the ax-blade being of uniform thickness. All together, this weapon is
perhaps more original and characteristic than any other native to the
Philippine Archipelago. With it goes the Kalinga shield of soft wood,
made in one piece, with the usual three horns or projections at the
top and two at the bottom. These projections, however, are cylindrical,
and the outside ones are continued down the edge of the shield and so
form ribs. In the ordinary Igorot shield the horns are flat, merely
prolonging the surface of the shield, or else presenting only a very
small relief. As usual, a lacing of _bejuco_ across top and bottom
protects the shield against a separation in the event of an unlucky
stroke splitting it in two.

We found the town unusually clean. Public latrines exist, and public
drinking-tanks, both put in by Governor Hale, and highly approved of
the people. The houses themselves were the best we had seen, some of
them hexagonal in ground plan, and built of hard woods. The pigs stay
underneath, to be sure, but their place is kept clean. Rich men have
rows of plates, the dinner-plates of civilization, all around their
houses, and take-up floors of split bamboo are common, being rolled up
and washed in the neighboring stream with commendable frequency. All
together, Lubuagan made the impression of an affluent, not to say
opulent, center, inhabitated by a brave, proud, and self-respecting
people.



CHAPTER XXIII

We leave the mountains.--Nanong.--Passage of the Chico.--The
Apayao.--Tabuk.--The party breaks up.--Desolate plain.--The