for us after the manner, as I have since been informed, of a coronet
braid. The men gave fewer evidences of civilization, unless smoking
cigars in holders will serve. However, one man brought up his wife
and children and regularly introduced them to us, the woman doing
her part with great coolness, while the children gave every sign of
terror. This incident struck me as being very unusual. Everyone had on
at least one necklace, and some three or four necklaces, of dog-teeth,
of agate beads (these being immensely prized, agate not being native to
the Philippines), or of anything else the form, color, and hardness of
which could make it answer for purposes of ornament. One young woman
had on sleigh-bells, the tinkle of which we heard before we saw its
source, an incongruous sound in those parts. These bells must have
been brought down by Chinese trading from the plains of Manchuria. Two
or three young men displayed what looked like lapis lazuli around
their necks, but what turned out at closer quarters to be pieces of
a blue china dinner-plate. They had cut out the white interior and
then divided the rim radially, the jewels thus formed being all of the
same size and shape, with perfectly smooth edges. Here, too, were the
same pill-box hats as those seen at Bontok, some elaborately beaded
and costing from one to five carabaos apiece; in one case the lid of
a tomato tin had been pressed into service as a hat. But the finest
thing of all was the head-ax, a beautiful and cruel-looking weapon,
the head having on one side an edge curving back toward the shaft, and
on the other a point. To keep the weapon from slipping out of the hand,
a stud is left in the hard wood shaft, about two-thirds of the way from
the head, the shaft itself being protected by a steel sheathing half
way down; the remainder being ornamented with decorative brass plates
and strips, and the end shod in a ferrule of silver. The top of the ax
is not straight, but curved, both edge and point taking, as it were,
their origin in this curve; the edge is formed by a double chamfer,