Ba-Long-Long: The Igorot Boy

Gold cloth with illustration of Igorot boy and red & black lettering on front cover. Black & white frontispiece photo of Ba-long-long's grass-roofed house; other illustrations are black & white drawings. SIGNED in a childlike hand on front free endpaper: "Balonglong / My Christian name is Antero." Jenks, a Smithsonian Institution ethnologist, and his young wife Maud spent 1902-1903 in the Philippines studying little-known tribes. This book, describing the daily life of an Igorot boy, has been called one of the "best classics of primitive childlife." Maud Huntley Jenks's letters written home to her parents during this time were published in 1950 shortly after her death ("Death Stalks the Philippine Wilds: Letters of Maud Huntley Jenks"), and in them she frequently mentions Antero, the young village boy who worked for them. In her letter of 6/6/1903 (p.139) she says: "Antero isn't his real name, but it is 'Balonglong.' When his mother died, some three years ago, an Ilokano woman in Bontoc took him, and he was baptized into the Catholic church with his new name, Antero." That book also includes a photo of young Antero neatly dressed in a white suit (but barefoot).

Very light cover soil; spine tips & cover edges worn; corners slightly bumped; interior has numerous light smudges, ink price (.10) on front endpaper. Still an attractive copy, made perhaps one-of-a-kind by Balonglong's signature, if it genuine, which we believe it to be.