Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/539

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THE ILONGOT OR IBILAO OF LUZON
533

sionally quite curly. These rather unusual characteristics of the Ilongot have led to some absurdly exaggerated reports of their appearance.

My measurements include 15 men, 8 women and a young boy whose stature is disregarded. The height of the men varied from 1,439 mm. to 1,610 mm., the mean being about 1,540, a very small stature though considerably above the Negrito. The stature of the women was from 1,386 mm. to 1,510 mm., the mean being about 1,440. The cephalic index of all but four of the 24 individuals was between 89 and 80 (brachycephalic), one was 79.9, two were 79, and one 76 (mesaticephalic). The nasal index of all but six varied from 100 to 87 (markedly platyrhinian), while the remaining six had indices from 83 to 76. The mean index of all was 88.6. The arm reach, as is usual in Negritic peoples, exceeded the height.

A peculiarity of the Ilongot face is that, while it is relatively wide at the cheek bones, it narrows rapidly below, giving the effect of a pentagonal shaped face with sharp chin. The eyes are relatively well opened and clear, like the eye of the Negrito, without slant or folding lid.

In the Ilongot then we have a small, shortlegged, wavy or curly-haired man, round headed generally, flat and broad nosed, with occasionally bearded face and restless nervous physiognomy. Most of these are not characteristics of the ordinary forest Malayan; on the contrary, they suggest the Negrito, and occasion the belief, in my own mind, that the Ilongot is, like many other peoples of the Philippines and Malaysia, a mixed race resulting from the union of Negrito and Malayan.

From what has already been said it is apparent that in Ilongot society we have a most rudimentary stage of political development. There is no tribe. There is no chieftanship. There are no social classes, for the Ilongot have neither aristocracy nor slaves nor what is very common in most Malayan communities, a class of bonded debtors. They have words to designate such classes, a slave being "sina lima" and a debtor "makiotang," but this information was imparted with the repeated statement, "There are none here." I was unable to get any word whatever for a chieftain, although the Ilongot of Neuva Vizcaya spoke of the "nalahaian" or head of the body of kin, but this person seemed to be only the oldest influential relation in the family group. The Ilongot of Patakgao said it was customary to hold a council called "pogon" but it was evident that this gathering was without definite constitution. The feebleness of the political life of the Ilongot can be appreciated by comparing it to the Igorot, the sturdy mountain headhunters in the Cordillera to the west. The Igorot likewise have no conception of the tribe but they do have thoroughly organized towns and town life. They have a detailed social system, based primarily on the possession of wealth; there are slaves, servant and indebted classes, and a carefully developed and adequate body of law covering property,