during the growing
season, and the climate warm enough to insure good crops. The
thermometer ranges between 80 deg. and 85 deg. during the day, but there is
generally a land or sea breeze, so that actual discomfort from the
heat is unusual. The nights are somewhat cooler, but a drop of a few
degrees is felt so keenly that a person may be uncomfortarble at 70 deg..

Fogs and cold rains are not uncommon during the wet season, while one
or more typhoons can be expected each year. Earthquakes are likewise
of occasional occurrence, but the construction of the houses is such
that storms and earthquakes do much less damage than along the coast.

There is no doubt that the natural ruggedness of the country and the
long rainy season have had a strong influence on the people, but this
has been chiefly in isolating them in small groups. The high mountains
separating the narrow valleys, the lack of water transportation, the
difficulty of maintaining trails, have all tended to keep the people
in small communities, while the practice of head-hunting has likewise
raised a barrier to free communication. Thus, the settlements within
a limited area have become self-sustaining groups; a condition which
has existed long enough to allow for the development of five dialects.

The traditions of the Tinguian furnish us with no stories of an earlier
home than Luzon, but there are many accounts of migrations from the
coast back into the mountains, after the arrival of the Spaniards
and the Christianization of the Ilocano. The fact that there is an
historical background for these tales is amply proven by fragments
of pottery and the like, which the writer has recovered from the
reported sites of ancient settlements.

The part played by this people in Philippine history is small indeed,
and most of the references to them have been of an incidental nature.

Apparently, they first came in contact with the Spanish in 1572 when
Salcedo was entrusted with the task of subduing that part of Luzon
now known as the Ilocano provinces. The people he encountered are
described as being more barbarous than the Tagalog, not so light
complexioned, nor so well clad, but husbandmen who possessed large
fields, and whose land abounded in rice and cotton.

Their villages were of considerable size, and each was ruled over by a
local headman who owed allegiance to no central authority, There was
a uniform, well recognized code of law or custom, and a considerable