CHAPTER VII

WARFARE, HUNTING, AND FISHING

Head-hunting and warfare are practically synonymous.  To-day both are suffering a rapid decline, and a head is seldom taken in the valley of the Abra.  In the mountain district old feuds are still maintained, and sometimes lead to a killing, and here too the ancient funerary rites are still carried out in their entirety on rare occasions.  However, this peaceful condition is not of long standing.  In every village the older men tell with pride of their youthful exploits, of the raids they indulged in, the heads they captured; and they are still held in high esteem as men “who fought in the villages of their enemies.”

During the time of our stay in Abra, the villages of the Buklok valley were on bad terms with the people of the neighboring Ikmin valley, and were openly hostile to the Igorot on the eastern side of the mountain range.  Manabo and Abang were likewise hostile to their Igorot neighbors, and the latter village was surrounded with a double bamboo stockade, to guard against a surprise attack.  Manabo at this time anticipated trouble with the warriors of Balatok and Besao, as a result of their having killed six men from those towns.  The victims had ostensibly come down to the Abra river to fish, but, judging by previous experience, the Tinguian believed them to be in search of heads, and acted accordingly.  This feud is of old standing and appears to have grown out of a dispute over the hunting grounds on Mt.  Posoey, the great peak which rises only a few miles from Manabo.  There have been many clashes between the rival hunters, the most serious of which occurred in 1889, when the Tinguian had twenty-nine of their number killed, and lost twenty-five heads to the Igorot of Besao.

The people of Agsimo and Balantai suffered defeat in a raid carried on against Dagara in 1907, and at the time of our visit a number of the warriors still bore open wounds received in that fight.  In the same year at least three unsuccessful attacks, probably by lone warriors, were made against individuals of Lagangilang, Likuan, and Lakub.

Accounts of earlier travelers offer undoubted proof that head-hunting was rampant a generation ago; while the folk-tales feature the taking of heads as one of the most important events in Tinguian life.

The first incentive for head-taking is in connection with funeral rites.  According to ancient custom it was necessary, following the death of an adult, for the men of the village to go out on a headhunt, and until they had done so, the relatives of the deceased were barred from wearing good clothing, from taking part in any pastimes or festivals, and their food was of the poorest and meanest quality.  To remove this ban, the warriors would don white head-bands, arm themselves, and sally forth either to attack a hostile village or to ambush an unsuspecting foe.  Neighboring villages were, out of necessity, usually on good terms, but friendly relations seldom extended beyond the second or third settlement, a distance of ten or fifteen miles.  Beyond these limits most of the people were considered enemies and subject to attack.