Terracing may be indigenous to many isolated areas where it is found, and doubtless is to some; it is found more or less marked wherever irrigation is or was practiced in ancient or modern agriculture.  However, it is believed not to be an original production of the Philippines.  Certain it is that it is not a Negrito art, nor does it belong to the Moro or to the so-called Christian people.

Different sections of China have rice terraces, and as early as the thirteenth century Chinese merchants traded with the Philippines, yet there is no record that they traded north of Manila —­ where terracing is alone found.  Besides, the Chinese record of the early commerce with the Islands —­ written by Chao Jukua about 1250 it is claimed —­ specifically states that the natives of the Islands were the merchants, taking the goods from the shore and trading them even to other islands; the Chinese did not pass inland.  Even though the Chinaman brought phases of his culture to the Islands, it would not have been agriculture, since he did not practice it here.  Moreover, whatever culture he did leave would not be found in the mountains three or four days inland, while the people with whom he traded were without the art.  The same arguments hold against the Japanese as the inspirers of Igorot terraces.  There is no record that they traded in the Islands as early as did the Chinese, and it is safe to say, no matter when they were along the coasts of Luzon, that they never penetrated several days into the mountains, among a wild, head-hunting people, for what the agricultural Igorot had to sell.

The historic cultural movements in Malaysia have been not from the north southward but from Sumatra and Java to the north and east; they have followed the migrations of the people.  It is believed that the terrace-building culture of the Asiatic islands for the production of mountain rice by irrigation during the dry season has drawn its inspiration from one source, and that such terraces where found to-day in Java, Lombok, Luzon, Formosa, and Japan are a survival of very early culture which spread from the nest of the primitive Malayan stock and left its marks along the way —­ doubtless in other islands besides these cited.  If Japan, as has Formosa, had an early Malayan culture, as will probably be proved in due time, one should not be surprised to find old rice terraces in the mountains of Batanes Islands and the Loo Choo Islands which lie between Luzon and Japan.

Building the sementera

It must be noted here that all Bontoc agricultural labors, from the building of the sementera to the storing of the gathered harvest, are accompanied by religious ceremonials.  They are often elaborate, and some occupy a week’s time.  These ceremonials are left out of this chapter to avoid detail; they appear in the later chapter on religion.