A Study in Tinguian Folk-Lore Part 9

[42] According to a Jakun legend, the first children were produced out of the calves of their mothers' legs. Skeat and Bladgen, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, Vol. II, p. 185.--A creation tale from Mangaia relates that the boy Rongo came from a boil on his mother's arm when it was pressed. Gill, Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, p. 10 (London, 1876).

[43] This power of transforming themselves into animals and the like is a common possession among the heroes of Dayak and Malay tales. See Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, Vol. I, p. 312; Perham, Journal Straits Branch R., Asiatic Society, No. 16, 1886; Wilkinson, Malay Beliefs, pp. 32, 59 (London, 1906).

[44] The present day Tinguian attach much importance to these omens. The gall and liver of the slaughtered animal are carefully examined. If the fluid in the gall sack is exceedingly bitter, the inquirer is certain to be successful; if it is mild he had best defer his project. Certain lines and spots found on the liver foretell disaster, while a normal organ a.s.sures success. See also Hose and McDougall, Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Vol. II, p. 60 ff.

[45] See p. 21, note 1.

[46] The present capital of Ilocos Sur.

[47] See p. 7, note 1.

[48] Barrows, Census of the Philippine Islands, Vol. I, pp. 456 ff., 1903.

[49] Paul P. de La Gironiere, who visited the Tinguian in the early part of the nineteenth century, describes these ornaments as follows: "Their heads were ornamented with pearls, coral beads, and pieces of gold twisted among their hair; the upper parts of the hands were painted blue; wrists adorned with interwoven bracelets, spangled with gla.s.s beads; these bracelets reached the elbow and formed a kind of half-plaited sleeve. La Gironiere, Twenty Years in the Philippines, pp. 108 ff.

[50] See Cole and Laufer, Chinese Pottery in the Philippines (Pub. Field Museum of Natural History, Vol. XII, No. 1).

[51] This is entirely in agreement with Chinese records. The Islands always appeared to the Chinese as an Eldorado desirable for its gold and pearls.

[52] See p. 17, note 2.

[53] See p. 7, note 4.

[54] A bamboo pole, about ten feet long, one end of which is slit into several strips; these are forced apart and are interwoven with other strips, thus forming a sort of basket.

[55] See Cole, Distribution of the Non-Christian Tribes of Northwestern Luzon (American Anthropologist, Vol. II, No. 3, 1909, pp. 340, 341).

[56] See p. 9.

[57] See p. 10, note 3.

[58] Among the Ifugao, the lowest of the four layers or strata which overhang the earth is known as Kabuniyan. See Beyer, Philippine Journal of Science, Vol. VIII, 1913, No. 2, p. 98.

[59] See p. 8.

[60] An Ifugao myth gives sanction to the marriage of brother and sister under certain circ.u.mstances, although it is prohibited in every day life. Beyer, Philippine Journal of Science, Vol. VIII, 1913, No. 2, pp. 100 ff.

[61] As opposed to the spirit mate of Aponitolau.

[62] According to Ling Roth, the Malanaus of Borneo bury small boats near the graves of the deceased, for the use of the departed spirits. It was formerly the custom to put jars, weapons, clothes, food, and in some cases a female slave aboard a raft, and send it out to sea on the ebb tide "in order that the deceased might meet with these necessaries in his upward flight." Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, Vol. I, p. 145, (London, 1896). For notes on the funeral boat of the Kayan, see Hose and McDougall, Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Vol. II, p. 35.--Among the Kulaman of southern Mindanao an important man is sometimes placed in a coffin resembling a small boat, which is then fastened on high poles near to the beach. Cole, Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao (Pub. Field Museum of Natural History, Vol. XII, No. 2, 1913).--The supreme being, Lumawig, of the Bontoc Igorot is said to have placed his living wife and children in a log coffin; at one end he tied a dog, at the other a c.o.c.k, and set them adrift on the river. See Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot, p. 203, (Manila, 1905); Seidenadel, The Language of the Bontoc Igorot, p. 502 ff., (Chicago, 1909).

[63] For similar omens observed by the Ifugao of Northern Luzon, see Beyer, Origin Myths of the Mountain peoples of the Philippines (Philippine Journal of Science, Vol. VIII, 1913, No. 2, p. 103).

[64] Page 3, note 2.

[65] See tale 22.

[66] For a discussion of this cla.s.s of myths, see Waterman, Jour. Am. Folklore, Vol. XXVII, 1914, p. 13 ff.; Lowie, ibid., Vol. XXI, p. 101 ff., 1908; P. W. Schmidt, Grundlinien einer Vergleichung der Religionen und Mythologien der austronesischen Volker, (Wien, 1910).

[67] See p. 10, note 3.

[68] The Pala-an is third in importance among Tinguian ceremonies.

[69] Tale 58.

[70] This is offered only as a possible explanation, for little is known of the beliefs of this group of Igorot.

[71] See p. 11, note 1.

[72] Tale 68.

[73] Hose and McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Vol. II, p. 148, (London, 1912).

[74] Bezemer, Volksdichtung aus Indonesien, p. 304, Haag, 1904. For the Tagalog version of this tale see Bayliss, (Jour. Am. Folk-lore, Vol. XXI, 1908, p. 46).

[75] Evans, Folk Stories of British North Borneo. (Journal Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute, Vol. XLIII, 1913, p. 475).

[76] Folk Stories of British North Borneo (Journal Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute, Vol. XLIII, p. 447, 1913).

[77] Tale No. 89.

[78] Hose and McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Vol. II, pp. 144-146.

[79] Tale 91. The cloak which causes invisibility is found in Grimm's tale of the raven. See Grimm's Fairy Tales, Columbus Series, p. 30. In a Pampanga tale the possessor of a magic stone becomes invisible when squeezes it. See Bayliss, (Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, Vol. XXI, 1908, p. 48).

[80] Ratzel, History of Mankind, Vol. I, Book II. Graebner, Methode der Ethnologie, Heidelberg, 1911; Die melanesische Bogenkultur und ihre Verwandten (Anthropos, Vol. IV, pp. 726, 998, 1909).

[81] See Waterman, Journal American Folklore, Vol. XXVII, 1914, pp. 45-46.

[82] See Waterman, Journal American Folklore, Vol. XXVII, 1914, pp. 45-46.

[83] See Waterman, Journal American Folklore, Vol. XXVII, 1914, pp. 45-46.

[84] Stories of magic growth are frequently found in North America. See Kroeber, Gross Ventre Myths and Tales (Anthropological Papers of the Am. Mus. of Nat. Hist., Vol. I, p. 82); also Lowie, The a.s.siniboin (ibid., Vol. IV, Pt. 1, p. 136).

[85] Other examples of equally widespread tales are noted by Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 852, (Berlin, 1895); L. Roth, Custom and Myth, pp. 87 ff., (New York, 1885); and others. A discussion of the spread of similar material will be found in Graebner, Methode der Ethnologie, p. 115; Ehrenreich, Mythen und Legenden der sudamerikanischen Urvolker, pp. 77 ff.; Ehrenreich, Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen Grundlagen, p. 270.

[86] Cole and Laufer, Chinese Pottery in the Philippines (Publication Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. XII, No. 1, Chicago, 1913).

[87] Nieuwenhuis, Kunstperlen und ihre kulturelle Bedeutung (Int. Arch. fur Ethnographie, Vol. XVI, 1903, pp. 136-154).

[88] Philippine Journal of Science, Vol. III, No. 4, 1908, pp. 197-211.