has his back and legs tattooed in an
almost unique way. I have seen only one other at all tattooed on the
back, and then the designs were simple. A large double scallop extends
from the hip to the knee on the outside of each of Finumti's legs.

The design is drawn on the skin with ink made of soot and water. Then
the tattooer pricks the skin through the design. The instrument used
for tattooing is called "cha-kay'-yum." It consists of from four to
ten commercial steel needles inserted in a straight line in the end
of a wooden handle; "cha-kay'-yum" is also the word for needle. After
the pattern is pricked in, the soot is powdered over it and pressed in
the openings; the tattooer prefers the soot gathered from the bottom
of ollas.

The finished tattoo is a dull, blue black in color, sometimes having a
greenish cast. A man in Tulubin has a tattoo across his throat which
is distinctly green, while the remainder of his tattoo is the common
blue black. The newly tattooed design stands out in whitish ridges,
and these frequently fester and produce a mass of itching sores
lasting about one month (see Pl. CXLVII).

The Igorot distinguishes three classes of tattoos: The chak-lag',
the breast tattoo of the head taker; pong'-o, the tattoo on the arms
of men and women; and fa'-tek, under which name all other tattoos
of both sexes are classed. Fa'-tek is the general word for tattoo,
and pong'-o is the name of woman's tattoo.

It is general for boys under 10 years of age to be tattooed. Their
first marks are usually a small, half-inch cross on either cheek or a
line or small cross on the nose. One boy in Bontoc, just at the age
of puberty, has a tattoo encircling the lower jaw and chin, a wavy
line across the forehead, a straight line down the nose, and crosses
on the cheeks; but he is the youngest person I have seen wearing the
jaw tattoo -- a mark quite commonly made in Bontoc when the chak-lag',
or head-taker's emblem, is put on.

The chak-lag' is the most important tattoo of the Igorot, since it
marks its wearer as a taker of at least one human head. It therefore
stands for a successful issue in the most crucial test of the fitness
of a person to contribute to the strength of the group of which he is
a unit. It no doubt gives its wearer a certain advantage in combat --
a confidence and conceit in his own ability, and, likely, it tends
to unnerve a combatant who has not the same emblem and experience. No
matter what the exac