skirt, unrecorded Ifugao artist

Archive label, date unknown:
IGORROTE BLANKET
BONTOC, MT. PROVINCES
LUZON ISLAND, P.I.
Igorrote Tribe (Head hunters)
Collected by RAY WICK, K.U. eng. '10
April, 1921.

This blanket was woven by the Igorrote women on crude looms from cotton yarn objtained by barter outside the province. Cost 5 pesos ($2.50 U.S.). The town of BONTOC is the capitol of the province and is reached by trail only as it lies in a mountainout region 130.5 kilometers or 78.3 miles from the west coast. The village was reached on a 270 mile trip made on foot among the wild tribes. White people seldom penetrate this far in.
The Igorrote is of Malayan origin and the term covers a number of local tribes and dialects which have been constantly engaged in feudal strife. Owing to the fact that these tribes practice head taking, and keep together in villages it has been very difficult to civilze them and they are the most backward of all the island tribes and not to be compared with the Christian tribes such as the Tagalogs, Ilocanos, etc.
The men wear only the "G-string" and all carry large knives (bolos) in a scabbard thrust through a thong around the waist.
The women wear only the blanket around their loins. The women do the work whcih consists in planting and harvesting rice and the "camote" a kind of sweet potato. Children leave their parents at the age of six years and live in club houses. Marriages are arranged by the parents of both parties and trial marriages are customary.
Their houses are crude structures with low eaves and the roof is thatched with grass. Pigs are kept in stone-walled pits near each house.
Each house has its quota of skulls both human and "carabas" water buffalo, placed in rows below the eaves. Two or three coffins made from hollowed-out logs are kept in reserve at each house. If death comes by natural cuases the body is often smoked for a week then placed in caves.
Packers or "cargadores" were hired to carry our supplies throughout the trip at a rate of about 25c per day. It was necessary to get new ones every day as none would go beyond the limits of their territory. We met with no violence on the trip but avoided anything tending to stir up the natives. Sign language and money accomplished wonders. The trip was made in three weeks averaging 14 miles per day through mountainous country.