CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH ILLNESS AND DEATH
Belief that Illness is due to Evil _Ottofu_--Ministrations of the
Priestess--A Seventeenth-century Dutch Record of the Treatment of
the Dying by the Formosan Aborigines--The “Dead Houses” of the
Taiyal--Burial of the Dead by the Ami, Bunun, and Paiwan Tribes beneath
the Hearth-stone of the Home--“Green” and “Dry” Funerals.
As on occasions of rejoicing--marriage, harvest-festivals,
celebration of successful war or hunting expeditions--so in times of
sorrow--illness or death--are the ministrations of the priestesses
in demand. Illness--except that which is the direct result of
wounds received in foray or battle--is regarded as being due to the
machinations of the malevolently inclined, living or dead. That is, it
may be a living enemy whose evil and powerful _Ottofu_ causes pain and
illness; or it may be the _Ottofu_ of the ghost of some dead enemy.
Serious illness is more usually attributed to the latter, since the
_Ottofu_ of a ghost is considered to have more power than that of any
living person.
Naturally the element of terror enters into such a conception; also
that of helplessness, since against an enemy already dead there can
be no reprisal. The advantage is all on the side of the dead man--an
auto-suggestion which tends, of course, to aggravate the illness of the
living.
In any case of illness a priestess is summoned. The usual mode of
procedure on the part of this lady is first to wave a banana-leaf
over the patient, chanting as she does so. This is evidently to
brush away--or frighten away--any evilly inclined _Ottofu_ that may
be hovering about. Then, squatting by the side of the sufferer, she
begins to suck at that spot on his--or her--body where the patient
complains of greatest pain, and to breathe upon it; now and then she
stops sucking, and rocks herself to and fro, as she balances on her
heels, chanting in time to the rocking motion. If it be suspected
that the _Ottofu_ of a living enemy has caused the illness, the
priestess will throw into the air her strips of black and white (i.e.
natural-coloured) bamboo, and upon the pattern formed by these, as they
fall, will depend her decision as to who is responsible for the illness
of the patient. The guilty person will thereupon be hunted down by
relatives of the ill man or woman,[84] and a blood-feud will result,
for illness or suffering caused by the living can be cured only by the
death of the one responsible.
Should the priestess decide, however, that it is the _Ottofu_ of a
ghost which has caused the trouble, then only “prayer and fasting” can
avail--or can be tried, the prayer taking the form of chanting, which
often becomes wild and hysterical, the priestess sometimes rising
to her feet and dancing as she chants. Apparently the point of the
chanting is to invoke the ghosts of the ill man’s ancestors, and to
beseech these to overcome the ghost of his enemy. If, by chance, the
patient survives the sucking and chanting, and recovers, his recovery
is of course attributed to the intercession of the priestess.
Among many of the sub-tribes--or tribal groups--of the Taiyal,
especially those living in the eastern part of the Taiyal territory,
the officiating priestess, in cases of serious illness, attempts to
learn the decision of the ghost-ancestors, as to whether they will
restore the patient to health, or whether they consider it time for
him to join themselves. This she does by grasping tightly between her
knees a bamboo tube which projects in front; on this tube she balances
a stone with a hole pierced through it--an object which is considered
sacred. Above this sacred object she waves her hands. If the stone
remains balanced on the bamboo, it is thought the patient will recover.
If it drops to the ground, it is believed that the ancestors have
determined to call the ill man to themselves.
In any case, if death is seen to be inevitable, relatives and friends
of the dying man gather about his bedside and “wail his spirit across
the bridge.”[85]
The Dutch writers of the seventeenth century state that among certain
of the aborigines of Formosa (which tribe is not specified) it was
the custom to take the very ill man out of his hut, bind a rope of
vegetable fibre or twisted vines about his body, and by means of this
rope suspend him to the bent-down spring-branch of a tree, then release
the branch, which release would have the effect of throwing the dying
man violently to the ground, thus “breaking his neck and all his
limbs.” The aborigines told the Dutch that they did this in order to
shorten the suffering of the dying. But the Dutch missionary Fathers,
who claimed to have witnessed this peculiar act of barbarity, seemed
to think the real motive which actuated those responsible was to save
themselves the trouble of tending the ill and dying.
To whatever extent this custom may have prevailed in the days of the
Dutch occupation of the island, it is, I think, no longer observed,
either among the Taiyal nation of the North or among any of the various
tribes of the South. Whether or not the giving up of this practice
among those tribes where it formerly existed was due to the influence
of the Dutch missionaries, I do not know. If so, it seems never to have
been resumed. Among the tribes of both the North and the South, at the
present time, the ill and dying are tended by priestesses and wailed
over by members of the family--and, if a person of prominence, by other
members of the village or community as well--until the breath has left
the body.
After death there is a difference among the tribes as to the
disposition of the body. With the Taiyal--also the Saisett, the smaller
tribe of the North which seems to have borrowed Taiyal customs--the
dead man or woman is simply left in the house which was his, or her,
abode during life. In the case of a man, the weapons which he used
during life, also pipe and tobacco, are left with the body; in the case
of a woman, agricultural implements--hoe or digging-stick--and tobacco
are left. The loom which she used, for some reason, is not left. This
distinction--between agricultural implements and loom--apparently is
made because the former is regarded as belonging exclusively to the
individual woman, while the latter is used communally by a number of
women of the village. At least such is the explanation given; but one
cannot help wondering to what extent considerations of a practical
nature enter into the distinction made, since a digging-stick or hoe,
such as is used by Taiyal women, can be made in much less than a day,
while it requires many days of labour to make a loom.
With the bodies of both men and women a little food and wine are
left--a share in the funeral feast, which is partaken of by every
adult member of the village, including the nearest relations of the
deceased, whose appetites do not seem to be affected by their loss.
In all the “dead-houses” that I have seen the roof has been broken
in. This I am told is done by the funeral party at the time that they
abandon the house; but whether by thus covering the corpse with the
broken-in roof--bamboo and grass--the intention is to save the body
from desecration by dogs or other animals, or whether it is to prevent
the spirit of the dead man from quitting the house in which his body
has been left, is an open question. Certainly the living seem to stand
much in dread of the _Ottofu_ of the recently deceased. This was
impressed upon me more than once when I attempted to go near one or
another of these abandoned houses of the dead. I was gently drawn back
and made to understand that I was running very grave danger.
As the Taiyal houses are built only of bamboo and of a sort of coarse
grass which grows in the mountains, the erection of a new house for the
family of the deceased is not a serious undertaking; more especially
as all the men of the village assist at the building of the new house,
which is always erected at a respectful distance from the one that has
been given over to the dead. The new house is often erected in a single
day.
It may be that the difference in the style of houses--consequently in
the amount of time and labour involved in their construction--accounts
for the difference in burial customs between the Taiyal, on the one
hand, and certain of the southern tribes, notably the Paiwan and a
portion of the Ami and Bunun, on the other. Those of the Ami who live
immediately on the coast, in the vicinity of Chinese villages, have
adopted the Chinese custom of inhumation of the dead outside the house;
but those who live inland from the coast follow what was evidently
their original custom, as it is still that of the Paiwan and the
eastern Bunun; namely, the burial of the dead, in a crouching position,
underneath the hearth-stone of the family home. Gruesome as the custom
may seem to Western minds--and unhygienic--it is accepted as a matter
of course by the tribes among whom it exists, and the idea of its
exciting horror in the mind of anyone else seems to them incredible and
absurd. The houses of the people who practise this peculiar form of
inhumation are substantially built of slate (the mode of construction
to be described in greater detail under a subsequent heading); one or
more slabs of slate being used as a hearth, on which a fire is kept
always burning--or, during the dry season, smouldering.
When the death occurs of any member of the family, the body is bound
with strands of coarse grass in a stooping, or crouching, posture. Then
after the usual funeral ceremonies, both of wailing and of feasting,
are concluded, the ashes are scraped from the hearth--care being
taken, however, that the coals are kept “alive,” for should these be
extinguished, or grow cold, it would be considered an omen of evil, and
would also “displease the _Ottofu_” of the dead--and the hearth-stones
are removed. A deep hole is dug in the place from which the stones have
been moved. This is usually lined with grass before the body is lowered
into it. The personal belongings of the deceased are also placed in the
grave, which is then filled in, the hearth-stone replaced, and the fire
rekindled. Then the life of the surviving members of the household goes
on as before.
After several members of the household have died, naturally the
space occupied by the graves extends beyond that covered by the
hearth-stones, but always the graves are grouped as closely as possible
beneath the hearth. Whether originally this was done that the heat of
the fire might the more quickly decompose the bodies I do not know.
At the present time the only reason given for this custom is the
stereotyped one, “Thus have our fathers always done”--an answer which
makes one wonder, in connection with many customs, at what point in
evolution man ceased to be satisfied with this reason for doing, or
leaving undone, the things which make up the routine of his life.
The funeral customs of the western Bunun--or of certain communities
among them--are reminiscent of the customs, described by the Dutch
Fathers, as having been in vogue among the aborigines in their day.
Among these people--the western Bunun--the dead receive both a “green”
and a “dry” funeral. After death the body is slowly dried for nine
days before a fire in the house in which the deceased died, funeral
festivities being continued by the living during this time. This
process is said partially to mummify, or desiccate, the body (I have
not myself been present at such a funeral). At the end of the ninth
day, the body is wrapped in cloths and placed on a platform in the
open, similar to that on which the dead of the American Indians of the
western plains are placed. This platform is also draped about with
native cloth. At the end of three years, the bones are removed from the
platform and buried beneath the house which the man had occupied during
his lifetime. This second, or “dry,” funeral is, like the first, or
“green” one, made an occasion for drinking and feasting--an essential
part of every ceremony, whether of rejoicing or of sorrow. After the
“dry” funeral, the widow, or widower, of the deceased is considered
free to contract another alliance, should he, or she, feel so inclined.
To remarry before the “dry” funeral, three years after the death of
the deceased, would be contrary to tribal custom; therefore one of the
things that is never done.
Among none of the tribes of the Formosans did I see any evidence of the
wearing of the bones of the deceased as an indication of mourning--as
is the case in certain parts of Indonesia. Nor is there anything
approaching “suttee,” or the sacrifice, in any form, of the widow at
the death of her husband. This, however, would scarcely be expected in
a country where women “hold the upper hand,” as is apparently the case
in Formosa.
[Illustration: AUTHOR WITH TWO TAIYAL GIRLS IN FRONT OF TAIYAL HOUSE.]
[Illustration: TAIYAL WARRIOR IN CEREMONIAL BLANKET.]
FOOTNOTES:
[84] I have never heard that a woman was supposed to be responsible for
illness. Just what would happen in such a case--if a living woman were
suspected--I do not know.
[85] The bridge referred to on p. 147.