is large, and especially so among young children. The people seem to have been greatly afflicted with epidemics in recent years. The cholera epidemic of 1902 swept through Benguet, claiming 706 victims. It invaded Nueva Vizcaya but slightly, and did not reach Lepanto-Bontoc. In Benguet the cholera was followed by smallpox. There are said to be 6 illegitimate Igorot children in Benguet, one from a negro father, one from an American father, the others from Spaniards or Spanish mestizos. There are about 30 mestizo Igorot children, the mothers being married according to the custom of the race, which, unfortunately, does not bind the father to his marital relations if he returns to his native land. I give these figures to show to what remarkable extent these people adhere to their traditions regarding virtue.

It may safely be said that the family relations are very close in Lepanto-Bontoc, if it is understood that immorality on either side is not considered a bar to very deep family attachments between the parents and for their children, and previous wrongdoing does not debar either man or woman from contracting strong nuptial ties, whether legitimately united or not. As the Igorots have a marriage ceremony of their own, it is taken that their method of wedlock will be considered legal and the children legitimate. An Igorot woman sometimes has illegitimate children previous to her alliance with one man.

There is no pauperism among the Igorots; they are all comparatively poor, but none are thrown upon a foreign public or government as paupers. If unfortunate and incapable of earning support, they are cared for by the immediate community to which they belong, and so quietly is this done that it is not and can not be made a matter of record. When a person dies, no matter how rich, one-half of all his edible possessions and one-half of his herds and flocks, are eaten by his community, and he, himself, though dead, sits tied up in a chair in the house until this process of dividing up his accumulations is ended, to see that no personal enemy obtains aught of the fruits of his labor. One man watches this dividing for six months after death. Thus property becomes so common to a community that the word pauperism can not be made to apply to unfortunate individuals. One case is known where a man has been dangerously insane for nine years. He has been imprisoned in a shack with one ankle in the stocks during all this time. For these nine years two men detailed from the entire community, each week, have watched him day and night, feeding him and keeping him and his habitation clean. This has become to that community, of course, a public charge, but it seems to be regarded more as a family affair.

The agricultural implements of Lepanto-Bontoc are few and primitive-a wooden, single-handled plow, occasionally furnished with an iron point, i3 sometimes used in the rice fields, but ordinarily a charred, sharp-pointed stick, wielded by the women, suffices to break the ground, and the feet and hands prepare it for planting. There is no machinery for handling any crop, the rice being all beaten out in wooden or stone mortars with a wooden pestle. Sugar cane is not raised in sufficient quantities to be taken note of, there being no plantations and the crop being confined to a few garden patches among the Ilocanos, and the cane crushed between tiny wooden rollers turned by hand power.

So little has yet been done in Lepanto-Bontoc in an agricultural way, except the raising of rice, camotes, and coffee, that it is difficult to say what crops are best adapted to the soil; and again, the province has a very wide range of climate, from the tropical at 900 feet above sea level, to the distinctly temperate, between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. It may safely be said, however, that with irrigation this province is susceptible of being converted into a veritable garden for the white man, for the raising of such crops as coffee, cacao, tobacco, ílang-ílang, rubber, and hemp. Coffee has been raised on a somewhat extensive scale in times past, being fostered by the Spanish Government and every native being forced to plant a certain area of the same; but the weakness of the plan lay in the fact that the Igorot did not derive any

1. MAYOYAO IGOROT, "HEADMAN" OF BANAUE. 2. IGOROT. 3. IGOROT HEAD-HUNTER, LEPANTOBONTOC. 4. IGOROT GIRL IN FERN-LEAF COSTUME. 5. MAYOYAO IGOROT, YOUNG WOMAN.

benefit from his forced labor, the Spanish official, as nearly as can be found out, putting all the profits in his own pocket, the result being that to-day the Igorot looks askance at any proposition made to him for the planting of free seeds. Upon the waning of Spanish influence the coffee plantations rapidly disappeared through neglect and want of irrigation, except those held by private Spanish citizens who continue to live on their lands. It is generally acknowledged that the finest flavored coffee raised in the archipelago is grown in these mountains, but, even at that, very much may be done to improve the bean and the yield. The coffee here is entirely of the Arabian variety, supposed to require shade and much water, but it is furnished with neither; nor is systematic pruning followed, the result being that the coffee puts up, high and spindling, growing rapidly during the rainy season, but being almost killed out and much stunted during the dry period of the year. There is no doubt that were the same system followed here as in Porto Rico-shading with thinleaved leguminous trees and employing proper irrigation methods-the harmful stoppage of the growth of the tree might be prevented and the two annual crops be largely increased.

Cacao grows luxuriantly, when given the slightest chance for its life, but here again we find the same lack of shade and of water in the dry season.

Hemp, or abaca, has been grown successfully at the elevation of 4,000 feet, and the fiber was long, tough, and of a light-cream color. İlang-flang trees stand in many yards and look prolific. Tobacco grows readily and well, but the Igorot seldom plants more than a small patch, and takes little care of what he does plant. Garden stuff of all kinds flourishes amazingly, and, at the higher altitudes, it may be safely said that anything that can be grown in southern California will do as well here.

The method of harvesting rice, the chief crop, is primitive in the extreme. Every straw is cut separately, with a small knife having a blade two inches long and less than half an inch wide, held inside the palm of the hand; each handful is tied around with a blade of grass, and several handfuls go to make up the bundle or manejo of commerce. The bundles are transported on the ends of the shoulder carrying sticks, or, when an individual has a large crop-usually a rich Igorot who is a leader among them-it may be built up in small stacks. The method of planting in a nursery, transplanting by hand, weeding, etc., differs in no way from that followed generally in the lowlands, or great rice growing section of the island.

The war made little impress on the crops of Lepanto-Bontoc, and, in fact, war can hardly be said to have existed here. It is true that Aguinaldo fled through this province, stopping at several of its towns, and the insurgents killed for food or carried off a large part of the beef cattle. Neither have locusts taken a very prominent part in the destruction of the crops, though now and again they have appeared in cloud-like myriads, for a few hours, within circumscribed areas, to be driven rapidly onward by the strong mountain winds.

The chief damage done to the crops of 1902 was by drought, the year being pronounced one of unusual dryness. This hurt the rice crop seriously by drying up and cracking the rice paddies in which the young plants had been set out. With the exception of the fields set high on the mountain sides, there was no excuse for the injury to the crops, however, as the rivers of the valleys have sufficient water to wet a hundred times more fields than are planted, if the Igorots would construct ample irrigation ditches. Even though this criticism is made, it should be said, in all fairness to the people, that they are wonderful rice-paddy builders and irrigators, constructing, as they do, tier upon tier of fields, reaching continuously from the river beds to points on side-mountain rivulets a thousand feet above. In artificial landscape effects some of the narrow mountainous valleys rival Japan, and water is sometimes brought by a ditch, by bamboo and hewn-log troughs, for miles. The larger rivers are everywhere dammed to raise the level of the water to the ditches,

and again the water is shunted from side to side of the river by log flumes. However, the one thing lacking is the construction of large irrigating ditches, to build which would necessitate the cooperation of an entire town.

Rinderpest has not been felt severely by the province. Along the main trails from the coast it has made its appearance and carried off some animals. Hogs apparently have died in larger numbers than cattle from disease.

The main trails of the province were in almost impassable shape during the first half of 1902, but, by continuous work on them up to the present time, they have been resurfaced and almost all are now in excellent condition. The bad shape they were found in was owing to the fact that they had received no repairs during the last five years. To keep them up requires a large amount of repair work annually.

One of the principal trails comes from San Esteban, on the coast of Ilocos Sur, through San Emilio to Angaqui, where it joins a trail coming from Candón, by the way of Salcedo and Concepción, and continues to Cervantes and out to the southern boundary line by the way of Mancayán and Suyo. At Cervantes another trail branches northeastward to Cayán, six miles away, where it divides into two branches, coming together again at the town of Bontoc; the left-hand branch goes by way of Bagnén and Sagada, passing over the mountains at a 6,000-foot elevation, and the right-hand road passes through Banco and Sabangan, along the valley of the Bontoc river, at a much lower level.

From Bontoc an old Spanish trail runs in a northeasterly direction into the Cagayán valley, but was never completed. Another short Spanish trail reaches from Bontoc to Maínit, a town with hot salt springs eight miles distant, and still another runs southeastward from Bontoc, passes the southern boundary line, and has been completed all the way to Bayombong, the capital of Nueva Vizcaya. All the last named trails are in bad condition, as they have not been repaired in years, but they evidence excellent surveying and engineering on the part of the Spaniards, and the last mentioned trail passes through the worst head-hunting country of the Quiangán valley, where the people of each town are absolutely isolated from the outside world because of their surrounding enemies. Another old Spanish trail, now in bad shape, branches off from the main trail at Sabangan, and climbs over the great central divide into Sapao, another famous head-hunting region. In the recent trip made by the senior inspector of the province into the northern part of Bontoc, still marked on the map as Abra, there was discovered a wide Spanish trail, in hardly passable condition, running down the Saltán river, and probably starting from the capital of Abra. In the subprovince of Amburayan there are no trails beyond footpaths over which horses can not go, with the exception of the trail from Tagudín, on the coast, to Alilem, the capital, and a poor horse trail from Alilem to Santa Cruz, on the north. In Benguet an excellent trail has been constructed by Igorot labor, from Naguilían in La Unión to Baguió, twenty-five miles. Besides this the towns and rancherías are connected by trails in all directions.

To properly promote the growth of civilization it seems imperative, not only to give thoroughfares to the people themselves, but construct them so that the officials of the province may often and readily come in contact with the people. That the thoroughfare has been the entering wedge for improving their condition and leading them toward better things is evidenced by the fact that the most advanced Igorots are on the main trails coming from the coast, where travel and trade are most marked, and the life becomes gradually more primitive as we get away from these starting points, until finally we reach sections where the individual may not leave his own fireside without danger of losing his life, and the people must turn out in force to cultivate their fields, meanwhile being guarded by armed men. Again, the greatest squalor, filth, and distress are found in the villages that are the least accessible to the main trails.