The Bontoc Igorot Part 3

Spread of arms 165.684

Head length 19.212

Head breadth 15.203

Cephalic index (per cent) 79.1328

Nasal length 5.25625

Nasal breadth 4.1625

Nasal index (per cent) 79.191

From these measurements it appears that the composite man -- the average of the combined measurements of thirty-two men -- is mesaticephalic. Among the thirty-two men the extremes of cephalic index are 91.48 and 67.48. This first measurement is of a young man between 20 and 25 years of age. It stands far removed from other measurements, the one nearest it being 86.78, that of a man about 60 years old. The other extreme is 67.48, the measure of a young man between 25 and 30 years of age. Among the thirty-two men, nine are brachycephalic -- that is, their cephalic index is greater than 80; twenty of the thirty-two are mesaticephalic, with cephalic index between 75 and 80; and only three are dolichocephalic -- that is, the cephalic index is below 75.

The nasal indexes of the thirty-two men show that the Bontoc man has the "medium" or mesorhine nose. They also show that one is very extremely platyrhine, the index being 104.54, and one is very leptorhine, being 58.18. Of the total, five are leptorhine -- that is, have the "narrow" nose with nasal index below 70. Seventeen men are mesorhine, with the "medium" nose with nasal index between 70 and 85; and ten are platyrhine -- that is, the noses are "broad,"

with an index greater than 85.

The Bontoc men are never corpulent, and, with the exception of the very old, they are seldom poor. During the period of a man's prime he is usually muscled to an excellent symmetry. His neck, never long, is well formed and strong and supports the head in erect position. His shoulders are broad, even, and full muscled, and with seeming ease carry transportation baskets laden with 75 to 100 pounds. His arms are smoothly developed and are about the same relative length as the American's. The hands are strong and short. The waist line is firm and smaller than the shoulders or hips. The b.u.t.tocks usually appear heavy. His legs are generally straight; the thighs and calves are those of a prime pedestrian accustomed to long and frequent walks. The ankles are seldom thick; and the feet are broad and relatively short, and, almost without exception, are placed on the ground straight ahead. He has the feet of a pedestrian -- not the inturned feet of the constant bearer of heavy burdens on the back or the outturned feet of the man who sits or stands. The perfection of muscular development of two-thirds of the men of Bontoc between the ages of 25 and 30 would be the envy of the average college athlete in the States.

In color the men are brown, though there is a wide range of tone from a light brown with a strong saffron undertone to a very dark brown -- as near a bronze as can well be imagined. The sun has more to do with the different color tones than has anything else, after which habits of personal cleanliness play a very large role. There are men in the Bontoc Igorot Constabulary of an extremely light-brown color, more saffron than brown, who have been wearing clothing for only one year. During the year the diet of the men in the Constabulary has been practically the same as that of their darker brothers among whom they were enlisted only twelve months ago. All the members of the Constabulary differ much more in color from the unclothed men than the unclothed differ among themselves. Man after man of these latter may pa.s.s under the eye without revealing a tint of saffron, yet there are many who show it faintly. The natural Igorot never washes himself clean. He washes frequently, but lacks the means of cleansing the skin, and the dirtier he is the more bronze-like he appears. At all times his face looks lighter and more saffron-tinted than the remainder of his body. There are two reasons for this -- because the face is more often washed and because of its contrast with the black hair of the head.

The hair of the head is black, straight, coa.r.s.e, and relatively abundant. It is worn long, frequently more than half way to the hips from the shoulders. The front is "banged" low and square across the forehead, cut with the battle-ax; this line of cut runs to above and somewhat back of the ear, the hair of the scalp below it being cut close to the head. When the men age, a few gray hairs appear, and some old men have heads of uniform iron-gray color. I have never seen a white-haired Igorot. A few of the old men have their hair thinning on the crown, but a tendency to baldness is by no means the rule.

Bontoc pueblo is no exception to the rule that every pueblo in the Philippines has a few people with curly or wavy hair. I doubt whether to-day an entire tribe of perfectly straight-haired primitive Malayan people exists in the Archipelago. Fu-nit is a curly-haired Bontoc man of about 45 years of age. Many people told me that his father and also his grandfather were members of the pueblo and had curly hair. I have never been able to find any hint at foreign or Negrito blood in any of the several curly haired people in the Bontoc culture area whose ancestors I have tried to discover.

The scanty growth of hair on the face of the Bontoc man is pulled out. A small pebble and the thumb nail or the blade of the battle-ax and the bulb of the thumb are frequently used as forceps; they never cut the hair of the face. It is common to see men of all ages with a very spa.r.s.e growth of hair on the upper lip or chin, and one of 50 years in Bontoc has a fairly heavy 4-inch growth of gray hair on his chin and throat; he is shown in Pl. XIII. Their bodies are quite free from hair. There is none on the breast, and seldom any on the legs. The pelvic growth is always pulled out by the unmarried. The growth in the armpits is scant, but is not removed.

The iris of the eye is brown -- often rimmed with a lighter or darker ring. The brown of the iris ranges from nearly black to a soft hazel brown. The cornea is frequently blotched with red or yellow. The Malayan fold of the upper eyelid is seen in a large majority of the men, the fold being so low that it hangs over and hides the roots of the lashes. The lashes appear to grow from behind the lid rather than from its rim.

The teeth are large and strong, and, whereas in old age they frequently become few and discolored, during prime they are often white and clean. The people never artificially stain the teeth, and, though surrounded by betel-nut chewers with dark teeth or red-stained lips, they do not use the betel.

Since the Igorot keeps no record of years, it is impossible to know his age, but it is believed that sufficient comparative data have been collected in Bontoc to make the following estimates reliable:

At the age of 20 a man seems hardly to have reached his physical best; this he attains, however, before he is 25. By 35 he begins to show the marks of age. By 45 most of the men are fast getting "old"; their faces are seamed, their muscles losing form, their carriage less erect, and the step slower. By 55 all are old -- most are bent and thin. Probably not over one or two in a hundred mature men live to be 70 years old.

The following census taken from a Spanish ma.n.u.script found in Quiangan, and written in 1894, may be taken as representative of an average Igorot pueblo:

Census of Magulang, district of Quiangan

Years Females Males

0 to 1 191 200

1 to 5 209 210

5 to 10 144 123

10 to 15 132 159

15 to 20 129 114

20 to 30 121 134

30 to 40 212 239

40 to 50 118 126

50 and over 79 62

Total 1,335 1,367

From this census it seems that the Magulang Igorot man is at his prime between the ages of 30 and 40 years, and that the death rate for men between the ages of 40 and 50 is nearly as great as the death rate among children between 5 to 10 years of age, being 52.7 per cent. Beyond the age of 50 collapse is sudden, since all the men more than 50 years old are less than half the number of those between the ages of 40 and 50 years.

Woman

The women average 4 feet 9 3/8 inches in height. In appearance they are short and stocky. Twenty-nine women from Bontoc and vicinity were measured; the tallest was 5 feet 4 3/4 inches, and the shortest 4 feet 4 3/4 inches. The following table presents the average measurements of twenty-nine women:

Average measurements of Bontoc women

Measurements

CM.

Stature 145.800

Spread of arms 149.603

Head length 18.593

Head breadth 14.706

Cephalic index (per cent) 79.094

Nasal length 4.582

Nasal breadth 3.608

Nasal index (per cent) 78.744