It is impossible for me to represent Igorot music, instrumental or vocal, in any adequate manner, but I may convey a somewhat clearer impression of the rhythm if I attempt to represent it mathematically.  It must be kept in mind that all the gang’-sa are beaten regularly and in perfect time —­ there is no such thing as half notes.

The gang’-sa is struck at each italicized count, and each unitalicized count represents a rest, the accent represents the accented beat of the gang’-sa.  The ka’-los is usually beaten without accent and without rest.  Its beats are 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc.  The co-ong’-an is usually beaten with both accent and rest.  It is generally as follows:  1, 2, 3’, 4; 1, 2, 3’, 4; 1, 2, 3’, 4; 1, 2, 3’, 4; etc.  Sometimes, however, only the first count and again the first and second counts are struck on the individual co-ong’-an, but there is no accent unless the third is struck.  Thus it is sometimes as follows:  1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc.; and again 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc.  However, the impression the hearer receives from a group of players is always of four rapid beats, the third one being distinctly accented.  A considerable volume of sound is produced by the gang’-sa of the central part of the area; it may readily be heard a mile, if beaten in the open air.

In pueblos toward the western part of the area, as in Balili, Alap, and their neighbors, the instrument is played differently and the sound carries only a few rods.  Sometimes the player sits in very un-Malayan manner, with legs stretched out before him, and places the gang’-sa bottom up on his lap.  He beats it with the flat of both hands, producing the rhythmic pulse by a deadening or smothering of a beat.  Again the gang’-sa is held in the air, usually as high as the face, and one or two soft beats, just a tinkle, of the 4/4 time are struck on the inside of the gang’-sa by a small, light stick.  Now and then the player, after having thoroughly acquired the rhythm, clutches the instrument under his arm for a half minute while he continues his dance in perfect time and rhythm.

The lover’s “jews’-harp,” made both of bamboo and of brass, is found throughout the Bontoc area.  It is played near to and in the olag wherein the sweetheart of the young man is at the time.  The instrument, called in Bontoc “ab-a’-fu,” is apparently primitive Malayan, and is found widespread in the south seas and Pacific Ocean.

The brass instrument, the only kind I ever saw in use except as a semitoy in the hands of small boys, is from 2 to 3 inches in length, and has a tongue, attached at one end, cut from the middle of the narrow strip of metal. (The Igorot make the ab-a’-fu of metal cartridges.) A cord is tied to the instrument at the end at which the tongue is attached, and this the player jerks to vibrate the tongue.  The instrument is held at the mouth, is lightly clasped between the lips, and, as the tongue vibrates, the player breathes a low, soft tune through the instrument.  One must needs get within 2 or 3 feet of the player to catch the music, but I must say after hearing three or four men play by the half hour, that they produce tunes the theme of which seems to me to bespeak a genuine musical taste.