ortant ceremonies is hereditary. Descent is traced through
both the male and female lines, and inheritance is likewise through
both sexes. There are no distinguishing terms for relations on the
father's or mother's side, nor are there other traces of matriarchal
institutions.

Families of means attain a social standing above that of their
less fortunate townsmen, but there is no sharp stratification of
the community into noble and serf, such as was coming into vogue
along many parts of the coast at the time of the Spanish conquest,
neither has slavery ever gained a foothold with this people. The
wealthy often loan rice to the poor, and exact usury of about fifty
per cent. Payment is made in service during the period of planting
and harvesting, so that the labor problem is, to a large extent,
solved for the land-holders. However, they customarily join the
workers in the fields and take their share in all kinds of labor.

The concubines, known as _pota_ (cf. p. 283), are deprived of certain
rights, and they are held somewhat in contempt by the other women,
but they are in no sense slaves. They may possess property, and their
children may become leaders in Tinguian society.

The only group which is sharply separated from the mass is composed
of the mediums, and they are distinctive only during the ceremonial
periods. At other times they are treated in all respects as other
members of the community.

On three occasions the writer has found men dressing like women,
doing women's work, and spending their time with members of that
sex. Information concerning these individuals has always come by
accident, the people seeming to be exceedingly reticent to talk about
them. In Plate XXXVI is shown a man in woman's dress, who has become
an expert potter. The explanation given for the disavowal of his sex is
that he donned women's clothes during the Spanish regime to escape road
work, and has since then retained their garb. Equally unsatisfactory
and unlikely reasons were advanced for the other cases mentioned.

It should be noted that similar individuals have been described from
Zambales, Panay, from the Subanun of Mindanao, and from Borneo. [169]
It has been suggested, with considerable probability, that at least
a part of these are hermaphrodites, but in Borneo, where they act
as priests, _Roth_ states that they are unsexed before assuming
their roles.

_Laws_.--Law, government, and custom are synonymous. Whatever the
ance