In the fawi of ato Sigichan there are at present three skulls of men from Sagada, one of a man from Balugan, and one of a man and two of women from Baliwang.  Probably not more than a dozen skulls are kept in a fawi at one time.  The final resting place of the skull is again under the stones of the fawi.  Samoki does not keep the skull at all; it remains where buried under the ato court.  As was stated before, a skull is generally buried under the stones of the fawi court whenever the omens are such that a proposed head-hunting expedition is given up.  They are doubtless, also, buried at other times when the basket in the fawi becomes too full.  Sigichan has buried twenty-eight skulls in the memory of her oldest member —­ making a total of thirty-five heads taken, say, in fifty years.  Three of these were men’s heads from Ankiling, nine were men’s heads from Tukukan, three were men’s heads from Barlig, three were men’s heads and four women’s heads from Sabangan, and six were men’s heads from Sadanga.  During this same period Sigichan claims to have lost one man’s head each to Sabangan and Sadanga.

No small children’s skulls can be found in Bontoc, though some other head-hunters take the heads even of infants.  In fact, the men of Bontoc say that babes and children up to about 5 years of age are not killed by the head-hunter.  If one should take a child’s head he would shortly be called to fate by some watchful pinteng in language as follows:  “Why did you take that babe’s head?  It does not understand war.  Pretty soon some pueblo will take your head.”  And the pinteng is supposed to put it into the mind of some pueblo to get the head of that particularly cruel man.

The friends of a beheaded person take his body home from the scene of death.  It remains one day sitting in the dwelling.  Sometimes a head is bought back from the victors at the end of a day, the usual price paid being a carabao.  After the body has remained one day in the dwelling it is said to be buried without ceremony near the trail leading to the pueblo which took the head.  The following day the entire ato has a ceremonial fishing in the river, called “mang-o’-gao” or “tid-wil.”  A fish feast follows for the evening meal.  The next day the mang-ay’-yu ceremony occurs.  At that time the men of the ato, go near the place where their companion lost his head and ask the beheaded man’s spirit, the pinteng, to return to their pueblo.

Pl.  CXXXVI shows the burial of a beheaded corpse in Banawi in April, 1903.[34] After the head-taking the body was set up two days under the dwelling of the dead man, and was then carried to the mountain side in the direction of Kambulo, the pueblo which killed the man.  It was tied on a war shield and the whole tied to a pole which was borne by two men, as is shown in Pl.  CXXXV.  The funeral procession was made up as follows:  First, four warriors proceeded, one after the other, along a narrow path on the dike walls, each beating a slow rhythm with a stick on the long, black, Banawi war shield, each shield, however, being striped differently with white-earth paint.  The corpse was borne next, after which followed about a dozen more warriors, most of whom carried the white-marked shield —­ an emblem of mourning.