of the
men, the fold being so low that it hangs over and hides the roots of
the lashes. The lashes appear to grow from behind the lid rather than
from its rim.
The teeth are large and strong, and, whereas in old age they frequently
become few and discolored, during prime they are often white and
clean. The people never artificially stain the teeth, and, though
surrounded by betel-nut chewers with dark teeth or red-stained lips,
they do not use the betel.
Since the Igorot keeps no record of years, it is impossible to know
his age, but it is believed that sufficient comparative data have
been collected in Bontoc to make the following estimates reliable:
At the age of 20 a man seems hardly to have reached his physical best;
this he attains, however, before he is 25. By 35 he begins to show the
marks of age. By 45 most of the men are fast getting "old"; their faces
are seamed, their muscles losing form, their carriage less erect, and
the step slower. By 55 all are old -- most are bent and thin. Probably
not over one or two in a hundred mature men live to be 70 years old.
The following census taken from a Spanish manuscript found in Quiangan,
and written in 1894, may be taken as representative of an average
Igorot pueblo:
Census of Magulang, district of Quiangan
Years
Females
Males
0 to 1
191
200
1 to 5
209
210
5 to 10
144
123
10 to 15
132
159
15 to 20
129
114
20 to 30
121
134
30 to 40
212
239
40 to 50
118
126
50 and over
79
62
Total
1,335
1,367
From this census it seems that the Magulang Igorot man is at his
prime between the ages of 30 and 40 years, and that the death rate
for men between the ages of 40 and 50 is nearly as great as the
death rate among children between 5 to 10 years of age, being 52.7
per cent. Beyond the age of 50 collapse is sudden, since all the men
more than 50 years old are less than half the number of those between
the ages of 40 and 50 years.
Woman
The women average 4 feet 9 3/8 inches in height. In appearance they
are short and stocky. Twenty-nine women from Bontoc and vicinity were
measured; the tallest was 5 feet 4 3/4 inches, and the shortest 4 feet
4 3/4 inches. The following table presents the average measurements
of twenty-nine women:
Average measurements of Bontoc women
Measurements
CM.
Stature
145.800
Spread of arms
149.603
Head length
18.593
Head breadth
14.706
Cephalic index (per ce
|