Millet burned to a charcoal, pulverized, and mixed with pig fat is
used as a salve for the itch.
An herb called a-kum' is pounded and used as a poultice on ulcers
and sores.
For toothache salt is mixed with a pounded herb named ot-o'-tek and
the mass put in or around the aching tooth.
Leaves of the tree kay'-yam are steeped, and the decoction employed
as a bath for persons with smallpox.
Death and burial
It must be said that the Bontoc Igorot does not take death very
sorrowfully, and he does not take it at all passionately. A mother
weeps a day for a dead child or her husband, but death is said not to
bring tears from any man. Death causes no long or loud lamentation,
no tearing of the hair or cutting the body; it effects no somber
colors to deaden the emotions; no earth or ashes for the body --
all widespread mourning customs among primitive peoples. However,
when a child or mature man or woman dies the women assemble and sing
and wail a melancholy dirge, and they ask the departed why he went
so early. But for the aged there are neither tears nor wailings --
there is only grim philosophy. "You were old," they say, "and old
people die. You are dead, and now we shall place you in the earth.
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