These people occupy the subprovinces of Benguet, Lepanto, and Amburayan
in the Mountain Province. The region of their purest culture is in
northern Benguet and eastern Lepanto. Of the religion of this region,
we have considerable information from the writings of Fr. Angel Perez,
an Augustinian missionary; Sr. Sinforoso Bondad of Cervantes, Lepanto;
and a number of personal observations made by myself.
The sun gods, and the deities of the sky world in general, occupy the
most important place in the Igorot religion. Place-spirits and animal
deities are likewise highly developed. At a place called Kágubátan,
[22] at the foot of the sacred mountain Múgao in eastern Lepanto,
is a small lake full of sacred eels which the people guard with great
care. They believe that if these eels were killed the springs would all
dry up and they would have no water for their terraced rice fields. The
eels are fed every day with rice and sweet potatoes by the children
of the village, who, as they approach the lakelet, sing a peculiarly
sweet and mournful song, upon hearing which the eels all rise to the
surface of the water and approach the shore to receive their food.
The Igorots have both priests and priestesses, and they perform
many public and private ceremonies, both for the benefit of the
great deities and for the countless minor spirits which inhabit the
sacred mountains, cliffs, groves, trees, and bushes that are scattered
throughout the Igorot country. Sacrifices of pigs or chickens are made
at every ceremony. The ceremonies of the common people are more or
less of a private nature, but those of the aristocracy and of wealthy
men are nearly always public and general. The greatest ceremonies are
those connected with war and marriage and the great public festival
which proves a man's right to the title of nobility.
The Igorots have a high code of morals which is closely associated
with their religious belief. They also have a scientific calendar
and a considerable knowledge of astronomy which has effected many
modifications in their religion. Their mythology is extensive, and
they have a rich unwritten literature of epic poems, hero-stories,
and historical legends. Most of the myths are too long to be given
here, but for purposes of comparison I give the following short one
which was collected by the Dominican, Fr. Mariano Rodriguez:
It has been mentioned above that among their tales and stories
they preserve a tradition relating to their origin and beginning,
after a great and dreadful flood which, a very long time ago, as
their old people relate, covered the earth. All the inhabitants
except a brother and sister were drowned. The brother and sister,
though separated from each other, were saved, the woman on the
summit of the highest mountain in the District of Lepanto, called
Kalauítan, and the man in a cave of the same mountain. After the
water had subsided, the man of the cave came out from his hiding
place one clear and calm moonlight night, and as he glanced around
that immense solitude, his eyes were struck by the brightness of a
big bonfire burning there on the summit of the mountain. Surprised
and terrified, he did not venture to go up on the summit where the
fire was, but returned to his cave. At the dawn of day he quickly
climbed toward the place where he had seen the brightness the
preceding night, and there he found huddled up on the highest peak
his sister, who received him with open arms. They say that from
this brother and sister so providentially saved, all the Igorots
that are scattered through the mountains originated. They are
absolutely ignorant of the names of those privileged beings, but
the memory of them lives freshly among the Igorots, and in their
feasts, or whenever they celebrate their marriages, the aged people
repeat to the younger ones this wonderful history, so that they
can tell it to their sons, and in that way pass from generation
to generation the memory of their first progenitors. [23]
This myth of the great flood, and of the brother and sister who
survived it, is common throughout northern Luzon. It is most highly
developed by the Ifugaos, as we shall later see.