I have seen a few crude bamboo flutes in the hands of young men, but none were able to play them.  I believe they are of Ilokano introduction.

A long wooden drum, hollow and cannon-shaped, and often 3 feet and more long and about 8 inches in diameter, is common in Benguet, and is found in Lepanto, but is not found or known in Bontoc.  A skin stretched over the large end of the drum is beaten with the flat of the hands to accompany the music of the metal drums or gang’-sa, also played with the flat of the hands, as described, in pueblos near the western border of Bontoc area.

Vocal music

The Igorot has vocal music, but in no way can I describe it —­ to say nothing of writing it.  I tried repeatedly to write the words of the songs, but failed even in that.  The chief cause of failure is that the words must be sung —­ even the singers failed to repeat the songs word after word as they repeat the words of their ordinary speech.  There are accents, rests, lengthened sounds, sounds suddenly cut short —­ in fact, all sorts of vocal gymnastics that clearly defeated any effort to “talk” the songs.  I believe many of the songs are wordless; they are mere vocalizations —­ the “tra la la” of modern vocal music; they may be the first efforts to sing.

I was told repeatedly that there are four classes of songs, and only four.  The mang-ay-u-weng’, the laborer’s song, is sung in the field and trail.  The mang-ay-yeng’ is said to be the class of songs rendered at all ceremonies, though I believe the doleful funeral songs are of another class.  The mang-ay-lu’-kay and the ting-ao’ I know nothing of except in name.

Most of the songs seem serious.  I never heard a mother or other person singing to a babe.  However, boys and young men, friends with locked arms or with arms over shoulders, often sing happy songs as they walk along together.  They often sing in “parts,” and the music produced by a tenor and a bass voice as they sing their parts in rhythm, and with very apparent appreciation of harmony, is fascinating and often very pleasing.

Dancing

The Bontoc Igorot dances in a circle, and he follows the circle contraclockwise.  There is no dancing without gang’-sa music, and it is seldom that a man dances unless he plays a gang’-sa.  The dance step is slower than the beats on the gang’-sa; there is one complete “step” to every full 4/4 count.  At times the “step” is simply a high-stepping slow run, really a springing prance.  Again it is a hitching movement with both feet close to the earth, and one foot behind the other.  The line of dancers, well shown in Pls.  CXXXI, CLI, and CLII, passes slowly around the circle, now and again following the leader in a spiral movement toward the center of the circle and then uncoiling backward from the center to the path.  Now and again the line moves rapidly for half the distance of the circumference, and then slowly backs a short distance, and again it all but stops while the men stoop forward and crouch stealthily along as though in ambush, creeping on an enemy.  In all this dancing there is perfect rhythm in music and movements.  There is no singing or even talking —­ the dance is a serious but pleasurable pastime for those participating.