until the debt be paid. Transfers of the same piece of land may go on
indefinitely. The transfers are witnessed each time by the agent who
obtains the loan for the person in whose charge the field is. This
agent receives as his fee about five to twelve per cent of the value
of the loan obtained. He is the only witness necessary. His fee is
paid him in the first place by the creditor. But the fee is added to
the amount loaned, and must be returned by the debtor when the debt
is paid. As soon as the agent has received his fee, it is his duty
to inform his oldest son, in case he be of sufficient age, otherwise
his wife or a brother, of the terms of the transaction. This is a
precautionary measure against his death and the consequent leaving
of the transaction without a witness.
Each creditor is liable to his debtor for the return of the field
upon the payment of the sum due, the case being precisely parallel
to the liability of the indorsers of a check or a note, one to another.
Suppose, however, that the field be planted in rice. In such an event,
the owner must leave the creditor in possession of the field until the
crop shall have been harvested. In case the field be newly planted,
it is sometimes returned to the owner on the agreement that he care
for the growing crop, harvest it, and give the creditor half. If the
field be spaded, but not planted, the owner may pay his creditor for
the cost of the labor expended in spading the field, together with
a bonus as interest.
The amount loaned on a field never equals the value of the
field. Usually it is about half the value. It makes no difference how
long a field remain in the status known as balal, the field, subject
to the conditions of the preceding paragraph, must be returned to the
owner or his heirs whenever the amount loaned be returned. Sometimes
a field remains a balal for two or three generations.
47. Sales of family property.--The Ifugao has a very peculiar system
of buying and selling in connection with family property, by which,
paradoxical as it may sound, a man has to pay for an article almost
twice its price. In order to complete the purchase of a rice field,
there are "extras" almost without number, to be paid, each extra
bearing as its metaphorical name, the name of some act of rice-field
cultivation or of a feature of the trade itself. So far as has yet
been ascertained, there is no myth or story to explain how this
peculiar idiosyncracy originated.
The price is divided into ten parts, each part being represented by
a runo stick or a notch cut in a stick, or by knots in a string. In
the Banaue district, these sticks are kept for generations as records
of the sale. The first two sticks are called budut, and represent
the payment down. They are the heaviest payments, not necessarily
made on the day of the transfer, but at a set time. The eight others
represent some standard in the Ifugao's system of barter, and are
called gatang, or price. They are paid at some indefinite time in the
future. Possession of the field is given after the first payment. In
order to make the sticks conform to the standards of barter, it is
sometimes necessary to represent one payment by two sticks.
Fee of witnesses and agent. This fee is called lukbu, or lagbu (in
Benaue dialect). The principal witnesses are preferably the distant kin
of the seller, and the agent or agents who effected the sale. The names
of the different sticks, knots, or notches are translated literally
in the tables diagraming the transactions in purchasing fields.
These fees are paid and the presents made to the kin of the seller at
a feast called ibuy. This feast is performed whenever the purchase
price of the field has been paid. The kin of buyer and seller meet
in the purchaser's house.
A. Transactions in the Purchase of a Field in the Kiangan Area
I. Payments on the property
Paid down at time purchase is consummated, or soon after:
Name of transaction and Article Value
meaning transferred
Budut, or tandong 1 pig P20.00
Budut, or tandong 1 pig 15.00
Additional instalments (gatang) paid irregularly:
Gatang 1 death blanket 8.00
Nunokóp (two at a time) 1 death blanket 8.00
Nunokóp (two at a time) 1 pig 20.00
Gatang 1 pig 8.00
Gatang 1 pig 8.00
======
Total P87.00
II. Fees (lukbu) of the principal witnesses
Name of transaction and Article Value
meaning transferred
Bobod (the tying) 1 pig P10.00
Page (rice) 1 small pig 6.00
Lanad (commission of the
go-between) 5.00
Pugug (finished) 4.00
Gogod (cut) 3.00
Kinta (left over) 1.00
======
Total P29.00
III. Advance interest paid to the seller
Baloblad P6.50
(If the seller is a kinsman, he may not take this amount. If taken,
the seller and the purchaser may not eat together for five days, since
they are on a basis of "theoretical enmity." This "theoretical enmity"
exists in several other instances in Ifugao life. See section 15 and
appendix 2.)
IV. Gifts to the seller's kin
Piduan di gogod (repetition
of the cut) Natauwin P1.00
Piduan di kinta (repetition
of the surplus) [14] Natauwin 1.00
Hablal (flooding of field) Na-oha .25
Hagaphap (chopping of grass
from terrace wall) Na-oha .25
Ohok (sticks for beans to
climb up) Na-oha .25
Umuhun (burning off grass) Na-oha .25
Aiyag (dinner call) Na-oha .25
Banting (flint and steel) Na-oha .25
Pakimáan (chewing betels
together) Na-oha .25
Alauwin (woman's rice-field
jug) Na-oha .25
Kalakal (edible water beetle
living in rice-field) Na-oha .25
Tobong (spit on which kalakal
are strung) Na-oha .25
Inipit di otak (holding bolo
between toes to cut meat with) Na-oha .25
Banga (cooking pot) Na-oha .25
Hukup (lid for the same) Na-oha .25
Duyu (dish) Na-oha .25
Tayap di gatang (wings of
the sale) Natauwin 1.00
Tayap di mongatang (wings of
the seller) Natauwin 1.00
Kindut (carried under the arm) Natauwin 1.00
Inhida (eaten chicken) Natauwin 1.00
=====
Total P9.50
=======
Grand total P132.00
B. Transactions in the Purchase of a Field in Benaue
I. Payments on the property
Budut nabungol (the jeweled budut) P60.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
=======
Total (value of field, 15 pigs) P150.00
II. Additional payments made to the seller, his kindred, and
the witnesses after payments of purchase price but before the
ibuy feast
Tayap di gatang (wings of the sale) P30.00
Bobod (tie) 20.00
Binangwa de bobod (half of the tie) 10.00
Pinohat (carried under the arm) 8.00
Dotag (meat) 5.00
Gogod (cut) 2.00
======
Total P75.00
III. Payments at ibuy ceremony
To the witnesses:
1 death blanket P8.00
1 death blanket 8.00
Inagagong (kind of blanket) 5.00
For distribution to seller's kin:
10 chickens, Nunpatngan (?) 8.00
Alaag (cooking pot of Chinese origin) 2.00
Gogod, 1 bolo (the cutting off) 1.00
Puguy (finish) 2.50
Linuta (cooked) 2.50
======
Total P37.00
=======
Grand total P262.00
One of the fine points in buying consists of an insidious hospitality
on the part of the purchaser, which gets the seller and his kin drunk
so that they forget some of their perquisites. At the psychological
moment, that is, when a few, but not all, of the presents or lukbu
have been made the seller and his kin, and when the latter are at
the proper stage of drunkenness, one of the purchaser's kinsmen says:
"Let us proceed with the praying." If he is successful in getting the
religious part of the ceremonies started, and can keep the minds of
the seller and his kin from the unpaid gifts or fees until they eat,
then the fees never have to be paid. For when they have started eating,
everything is over. They may demand the unpaid fees only if they want
to make themselves laughing stocks in the eyes of their fellows. For
according to Ifugao law, when the seller and the purchaser eat
together at the ibuy feast, the transfer of ownership is complete,
and irrevocable.
Although possession of the property is given before the purchase price
is paid, ownership of it is not, however, complete until after the
performance of the ibuy. If one were to buy a field without performing
the ibuy ceremony, the presumption would be held that the field had
passed into his hands as a balal. It has been noted already that
but one or two of the unit payments are made at the time possession
is given, and that no particular time is set for making the rest of
the various partial payments. At any time before the ibuy ceremonial
which forever transfers the field, the seller may demand a payment or
all the payments, except the fees to the witnesses and his kin. He
may do this as a matter of malice, or he may do it as a matter of
necessity. He sends a monkalun, or go-between, to demand payment. The
go-between and the buyer arrange a reasonable time--usually not
less than ten days--within which the payment is to be raised. If it
be not then forthcoming, the field may revert to the former owner,
should the latter so desire, and be sold by him. He must, however,
return immediately the entire amount of the partial payments made to
date by the first purchaser.
In case of such a transfer of a field as that described in the
preceding paragraph, the same rules apply to the ownership of standing
crops as apply in transfers of possession arising from the balal.
But should the seller of a field, after having sold it to a second
person, and after having received a part of the purchase price of the
field from him, without consultation or notification, and without
giving this second person a chance to make the final payments on
the field, sell it to another, he must repay to the first purchaser
double the amount of the partial payments made by the first purchaser
to the date of the sale.
Personal property is transferred without formality.
48. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands.--In
both Ifugao and Kalinga, if a rice field after passing into the
hands of a purchaser, is subject to an unusual number of slides in
the terrace wall, or is wholly, or in part washed away by a freshet,
the purchaser may, at any time within the year following the purchase,
relinquish the field and demand the return of his purchase price. This
is on the ground that the seller may have put a curse on the field
when it left his hands, or that, at least, he did not relinquish his
hold on its welfare and fertility.
In Kalinga, if a water buffalo, horse, or ox, die within the year
following its sale, the purchaser may demand the return of the
purchase price.
TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY ARISING FROM FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
49. Methods of transfer.--Property is transferred within a family by
two methods: by assignment and transferal during the life of the owner;
and by inheritance.
50. Assignment and transfer of property during the lifetime of
the owner.--At some undefined time all the family property that
one possesses is assigned to his children. By "assigned," I mean
"provisionally allotted," subject to any legitimate charge or
obligation against it. A family property is always subject to sale
or pawn for the purpose of providing funeral feasts, sacrifices in
time of sickness or other grave necessity, payments of fines, and
indemnities, made on behalf of lineal ascendants and descendants
and near collateral kin. The property is usually assigned when the
children are quite small.
Property is transferred (that is to say, possession is given) to
the children when they marry and separate from the household of
the parents. By the time the youngest child has so separated, or
even before, the parents have become a charge on their children. It
is only sometimes, in the case of the very rich, that a portion of
the property is reserved. Childless widowed aunts or uncles usually
transfer their property to those who would otherwise inherit it,
and so become a charge upon those persons.
51. Inheritance.--It is only in case of the death of the parents
when the children are very small, or of the death of a more distant
relative from whom it is inherited, that the Ifugao receives property
by inheritance.
52. The passing of property between relatives because of
relationship.--The same laws govern both the assignment and transfer
of property while the possessor is yet living, and the inheritance
of property. Of all Ifugao laws, they are the most definite and the
most invariably followed.
53. The law of primogeniture.--By this law, the elder children inherit
a greater portion of the property than the younger ones, the proportion
being governed by the ordinal rank of the children as to birth. If
there be but one rice field, the eldest takes it. Because of his
greater wealth, the eldest is frequently the family leader, counselor,
and advocate. He has no actual authority over his brothers and sisters,
however--indeed no person in Ifugao society has authority over another.
54. The passing of property to legitimate sons and daughters by
assignment or inheritance.
(a) No distinction is made because of sex.
(b) The greatest proportion of an estate goes to the eldest child.
(c) If the number of children be greater than the number of rice
fields, the elder children take the fields. If there be but one field,
the eldest takes it.
(d) If all the children inherit rice fields, the heirlooms and personal
property are divided in accordance with the laws of primogeniture
that apply to real estate.
(e) If there be children that inherit no rice fields, a slight
compensation is made them by giving them a larger share of the
heirlooms and personal property than would fall to their lot
otherwise. This compensation by no means equals the value of the real
estate they would inherit under our laws.
(f) In the event of the death of either spouse before the property of
the spouses has been allotted to the children, the living spouse allots
the property to the children at the proper time. In this allotment,
the brothers of the dead spouse are usually called in consultation. The
living spouse may not deviate from custom in allotting the property
of the deceased. All the property of both the spouses must be allotted
at this time. None may be held back.
55. The passing of property to other relatives.--In the apportionment
or inheritance of property in which blood relatives other than sons
and daughters benefit, two general principles hold:
(a) Property received from the father goes to the father's family;
property received from the mother goes to the mother's family. The
families of the two parents coalesce in, and are identical in, their
children and their childrens' descendants.
(b) So near as may be, those persons inherit who would have inherited
the property had the deceased never lived. It is only in the case of
the childless that others than sons and daughters have rights in the
property left.
If the deceased were unmarried, his property goes to his relatives
in the following order:
(1) To his brothers and sisters, if living. To the brothers and sisters
descended from one parent, passes that portion of the property received
from that parent; to the brothers and sisters descended from the
other parent, that portion of the property received from that parent.
(2) To the nephews and nieces, the offspring of the brothers and
sisters, or to their descendants.
(3) To the cousins in order, first of degree, and second of
primogeniture.
If the deceased were married, in the the inheritance of his property
there are the following rules:
(1) The living spouse inherits the sole right in, and possession of,
half the property jointly acquired by the spouses subsequent to their
marriage. It is not, properly speaking, the property that is inherited:
it is the sole right in what was a joint possession before.
(2) That half of the property jointly acquired by the spouses which is
the share of the deceased, goes to his heirs, being divided (if his
heirs be not his brothers and sisters or their descendants) equally
between the heirs on the father's side, and those on the mother's side.
(3) The property that the deceased brought to the marriage and
that which he acquired subsequently owing to and by virtue of his
relationship to his family, goes to the deceased's family.
Personal property acquired by the deceased and his spouse is not,
however, taken from the surviving spouse. The above applies only to
family property.
56. Property rights of bastards.--Bastards usually inherit
approximately half the property of a father who dies without legitimate
children, the other half going to those who would be the sole heirs
had the father died childless. But if there be only one field, the
bastard takes it.
Should a parent have only one legitimate child, the bastard inherits
usually as if he were a younger legitimate child.
A bastard is entitled to a rice field from his father if the father
has a rice field that is unassigned to a legitimate child. He is not
entitled to any special value of fields, and as a rule, receives less
than his legitimate brothers and sisters if there be such.
The above paragraphs apply equally to the bastard's right in the
property of his mother. He has, however, no kin to enforce his rights
against his mother. Since he is of illegitimate birth, the kin of
the father are not in a position to enforce his rights against her;
while his mother's kin would not take issue in any matter for him
against their nearer kin, his mother. If the mother marries after the
birth of the bastard, she usually makes a settlement on her bastard
child before marrying. Not infrequently he who marries a woman having
a bastard child recognizes that child as his own, and even assigns
him a portion of his property. The following are examples:
Dulnuan and Ngahiu of Tupplak carried on a courtship, after the
Ifugao fashion, in the agamang (dormitory). Ngahiu became pregnant;
but Dulnuan refused to marry her. However, and notwithstanding
the fact that he knew her to be pregnant, a third party, Baliu,
married Ngahiu. From what motive he did this does not appear:
it was probable that he gained financially, since Ngahiu was
wealthier than he; and being pregnant as she was, she was in no
position to stipulate too closely as to the property of the one
who might become her husband. The bastard child, notwithstanding
the fact that there were legitimate half brothers and sisters, was
given fields by (a) his mother; (b) his natural father, Dulnuan;
(c) Baliu, who recognized him as his son.
R, a Christianized Ifugao woman, and a wife who had borne
five legitimate children to B, her husband, was indiscreet in
her relations with a Spaniard. She bore a mestizo child. B,
her husband, did not proceed against his wife and her paramour
according to Ifugao law and recognized the child as his own. The
legitimate children except one having died, the bastard child
inherited from his mother and his mother's husband as if he had
been of legitimate birth.
There is a Malay proverb which is used to describe the attitude of
the husband in such cases as the above: "Although I did not plant
the tree, yet it grew in my garden."
The amount of property that parents settle on a bastard is to a great
extent a matter of caprice. His rights to any property whatever,
except a single field from his father, are decidedly weaker than those
of children of legitimate birth, added to which he has not the right
in any case to so great a portion of property.
57. Transfers of property to adopted children.--Customs relating to
these transfers are as follows:
(a) An adopted child related to only one of the spouses may inherit
from that spouse only.
(b) If the adopted child be a niece or nephew, he inherits or has
assigned him all the property of the related parent; provided that
there be no brothers or sisters of the related parent except the
adopted child's own blood parents. If there be other brothers and
sisters, and if these brothers and sisters agree to help stand the
funeral expenses of the adopting brother or sister, a small part
of the property is given them. But the adopted child inherits the
greater part of the property.
(c) If the adopted child be the son or daughter of a cousin, there is
assigned him, or he inherits all the property that his parents would
inherit in case of the death of the related parent, and a portion in
addition. Should the parents not be in the position of being likely
to become heirs to the related adopting parent, the adopted child
inherits, or has assigned him, only a minor portion of the estate. If
there be no brothers and sisters of the parent by adoption, he may
have assigned him the greater portion of the estate, however.
(d) If the adopted child be not related by blood to either of the
parents by adoption, he inherits, or has assigned him, a small portion
of the estate of both adopting parents. The kin of these parents take
the lion's share of the estate.
(e) If the adopted child marry a kinsman of the unrelated adopting
parent, the unrelated parent usually settles on the spouse of the
adopted child, an amount of property about equal to that settled on
the adopted child by his kinsman, his other adopting parent, subject,
however, to the four rules above.
(f) It is optional with the blood parents of an adopted child to
settle no property on him, in case the parents by adoption provide
for him in this respect.
The above settlements are customary. They can hardly be said to be
rights, however. Often when a child is adopted, his blood parents
stipulate with those who adopt as to the property settlement that
will be made on the child.
58. Servants and slaves as inheritors.--Retainers have no rights
whatever as to the property of their masters. Frequently, however,
a small field is settled on them.
59. Wills and testaments.--There are no wills or testaments among the
Ifugaos. If a man desires to make a settlement of his property that is
out of the ordinary, he must do it before he dies. Even then he would
have to get the family's consent to the unusual features. Ifugao
parents are singularly impartial in the allotment of the family
property to their children. That some children are not loved more than
others is unbelievable; but it is exceedingly rare that any child is
favored above another in property settlements, except by the law of
primogeniture. There is always a lot of talk in connection with the
assignment or inheritance of family property--in the matter of talk
the Ifugao is not different from other Malays. But it is not often
that permanent ill feeling is engendered in such settlements. The
laws of the descent of property are, as has been said, the clearest
and most concise of all Ifugao laws.
SETTLEMENT OF DEBTS OF THE AGED AND DECEASED
60. When the debtor has children.--At the same time that the wealth
of the family is apportioned to the children, account is taken of the
debts owed by the family. The debts may or may not be individually
apportioned among the children. If the eldest child inherits or
receives any property, the obligation of primogeniture holds as to
the debts; that is to say, he is responsible for the payment of a
greater proportion of them. Otherwise all the children are equally
responsible. There are many cases in which the debts that are handed
down by an Ifugao's parents greatly exceed the property handed down.
Children who receive no family property are not responsible for the
payment of the debts of the parents, provided there be a child or
children that do receive family property. The apportionment of the
debts of the deceased must be in proportion to the amount of property
received. If none receive family property, all are responsible for
payment.
61. When the debtor is childless but leaves a spouse.--A spouse is
responsible only for those debts incurred in behalf of the couple's
mutual interests: for example, debts incurred in obtaining animals
for sacrifice in case of sickness of the children of the couple,
or for sacrifice at the funeral feasts of the children, or for the
purchase of rice fields or other joint possessions of the spouses. A
spouse may not be held for debts incurred in the purchase of animals
for sacrifice at the funeral feast of a member of the other's family
(except for the pig and death blanket due from her family in such
cases), nor for debts incurred in paying fines or indemnities levied
as a result of the other's misdoing. A spouse may not even be held
for debts incurred in providing sacrifices to secure the recovery
of her husband from sickness (except for the pig due as stated under
section 13; however, this pig is really her own obligation).