Chi, whom are they carrying? Look like young girls to me. Whay are they carrying them? 
This was the style of travel in the early 1900s, especially in the absence of horses and passageways wider than man-made mountain trails. The denizens, I suppose, were rich tourists or early teachers during the American period.
Actually, when I went up Tirad Pass during the centennial of Gen Gregorio del Pilar's heroic death there, the old women where carried that way. It was the only way they could climb the peaks.
