the Bontoc
tattoo. It appears to be a leaf, or a fern frond, but I know nothing
of its origin or meaning. There is much difference in details between
the tattoos of culture areas, and even of pueblos. For instance,
in Bontoc pueblo there is no tattoo on a man's hand, while in the
pueblos near the south side of the area the hands are frequently
marked on the backs. In Benguet there is a design popularly said to
represent the sun, which is seen commonly on men's hands. Instances
of such differences could be greatly multiplied here, but must be
left for a more complete study of the Igorot tattoo.

Music

Instrumental music

The Bontoc Igorot has few musical instruments, and all are very
simple. The most common is a gong, a flat metal drum about 1 foot in
diameter and 2 inches deep. This drum is commonly said to be "brass,"
but analyses show it to be bronze.

Two gongs submitted to the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila,
consisted, in one case, of approximately 80 per cent copper, 15 per
cent tin, and 5 per cent zinc; in the other case of approximately 84
per cent copper, 15 per cent tin, 1 per cent zinc, and a trace of iron.

Early Chinese records read that tin was one of the Chinese imports
into Manila in the thirteenth century. Copper was mined and wrought
by the Igorot when the Spaniards came to the Philippines, and they
wrote regarding it that it was then an old and established industry
and art. It may possibly be that bronze was made in the Philippines
before the arrival of the Spaniard, but there is no proof of such
an hypothesis.

The gong to-day enters the Bontoc area in commerce generally from
the north -- from the Igorot or Tinguian of old Abra Province --
and no one in the Provinces of Benguet or Lepanto-Bontoc seems to
know its source. Throughout the Archipelago and southward in Borneo
there are metal drums or "gongs" apparently of similar material but
of varying styles. It is commonly claimed that those of the Moro are
made on the Asiatic mainland. It is my opinion that the Bontoc gong,
or gang'-sa, originates in China, though perhaps it is not now imported
directly from there. It certainly does not enter the Island of Luzon
at Manila, or Candon in Ilokos Sur, and, it is said, not at Vigan,
also in Ilokos Sur.

In the Bontoc area there are two classes of gang'-sa; one is called
ka'-los, and the other co-ong'-an. The co-ong'-an is frequently larger
than the other, seems to be always of thic