FIGURE 6

Bamboo spear-shaft dresser.

A slender, long-handled battle-ax now and then comes into the area in trade from the north.  Balbelasan, of old Abra Province, but now in the northern part of extended Bontoc Province, is one of the pueblos which produce this beautiful ax.  The blade is longer and very much slimmer than the Bontoc blade, but its marked distinguishing feature is the shape of the cutting edge.  The blade is ground on two straight lines joined together by a short curved line, giving the edge the striking form of the beak of a rapacious bird.  The slender, graceful handle, always fitted with a long iron ferrule, has a process on the under side near the middle.  The handle is also usually fitted with a decorated metal ferrule at the tip and frequently is decorated for its full length with bands of brass or tin, or with sheets of either metal artistically incised.

The Balbelasan ax is not used by the pueblos making it, or at least by many of them, but finds its field of usefulness east and northeast of Bontoc pueblo as far as the foothills of the mountains west of the Rio Grande de Cagayan.  I was told by the Kalinga of this latter region that the people in the mountain close to the Cagayan in the vicinity of Cabagan Nuevo, Isabela Province, also use this ax.

In the southern and western part of the Bontoc area the battle-ax shares place with the bolo, the sole hand weapon of the Igorot of adjoining Lepanto, Benguet, and Nueva Vizcaya Provinces.

The bolo within the Bontoc area comes from Sapao and from the Ilokano people of the west coast.  The southern pueblo in the Bontoc area, Ambawan, uses the bolo of Sapao to the entire exclusion of the battle-ax.  Tulubin, the next pueblo to Ambawan, and only an hour from it, uses almost solely the Baliwang battle-ax.  Such pueblos as Titipan and Antedao, about three hours west of Bontoc, use both the ax and bolo, while the pueblos further west, as Agawa, Sagada, Balili, Alap, etc., use the bolo exclusively —­ frequently an Ilokano weapon.

The Sapao bolo is, in appearance, superior to that of Ilokano manufacture.  It is a broad blade swelling markedly toward the center, and is somewhat similar in shape to the barong of the Sulu Moro of the Sulu Archipelago.  This weapon finds its chief field of use in the Quiangan and Banawi areas.  In these districts the bolo is fitted with an open scabbard, and the bright blade presents a novel appearance lying exposed against the red scabbard.  The Igorot manufacturer of the bolo does not make the scabbard, and most of the bolos used within the Bontoc area are sheathed in the closed wooden scabbard commonly found in Lepanto and Benguet.

Pipe production, and smoking

The Igorot of Bontoc area make pipes of wood, clay, and metal.  All their pipes have small bores and bowls.  In Benguet a wooden pipe is commonly made with a bowl an inch and a half in diameter; it has a large bore also.  In Banawi I obtained a wooden pipe with a bowl 8 1/4 inches in circumference and 4 inches in height, but having a bore averaging only half an inch in diameter.