ls and brass wire encircling
a cloth girdle (see Pl. CXL). The cloth is made in the form of a long,
narrow wallet, practically concealed at the back by the encircling wire
and shells. Within this wallet the cherished agate and white stone
hairdress is often hidden away. In Mayinit this girdle is frequently
worn beneath the skirt, when it becomes, in every essential and in
the effect produced, a bustle. I have never seen it so worn in Bontoc.

Decoration

Under this head are classed all the forms of permanent adornment of
the person.

First must be cited the cutting and stretching of the ear. Whereas
the long, pendant earlobe is not the end in itself, nor is the long
slit always permanent, yet the mutilation of the ear is permanent
and desired. In a great many cases the lobe breaks, and the two,
and even three, long strips of lobe hanging down seem to give their
owner certain pride. Often the lower end of one of these strips is
pierced and supports a ring. The sexes share alike in the preparation
for and the wearing of earrings.

The woman has a permanent decoration of the nature of the "switch"
of the civilized woman. The loose hair combed from the head with the
fingers is saved, and is eventually rolled with the live hair of the
head into long, twisted strings, some of which are an inch in diameter
and three feet long; some women have more than a dozen of these twisted
strings attached to the scalp. This is a common, though not universal,
method of decorating the head, and the mass of lard-soaked, twisted
hair stands out prominently around the crown, held more or less in
place by the various bead hairdresses. (See Pls. CXLI and CXLII.)

Tattoo

The great permanent decoration of the Igorot is the tattoo. As has
been stated in Chapter VI on "War and Head-Hunting," all the members
-- men, women, and children -- of an ato may be tattooed whenever a
head is taken by any person of the ato. It is claimed in Bontoc that
at no other time is it possible for a person to be tattooed. But
Tukukan tattooed some of her women in May, 1903, and this in spite
of the fact that no heads had recently been taken there. However,
the regulations of one pueblo are not necessarily those of another.

In every pueblo, there are one or more men, called "bu-ma-fa'-tek,"
who understand the art of tattooing. There are two such in Bontoc --
Toki, of Lowingan, and Finumti, of Longfoy -- and each has practiced
his art on the other. Finumti