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The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon by Cornélis de Witt Willcox
page 54 of 183 (29%)
so successful were our efforts that we were informed we should be
invited to dance on the morrow before the multitudes! This brought
us up standing, and it was time anyway. So our chieftains took their
leave, their _bubud_ jars remaining in our charge. These jars are
worth more than a passing mention: the oldest ones come from China,
and are held in such high esteem by the Ifugaos that they will part
with them for neither love nor money. According to the experts, some
of them are examples of the earliest known forms of Chinese porcelain,
and are most highly prized by collectors and museums. [24]

We put up our mosquito-bars this night, the only time on the trip,
but I think without any necessity. So far we had not seen, heard or
felt a single fly or mosquito, and were to see none until we struck
civilization once more in the Cagayán Valley.



CHAPTER XII

Day opens badly.--Ifugao houses.--The people, assemble.--Dancing.
--Speeches.--White paper streamers.--Head hunter dance.--Cañao.


Needless to say we were up betimes the next morning, May 2d,
for the clans were to gather, and the day would hardly be long
enough for all it was to hold. The day began ominously. As Kiangan
is a sort of headquarters, it has a guard-house for the service of
short imprisonments, a post-and-rail affair made of bamboo under the
_cuartel_. For while our administration is kindly, these mountaineers
from the first have had to learn, if not to feel as yet, that they
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