! February, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
56
• Beautiful in situation, but still in utter darkness spiritually, is the primitive tribal village pictured at the peak of this series of rice terraces in the Philippine Islands. It is this Ifugao village of which Mr. Fisk writes in the present article.
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America's Unfinished Task W h ere the B ib le H a s N o t F o llow ed th e F lag By SAMUEL FISK Manila, Philippine Islands
I T WAS late in the afternoon in the rugged hill country of the Ifugaos. The clouds which had been drifting lazily about the mountain tops of this northern Philippine region were now thick ening and at times hid the face of the peaks which had stood out sharply against the sky of this remote mountainous upland. The Ifugaos are one of the most primitive of the hill tribes and are a most unusual people, especially fascinating to any one interested in the study of anthropology. After considerable climbing, we arrived at the Banaue Rest House atop a great rise affording a commanding view of the famous rice terraces which could be seen stretch ing away in almost every direction. The valley immediately below us was a series of great broad steps, the well-built terraces rising one upon another. They also climbed the face of the ridges far across the valley until they became mere ribbons fading in the distance into the gathering clouds. With little level ground to till, these semi-wild Ifugaos—among whom it was an old custom to go on head-hunting expedi tions and to return with the heads of their enemies as trophies—have built across the face of the mountains a system of rice ter races declared to be the most remarkable development of primitive agriculture any where, and certainly the greatest system of walled terraces in existence. The retain ing walls of the terraces are in some places as high as fifty or sixty feet, and it is esti mated that the total length of these walls [Formerly a student at the Bible Insti tute o[ Los Angeles, the writer o f this first hand description o f conditions in an unevangelized tribe is now serving as Dean o{ Men in the Manila Evangelistic Insti tute, Manila, P. I., under the direction of the Association o f Baptists for Evangelism in the Orient .— E d it o r . ]
dead were then in progress on the hilltop. After dinner at the rest house that eve ning, we stepped outdoors and found it a clear, quiet night. Across the valley we could see the flickering light of an open fire burning in the direction of the village on the hilltop. Fires not being common in this warm climate, we reasoned that it must be in connection with the rites there being carried on for the dead. The next morning we carefully made oiir way across the valley. On its far side we began climbing up the terraces, picking our way along stone ledges between flood ed rice fields. W e then followed a narrow trail standing out precipitously on the bare sides of the almost perpendicular wall until we reached the village into which death so recently had intruded. Such filth and squalor it is difficult to imagine. Not the slightest attempt, appar ently, was made in the line of sanitation or common cleanliness. The manner of life of the people appeared to be exceedingly crude, and they were all unspeakably dirty, both in body and in what scant clothing they wore. But further, they practically all bore the marks of disease. Even the chil dren were afflicted, open running sores be ing in evidence, and many showing they were the victims of eye trouble. Indeed, we saw blind individuals being led now and then among the huts. These huts were of a shabby nipa* con struction, elevated on the usual stilts, and entered by a crude ladder which could be drawn up from the inside. The way pigs, chickens, and dogs, all of which are eaten, roamed about the limited space on which the village was built, would give the im pression that the people lived in their ele vated abodes in order to afford room for * Native reed.
would extend some twelve thousand miles or halfway around the earth. The project is estimated by conservative anthropolo gists to have taken well over two thousand years in its construction, having possibly been in the process of building when our Lord was on earth. At one point as many as three hundred successive terraces may be counted rising one upon another from the valley floor to the mountain top. So steep is the mountain side in many places that the walls are often actually higher than the width of the fields they uphold. In view of the torrential rains which wash down the mountain side during the rainy season, it is remarkable that the walls have held so firmly without mortar or cementing material of any kind. The people having no highly developed implements with which to work, the construction of these terraces must have taken infinite time and labor, and no imagined phantom architect standing on the mountain height could bet ter have directed the symmetry of the lines or their perfect coordination as they follow the curves of the valleys and ridges in either direction as far as the eye can see. The Village on the Knoll Directly across the valley on a level op posite from where we were, there rose a knoll which stood out from the rest of the mountain side quite prominently. Its sides were an ascending series of great circling terraces, each succeeding smaller one set back from the larger one which it sur mounted. The situation of this promontory made it an ideal object for pictures or photographs even though the Ifugao vil lage nestled on its summit is not readily accessible and probably has not been visited frequently. W e were informed that in that village a woman had died the day before and that the ceremonial rites for the
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