r slit is not the end sought, because if the owner
despairs of owning the coveted earring the stretchers and plugs are
eventually removed and the slit contracts from an inch and one-half
to a quarter of an inch or less in length. The long slit is desired
because the people consider the effect more beautiful when the ring
swings and dangles at the bottom of the pendant ear. The gold earring
is the most coveted, but a few silver and many copper rings are worn
in substitution for the gold.

FIGURE 8

Metal earrings.
(A, gold; B, copper (both are two or three generations old and their
patterns are no longer made); C, copper; D, silver.)

This is practically the extent of the everyday adornment worn by the
boys and men. Small boys sometimes wear a brass-wire bracelet; but
the brass wire, so commonly worn on the wrists, ankles, and necks of
the people east, north, and south of the Bontoc area, is not affected
by the people of Bontoc.

As has been mentioned, there is an unique display of dress by the
man at the head-taking ceremony of the ato, when some of the dancers
wear boar-tusk armlets, called "ab-kil'," and a boar-tusk necklace,
called "fu-yay'-ya."

The necklace quite resembles the Indian bear-claw necklace, but it
is worn with the tusks pointing away from the breast, not toward
it, as is the case with the Indian necklace. There are about six of
these necklaces in Bontoc, and it is almost impossible to buy one,
but the armlets are more plentiful. They are worn above the biceps,
and some are adorned with a tuft of hair cut from a captured head.

The movable adornments of the woman are very similar to those of
the man.

The unmarried woman wears the flowers or green sprigs in the hair,
though less often than does the man. She wears the ear stretchers, ear
plugs, and earrings exactly as he does. Probably 60 per cent of men and
women in some way dress one ear; probably half as many dress both ears.

The chief adornment of the woman is her hairdress. It consists of
strings of various beads, called "a-pong'." The hair is never combed
in its dressing, except with the fingers, but the entire hair is
caught at the base of the skull and lightly twisted into a loose roll;
a string of beads is put beneath this twist at the back and carried
forward across the head. The roll is then brought to the front of the
head around the left side; at the front it is tucked forward under the
beads, being thus held tightly in place