Monday, May. 13, 1940

Junglemen

Officials of Luzon, largest island in the Philippines, alarmed by inter-tribal strife, recently called a confab. Invited were the mountain tribesmen, who believed their hunting grounds were being encroached upon. Special word and promises of presents went out by jungle telegraph through the Cordillera range to the tribesmen.

Fiercest, most aloof of the mountain tribesmen are the tree-dwelling Ibilaos (pronounced Ee-beh-lah'-os), who run across the roof of the jungle on rattan vines like tightrope walkers. They have two chief occupations: 1) raising rice in small clearings of the jungle; 2) hunting heads. Not so prevalent as in the past, head-hunting is still a sport and a ritual among some savage Luzon tribes, where a young buck often cannot qualify for marriage until he has snicked off an enemy head. Head-hunting was one of the things the officials in Pantabangan (Nueva Ecija Province) wanted to discuss, when they invited the Ibilaos.

The Ibilaos showed up, dressed in G-strings, scowling fiercely. Silently they shook hands all around, accepted the presents. Up to that point everything went well. Then suddenly, before the officials had a chance to explain the purpose of the confab, the Ibilaos vanished as they had come. It was all over.

Not until a few weeks ago, one day just before dawn, did they reappear. Into the isolated mountain village of Pingab 50 of them pattered. There were a few shrieks, and bolos whizzed. Three Christian Filipinos--an aged farmer, a young man and his wife--were found afterwards minus their heads and arms. Angry Luzon officials sent a constabulary detail in pursuit, reported last week there was little hope of overtaking the headhunters on almost impassable mountain trails, or in treetops.

Near Pittsburgh, Pa. another jungle job was discovered last week. In each of three freight cars was discovered a headless corpse. Since the cars came last from Ohio, Cleveland's "mad butcher," credited with a score of dissections, was awarded three more victories.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.