Lawit is a ceremony celebrated by the Benguet Kankanay to cause the
return of the soul of a living person which has wandered away. One
of the Kibungan mambunong said:
Mo iitauum ay wadaka's adaway sin buuina, ifugau, sia amona aydin
ababiikna tinaymana.
If a person dreams that he is far away from his house, he knows
that his soul has left him.
The mambunong takes a plate of rice from which tapuy has been fermented
and holds it in one hand, while holding a chicken in the other. He
turns his face toward the sky and says the following:
Sika ababiikna ----, omalika, mo sinoi inmoyan, sinan buuitaka,
tan inayan nanbuui di kakading. Mo ituum isa matika, ut ungay
adika mangan sinan ilagbuam.
You, the soul of ----, come back if you have wandered away from
our home, because it is dreadful to live in the home of the souls
of the dead. If you stay there you will die, and you will not
eat what you have earned.
The lawit is celebrated in Kibungan, Kapangan, Bacun, and Ampusungan;
but I do not know whether or not it is celebrated in any other Kankanay
towns. It corresponds to the Nabaloi tawal and to the Bontoc ofat.