property of the deceased occurs during
the days of the funeral ceremonies. This was done on the third day
of the ceremonies at the funeral of old Som-kad', mentioned in the
section on "Death and Burial?" The laws are rigid, and all that is
necessary to be done is for the lawful inheritors to decide which
particular property becomes the possession of each. This is neither
so difficult nor so conducive of friction as might seem, since the
property is very undiversified.

Tribute, tax, and "rake off"

There is no true systematic tribute, tax, or "rake off" among
the Bontoc Igorot, nor am I aware that such occurs at all commonly
sporadically. However, tribute, tax, and "rake off" are all found in
pure Malayan culture in the Archipelago, as among the Moros of the
southern islands.

Tribute may be paid more or less regularly by one group of people
to a stronger, or to one in a position to harass and annoy -- for
the protection of the stronger, or in acknowledgment of submission,
or to avoid harassment or annoyance. Nothing of the sort exists in
Bontoc. The nearest approach to it is the exchange of property,
as carabaos or hogs, between two pueblos at the time a peace is
made between them -- at which time the one sueing for peace makes
by far the larger payment, the other payment being mere form. This
transaction, as it occurs in Bontoc, is a recognition of submission
and of inferiority, and is, as well, a guarantee of a certain amount of
protection. However, such payments are not made at all regularly and do
not stand as true tributes, though in time they might grow to be such.

Nothing in the nature of a tax for the purpose of supporting a
government exists in Bontoc. The nearest approach to it is in a
practice which grew up in Spanish time but is of Igorot origin. When
to-day cargadors are required by Americans, as when Government supplies
must be brought in, the members of each cargador's ato furnish him
food for the journey, though the cargador personally receives and
keeps the wage for the trip. The furnishing of food seems to spring
from the feeling that the man who goes on the journey is the public
servant of those who remain -- he is doing an unpleasant duty for his
ato fellows. If this were carried one step further, if the rice were
raised and paid for carrying on some regular function of the Igorot
pueblo, it would be a true tax. It may be true, and probably is, in
pure Igorot society that if men were sent by