The su-wan’, the woman’s camote stick, is about 2 feet long and an inch in diameter (Pl.  LXXV).  It is a heavy, compact wood, and is used by the woman until worn down 6 or 8 inches, when it usually becomes the property of a small girl for gathering wild plants for the family pigs.  The su-wan’ of the woman of Bontoc and Samoki comes, mostly in trade, from the mountains near Tulubin.  It is employed in picking the earth loose in all unirrigated sementeras, as those for camotes, millet, beans, and maize.  It is also used to pick over the earth in camote sementeras when the crop is gathered.  Perhaps 1 per cent of these sticks is shod with an iron point.  Such an instrument is of genuine service in the rough, stony mountain lands, but is not so serviceable as the unshod stick in the irrigated sementeras, because it cuts and bruises the vegetables.

The most common wooden vessel in the Bontoc area is the kak-wan’, a vessel, or “pail” holding about six or eight quarts.  In it the cooked food of the pigs is mixed and carried to the animals.  Every household has two or more of them.

A few small, poorly made wooden dishes, called “chu’-yu,” are found in each dwelling, from which the people eat broth of fish or other meats.  All are of inferior workmanship and, in common with all things of wood made by the Igorot, are the product of the man’s art.  Both the knife and fire are used to hollow out these bowls.

A long-handled wooden dipper, called “ka-od’,” is found in every dwelling.  It belongs with the kak-wan’, the pig-food pail.

Tug-on’ is a large, long-handled spoon used exclusively as a drinking dipper for the fermented liquor called “sa-fu-eng’.”

Fa’-nu is a wooden ladle employed in cooking foods.

A few very crude eating spoons, about the size of the dessert spoon of America, are found in most dwellings.  They are usually without ornament, and are called “i-chus’.”

Metal implements and utensils

The wa’-say is the only metal implement employed at all commonly in the area; it is found in each family.  It consists of an iron, steel-bitted blade from an inch to an inch and a half in width and about 6 inches in length.  It is attached to the short, wooden handle by a square haft inserted into the handle.  Since the haft is square the implement may be instantly converted into either an “ax” with blade parallel to the handle or an “adz” with blade at right angle to the handle.

This is the tool used in felling and cutting up all trees, and in getting out and dressing all timbers and boards.  It is the sole carpenter tool, unless the man by chance possess a bolo.

There are no metal agricultural implements in common use.  As was noted earlier in the chapter, the soil-turning stick and the woman’s camote stick are now and then shod with iron, but they are rare.

There are a few large, shallow Chinese iron boilers in the area, used especially for boiling sugar, evaporating salt in Mayinit, and for cooking carabao or large quantities of hog on ceremonial occasions.  There are probably not more than two or three dozen such boilers in Bontoc pueblo, though they are becoming much more plentiful during the past three years —­ since the Igorot has more money and goes more often to Candon on the coast, where he buys them.