"mountain people." Dr. Pardo de Tavera says the word "Igorrote"
is composed of the root word "golot," meaning, in Tagalog, "mountain
chain," and the prefix "i," meaning "dweller in" or "people of." Morga
in 1609 used the word as "Igolot;" early Spaniards also used the word
frequently as "Ygolotes" -- and to-day some groups of the Igorot,
as the Bontoc group, do not pronounce the "r" sound, which common
usage now puts in the word. The Spaniards applied the term to the wild
peoples of present Benguet and Lepanto Provinces, now a short-haired,
peaceful people. In after years its common application spread eastward
to the natives of the comandancia of Quiangan, in the present Province
of Nueva Vizcaya, and northward to those of Bontoc.

The word "Ig-o-rot'" is now adopted tentatively as the name of the
extensive primitive Malayan people of northern Luzon, because it is
applied to a very large number of the mountain people by themselves and
also has a recognized usage in ethnologic and other writings. Its form
as "Ig-o-rot'" is adopted for both singular and plural, because it is
both natural and phonetic, and, because, so far as it is possible to
do so, it is thought wise to retain the simple native forms of such
words as it seems necessary or best to incorporate in our language,
especially in scientific language.

The sixteenth degree of north latitude cuts across Luzon probably as
far south as any people of the Igorot group are now located. It is
believed they occupy all the mountain country northward in the island
except the territory of the Ibilao in the southeastern part of the
area and some of the most inaccessible mountains in eastern Luzon,
which are occupied by Negritos.

There are from 150,000 to 225,000 Igorot in Igorot land. The census