Throughout the year the pueblo of Mayinit produces salt from a number of brackish hot springs occupying about an acre of ground at the north end of the pueblo.

Mayinit has a population of about 1,000 souls, probably half of whom are directly interested in salt production.  It is probable that the pueblo owes its location to the salt springs, although adjoining it to the south is an arable valley now filled with rice sementeras, which may first have drawn the people.

The hot springs slowly raise their water to the surface, where it flows along in shallow streams.  Over these streams, or rather sheets of sluggish water, the Igorot have built 152 salt houses, usually about 12 feet wide and from 12 to 25 feet long.  The houses, well shown in Pl.  CXV, are simply grass-covered roofs extending to the earth.

There is no ownership in the springs to-day —­ just as there is no ownership in springs which furnish irrigating water —­ one owns the water that passes into his salt house, but has no claim on that which passes through it and flows out below.  So each person has ownership of all and only all the water he can use within his plant, and the people claim there are no disputes between owners of houses —­ as they look at it, each owner of a salt house has an equal chance to gather salt.

The ground space of the salt house is closely paved with cobblestones from 4 to 6 inches in diameter.  The water passes among the bases of these stones, and the salt is deposited in a thin crust over their surface. (See Pl.  CXVI.)

These houses are inherited, and, as a consequence, several persons may ultimately have proprietary interest in one house.  In such a case the ground space is divided, often resulting in many twig-separated patches, as is shown in fig. 7.

About once each month the salt is gathered.  The women of the family work naked in the stream-filled house, washing the crust of salt from the stones into a large wooden trough, called “ko-long’-ko.”  Each stone is thoroughly washed and then replaced in the pavement.  The saturated brine is preserved in a gourd until sufficient is gathered for evaporation.

FIGURE 7

Ground plan of Mayinit salt house.

Two or more families frequently join in evaporating their salt.  The brine is boiled in the large, shallow iron boilers, and from half a day to a day is necessary to effect the evaporation.  Evaporation is discontinued when the salt is reduced to a thick paste.

The evaporated salt is spread in a half-inch layer on a piece of banana leaf cut about 5 inches square.  The leaf of paste is supported by two sticks on, but free from, a piece of curved broken pottery which is the baking pan.  The salt thus prepared for baking is set near a fire in the dwelling where it is baked thirty or forty minutes.  It is then ready for use at home or for commerce, and is preserved in the square, flat cakes called “luk’-sa.”