Border a’-to Fa-tay’-yan seems to be developing an offspring —­ a new a’-to; a part of it, the southwestern border part, is now known as “Tang-e-ao’.”  It is disclaimed as a separate a’-to, yet it has a distinctive name, and possesses some of the marks of an independent a’-to.  In due time it will doubtless become such.

In Sagada, Agawa, Takong, and near-by pueblos the a’-to is said to be known as dap’-ay; and in Balili and Alap both names are known.

The pueblo must be studied entirely through the a’-to.  It is only an aggregate of which the various a’-to are the units, and all the pueblo life there is is due to the similarity of interests of the several a’-to.

Bontoc does not know when her pueblo was built —­ she was always where she now is —­ but they say that some of the a’-to are newer than others.  In fact, they divide them into the old and new.  The newer ones are Bu-yay’-yeng, Am-ka’-wa, Po-lup-o’, Cha-kong’, and Po-ki’-san; all these are border a’-to of the pueblo.

The generations of descendants of men who did distinct things are kept carefully in memory; and from the list of descendants of the builders of some of the newer a’-to it seems probable that Cha-kong’ was the last one built.  One of the builders was Sal-lu-yud’; he had a son named Tam-bul’, and Tam-bul’ was the father of a man in Bontoc now some twenty-five years old.  It is probable that Cha-kong’ was built about 1830 —­ in the neighborhood of seventy-five years ago.  The plat of the pueblo seems to strengthen the impression that Cha-kong’ is the newest a’-to, since it appears to have been built in territory previously used for rice granaries; it is all but surrounded by such ground now.

One of the builders of Bu-yay’-yeng, an a’-to adjoining Cha-kong’, and also one of the newer ones, was Ba-la-ge’.  Ba-la-ge’ was the great-great-great-grandfather of Mud-do’, who is a middle-aged man now in Bontoc.  The generations of fathers descending from Ba-la-ge’ to Mud-do’ are the following:  Bang-eg’, Cag-i’-yu, Bit-e’, and Ag-kus’.  It seems from this evidence that the a’-to Bu-yay’-yeng was built about one hundred and fifty years ago.  These facts suggest a much greater age for the older a’-to of the pueblo.

An a’-to has three classes of buildings occupied by the people —­ the fawi and pabafunan, public structures for boys and men, and the olag for girls and young women before their permanent marriage; and the dwellings occupied by families and by widows, which are called afong.  Each of these three classes of buildings plays a distinct role in the life of the people.

Pabafunan and fawi

The pa-ba-fu’-nan is the home of the various a’-to ceremonials.  It is sacred to the men of the a’-to, and on no occasion do the women or girls enter it.

All boys from 3 or 4 years of age and all men who have no wives sleep nightly in the pa-ba-fu’-nan or in the fa’-wi.