1The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo (2 vols., London, 1896); pp. 140–174, vol. II.
1The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo (2 vols., London, 1896); pp. 140–174, vol. II.
2A party, consisting of the Secretary of the Interior for the Philippine Islands, Hon. Dean C. Worcester; the governor and lieutenant-governor of Lepanto-Bontoc, William Dinwiddie and Truman K. Hunt, respectively; Captain Chas. Nathorst of the Constabulary, and the writer, was in Banawi in time to witness the procession and burial but not the previous ceremonies at the dwelling.
2A party, consisting of the Secretary of the Interior for the Philippine Islands, Hon. Dean C. Worcester; the governor and lieutenant-governor of Lepanto-Bontoc, William Dinwiddie and Truman K. Hunt, respectively; Captain Chas. Nathorst of the Constabulary, and the writer, was in Banawi in time to witness the procession and burial but not the previous ceremonies at the dwelling.
There is relatively little “color” in the life of the Bontoc Igorot. In the preceding chapter reference was made to the belief that this lack of “color,” the monotony of everyday life, has to do with the continuation of head-hunting. The life of the Igorot is somber-hued indeed as compared with that of his more advanced neighbor, the Ilokano.
The Bontoc Igorot is not much given to dress—under which term are considered the movable adornments of persons. Little effort is made by the man toward dressing the head, though before marriage he at times wears a sprig of flowers or of some green plant tucked in the hat at either side. The young man’s suklang is also generally more attractive than that of the married man. With its side ornaments of human-hair tassels, its dog teeth, or mother-of-pearl disks, and its red and yellow colors, it is often very gay.
About one hundred and fifty men in Bontoc and Samoki own and sometimes wear at the girdle a large7-inchdisk of mother-of-pearl shell. It is called “fi-kûm′,” and its use is purely ornamental. (SeePls. LXXXandXXX.) It is valued highly, and I have not known half a dozen Igorot to part with one for any price. This shell ornament is widespread through the country east and also south of the Bontoc area, but nowhere is it seen plentifully, except on ceremonial days—probably not a dozen are worn daily in Bontoc.
Other forms of adornment, though only a means to a permanent end, are the ear stretchers and variety of ear plugs which are worn in a slit in the ear lobe preparing it for the earring—the sĭng-sĭng, which all hope to possess. The stretcher consists of two short pieces of bamboo forced apart and so held by two short crosspieces inserted between them. The bamboo ear stretcher is generally ornamented by straight incised lines. The plugs are not all considered decorative. Some are bunches of a vegetable pith (Pl. CXXXVIII), others are wads of sugar-caneleaves. Some, however, are wooden plugs shaped quite like an ordinary large cork stopper of a bottle (Pl. CXXXVII). The outer end is often ornamented by straight incised lines or with red seeds affixed with wax or with a small piece of a cheap glass mirror roughly inlaid. The long ear slit is not the end sought, because if the owner despairs of owning the coveted earring the stretchers and plugs are eventually removed and the slit contracts froman inch and one-half to a quarter of an inchor less in length. The long slit is desired because the people consider the effect more beautiful when the ring swings and dangles at the bottom of the pendant ear. The gold earring is the most coveted, but a few silver and many copper rings are worn in substitution for the gold.
Figure 8.Metal earrings.Metal earrings.(a,gold;b, copper (both are two or three generations old and their patterns are no longer made);c, copper;d,silver.)
Metal earrings.
Metal earrings.
(a,gold;b, copper (both are two or three generations old and their patterns are no longer made);c, copper;d,silver.)
This is practically the extent of the everyday adornment worn by the boys and men. Small boys sometimes wear a brass-wire bracelet; but the brass wire, so commonly worn on the wrists, ankles, and necks of the people east, north, and south of the Bontoc area, is not affected by the people of Bontoc.
As has been mentioned, there is an unique display of dress by the man at the head-taking ceremony of the ato, when some of the dancers wear boar-tusk armlets, called “ab-kil′,” and a boar-tusk necklace, called “fu-yay′-ya.”
The necklace quite resembles the Indian bear-claw necklace, but it is worn with the tusks pointing away from the breast, not toward it, as is the case with the Indian necklace. There are about six of these necklaces in Bontoc, and it is almost impossible to buy one, but the armlets are more plentiful. They are worn above the biceps, and some are adorned with a tuft of hair cut from a captured head.
The movable adornments of the woman are very similar to those of the man.
The unmarried woman wears the flowers or green sprigs in the hair, though less often than does the man. She wears the ear stretchers, ear plugs, and earrings exactly as he does. Probably 60 per cent of men and women in some way dress one ear; probably half as many dress both ears.
The chief adornment of the woman is her hairdress. It consistsof strings of various beads, called “a-pong′.” The hair is never combed in its dressing, except with the fingers, but the entire hair is caught at the base of the skull and lightly twisted into a loose roll; a string of beads is put beneath this twist at the back and carried forward across the head. The roll is then brought to the front of the head around the left side; at the front it is tucked forward under the beads, being thus held tightly in place. The twist is carried around the head as far as it will extend, and the end there tucked under the beads and thus secured. One and not infrequently two additional strings of beads are laid over the hair, more completely holding it in place.
The first string of beads placed on the head usually consists of compact, glossy, black seeds. Frequently brass-wire rings are regularly dispersed along the string. These beads are shown inPl. CXLII. The second string, with its white, lozenge-shaped stone beads (Pl. CXXXIX), is very striking and attractive against the black hair. This string reaches its perfection when it is composed solely of spherical agate beads the size of small marbles and the longer white stone beads placed at regular intervals among the reddish agates. It is practically impossible to purchase these beads, since they are heirlooms. The third string is usually of dog teeth. They are strung alternately with black seeds or with sections of dog rib. This string is worn over the hair, running from the forehead around the back of the head, the white teeth resting low on the back hair, and making a very attractive adornment as they stand, points out, against the black hair. (SeePl. CLII.)
Igorot women dress their hair richly in their important ceremonials. In an ĭn-pug-pug′ ceremony of Sipaat ato in Bontoc I saw women wearing seven strings of agate beads on their hair and about their necks. The woman loves to show her friends her accumulated wealth in heirlooms, and the ato or pueblo ceremonies are the most favorable opportunities for such display. All these various hairdress beads are of Igorot manufacture.
I have seen Tukukan women come to Bontoc wearing a solid diadem about the hair. It consisted of a rattan foundation encircling the head, covered with blackened beeswax studded with three parallel rows of encircling bright-red seeds. It made a very striking headdress.
Now and then a woman is seen wearing beads around the neck, but the Bontoc woman almost never has such adornment. They are seen frequently in pueblos to the west, however. The beads for everyday wear are seeds in black, brown, and gray. There is also a small, irregular, cylindrical, wooden bead worn by the women. It is sometimes worn in strings of three or four beads by men. I believe it is considered of talismanic value when so worn.
Many women in Mayinit and some women of Bontoc wear the heirloom girdle, called “a-ko′-san,” made of shells and brass wire encircling a cloth girdle (seePl. CXL). The cloth is made in the form of along, narrow wallet, practically concealed at the back by the encircling wire and shells. Within this wallet the cherished agate and white stone hairdress is often hidden away. In Mayinit this girdle is frequently worn beneath the skirt, when it becomes, in every essential and in the effect produced, a bustle. I have never seen it so worn in Bontoc.
Under this head are classed all the forms of permanent adornment of the person.
First must be cited the cutting and stretching of the ear. Whereas the long, pendant earlobe is not the end in itself, nor is the long slit always permanent, yet the mutilation of the ear is permanent and desired. In a great many cases the lobe breaks, and the two, and even three, long strips of lobe hanging down seem to give their owner certain pride. Often the lower end of one of these strips is pierced and supports a ring. The sexes share alike in the preparation for and the wearing of earrings.
The woman has a permanent decoration of the nature of the “switch” of the civilized woman. The loose hair combed from the head with the fingers is saved, and is eventually rolled with the live hair of the head into long, twisted strings, some of which arean inchin diameter andthree feetlong; some women have more than a dozen of these twisted strings attached to the scalp. This is a common, though not universal, method of decorating the head, and the mass of lard-soaked, twisted hair stands out prominently around the crown, held more or less in place by the various bead hairdresses. (SeePls. CXLIandCXLII.)
The great permanent decoration of the Igorot is the tattoo. As has been stated inChapter VIon “War and Head-Hunting,” all the members—men, women, and children—of an ato may be tattooed whenever a head is taken by any person of the ato. It is claimed in Bontoc that at no other time is it possible for a person to be tattooed. But Tukukan tattooed some of her women in May, 1903, and this in spite of the fact that no heads had recently been taken there. However, the regulations of one pueblo are not necessarily those of another.
In every pueblo, there are one or more men, called “bu-ma-fa′-tĕk,” who understand the art of tattooing. There are two such in Bontoc—Toki, of Lowingan, and Finumti, of Longfoy—and each has practiced his art on the other. Finumti has his back and legs tattooed in an almost unique way. I have seen only one other at all tattooed on the back, and then the designs were simple. A large double scallop extends from the hip to the knee on the outside of each of Finumti’s legs.
The design is drawn on the skin with ink made of soot and water.Then the tattooer pricks the skin through the design. The instrument used for tattooing is called “cha-kay′-yum.” It consists of from four to ten commercial steel needles inserted in a straight line in the end of a wooden handle; “cha-kay′-yum” is also the word for needle. After the pattern is pricked in, the soot is powdered over it and pressed in the openings; the tattooer prefers the soot gathered from the bottom of ollas.
The finished tattoo is a dull, blue black in color, sometimes having a greenish cast. A man in Tulubin has a tattoo across his throat which is distinctly green, while the remainder of his tattoo is the common blue black. The newly tattooed design stands out in whitish ridges, and these frequently fester and produce a mass of itching sores lasting about one month (seePl. CXLVII).
The Igorot distinguishes three classes of tattoos: The chak-lag′, the breast tattoo of the head taker; pong′-o, the tattoo on the arms of men and women; and fa′-tĕk, under which name all other tattoos of both sexes are classed. Fa′-tĕk is the general word for tattoo, and pong′-o is the name of woman’s tattoo.
It is general for boys under 10 years of age to be tattooed. Their first marks are usually a small,half-inchcross on either cheek or a line or small cross on the nose. One boy in Bontoc, just at the age of puberty, has a tattoo encircling the lower jaw and chin, a wavy line across the forehead, a straight line down the nose, and crosses on the cheeks; but he is the youngest person I have seen wearing the jaw tattoo—a mark quite commonly made in Bontoc when the chak-lag′, or head-taker’s emblem, is put on.
The chak-lag′ is the most important tattoo of the Igorot, since it marks its wearer as a taker of at least one human head. It therefore stands for a successful issue in the most crucial test of the fitness of a person to contribute to the strength of the group of which he is a unit. It no doubt gives its wearer a certain advantage in combat—a confidence and conceit in his own ability, and, likely, it tends to unnerve a combatant who has not the same emblem and experience. No matter what the exact social importance or advantage may be, it seems that every man in Bontoc who has the right to the emblem shows his appreciation of the privilege, since nine-tenths of the men wear the chak-lag′. It consists of a series of geometric markings running upward from the breast near each nipple and curving out on each shoulder, where it ends on the upper arm. The accompanying plates (CXLIIItoCXLIX) give an excellent idea of the nature and appearance of the Igorot tattoo—of course, reproductions in color would add to the effect. The distinctness of the markings in the photographs is about normal.
The basis of the designs is apparently geometric. If the straight-line designs originated in animal forms, they have now become so conventional that I have not discovered their original form.
The Bontoc woman is tattooed only on the arms. This tattoo begins close back of the knuckles on the back of the hands, and, as soon as it reaches the wrist, entirely encircles the arms to above the elbows. Still above this there is frequently a separate design on the outside of the arm; it is often the figure of a man with extended arms and sprawled legs.
The chak-lag′ design on the man’s breast is almost invariably supplemented by two or three sets of horizontal lines on the biceps immediately beneath the outer end of the main design. If the tattoo on the arms of the woman were transferred to the arms of the man, there would seldom be an overlapping—each would supplement the other. On the men the lines are longer and the patterns simpler than those of the women, where the lines are more cross-hatched and the design partakes of the nature of patch-work.
It was not discovered that any tattoo has a special meaning, except the head-taker’s emblem; and the Igorot consistently maintains that all the others are put on simply at the whim of the wearer. The face markings, those on the arms, the stomach, and elsewhere on the body, are believed to be purely æsthetic. The people compare their tattoo with the figures of an American’s shirt or coat, saying they both look pretty. Often a cross-hatched marking is put over goiter, varicose veins, and other permanent swellings or enlargements. Evidently they are believed to have some therapeutic virtue, but no statement could be obtained to substantiate this opinion.
As is shown byPls. CXLVIIIandCXLIX, the tattoo of both Banawi men and women seems to spring from a different form than does the Bontoc tattoo. It appears to be a leaf, or a fern frond, but I know nothing of its origin or meaning. There is much difference in details between the tattoos of culture areas, and even of pueblos. For instance, in Bontoc pueblo there is no tattoo on a man’s hand, while in the pueblos near the south side of the area the hands are frequently marked on the backs. In Benguet there is a design popularly said to represent the sun, which is seen commonly on men’s hands. Instances of such differences could be greatly multiplied here, but must be left for a more complete study of the Igorot tattoo.
The Bontoc Igorot has few musical instruments, and all are very simple. The most common is a gong, a flat metal drum about1 footin diameter and2 inchesdeep. This drum is commonly said to be “brass,” but analyses show it to be bronze.
Two gongs submitted to the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila, consisted, in one case, of approximately 80 per cent copper, 15per cent tin, and 5 per cent zinc; in the other case of approximately 84 per cent copper, 15 per cent tin, 1 per cent zinc, and a trace of iron.
Early Chinese records read that tin was one of the Chinese imports into Manila in the thirteenth century. Copper was mined and wrought by the Igorot when the Spaniards came to the Philippines, and they wrote regarding it that it was then an old and established industry and art. It may possibly be that bronze was made in the Philippines before the arrival of the Spaniard, but there is no proof of such an hypothesis.
The gong to-day enters the Bontoc area in commerce generally from the north—from the Igorot or Tinguian of old Abra Province—and no one in the Provinces of Benguet or Lepanto-Bontoc seems to know its source. Throughout the Archipelago and southward in Borneo there are metal drums or “gongs” apparently of similar material but of varying styles. It is commonly claimed that those of the Moro are made on the Asiatic mainland. It is my opinion that the Bontoc gong, or gang′-sa, originates in China, though perhaps it is not now imported directly from there. It certainly does not enter the Island of Luzon at Manila, or Candon in Ilokos Sur, and, it is said, not at Vigan, also in Ilokos Sur.
In the Bontoc area there are two classes of gang′-sa; one is called ka′-los, and the other co-ong′-an. The co-ong′-an is frequently larger than the other, seems to be always of thicker metal, and has a more bell-like and usually higher-pitched tone. I measured several gang′-sa in Bontoc and Samoki, and find the co-ong′-an about 5 millimeters thick, 52 to 55 millimeters deep, and from 330 to 360 millimeters in diameter; the ka′-los is only about 2 to 3 millimeters thick. The Igorot distinguishes between the two very quickly, and prizes the co-ong′-an at about twice the value of the ka′-los. Either is worth a large price to-day in the central part of the area—or from one to two carabaos—but it is quite impossible to purchase them even at that price.
Gang′-sa music consists of two things—rhythm and crude harmony. Its rhythm is perfect, but though there is an appreciation of harmony as is seen in the recognition of, we may say, the “tenor” and “bass” tones of co-ong′-an and ka′-los, respectively, yet in the actual music the harmony is lost sight of by the American.
In Bontoc the gang′-sa is held vertically in the hand by a cord passing through two holes in the rim, and the cord usually has a human lower jaw attached to facilitate the grip. As the instrument thus hangs free in front of the player (always a man or boy) it is beaten on the outer surface with a short padded stick like a miniature bass-drum stick. There is no gang′-sa music without the accompanying dance, and there is no dance unaccompanied by music. A gang′-sa or a tin can put in the hands of an Igorot boy is always at once productive of music and dance.
The rhythm of Igorot gang′-sa music is different from most primitive music I have heard either in America or Luzon. The player beats 4/4 time, with the accent on the third beat. Though there may be twenty gang′-sa in the dance circlea miledistant, yet the regular pulse and beat of the third count is always the prominent feature of the sound. The music is rapid, there being from fifty-eight to sixty full 4/4 counts per minute.
It is impossible for me to represent Igorot music, instrumental or vocal, in any adequate manner, but I may convey a somewhat clearer impression of the rhythm if I attempt to represent it mathematically. It must be kept in mind that all the gang′-sa are beaten regularly and in perfect time—there is no such thing as half notes.
The gang′-sa is struck at each italicized count, and each unitalicized count represents a rest, the accent represents the accented beat of the gang′-sa. The ka′-los is usually beaten without accent and without rest. Its beats are1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; etc. The co-ong′-an is usually beaten with both accent and rest. It is generally as follows:1, 2, 3′,4;1, 2, 3′, 4; 1, 2, 3′,4; 1, 2, 3′,4; etc. Sometimes, however, only the first count and again the first and second counts are struck on the individual co-ong′-an, but there is no accent unless the third is struck. Thus it is sometimes as follows:1, 2, 3, 4;1,2, 3, 4;1, 2, 3, 4;1, 2, 3, 4; etc.; and again1, 2,3, 4;1, 2,3, 4;1, 2, 3, 4;1, 2, 3, 4;1, 2,3, 4; etc. However, the impression the hearer receives from a group of players is always of four rapid beats, the third one being distinctly accented. A considerable volume of sound is produced by the gang′-sa of the central part of the area; it may readily be hearda mile, if beaten in the open air.
In pueblos toward the western part of the area, as in Balili, Alap, and their neighbors, the instrument is played differently and the sound carries onlya few rods. Sometimes the player sits in very un-Malayan manner, with legs stretched out before him, and places the gang′-sa bottom up on his lap. He beats it with the flat of both hands, producing the rhythmic pulse by a deadening or smothering of a beat. Again the gang′-sa is held in the air, usually as high as the face, and one or two soft beats, just a tinkle, of the 4/4 time are struck on the inside of the gang′-sa by a small, light stick. Now and then the player, after having thoroughly acquired the rhythm, clutches the instrument under his arm for a half minute while he continues his dance in perfect time and rhythm.
The lover’s “jews’-harp,” made both of bamboo and of brass, is found throughout the Bontoc area. It is played near to and in the olag wherein the sweetheart of the young man is at the time. The instrument, called in Bontoc “ab-a′-fü,” is apparently primitive Malayan, and is found widespread in the south seas and Pacific Ocean.
The brass instrument, the only kind I ever saw in use except as a semitoy in the hands of small boys, is from2 to 3 inchesin length, and has a tongue, attached at one end, cut from the middle of the narrow strip of metal. (The Igorot make the ab-a′-fü of metal cartridges.) A cord is tied to the instrument at the end at which the tongue is attached, and this the player jerks to vibrate the tongue. The instrument is held at the mouth, is lightly clasped between the lips, and, as the tongue vibrates, the player breathes a low, soft tune through the instrument. One must needs get within2 or 3 feetof the player to catch the music, but I must say after hearing three or four men play by the half hour, that they produce tunes the theme of which seems to me to bespeak a genuine musical taste.
I have seen a few crude bamboo flutes in the hands of young men, but none were able to play them. I believe they are of Ilokano introduction.
A long wooden drum, hollow and cannon-shaped, and often3 feetand more long and about8 inchesin diameter, is common in Benguet, and is found in Lepanto, but is not found or known in Bontoc. A skin stretched over the large end of the drum is beaten with the flat of the hands to accompany the music of the metal drums or gang′-sa, also played with the flat of the hands, as described, in pueblos near the western border of Bontoc area.
The Igorot has vocal music, but in no way can I describe it—to say nothing of writing it. I tried repeatedly to write the words of the songs, but failed even in that. The chief cause of failure is that the words must be sung—even the singers failed to repeat the songs word after word as they repeat the words of their ordinary speech. There are accents, rests, lengthened sounds, sounds suddenly cut short—in fact, all sorts of vocal gymnastics that clearly defeated any effort to “talk” the songs. I believe many of the songs are wordless; they are mere vocalizations—the “tra la la” of modern vocal music; they may be the first efforts to sing.
I was told repeatedly that there are four classes of songs, and only four. The mang-ay-u-wĕng′, the laborer’s song, is sung in the field and trail. The mang-ay-yĕng′ is said to be the class of songs rendered at all ceremonies, though I believe the doleful funeral songs are of another class. The mang-ay-lu′-kay and the tĭng-ao′ I know nothing of except in name.
Most of the songs seem serious. I never heard a mother or other person singing to a babe. However, boys and young men, friends with locked arms or with arms over shoulders, often sing happy songs as they walk along together. They often sing in “parts,” and the musicproduced by a tenor and a bass voice as they sing their parts in rhythm, and with very apparent appreciation of harmony, is fascinating and often very pleasing.
The Bontoc Igorot dances in a circle, and he follows the circle contraclockwise. There is no dancing without gang′-sa music, and it is seldom that a man dances unless he plays a gang′-sa. The dance step is slower than the beats on the gang′-sa; there is one complete “step” to every full 4/4 count. At times the “step” is simply a high-stepping slow run, really a springing prance. Again it is a hitching movement with both feet close to the earth, andone footbehind the other. The line of dancers, well shown inPls. CXXXI,CLI, andCLII, passes slowly around the circle, now and again following the leader in a spiral movement toward the center of the circle and then uncoiling backward from the center to the path. Now and again the line moves rapidly for half the distance of the circumference, and then slowly backs a short distance, and again it all but stops while the men stoop forward and crouch stealthily along as though in ambush, creeping on an enemy. In all this dancing there is perfect rhythm in music and movements. There is no singing or even talking—the dance is a serious but pleasurable pastime for those participating.
As is shown also by the illustrations, the women dance. They throw their blankets about them and extend their arms, usually clutching tobacco leaves in either hand—which are offerings to the old men and which some old man frequently passes among them and collects—and they dance with less movement of the feet than do the men. Generally the toes scarcely leave the earth, though a few of the older women invariably dance with a high movement and backward pawing ofone footwhich throws the dust and gravel over all behind them. I have more than once seen the dance circle a cloud of dust raised by one pawing woman, and the people at the margin of the circle dodging the gravel thrown back, yet they only laughed and left the woman to pursue her peculiar and discomforting “step.” The dancing women are generally immediately outside the circle, and from them the rhythm spreads to the spectators until a score of women are dancing on their toes where they stand among the onlookers, and little girls everywhere are imitating their mothers. The rhythmic music is fascinating, and one always feels out of place standing stiff legged in heavy, hobnailed shoes among the pulsating, rhythmic crowd. Now and again a woman dances between two men of the line, forcing her way to the center of the circle. She is usually more spectacular than those about the margin, and frequently holds in her hand her camote stick or a ball of bark-fiber thread which she has spunfor making skirts. I once saw such a dancer carry the long, heavy wooden pestle used in pounding out rice.
A few times I have seen men dance in the center of the circle somewhat as the women do, but with more movement, with a balancing and tilting of the body and especially of the arms, and with rapid trembling and quivering of the hands. The most spectacular dance is that of the man who dances in the circle brandishing a head-ax. He is shown inPls. CLIIandCLIII. At all times his movements are in perfect sympathy and rhythm with the music. He crouches around between the dancers brandishing his ax, he deftly all but cuts off a hand here, an arm or leg there, an ear yonder. He suddenly rushes forward and grinningly feigns cutting off a man’s head. He contorts himself in a ludicrous yet often fiendish manner. This dance represents the height of the dramatic as I have seen it in Igorot life. His is truly a mimetic dance. His colleague with the spear and shield, who sometimes dances on the outskirts of the circle, now charging a dancer and again retreating, also produces a true mimetic and dramatic spectacle. This is somewhat more than can be said of the dance of the women with the camote sticks, pestles, and spun thread. The women in no way “act”—they simply purposely present the implements or products of their labors, though in it all we see the real beginning of dramatic art.
Other areas, and other pueblos also, have different dances. In the Benguet area the musicians sit on the earth and play the gang′-sa and wooden drum while the dancers, a man and woman, pass back and forth before them. Each dances independently, though the woman follows the man. He is spectacular with from one to half a dozen blankets swinging from his shoulders, arms, and hands.
Captain Chas. Nathorst, of Cervantes, has told me of a dance in Lepanto, believed by him to be a funeral dance, in which men stand abreast in a long line with arms on each other’s shoulders. In this position they drone and sway and occasionally paw the air withone foot. There is little movement, and what there is is sluggish and lifeless.
Cockfighting is the Philippine sport. Almost everywhere the natives of the Archipelago have cockfights and horse races on holidays and Sundays. They are also greatly addicted to the sport of gambling. The Bontoc Igorot has none of the common pastimes or games of chance. This fact is remarkable, because the modern Malayan is such a gamester.
Only in toil, war, and numerous ceremonials does the Bontoc man work off his superfluous and emotional energy. One might naturally expect to find Jack a dull boy, but he is not. His daily round of toil seems quite sufficient to keep the steady accumulation of energy at a natural poise, and his head-hunting offers him the greatest game of skill and chance which primitive man has invented.
The Igorot has almost no formalities, the “etiquette” which one can recognize as binding “form.” When the American came to the Islands he found the Christians exceedingly polite. The men always removed their hats when they met him, the women always spoke respectfully, and some tried to kiss his hand. Every house, its contents and occupants, to which he might go was his to do with as he chose. Such characteristics, however, seem not to belong to the primitive Malayan. The Igorot meets you face to face and acts as though he considers himself your equal—both you and he are men—and he meets his fellows the same way.
When Igorot meet they do not greet each other with words, as most modern people do. As an Igorot expressed it to me they are “all same dog” when they meet. Sometimes, however, when they part, in passing each other on the trial, one asks where the other is going.
The person with a load has the right of way in the trail, and others stand aside as best they can.
There is commonly no greeting when a person comes to one’s house, nor is there a greeting between members of a family when one returns home after an absence even of a week or more.
Children address their mothers as “I′-na,” their word for mother, and address their father as “A′-ma,” their word for father. They do this throughout life.
Igorot do not kiss or have other formal physical expression to show affection between friends or relatives. Mothers do not kiss their babes even.
The Igorot has no formal or common expression of thankfulness. Whatever gratitude he feels must be taken for granted, as he never expresses it in words.
When an Igorot desires to beckon a person to him he, in common with the other Malayans of the Archipelago, extends his arm toward the person with the hand held prone, not supine as is the custom in America, and closes the hand, also giving a slight inward movement of the hand at the wrist. This manner of beckoning is universal in Luzon.
The hand is almost never used to point a direction. Instead, the head is extended in the direction indicated—not with a nod, but with a thrusting forward of the face and a protruding of the open lips; it is a true lip gesture. I have seen it practically everywhere in the Islands, among pagans, Mohammedans, and Christians.
The basis of Igorot religion is every man’s belief in the spirit world—the animism found widespread among primitive peoples. It is the belief in the ever-present, ever-watchful a-ni′-to, or spirit of the dead, who has all power for good or evil, even for life or death. In this world of spirits the Igorot is born and lives; there he constantly entreats, seeks to appease, and to cajole; in a mild way he threatens, and he always tries to avert; and there at last he surrenders to the more than matchful spirits, whose numbers he joins, and whose powers he acquires.
All things have an invisible existence as well as a visible, material one. The Igorot does not explain the existence of earth, water, fire, vegetation, and animals in invisible form, but man’s invisible form, man’s spirit, is his speech. During the life of a person his spirit is called “ta′-ko.” After death the spirit receives a new name, though its nature is unchanged, and it goes about in a body invisible to the eye of man yet unchanged in appearance from that of the living person. There seems to be no idea of future rewards or punishments, though they say a bad a-ni′-to is sometimes driven away from the others.
The spirit of all dead persons is called “a-ni′-to”—this is the general name for the soul of the dead. However, the spirits of certain dead have a specific name. Pĭn-tĕng′ is the name of the a-ni′-to of a beheaded person; wul-wul is the name of the a-ni′-to of deaf and dumb persons—it is evidently an onomatopoetic word. And wong-ong is the name of the a-ni′-to of an insane person. Fu-ta-tu is a bad a-ni′-to, or the name applied to the a-ni′-to which is supposed to be ostracized from respectable a-ni′-to society.
Besides these various forms of a-ni′-to or spirits, the body itself is also sometimes supposed to have an existence after death. Li-mum′ is the name of the spiritual form of the human body. Li-mum′ is seen at times in the pueblo and frequently enters habitations, but it is said never to cause death or accident. Li-mum′ may best be translated by the English term “ghost,” although he has a definite function ascribed to the rather fiendish “nightmare”—that of sitting heavily on the breast and stomach of a sleeper.
The ta′-ko, the soul of the living man, is a faithful servant of man, and, though accustomed to leave the body at times, it brings to the person the knowledge of the unseen spirit life in which the Igorot constantly lives. In other words, the people, especially the old men, dream dreams and see visions, and these form the meshes of the net which has caught here and there stray or apparently related facts from which the Igorot constructs much of his belief in spirit life.
The immediate surroundings of every Igorot group is the home of the a-ni′-to of departed members of the group, though they do not usually live in the pueblo itself. Their dwellings, sementeras, pigs, chickens, and carabaos—in fact, all the possessions the living had—are scattered about in spirit form, in the neighboring mountains. There the great hosts of the a-ni′-to live, and there they reproduce, in spirit form, the life of the living. They construct and live in dwellings, build and cultivate sementeras, marry, and even bear children; and eventually, some of them, at least, die or change their forms again. The Igorot do not say how long an a-ni′-to lives, and they have not tried to answer the question of the final disposition of a-ni′-to, but in various ceremonials a-ni′-to of several generations of ancestors are invited to the family feast, so the Igorot does not believe that the a-ni′-to ceases, as an a-ni′-to, in what would be the lifetime of a person.
When an a-ni′-to dies or changes its form it may become a snake—and the Igorot never kills a snake, except if it bothers about his dwelling; or it may become a rock—there is one such a-ni′-to rock on the mountain horizon north of Bontoc; but the most common form for a dead a-ni′-to to take is li′-fa, the phosphorescent glow in the dead wood of the mountains. Why or how these various changes occur the Igorot does not understand.
In many respects the dreamer has seen the a-ni′-to world in great detail. He has seen that a-ni′-to are rich or poor, old or young, as were the persons at death, and yet there is progression, such as birth, marriage, old age, and death. Each man seems to know in what part of the mountains his a-ni′-to will dwell, because some one of his ancestors is known to inhabit a particular place, and where one ancestor is there the children go to be with him. This does not refer to desirability of location, but simply to physical location—as in the mountain north of Bontoc, or in one to the east or south.
As was stated in a previous chapter, with the one exception of toothache, all injuries, diseases, and deaths are caused directly by a-ni′-to. In certain ceremonies the ancestral a-ni′-to, are urged to care for living descendants, to protect them from a-ni′-to that seek to harm—and children are named after their dead ancestors, so they may be known and receive protection. In the pueblo, the sementeras, and the mountains one knows he is always surrounded by a-ni′-to. They are ever ready to trip one up, to push him off the high stone sementera dikesor to visit him with disease. When one walks alone in the mountain trail he is often aware that an a-ni′-to walks close beside him; he feels his hair creeping on his scalp, he says, and thus he knows of the a-ni′-to’s presence. The Igorot has a particular kind of spear, the sinalawitan, having two or more pairs of barbs, of which the a-ni′-to is afraid; so when a man goes alone in the mountains with the sinalawitan he is safer from a-ni′-to than he is with any other spear.
The Igorot does not say that the entire spirit world, except his relatives, is against him, and he does not blame the spirits for the evils they inflict on him—it is the way things are—but he acts as though all are his enemies, and he often entreats them to visit their destruction on other pueblos. It is safe to say that one feast is held daily in Bontoc by some family to appease or win the good will of some a-ni′-to.
At death the spirit of a beheaded person, the pĭn-tĕng′, goes above to chayya, the sky. The old men are very emphatic in this belief. They always point to the surrounding mountains as the home of the a-ni′-to, but straight above to chayya, the sky, as the home of the spirit of the beheaded. The old men say the pĭn-tĕng′ has a head of flames. There in the sky the pĭn-tĕng′ repeat the life of those living in the pueblo. They till the soil and they marry, but the society is exclusive—there are none there except those who lost their heads to the enemy.
The pĭn-tĕng′ is responsible for the death of every person who loses his head. He puts murder in the minds of all men who are to be successful in taking heads. He also sees the outrages of warfare, and visits vengeance on those who kill babes and small children.
In his relations with the unseen spirit world the Igorot has certain visible, material friends that assist him by warnings of good and evil. When a chicken is killed its gall is examined, and, if found to be dark colored, all is well; if it is light, he is warned of some pending evil in spirit form. Snakes, rats, crows, falling stones, crumbling earth, and the small reddish-brown omen bird, i′-chu, all warn the Igorot of pending evil.
Since the anito is the cause of all bodily afflictions the chief function of the person who battles for the health of the afflicted is that of the exorcist, rather than that of the therapeutist.
Many old men and women, known as “in-sûp-âk′,” are considered more or less successful in urging the offending anito to leave the sick. Their formula is simple. They place themselves near the afflicted part, usually with the hand stroking it, or at least touching it, and say, “Anito, who makes this person sick, go away.” This they repeat over and over again, mumbling low, and frequently exhaling the breath to assist the departure of the anito—just as, they say, one blows away the dust; but the exhalation is an open-mouthed outbreathing, and not a forceful blowing. One of our house boys came home from a trip to a neighboringpueblo with a bad stone bruise for which an anito was responsible. For four days he faithfully submitted to flaxseed poultices, but on the fifth day we found a woman in-sûp-âk′ at her professional task in the kitchen. She held the sore foot in her lap, and stroked it; she murmured to the anito to go away; she bent low over the foot, and about a dozen times she well feigned vomiting, and each time she spat out a large amount of saliva. At no time could purposeful exhalations be detected, and no explanation of her feigned vomiting could be gained. It is not improbable that when she bent over the foot she was supposed to be inhaling or swallowing the anito which she later sought to cast from her. In half an hour she succeeded in “removing” the offender, but the foot was “sick” for four days longer, or until the deep-seated bruise discharged through a scalpel opening. The woman unquestionably succeeded in relieving the boy’s mind.
When a person is ill at his home he sends for an in-sûp-âk′, who receives for a professional visit two manojos of palay, or two-fifths of a laborer’s daily wage. In-sûp-âk′ are not appointed or otherwise created by the people, as are most of the public servants. They are notified in a dream that they are to be in-sûp-âk′.
As compared with the medicine man of some primitive peoples the in-sûp-âk′ is a beneficial force to the sick. The methods are all quiet and gentle; there is none of the hubbub or noise found in the Indian lodge—the body is not exhausted, the mind distracted, or the nerves racked. In a positive way the sufferer’s mind receives comfort and relief when the anito is “removed,” and in most cases probably temporary, often permanent, physical relief results from the stroking and rubbing.
The man or woman of each household acts as mediator between any sick member of the family and the offending anito. There are several of these household ceremonials performed to benefit the afflicted.
If one was taken ill or was injured at any particular place in the mountains near the pueblo, the one in charge of the ceremony goes to that place with a live chicken in a basket, a small amount of basi (a native fermented drink), and usually a little rice, and, pointing with a stick in various directions, says the Wa-chao′-wad or Ay′-ug si a-fi′-ĭk ceremony—the ceremony of calling the soul. It is as follows:
“A-li-ka′ ab a-fi′-ĭk Ba-long′-long en-ta-ko′ ĭs a′-fong sang′-fu.” The translation is: “Come, soul of Ba-long′-long; come with us to the house to feast.” The belief is that the person’s spirit is being enticed and drawn away by an anito. If it is not called back shortly, it will depart permanently.
The following ceremony, called “ka-taol′,” is said near the river, as the other is in the mountains:
“A-li-ka′ ta-ĕn-ta-ko ĭs a′-fong ta-ko′ tay la-tĭng′ ĭs′-na.” Freely translated this is: “Come, come with us into the house, because it is cold here.”
A common sight in the Igorot pueblo or in the trails leading out is a man or woman, more frequently the latter, carrying the small chicken basket, the tube of basi, and the short stick, going to the river or the mountains to perform this ceremony for the sick.
After either of these ceremonies the person returns to the dwelling, kills, cooks, and, with other members of the family, eats the chicken.
For those very ill and apparently about to die there is another ceremony, called “a′-fat,” and it never fails in its object, they affirm—the afflicted always recovers. Property equal to a full year’s wages is taken outside the pueblo to the spot where the affliction was received, if it is known, and the departing soul is invited to return in exchange for the articles displayed. They take a large hog which is killed where the ceremony is performed; they take also a large blue-figured blanket—the finest blanket that comes to the pueblo—a battle-ax and spear, a large pot of “preserved” meat, the much-prized woman’s bustle-like girdle, and, last, a live chicken. When the hog is killed the person in charge of the ceremony says: “Come back, soul of the afflicted, in trade for these things.”
All then return to the sick person’s dwelling, taking with them the possessions just offered to the soul. At the house they cook the hog, and all eat of it; as those who assisted in the ceremony go to their own dwellings they carry each a dish of the cooked pork.
The next day, since the afflicted person does not die, they have another ceremony, called “mang-mang,” in the house of the sick. A chicken is killed, and the following ceremonial is spoken from the center of the house:
“The sick person is now well. May the food become abundant; may the chickens, pigs, and rice fruit heads be large. Bring the battle-ax to guard the door. Bring the winnowing tray to serve the food; and bring the wisp of palay straw to sweep away the many words spoken near us.”
For certain sick persons no ceremony is given for recovery. They are those who are stricken with death, and the Igorot claims to know a fatal affliction when it comes.
The Igorot has personified the forces of nature. The personification has become a single person, and to-day this person is one god, Lu-ma′-wĭg. Over all, and eternal, so far as the Igorot understands, is Lu-ma′-wĭg—Lu-ma′-wĭg, who had a part in the beginning of all things; who came as a man to help the survivors and perpetuators of Bontoc; who later came as a man to teach the people whom he had befriended, and who still lives to care for them. Lu-ma′-wĭg is the greatest of spirits, dwelling above in chayya, the sky. All prayers for fruitage and increase—of men, of animals, and of crops—all prayers for deliverancefrom the fierce forces of the physical world are made to him; and once each month the pa′-tay ceremony, entreating Lu-ma′-wĭg for fruitage and health, is performed for the pueblo group by an hereditary class of men called “pa′-tay—a priesthood in process of development. Throughout the Bontoc culture area Lu-ma′-wĭg, otherwise known but less frequently spoken of as Fu′-ni and Kam-bun′-yan, is the supreme being. Scheerer says the Benguet Igorot call their “god” Ka-bu-ni′-an—the same road as Kam-bun′-yan.
In the beginning of all things Lu-ma′-wĭg had a part. The Igorot does not know how or why it is so, but he says that Lu-ma′-wĭg gave the earth with all its characteristics, the water in its various manifestations, the people, all animals, and all vegetation. To-day he is the force in all these things, as he always has been.
Once, in the early days, the lower lands about Bontoc were covered with water. Lu-ma′-wĭg saw two young people on top of Mount Po′-kis, north of Bontoc. They were Fa-tang′-a and his sister Fu′-kan. They were without fire, as all the fires of Bontoc were put out by the water. Lu-ma′-wĭg told them to wait while he went quickly to Mount Ka-lo-wi′-tan, south of Bontoc, for fire. When he returned Fu′-kan was heavy with child. Lu-ma′-wĭg left them, going above as a bird flies. Soon the child was born, the water subsided in Bontoc pueblo, and Fa-tang′-a with his sister and her babe returned to the pueblo. Children came to the household rapidly and in great numbers. Generation followed generation, and the people increased wonderfully.
After a time Lu-ma′-wĭg decided to come to help and teach the Igorot. He first stopped on Ka-lo-wi′-tan Mountain, and from there looked over the young women of Sabangan, searching for a desirable wife, but he was not pleased with the girls of Sabangan because they had short hair. He next visited Alap, but the young women of that pueblo were sickly; so he came on to Tulubin. There the marriageable girls were afflicted with goiter. He next stopped at Bontoc, where he saw two young women, sisters, in a garden. Lu-ma′-wĭg came to them and sat down. Presently he asked why they did not go to the house. They answered that they must work; they were gathering beans. Lu-ma′-wĭg was pleased with this, so he picked one bean of each variety, tossed them into the baskets—when presently the baskets were filled to the rim. He married Fu′-kan, the younger of the two industrious sisters, and namesake of the mother of the people of Bontoc.
After marriage he lived at Chao′-wi, in the present ato of Sigichan, near the center of Bontoc pueblo. The large, flat stones which were once part of Lu-ma′-wĭg’s dwelling are still lying in position, and are shown inPl. CLIII.
Lu-ma′-wĭg at times exhibited his marvelous powers. They say he could take a small chicken, feed it a few grains of rice, and in anhour it would be full grown. He could fill a basket with rice in a very few moments, simply by putting in a handful of kernels. He could cut a stick of wood in the mountains, and with one hand toss it to his dwelling in the pueblo. Once when out in I-shil′ Mountains northeast of Bontoc, Fa-tang′-a, the brother-in-law of Lu-ma′-wĭg, said to him, “Oh, you of no value! Here we are without water to drink. Why do you not give us water?” Lu-ma′-wĭg said nothing, but he turned and thrust his spear in the side of the mountain. As he withdrew the weapon a small stream of water issued from the opening. Fa-tang′-a started to drink, but Lu-ma′-wĭg said, “Wait; the others first; you last.” When it came Fa-tang′-a’s turn to drink, Lu-ma′-wĭg put his hand on him as he drank and pushed him solidly into the mountain. He became a rock, and the water passed through him. Several of the old men of Bontoc have seen this rock, now broken by others fallen on it from above, but the stream of water still flows on the thirsty mountain.
In an isolated garden, called “fĭl-lang′,” now in ato Chakong, Lu-ma′-wĭg taught Bontoc how best to plant, cultivate, and garner her various agricultural products. Fĭl-lang′ to-day is a unique little sementera. It is the only garden spot within the pueblo containing water. The pueblo is so situated that irrigating water can not be run into it, but throughout the dry season of 1903—the dryest for years in Bontoc—there was water in at least a fourth of this little garden. There is evidently a very small, but perpetual spring within the plat. Taro now occupies the garden and is weeded and gathered by Na-wĭt′, an old man chosen by the old men of the pueblo for this office. Na-wĭt′ maintains and the Igorot believe that the vegetable springs up without planting. As the watering of fĭl-lang′ is through the special dispensation of Lu-ma′-wĭg, so the taro left by him in his garden school received from him a peculiar lease of life—it is perpetual. The people claim that all other taro beds must be planted annually.
Lu-ma′-wĭg showed the people how to build the fawi and pabafunan, and with his help those of Lowingan and Sipaat were constructed. He also told them their purposes and uses. He gave the people names for many of the things about them; he also gave the pueblo its name.
He gave them advice regarding conduct—a crude code of ethics. He told them not to lie, because good men do not care to associate with liars. He said they should not steal, but all people should take care to live good and honest lives. A man should have only one wife; if he had more, his life would soon be required of him. The home should be kept pure; the adulterer should not violate it; all should be as brothers.
As has been previously said, the people of Bontoc claim that they did not go to war or kill before Lu-ma′-wĭg came.
They say no Igorot ever divorced a wife who bore him a child, yet they accuse Lu-ma′-wĭg of such conduct, but apparently seek to excuse the act by saying that at the time he was partially insane. Fu′-kan, Lu-ma′-wĭg’s wife, bore him several children. One day she spoke very disrespectfully to him. This change of attitude on her part somewhat unbalanced him, and he put her with two of her little boys in a large coffin, and set them afloat on the river. He securely fastened the cover of the coffin, and on either end tied a dog and a cock. The coffin floated downstream unobserved as far as Tinglayan. There the barking of the dog and the crowing of the cock attracted the attention of a man who rushed out into the river with his ax to secure such a fine lot of pitch-pine wood. When he struck his ax in the wood a voice called from within, “Don’t do that; I am here.” Then the man opened the coffin and saw the woman and children. The man said his wife was dead, and the woman asked whether he wanted her for a wife. He said he did, so she became his wife.
After a time the children wanted to return to Bontoc to see their father. Before they started their mother instructed them to follow the main river, but when they arrived at the mouth of a tributary stream they became confused, and followed the river leading them to Kanyu. There they asked for their father, but the people killed them and cut them up. Presently they were alive again, and larger than before. They killed them again and again. After they had come to life seven times they were full-grown men; but the eighth time Kanyu killed them they remained dead. Bontoc went for their bodies, and told Kanyu that, because they killed the children of Lu-ma′-wĭg, their children would always be dying—and to-day Bontoc points to the fewness of the houses which make up Kanyu. The bodies were buried close to Bontoc on the west and northwest; scarcely were they interred when trees began to grow upon and about the graves—they were the transformed bodies of Lu-ma′-wĭg’s children. The Igorot never cut trees in the two small groves nearby the pueblo, but once a year they gather the fallen branches. They say that a Spaniard once started to cut one of the trees, but he had struck only a few blows when he was suddenly taken sick. His bowels bloated and swelled and he died in a few minutes.
These two groves are called “Pa-pa-tay′” and “Pa-pa-tay′ ad So-kok′,” the latter one shown inPl. CLIV. Each is said to be a man, but among some of the old men the one farthest to the north is now said to be a woman. The reason they assign for now calling one a woman is because it is situated lower down on the mountain than the other. They are held sacred, and the monthly religious ceremonial of patay is observed beneath their trees.
It seems that Lu-ma′-wĭg soon became irritated and jealous, because Fu′-kan was the wife of another man, and he sent word forbidding her to leave her house. About this time the warriors of Tinglayan returned from a head-hunting expedition. When Fu′-kan heard their gongs and knew all the pueblo was dancing, she danced alone in the house. Soon those outside felt the ground trembling. They looked and saw that the house where Fu′-kan lived was trembling and swaying. The women hastened to unfortunate Fu′-kan and brought her out of the house. However, in coming out she had disobeyed Lu-ma′-wĭg, and shortly she died.
Lu-ma′-wĭg’s work was ended. He took three of his children with him to Mount Po′-kĭs, on the northern horizon of Bontoc, and from there the four passed above into the sky as birds fly. His two other children wished to accompany him, but he denied them the request; and so they left Bontoc and journeyed westward to Loko (Ilokos Provinces) because, they said, if they remained, they would die. What became of these two children is not known; neither is it known whether those who went above are alive now; but Lu-ma′-wĭg is still alive in the sky and is still the friendly god of the Igorot, and is the force in all the things with which he originally had to do.
Throughout the Bontoc culture area Lu-ma′-wĭg is the one and only god of the people. Many said that he lived in Bontoc, and, so far as known, they hold the main facts of the belief in him substantially as do the people of his own pueblo.