No. 405 
 
 o,3o 4 
 
 FROM HEAD -AXE 
 TO SCALPEL 
 
 By the Reverend Walter C. Clapp 
 
 I 'HIS is (Ke true story of a little Igorot 
 ^ boy, dirty, ignorant, unclothed, knowing 
 nothing of God or Christ, who vJas taught by 
 one of our missionaries and is now preparing 
 to go as a doctor to his own people in the 
 Philippine Islands. The story is told by his 
 godfather. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF MISSIONS 
 
 281 FOURTH AVENUE :: NEW YORK 
 
A Young Bontoc Boy 
 
FROM H E A D - A X E 
 TO SCALPEL 
 
 By the Reverend Walter C. Clapp 
 
 Hilary and His Godfather 
 
 I AM asked to tell the story of Hi- 
 lary Pit-a-pit, who now. accord- 
 ing to the Spanish custom, adds 
 to his baptismal name — which includes 
 his native name — the name of his god- 
 father, Clapp. 
 
 My first remembrance of Hilary is 
 that of a singularly attractive and 
 sprightly little fellow, quite innocent 
 of clothing except a loin-cloth (Amer- 
 
Kan "(.j-slriiig” j and a little soklotty, 
 or cap, woven of fine rattan fibers, 
 ornamented with dog-teeth and horse- 
 hair plumes, on the back of his long, 
 fiowing black hair. He was one of 
 ])erhaps forty boys sitting at rudel\ 
 fashioned desks in the old dilapidated 
 Augustinian church, which was used 
 in the early days in Bontoc to serve 
 as a schoolhouse. The bishop and 1 
 were up there on a trip of explora- 
 tion in January, 1903, and were visit- 
 ing the school. Hilary was one of 
 the bright stars of the school and we 
 became acquainted with him. I re- 
 member that he w'alked, or rather 
 danced, down the road with me after 
 our visit that day, and I could not 
 help thinking a prayer that God might 
 have him for His child and servant. 
 
 When our mission was actually 
 started in Bontoc, .some months later. 
 Hilary was very close to us. Many 
 other boys were too. but our initial 
 interest, and the reasons for it, per- 
 sisted. We soon learned that it was 
 not so much that Hilary was brilliant 
 in his abilities, as that he had a native 
 faculty of perseverance, and a fund of 
 elastic vitality which enabled him to 
 confront problems and stick at the 
 task of solving them when others 
 would get discouraged, and to re- 
 cover from falls and shocks which 
 would have disabled most boys per- 
 manentlv. All of our first .group of 
 
buys were a capable sort, full of native 
 curiosity, anxious to learn. Only, 
 when it came to asking questions, 1 
 think Hilary could ask more in a given 
 
 time than any other boy. Have 1 
 sufficiently indicated what sort of 
 brown-skinned, long-haired, smiling, 
 bubbling, interrogating, primitive hu- 
 man material had come to us in 
 Hilary? Perhaps so. 
 
 It was heathen human material, and 
 remained so for fully a year after the 
 mission o])cned ; be- 
 lieved in Luma-wig, in 
 the Anito ; took part in 
 the M a n g - m a n g ; 
 thought it prai.seworthy 
 to take a head ; had the 
 same standards of 
 morality that prevailed 
 “up in town” — promi..- 
 cuity among the young 
 people and a system of 
 trial marriage were tra- 
 ditions of the race. 1 
 hope that some day 
 Hilary may be fitted, 
 and may see fit, to put 
 down on paper for our 
 benefit something — as 
 much as he can recall 
 and formulate — of 
 what went on in his 
 mind during that year, 
 each day of which found him squatt- 
 ting in the wide-open doorway of 
 
the room in which we improvised a 
 chapel, where from the first we 
 celebrated the Holy Mysteries and 
 sang our Evensong. The children 
 used to fill both that and the broad 
 open windows two or three deep at 
 every service ; but none of them came 
 within the room. In the absence 
 of any such direct testimony, we can 
 only believe that at those times, and 
 in the daily intercourse with the mis- 
 sion family in and out of doors, he 
 gradually absorbed something of our 
 thought and intent. There were in- 
 structions, too, of the simplest sort 
 in the basic truths of Christian Faith, 
 and the gradual learning of the Chief 
 Things in such translations as, with 
 their help, we were able to make for 
 the boys. 
 
 But finally a long-remembered day 
 came when Hilary was observed to 
 squat just within, instead of just 
 without, the doorway. Then came 
 some earnest talks with Hilary — of 
 his own seeking. Showing a full 
 grasp of the spiritual import of the 
 things which he had been seeing all 
 those months? By no means. Rather, 
 showing a confused notion of re- 
 ligion and civilization, and full of 
 solicitude regarding the outcome of 
 an acceptance of the new religion. 
 Would it debar him from marrying 
 some day a girl whose inheritance of 
 rice fields would mean that she was 
 
rich? All such girls were now 
 heathen, and would there ever be any 
 Christian ones? Many such questions 
 were propounded and our answer was 
 that if he were to enter the Christian 
 W'ay all such things must be left to 
 the good God who loved him and 
 would take care of him if he gave 
 himself without condition. Then a 
 period of hesitation ; then his assent ; 
 more instruction ; and then the Laver 
 of Regeneration. 
 
 With all his admirable and attractive 
 qualities, Hilary was not immediately 
 a perfect Christian. 
 
 Anybody could see 
 that he was vain and 
 proud. The only 
 wonder is that he 
 
 was not more so. 
 
 American visitors to 
 Bontoc would quickly 
 single him out from 
 the throng of urchins 
 and exclaim aloud at 
 his physical grace. In 
 the mission we never 
 did that, of course. 
 
 He was accused of 
 dishonesty. It was 
 
 evident that he was selfish, and that 
 
 he wanted not only to know about 
 things, but to have the things them- 
 selves. I must be excused from 
 
 speaking more particularly on this 
 head. I was not only his godfather. 
 
 Hilary at School 
 
but his priest and father-in-God. 
 Suffice it to say that whatever his 
 actual faults were, he tried with all 
 his innate manliness to overcome 
 them, and with the aid of sacramental 
 ^race; for in due time he and a dozen 
 others came to confirmation — the first 
 fruits of our systematic endeavor to 
 ])lant the Seed among the Igorots. 
 
 It was a great thing for Hilary and 
 the greater number of this first group 
 when they went from Bontoc to 
 Baguio, where under Dr. Drury (now 
 head-master of St. Paul’s School, 
 Concord) they enjoyed wise teaching 
 and good discipline for about two 
 years. Then the way was opened for 
 I lilary to go to America and for about 
 three years he was in Trinity College 
 School at Port Hope, Ontario. There 
 he developed wonderfully ; studied 
 hard ; took prizes in Greek, French 
 and Sacred Studies ; attained some 
 l^rowess as an athlete and football 
 player. Had his troubles, too ; faults 
 cropping out in himself ; and the pen- 
 alty natural among boys for a too un- 
 cautious revelation of his antecedents. 
 But all the time, I believe, progress in 
 the solid virtues which make Christian 
 manhood. 
 
 The question of vocation naturally 
 came up. We never unduly urged 
 upon him the Christian ^Ministry, and 
 he never quite aspired to it. Medicine 
 rather attracted him, and he has gone 
 
forward ua lhat line. The time came 
 when the Bishop thought it would be 
 unwise for him to stay longer in 
 America. If he were to be of use in 
 the Philippines, it was important that 
 he keep in touch with them. Accord- 
 ingly, he spent four — possibly more — 
 years in Manila, at the Manila High 
 .School and in the Junior University, 
 in courses preparatory to a full ad- 
 vanced medical course. In these 
 studies I gathered from his letters that 
 he was as of old, not the brilliant 
 student, but the presistent one, who 
 sometimes fails and then buoyantly 
 gets up and tries again. He sometimes 
 got “out” with his directing authori- 
 ties, but always saw things rightly 
 after a time, and was not afraid to 
 apologize. 
 
 In physical characteristics he 
 changed greatly from the early days. 
 His grace of form departed, and now 
 he is a .short, thick-set man. passing 
 well as a Filipino among Filipinos, 
 his eyes rather more Mongolian than 
 the average. He would also pass 
 muster as a Japanese. He has the 
 student look, from which, of course, 
 his spectacles do not detract. His 
 manner is frank and cordial, and his 
 manners those of a polished gentle- 
 man (T may mention that while travel- 
 ing in the Bishop's company and at 
 other times he has seen the inside of 
 
Bontoc Boys at Play 
 
some of the best houses, staying twice 
 at Dorchester House in London). 
 
 To one like myself, who has known 
 him from childhood, the transforma- 
 tion seems very wonderful. Words 
 are hardly adequate to describe the 
 primitiveness and dirt of the sur- 
 roundings from which he sprang. A 
 native hut among his people has no 
 flooring, no pretense of a chimney. 
 Everything of its barbaric fittings is 
 ■coated thick with soot from the pitch- 
 pine fuel burned under the rice-pot. 
 The only sleeping apartment is a 
 nearly air-tight and quite pitch-dark 
 hole where the sleeper reclines on a 
 single rough-hewn plank. The pig is 
 just outside, and the chickens roam 
 and roost all over the place. His 
 father was an old, ignorant, stupid, 
 dirty, naked Igorot, whose dominant 
 thought about Hilary was that his ab- 
 sence from Bontoc deprived him of 
 help in caring for the pig and guard- 
 ing the chickens. Hilary could hardly 
 have looked for a maturity of a dif- 
 ferent sort if he had not come under 
 the Christian influences. 
 
 The last and best thing I can say 
 about Hilary is that with all the ad- 
 vantages he has enjoyed, he does not 
 despise his own people. Twice he has 
 spent his Manila vacations at Bontoc, 
 and on both occasions he has shown 
 a wonderful ability to fraternize with 
 the Igorots, mingling in their talk and 
 
games, helping them in their harvest- 
 ing, yet at the same time maintaining 
 his status as a 
 Christian and gen- 
 tleman. The high 
 desires for Hilary 
 have now been jus- 
 t i fi e d, and he 
 is prepared to 
 return to work, as 
 a skilled Christian 
 physician, among 
 his own people. 
 
 We may be sure 
 that he will prove 
 a healer of souls as 
 well as of bodies, 
 and a striking ex- 
 ample of what God 
 can make of even 
 so primitive a peo- 
 ple as the Igorots. 
 
 The Hilary of 
 To-da\ 
 
 Copies of this leaflet may be obtained 
 from the Educational Division, Church 
 Missions House, 281 Fourth Avenue, Xew 
 York, by asking for So. 405. 
 
 ) Ed. 12-21. lOM. D.