The other institution is a social development.  It is the olag, an institution of trial marriage.  It is not known to exist among adjoining people, but is found throughout the area in which the intugtukan exists; they are apparently coextensive.  I was repeatedly informed that the olag is not found in the Banawi area south of Bontoc, or in the Tinglayan area east, or among the Tinguian to the north, or in Benguet far southwest, or in Lepanto immediately southwest —­ though I have some reason to believe that both the intugtukan and olag exist in a crumbling way among certain Lepanto Igorot.

Besides these two institutions there are other differing marks of culture between the Bontoc area and adjoining people.  Some of these were suggested a few pages back, others will appear in following pages.

Without doubt the limits of the spread of the common culture have been determined mainly by the physiography of the country.  One of the two pueblos in the area not on the common drainage system is Lias, but Lias was largely built by a migration from Bontoc pueblo —­ the hotbed of Bontoc culture.  Barlig, the other pueblo not on the common drainage system (both Barlig and Lias are on the Sibbu River), lies between Lias and the other pueblos of the Bontoc culture area, and so naturally has been drawn in line and held in line with the culture of the geographic area in which it is located —­ its institutions are those of its environment.

The Bontoc man

Introduction

The Bontoc Igorot has been in Bontoc longer than the endurance of tradition, for he says he never lived elsewhere, that he never drove any people out before him, and that he was never driven; and has always called himself the “I-pu-kao’” or “I-fu-gao’” —­ the “people.”

This word for people survives not only throughout the Province of Bontoc but also far toward the northern end of Luzon, where it appears as “Apayao” or “Yaos.”  Bontoc designates the people of the Quiangan region as “I-fu-gao’,” though a part of them at least have a different name for themselves.

The Bontoc Igorot have their center in the pueblo of Bontoc, pronounced “Ban-tak’,” a Spanish corruption of the Igorot name “Fun-tak’,” a common native word for mountain, the original name of the pueblo.  To the northwest their culture extends to that of the historic Tinguian, a long-haired folk physiographically cut off by a watershed.  To the east of the Cordillera Central the Tinguian call themselves “It-neg’.”  To the northeast the Bontoc culture area embraces the pueblo of Basao, stopping short of Tinglayan.  The eastern limit of Bontoc culture is fixed by the pueblos of Lias and Barlig, and is thus about coextensive with the province.  Southward the area includes all to the top of the watershed of Polis Mountain, which turns southward the numerous streams feeding the Rio Magat.  The pueblos south of this watershed —­ Lubong, Gisang, Banawi, etc. —­ belong to the short-haired people of Quiangan culture.  To the west Bontoc culture extends to the watershed of the Cordillera Central, which turns westward the various affluents of the Rio del Abra.  On the southwest this cuts off the short-haired Lepanto Igorot, whose culture seems to be more allied to that of Benguet than Bontoc.