it.

Two or three people suffer with rheumatism, fĭg-fĭg, but are seldom confined to their homes.

One man has consumption, o′-kat. He has been coughing five or six years, and is very thin and weak.

Diarrhea, or o-gi′-âk, frequently makes itself felt, but for only one or two days at a time. It is most common when the locusts swarm page 73over the country, and the people eat them abundantly for several days. They say no one, not even a babe, ever died of diarrhea.

Two of the three prostitutes of Bontoc, the cast-off mistresses of Spanish soldiers, have syphilis, or na-na. Formerly one civilian was afflicted, and at present four or five of the Constabulary soldiers have contracted the disease.

Lang-ĭng′-i, a disease of sores and ulcers on the lips, nostrils, and rectum, afflicted a few people three or four years ago. This disease is very common in the pueblo of Ta-kong′, but is reported as never causing death.

Goiter, fi-kĕk′ or fĭn-to′-kĕl, is quite common with adults, and is more common with women than men.

Varicose veins, o′-pat, are not uncommon on the calves of both men and women.

Many old people suffer greatly with toothache, called “pa-tug′ nan fob-a′.” They say it is caused by a small worm, fi′-kĭs, which wriggles and twists in the tooth. When one has an aching tooth extracted he looks at it and inquires where “fi′-kĭs” is.

They suffer little from colds, mo-tug′, and one rarely hears an Igorot cough.

Headache, called both sa-kĭt′ si o′-lo and pa-tug′ si o′-lo, rarely occurs except with fever.

Sore eyes, a condition known as ĭn-o′-ki, are very frequently seen; they doubtless precede most cases of blindness.

The Igorot bears pain well, but his various fatalistic superstitions make him often an easy victim to a malady that would yield readily to the science of modern medicine and from which, in the majority of cases, he would probably recover if his mind could only assist his body in withstanding the disease.

One is surprised to find that sores from bruises do not generally heal quickly.

The Igorot attempts no therapeutic remedies for fevers, cholera, beri-beri, rheumatism, consumption, diarrhea, syphilis, goiter, colds, or sore eyes.

Some effort, therapeutic in its intent, is made to assist nature in overcoming a few of the simplest ailments of the body.

For a cut, called “na-fa′-kag,” the fruit of a grass-like herb named la-lay′-ya is pounded to a paste, and then bound on the wound.

Burns, ma-la-fûb-chong′, are covered over with a piece of bark from a tree called ta-kum′-fao.

Kay-yub′, a vegetable root, is rubbed over the forehead in cases of headache.

Boils, fu-yu-i′, and swellings, nay-am-an′ or kĭn-may-yon′, are treated with a poultice of a pounded herb called ok-ok-ong′-an. page 74

Millet burned to a charcoal, pulverized, and mixed with pig fat is used as a salve for the itch.

An herb called a-kûm′ is pounded and used as a poultice on ulcers and sores.

For toothache salt is mixed with a pounded herb named ot-o′-tĕk and the mass put in or around the aching tooth.

Leaves of the tree kay′-yam are steeped, and the decoction employed as a bath for persons with smallpox.