Until recent years, long after the Spaniards came, it was customary to loan money and other forms of personal property without interest or other charge.  This generous custom still prevails among most of the people, but some rich men now charge an interest on money loaned for one or more years.  Actual cases show the rate to be about 6 or 7 per cent.  The custom of loaning for interest was gained from contact with the Lepanto Igorot, who received it from the Ilokano.

It is claimed that dwellings and granaries are never rented.

Irrigated rice lands are commonly leased.  Such method of cultivation is resorted to by the rich who have more sementeras than they can superintend.  The lessee receives one-half of the palay harvested, and his share is delivered to him.  The lessor furnishes all seed, fertilizers, and labor.  He delivers the lessee’s share of the harvest and retains the other half himself, together with the entire camote crop —­ which is invariably grown immediately after the palay harvest.

Unirrigated mountain camote lands are rented outright; the rent is usually paid in pigs.  A sementera that produces a yield of 10 cargoes of camotes, valued at about six pesos, is worth a 2-peso pig as annual rental.  In larger sementeras a proportional rental is charged —­ a rental of about 33 1/3 per cent.  All rents are paid after the crops are harvested.

Inheritance and bequest

As regards property the statement that all men are born equal is as false in Igorot land as in the United States.  The economic status of the present generation and the preceding one was practically determined for each man before he was born.  It is fair to make the statement that the rich of the present generation had rich grandparents and the poor had poor grandparents, although it is true that a large property is now and then lost sight of in its division among numerous children.

Children before their marriage receive little permanent property during the lives of their parents, and they retain none which they may accumulate themselves.  A mother sometimes gives her daughter the hair dress of white and agate beads, called “apong;” also she may give a mature daughter her peculiar and rare girdle, called “akosan.”  Either parent may give a child a gold earring; I know of but one such case.  This custom of not allowing an unmarried child to possess permanent property is so rigid that, I am told, an unmarried son or daughter seldom receives carabaos or sementeras until the death of the parents, no matter how old the child may be.

At the time of marriage parents give their children considerable property, if they have it, giving even one-half the sementeras they possess.  If parents are no longer able to cultivate their lands when their children marry, they usually give them all they have, and their wants are faithfully met by the children.