Their sages or philosophers are the oldest men and women, whom they respect and obey in an extraordinary manner, and most when they are occupied in the said feasts; for they say that then and even ordinarily those persons are wont to talk with the devil, who keeps them blinded.

That race lacks all good natural reasoning power.  They cannot read, nor do they know what day, month, or year, or the increase and decline of the moon, signify.  They govern themselves by one star that rises in the west, which they call gaganayan, while they call the natives of their neighborhood by the same name.  On seeing that star they attend to the planting of their waste and wretched fields in order to sow them with yams and camotes, which form their usual and natural food.  They do not have to plow or dig, or perform any other cultivation than that of clearing the land where they are to plant.

When any one of those barbarians dies, they do not bury him for many days, for, as they say, they pass one month, during which period they amass quantities of food about the deceased, to whom they give his share as well as the others.  Then they continue to prick the body, and, as they say, they draw off or suck out the humors until the body is left dry.  When that time comes they wrap it in their blankets, and fasten buyos and other things about the waist for the journey.  Some are buried in a sitting posture and placed with their backs against their shields, in caves under the rocks, the mouths of which are stopped with stones.  Others they set in the trees, and they carry food for so many days after having left them in either one of those places.

It is not very easy to ascertain the number of those people, who are scattered, for they are so intractable, and do not let themselves be seen, moving from one place to another on slight pretext, without any hindrance; for their houses, to provide which would be the chief cause of anxiety, they easily build anywhere, with a bundle of hay, while they move their fields of yams or camotes (on which they live well) from one place to another without much effort, pulling them up by the roots—­for, because of the dampness of the country, these take root wherever they are placed.  In the same manner, they carry their ornaments or bones; [58] and since their arms and clothes are but little or nothing, they are not embarrassed, because they always carry these with them.  Yet it is known that, if those called Ygolotes reach one thousand men, that is a great number.  They can scarcely gather in one body or live on friendly terms with one another.  For those of Banaco and those of Atindao, villages of the same mountains, have little or no communication with them, as neither do those of Aytuy and Panaquy, villages on the other side of the said mountain-range—­to whom it is said that they pay tribute or a sort of recognition; but both are hostile to those of Alrade, Vigan, and Oyrraya, so that, all those Ygolotes being so separated, cautious,