The unmarried are buried in graves near the dwelling, and these are walled up the sides and covered with rocks and lastly with earth; it is the old rock cairn instead of the wooden coffin.  The bodies are placed flat on their backs with knees bent and heels drawn up to the buttocks.  With the men are buried, besides the things interred with the married men, the basket-work hat, the basket-work sleeping hat, the spear, the battle-ax, and the earrings if any are possessed.  These additional things are buried, they say, because there is no family with which to leave them, though all things interred are for the use of the anito of the dead.

In addition to the various things buried with the married woman, the unmarried has a sleeping hat.

Babes and children up to 6 or 7 years of age are buried in the sementera wrapped in a crude beaten-bark mantle.  This garment is folded and wrapped about the body, and for babes, at least, is bound and tied close about them.

Babies are buried close to the dwelling where the sun and storm do not beat, because, as they say, babes are too tender to receive harsh treatment.

For those beheaded in battle there is another burial, which is described in a later chapter.

PART 4

Economic Life

Production

Under the title “Economic life” are considered the various activities which a political economist would consider if he studied a modern community —­ in so far as they occur in Bontoc.  This method was chosen not to make the Bontoc Igorot appear a modern man but that the student may see as plainly as method will allow on what economic plane the Bontoc man lives.  The desire for this clear view is prompted by the belief that grades of culture of primitive peoples may be determined by the economic standard better than by any other single standard.

Natural production

It would be impossible for the Bontoc Igorot at present to subsist themselves two weeks by natural production.  It is doubtful whether at any time they could have depended for even as much as a day in a week on the natural foods of the Bontoc culture area.  The country has wild carabaos, deer, hogs, chickens, and three animals which the Igorot calls “cats,” but all of these, when considered as a food supply for the people, are relatively scarce, and it is thought they were never much more abundant than now.  Fish are not plentiful, and judging from the available waters there are probably as many now as formerly.  It is believed that no nut foods are eaten in Bontoc, although an acorn is found in the mountains to the south of Bontoc pueblo.  The banana and pineapple now grow wild within the area, but they are not abundant.  Of small berries, such as are so abundant in the wild lands of the United States, there are almost none in the area.  On the outside, near Suyak of Lepanto, there is a huckleberry found so plentifully that they claim it is gathered for food in its season.