subsequently he sent a man to buy carabaos in Nueva Vizcaya. The
man bought two, and returned on the homeward journey, traveling
through Palao. Bumidang took one of the carabaos away from
him there, and with his kin, killed it and ate it. Bahni with
his kin shortly afterward went to the house of Dulauwan of
Bangauwan, a neighboring village, and stole away with Dulauwan's
carabao. Dulauwan followed after them, hotfoot, and was given
as patang three pigs, and told to collect his carabao from
Bumidang. Dulauwan gathered together a great host of kinsmen
and neighbors, descended on Bumidang's house, and camped there
demanding three carabaos. To show that they meant to get them,
they helped themselves to rice needed for their daily food
from Bumidang's granary. Bumidang was unable to get together a
sufficient force to frighten away his guests, and accordingly he
paid the three carabaos.
Ginnid of Umbul presented a demand to Guade for the payment of a
long-outstanding debt. Guade denied that the debt was owed. Ginnid
seized Guade's field. Each party led a force of kinsmen to the
field. There they fought with spears and shields. The first man
wounded was Tului of Pingungan, a kinsman of Guade. He received
a slight wound. Guade's party then withdrew. Guade paid the debt,
and got his field back.
Gumangan of Ambabag when a youth, sent an advocate to ask for
the hand of the daughter of M of Umbul. He was accepted. But
he changed his mind about the girl, and went to Baininan, where
he engaged himself to a girl of that village without assuaging
the mental agony of his jilted fiancée by paying the hudhud
indemnity. M seized a carabao belonging to Gumangan. Gumangan
gathered together his kin and went to Umbul--only a quarter of
a mile distant--to prevent the slaughter of his animal. But M's
party was so much more powerful that Gumangan's kin ran away. M's
party then killed and ate the carabao.
Gumangan married in Baininan, and bearing in mind his former
humiliation, decided to do something that would restore his
prestige and at the same time assure him a sufficiently large
body of followers to make him strong to demand and to resist
demands. He consequently gave a great uyauwe feast at which the
unheard of number of six carabaos was slaughtered, to say nothing
of innumerable pigs. And later, he gave the hagabi feast--an even
more expensive operation.
Dumalilon of Tupplak borrowed a carabao of Gumangan. Five years
elapsed, yet he made no move to repay the debt, notwithstanding
repeated demands of Gumangan. Gumangan seized Dumalilon's field,
which had already been spaded, and threw his seed-bed away. Both
men led armed parties to the field, but this time Gumangan was
careful to have a sufficient number of backers on hand. Dumalilon's
party took to flight.
In Burnai, a fight occurred over the seizure of a rice field that
resulted in the killing of four men.
Kodamon of Pindungan and Katiling of Ambabag [25] had a dispute
over the boundary of a field. There were paghok to mark the
boundary, but Kodamon contended that all memory of the planting
of the paghok was absent, and that they were, consequently,
without significance in the matter of dispute. They wrestled,
and Kodamon lost a little ground, but Katiling tried to take
more than was due him according to the verdict of the wrestling
matches. Katiling sent men to spade the disputed territory,
and led an armed force out to support them. Kodamon led an armed
force to the field. At the same time and at a safe distance, the
mutual kin of the two parties and a goodly number of neighbors
gathered. Kodamon was armed with a Remington rifle whose trigger
was broken; Dulinayan, a kinsman of Katiling, with a revolver
for which he had no ammunition. The other members of each force
however were substantially, if less spectacularly, armed with
spears which they well knew how to use. Women rushed in between the
two parties, and catching the warriors by the waist tried to lead
them away. One can well believe that the air was riven by curses,
threats, accusations, upbraidings, imprecations, invocations. The
male neutral kin shouted from their safe distance that if Kodamon
killed Katiling, they would kill Kodamon (as a vengeance for the
death of their kinsman) while if Katiling killed Kodamon, they
would avenge their kinsman's death by killing Katiling. "What
kind of a way is this for co-villagers to settle a dispute,"
they shouted. "Go back home and beget some children, and marry
them to each other, giving them the two fields, and then it
will make no difference where the division line is!" There was
an exchange of spears in which Buaya, a kinsman of Kodamon's,
was wounded slightly. The matter was then left in abeyance with
the understanding that as soon as possible, the two families be
united by a marriage, and the two fields given the married couple.
It happened, however, that on account, of the sexes of the
unmarried children of the families, a union between them was
impossible. Accordingly, Kodamon gave his field to his son Dulnuan,
and Katiling traded his field to Pingkihan, his brother. Both of
these young men had pregnant wives. Pingkihan's wife gave birth
first, the child being a girl. Shortly afterward, Dulnuan's
wife gave birth. I met Dulnuan, and not knowing of the event,
and noticing that he seemed downcast, asked him why he was so
sad. "My wife has given birth to a girl baby," he said. The
quarrel over the boundary is as yet unsettled.
Kuyapi of Nagakaran, before the Spanish occupation, sent a
slave child to Guminigin of Baay, to be sold in Baliwan (Nueva
Vizcaya), stipulating that the child must bring at least five
carabaos. Guminigin sold the child for seven carabaos, delivering
five to Kuyapi, and kept two.
The Spaniards came. They were exceedingly partial to the people of
Kiangan district in which the village of Baay is located. They paid
little or no attention to complaints of people of other districts
against people of Kiangan district. Many debts owed by Kiangan
people were unpaid, for the Kianganites took advantage of the
protection given them by the Spaniards. And yet the Nagakaranites
and Kianganites were very closely united by marriage and by
blood. Indeed Kuyapi and Guminigin were second or third cousins.
Owing to the difficulty the Nagakaran people had in collecting
debts owed them by the Kianganites, they conceived for the latter
and for the Spaniards a most violent hatred, and began to make
reprisals. The Spaniards punished these reprisals by making an
expedition to Nagakaran in which they came off second best. [26]
They sent another and stronger expedition, which killed a number
of people and which burned all the houses in the district. To
this day the Nagakaran people have not been able to rebuild their
houses--the large trees having long since been cut from nearby
forests--and live in wretched shacks built on the ground. They
blame the Kiangan people, saying that the latter invited the
Spaniards into Ifugao.
Kuyapi claimed that the terms on which he sent the slave to
Guminigin were that Guminigin was to receive only one carabao
for having effected a sale, and that all the rest were to be
delivered to him, and that there was consequently a carabao still
due him. It seems likely that the claim was false, and that it
was advanced merely as an excuse for making a reprisal.
Pagadut, the son of Guminigin, to whom demand was presented for the
payment of the carabao claimed to be yet due, refused to pay this
debt. The Nagakaran people made an expedition into Kiangan district
(about two miles distant) and captured Ormaya, the daughter of
Pagadut, a very comely girl of sixteen or seventeen. In order
to make her walk, and in order that she should not continually
offer resistance, they took her skirt off so that she would have
to cover her shame with her hands and would also hurry to arrive
at the journey's end. [27] But the Baay people managed to cut
off Lubbut the son of Kuyapi, and imprison him. They took him
to a granary in Baay, intending to keep him as a hostage for the
return of Ormaya. But word was carried to the ears of the Spanish
commandante of this capture. He had Lubbut brought before him. He
struck Lubbut, tied although he was, twice in the face, and would
have continued, had not Alangwauwi the husband of Ormaya seized
and held his arm and beseeched him not to use Lubbut harshly. The
commandante promised not to take his life. But a soldier called
attention to the fact that a gun had been captured with Lubbut,
which gun, it was claimed, was that of a Spanish corporal whom
the Nagakaran people had killed. Alangwauwi and his companions
started back to their homes in Baay. But on the road, they saw,
across the valley, Lubbut with his back turned to a firing squad,
saw a puff of white smoke, and saw Lubbut fall into a rice
field. Alangwauwi says he burst into tears for he realized that
this meant serious trouble for him and his relatives, and placed
Ormaya's life in the greatest peril.
When the Nagakaranites heard of Lubbut's death, they at first
blamed the people of Baay for it. Inasmuch as it is against the
ethics of people of the Kiangan-Nagakaran-Maggok area to kill
women, or at least to kill any but Silipan women, they considered
walling Ormaya up in a sepulchre and leaving her to die for want
of food and drink. The women relatives of Lubbut wanted very
much to kill Ormaya, and pointed out that while it would not be
permissible for the men to kill her, there would be no disgrace
in their doing so. But Kuyapi would have none of it. He himself
guarded his prisoner two or three nights to see that her life
was not taken.
Soon a monkalun was sent to ascertain the true details of Lubbut's
death. His report exonerated the Baay people. The Nagakaran people
held Ormaya's ransom considerably higher, however, because of that
death. They received five carabaos, twenty pigs, two gold beads,
and a great number of spears and bolos, and death blankets. It
was five months before the Baay people could raise the amount of
this ransom. During this time, Ormaya was well treated--for was
she not a kinswoman?--but she was carefully guarded.
THE PAOWA OR TRUCE
139. The usual sense of the term "paowa".--The word paowa means
literally prohibition. As most commonly used, it denotes a period
of truce imposed by the monkalun in cases that cannot be peaceably
arranged. It is a period that gives both sides to a controversy a
chance to cool off. It avoids that rash and ill-considered action that
would be likely to follow the breaking off of diplomatic relations
between the two parties.
I say the paowa serves these purposes. However, it is imposed by the
monkalun in order to allow him to withdraw with dignity from the case,
and without loss of reputation. A lance throwing or a seizure made
while he is acting as monkalun or occurring soon after he has severed
his connection with the case is an insult to him. People say to him:
Dinalan-da tolban-mo, "they went over your head." Such an occurrence
is exceedingly hurtful to his reputation. People will not employ him
as monkalun for the reason that his cases do not end in peaceable
settlements. He thus loses many fat fees.
Assuming that the Ifugao's culture would some day, if left alone,
develop courts somewhat after the fashion of the courts of civilized
nations, have we not here the embryo of "contempt of court"?
The period usually set by the monkalun, as truce, is fourteen
days. During this time, should one of the parties to the controversy
commit any act hostile to the other, the monkalun must avenge
or punish it. At the conclusion of this period of truce, the two
parties may fight out the dispute to suit themselves, kidnapping,
seizing property, or hurling lances, without injuring the dignity of
the monkalun; or the aggressive party may employ another monkalun.
140. Another sense of the term "paowa".--Should a wife have committed
a crime against the marital relation, and should her husband be unable
for any reason to collect the gibu due him in the case, he may put
a prohibition on her marrying any other man until the gibu be paid.
TERMINATION OF CONTROVERSIES: PEACE-MAKING
141. The hidit or religious aspects of peace-making.--The word hidit
has three senses: It refers to a class of deities, the offspring
of one of the principal deities of war; it refers to sacrifices
to these deities; it refers to peace-making. Deities, sacrifice,
and peace may seem widely distinct, but a glance into the Ifugao's
religion will show the connection.
The hidit (deities) desire peace: but the peace must be made in
the proper manner, and accompanied by sacrifice to themselves. The
hidit have established the taboo that those who are involved in a
controversy or enmity must not chew betels with an adversary, nor be
in the same house or gathering or feast with him, nor drink with him,
nor receive gifts or hospitality from him. The penalty for breaking
this taboo is the affliction by the hidit with diseases of the lungs,
throat, voice; the condition known as "big belly," leukaemia, short
wind, swelling of the feet, dropsy, etc. This may be said to be the
punishment for making peace without ceremonies. But sometimes the
hidit punish the prolongation of a feud, enmity or controversy, by
afflicting one or both of the parties as set forth above. Those who
are involved in long enmities sacrifice continually to the hidit in
order to offstand such affliction.
The hidit or peace-making ceremony is performed in the following cases:
(a) At the termination of the funeral of a married person. It is
performed between the kin of the dead spouse and between those of
the living spouse.
(b) Between adversaries in case of adultery, rape of married woman,
sorcery, murder, manslaughter, malicious killing of animals, false
accusation, disputes over rice fields, theft (sometimes), or other
serious controversy, provided the controversy terminate peaceably.
(c) At the peaceful termination of all ordeals and trials.
(d) Between the kin of a dead spouse and the widow or widower on
occasion of remarriage of the latter.
(e) Between parties to a controversy ending in payment of the tokom
fine.
(f) At the termination of a feud, between the families involved in the
feud. A feud was rarely--my belief is that it was never--terminated
except by a marriage or on request of one of the members of the
family afflicted by the hidit deities. In the latter case, peace
might or might not be purchased. At any rate, the family suing for
peace furnished the animals for sacrifice.
In most parts--I believe all--of Ifugao, peace was never made between
districts or villages. Peace was always made between families; but
peace between the principal families of two villages or districts
was sometimes in effect a peace between the districts or villages
involved--I say sometimes because such a peace was uncertain and
undependable.
When peace was made between families of different districts, or between
families of the same district in cases of serious controversy, two
men were chosen, one by each party to the peace, and with appropriate
prayers and ceremonies, were given good spears. It was understood
always that these spears were for the purpose of killing the first
one of either party who reopened the feud, war, or controversy. After
this ceremony, other spears were broken and tied together as a symbol
of the breaking and tying up of all enmity; as a symbol, too, that
spears were no longer needed.
AN INTER-VILLAGE LAW
142. Neutrality.--When a war expedition or party passed through a
village en route against another village, the intermediate village
might signify its neutrality by casting a spear at the party. The
spear never struck a member of the party, of course, nor was its
casting taken as an unfriendly act. It was merely a declaration
of neutrality. Should a village fail to cast a spear in these
circumstances at such a party, the people of it would be held as
enemies and accomplices of the members of the war party.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: IFUGAO RECKONING OF RELATIONSHIP
All Ifugao words denoting relationships except the words for father
and mother are common in gender.
To any individual of any generation:
1. All his kin of his own generation are tulang (brothers, sisters).
2. All children of his kin of his own generation are anak (sons,
daughters).
3. All grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., of his kin of his
own generation are apo (grandsons, granddaughters).
4. All kin of the same generation as his father and mother are ama
or ina (father or mother).
5. All kin of the same generation as his grandparents,
great-grandparents, etc., are apo (grandparents).
6. All relatives by marriage who are the husbands and wives of the
kin of the same generation are aidu (brother-in-law, sister-in-law).
7. All relatives by marriage, the husbands and wives of the kin of
the generation of his father and mother, are amaon or inaon.
8. The father or mother of his wife are ama or ina (father or mother),
by courtesy.
9. The kin of the father or mother of his wife are tulang di ama
(or ina) 'n di inay-ak (kin of the father, or mother, of my wife).
In the Benaue district, the kin of one's father or mother, in addition
to being called father or mother, are also called ulitao (uncle or
aunt), and the husbands or wives of the ulitao are called ulitaon
(uncles-in-law, aunts-in-law). The son or daughter of a kinsman or a
kinswoman of the same generation in addition to being called son or
daughter of one's self is called amanaon.
APPENDIX 2: CONNECTION OF RELIGION WITH PROCEDURE
An Ifugao myth.--Partly because of its connection with the Ifugao
marriage ceremony, partly because it illustrates so well the use to
which the Ifugao puts his myths--rarely telling them for amusement,
but reciting them in religious ceremonies as a means to magic--and
partly because it is so characteristically Ifugao, I have decided
to append the following myth, despite the fact that it might more
properly appear in a work on religion.
Most of the Ifugao's myths have either been invented or if not
invented, changed, for the purpose of affording an analogy to
the solution of the difficulties or misfortunes that confront men
today. The Ifugaos have a myth telling of a great flood, whose only
survivors were a brother and sister--Balitok and Bugan. In chagrin
and shame because her brother has gotten her with child, Bugan
flees into the East Region to seek destruction from the terrors
there. They refuse to destroy her, but teach her how to take the
curse off marriages between kindred by the sacrifice of two pigs,
a male and female of the same litter. Notice how a flood myth--an
element in the mythology of nearly every people under the sun--has
been modified and made to serve a magic purpose.
The myth given below is a further and utterly inconsistent modification
of this flood myth. In the myth above, Balitok and Bugan are
represented as having a child and not wanting it--in the myth below,
they have no child but want one.
The ceremony of using a myth to serve a religious end consists of two
parts. The first is the recitation of the myth by the priest. This
is called bukad. In affords an analogy to the condition of sickness,
war, famine, harvest, union in marriage, or what not, in which the
performers of the ceremony find themselves, and the happy solution
of the problem. It is terminated by what I term the fiat. This is
an expression of the priest's will that the happy solution related
in the myth shall be existent in the present situation. It is not,
I think, the fact of the priest's will that is thought to bring about
the solution so much as the compelling and magic power of his spoken
word to that end.
Up to this stage, the ceremony is sympathetic magic. In the second
stage it becomes witchcraft, and is called tulud, "pushing." In it
the priest "pushes" the deities of the myth over the route from their
habitations in the Skyworld, the Underworld, the East Region, the West
Region, or wheresoever they may abide, step by step to the village
of the Ifugaos performing the ceremony. He may recite their passage
through as many as thirty or forty localities, and as the priest
drones: "They climb the steep at Nunbalabog; they descend at Baat,
they wade at Monkilkalney," etc., the compelling power of his spoken
word "pushes" the deities along. Finally the deities arrive and declare
through the priest that they will confer the benefits requested.
This myth is employed in all of the final ceremonies of marriage,
and in all ceremonies of married persons that have the obtaining of
children as their object. The translation is absolutely literal and
without embellishment.
How Balitok and Bugan obtained children.--And it is said that
Bugan and Balitok of Kiangan were childless. "What is the use [of
living]?" said Bugan. "Stay here, Balitok. I am going to go to the
East Country. I will see Ngilin, Umbumabakal, Dauwak, Pinyuhan,
Bolang, and the Gods of Animal Fertility of the East." She got
betels together and packed them. Bugan and Balitok ate. After
finishing, they chewed betels.
Bugan put her pack on her head and started. She came to Baladong
[Ligaue Gap]. She went on to Kituman. Went eastward to Ulu. Forded
at Agwatan. Encountered the Fire at Bayukan. He [the Fire] asked,
"Where are you going, Bugan?"
"I am going into the East Region," said Bugan, "because we are
childless, Balitok and I. I am going to find some one to devour
me, because we are very lonely." Fire laughed. "Do not feel so,
Bugan," he said, "keep going eastward until you come to Ngilin,
Umbumabakal, and the deities of the East Region."
Bugan put her pack on her head and continued to Balahiang. She came
to the lake [or ocean(?)] at Balahiang. She aroused the Crocodile.
"Who are you, human?" said the Crocodile.
"I am Bugan of Kiangan."
"And why is it," said the Crocodile, "although the Flood of the
East Region and the Flood of the West Region came upon me and
fear to arouse me, that you, Bugan, a [mere] human, [presume to]
molest me?"
"Yes," said Bugan, "that was my intention; for I am searching
for someone to devour me."
"Why?" said the Crocodile.
"Yes, for I have become very lonely; for Balitok and I have
no children."
The Crocodile chuckled. "Oh, I will not devour you, Bugan,"
he said. "I would shame to devour one so beautiful. Continue on
eastward, and arrive at the dwelling of the Shark. Wake him up,
in order that he shall be the one to devour you."
Bugan thought well of it. She put her pack on her head. She went
on eastward and came to the waters where dwells the Shark. It
was fear-inspiring, and caused her to exclaim "Inay!" She was
terrified, but she conquered her fear. She reached for betels,
and threw them between her teeth. She crushed them. They became
like blood. Bugan spat into the waters. She beheld a great wave
circle. The Shark came into sight. He grunted.
"Who are you, human?" he said.
"I am Bugan, the wife of Balitok at Kiangan," she said.
"And why is it that you arouse me, human? And there come the
Strong Wind of the East and the Strong Wind of the West, and they
arouse me not; for I am ferocious here in the East Region. Yet you,
Bugan, the wife of Balitok at Kiangan, you arouse me?"
"Yes, that is what I purpose," said Bugan, "for I am looking for
someone to devour me."
The Shark chuckled. "Why?" he said.
"Yes, for I want to be devoured because Balitok and I have no
children."
"I would shame to do so, for you are a beautiful woman. Come into
my house in the Waters in order that we may eat."
Bugan entered. They ate.
"Continue," said the Shark, "into the East Region. Go unto the
dwellings of Umbumabakal and the Gods of Animal Fertility."
Bugan rose to the surface of the waters, and on the beach again
put her pack on her head. She continued the journey. She came to
Lumbut, to the house of Umbumabakal. The house was covered with
enormous ferns. It terrified her. She threw betels between her
teeth, and put down her fear. She passed through the gate of the
enclosure about the house, and sat down on the rice mortar. In
the evening of the day Umbumabakal came down. He was looking for
something to eat. He passed through the gate. Bugan hid herself
in a large wooden bucket. Umbumabakal kept sniffing the air.
"Why is it that there is something human here now," he said,
"yet nothing of the kind has ever happened before?"
He sought for Bugan. He found her in the bucket.
"Why, human, are you here?" he said.
"I am Bugan, the wife of Balitok."
"Why do you come here, Bugan, wife of Balitok?" he said.
"Because I want to be devoured."
"Why?"
"Yes, for we are childless at Kiangan."
"Umbumabakal laughed. "Well," said he, "tomorrow we will go to
the dwelling of Ngilin and the other Gods of Animal Fertility."