Kankanay Ceremonies Part 12

Long ago the G.o.ds came to the earth, but there were no people. They said, "It is good if there are people. We will make a man and a woman." They took some earth and made two people and stood them up. They plucked the feathers from a chicken and made it jump, saying, "We shall make them laugh so that they will be alive." Then one of the people laughed. He became a man. The other heard the first and laughed also, and became a woman.

NOTES

[1] See my Nabaloi Law and Ritual, present volume, pp. 236-271, 1920.

[2] Ibid., pp. 280-335.

[3] Phil. Jour. of Sci., IX, Section D, 465-527, 1914.

[4] Compare F. C. Cole, Traditions of the Tinguian, Publ. of Field Museum of Natural History, Anthrop. Ser., XIV; and R. F. Barton, Ifugao Law, present volume.

[5] See the present volume, p. 289.

[6] Based on the publication by J. A. Robertson, The Igorots of Lepanto, Phil. Jour. of Sci., IX, section D, pp. 465-527, 1914. Ifugao a.n.a.logies are cited in this paper in footnotes.

[7] All the ceremonies described in this section were recorded among the Benguet Kankanay in the towns.h.i.+ps of Kibungan, Kapangan, and Buguias. All the texts were recorded in Kibungan except those of the kiad, which were recorded in the central barrio of Kapangan, and those of the ampasit and tanong, which were recorded in the barrio of Legleg, Kapangan. Kibungan is a town in the northwestern corner of Benguet. It is inaccessible, and has been affected very little by outside influence. It adjoins the Amburayan town of Bacun, and the Lepanto town of Ampasungan. Legleg is about midway between Kibungan and the Nabaloi boundary; the barrio of Kapangan is on the line between the Nabaloi and Kankanay; and Buguias is in the northeastern part of Benguet, north of the Nabaloi town of Kabayan. The dialect is spoken with some difference of p.r.o.nunciation in the various towns. It is believed that all public ceremonies celebrated by the Benguet Kankanay are described in this section, but some of the private ceremonies were probably overlooked.

[8] See note 7, p. 354.

[9] A kind of root eaten by the Igorot when the supply of rice or camotes is limited.

[10] The first and fourth myths were recorded in Kibungan, the second in Kapangan, the third in Legleg.

[11] The three rocks on which the pots sit.