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Title: Ifugao Law
(In American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 15, No. 1)
Author: R. F. Burton
Release Date: September 20, 2012 [EBook #40807]
Language: English
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In American Archaeology and Ethnology
Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-186, plates 1-33
February 15, 1919
IFUGAO LAW
By R. F. BARTON
"We are likely to think of the savage as a freakish creature,
all moods--at one moment a friend, at the next moment a fiend. So
he might be were it not for the social drill imposed by his
customs. So he is, if you destroy his customs, and expect him
nevertheless to behave as an educated and reasonable being. Given,
then, a primitive society in a healthy and uncontaminated
condition, its members will invariably be found to be on the
average more law-abiding, as judged from the stand-point of their
own law, than is the case in any civilized state.
"Of course, if we have to do with a primitive society on the
down-grade--and very few that have been 'civilizaded,' as John
Stuart Mill terms it, at the hands of the white man are not on
the down-grade--its disorganized and debased custom no longer
serves a vital function. But a healthy society is bound, in a
wholesale way, to have a healthy custom."
R. R. Marrett, in Anthropology.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Page
The Ifugaos
Sources of Ifugao law and its present status of development
1. Relation of taboo to law
2. Scope of customary law
3. Connection of law and religion
4. General principles of the Ifugao legal system
5. Stage of development of Ifugao law
The Family Law
Marriage
6. Polygamy
7. Nature of marriage
8. Eligibility to marriage
9. The two ways in which marriage may be brought about
10. Contract marriage
11. Marriage ceremonials
12. Gifts to the kin of the bride: hakba
13. Obligations incurred by those who enter into a marriage
contract
14. The binawit relation
15. Property rights acquired by marriage
Remarriage of the widowed
16. The gibu payment to terminate marriage
Divorce
17. Divorce because of necessity
18. Divorce for mutual benefit
19. Divorce which may be demanded by either party
20. Cases where divorce may be demanded by one party or the other
21. The hudhud, or payment for mental anguish
22. Divorce ceremonies
23. Property settlements in case of divorce
Dependents in relation to family law
24. Adopted children
25. Servants
26. Slaves
Illegitimate children
27. Definition of illegitimacy; its frequency
28. Obligations of father to bastard child
29. Determination of parentage
Reciprocal obligation of parents and their children
30. Duties of parents to children
31. Obligations of children to parents
The Property Law
The kinds of property
32. The Ifugao's classification of properties
Family property
33. The Ifugao attitude toward family property
34. Rice lands
35. Forest lands
36. Heirlooms
37. Sale of family property
Personal property
38. Definition
39. Houses
40. Valuable trees
Perpetual tenure
41. Rice and forest lands
42. "Homesteading"
43. Paghok, or landmarks
44. Right of way through property owned by others
Transient tenure
45. Tenure of sweet potato fields
Transfers of property for a consideration
46. The balal
47. Sales of family property
48. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands
Transfers of property arising from family relationships
49. Methods of transfer
50. Assignment and transfer of property during the lifetime of
the owner
51. Inheritance
52. The passing of property between relatives because of
relationship
53. The law of primogeniture
54. The passing of property to legitimate sons and daughters
by assignment or inheritance
55. The passing of property to other relatives
56. Property rights of bastards
57. Transfers of property to adopted children
58. Servants and slaves as inheritors
59. Wills and testaments
Settlements of debts of the aged and deceased
60. When the debtor has children
61. When the debtor is childless but leaves a spouse
62. Debts for which the kin of the deceased are held
63. Attitude toward debts
Borrowing and lending
64. Lupe, or interest
65. Patang, or interest paid in advance
66. Another form of patang
Go-betweens
67. The go-between
68. Responsibility of go-betweens
69. Conditions relieving a go-between of responsibility
70. Payment due those who find the body of one dead by violence
Contracts for the sale of property
71. On whom binding
Irrigation law
72. The law as to new fields
73. The law as to water
74. The law as to irrigation ditches
Penal Law
Penalties
75. Nature and reckoning of fines
Circumstances which affect penalty
76. Moral turpitude not a factor
Penal responsibility
77. The nungolat, or principal
78. The tombok, or "thrower"
79. Iba'n di nungolat, "the companions of the one who was strong"
80. The montudol, "shower," or informer
81. Servants who commit crimes at the bidding of their masters
82. Likelihood to punishment
83. Drunkenness and insanity in relation to criminal responsibility
84. The relation of intent to criminal responsibility
Other factors affecting liability
85. Alienship
86. Confession
87. Kinship
88. Rank and standing in the community
89. Importance of influential position and personality
89a. Cripples and unfortunates
The principal crimes and their frequency
90. List of offenses
Sorcery
91. The ayah or soul-stealing
92. Other forms of sorcery
93. Punishment of sorcery
Adultery
94. Forms of adultery
95. Punishment of adultery
96. Sex in relation to punishment for adultery
The taking of life
97. General considerations
98. Executions justifiable by Ifugao law
99. Feuds
100. War
101. Head-taking
102. Hibul, or homicide
103. Attempts to murder
104. Wounding
105. Special liability of the givers of certain feasts
106. The labod, fine assessed for homicide
107. Accidental killing of animals
108. Malicious killing of animals
Putting another in the position of an accomplice
109. The tokom, or fine for compromising another
Theft
110. Of theft in general
111. Theft of rice from a granary
112. Theft of unharvested rice
113. Illegal confiscation
Arson
114. Fines assessed for goba or arson
Kidnapping
115. Circumstances under which kidnapping may occur
Incest
116. Rarity of such offenses
Rape
117. Both parties being unmarried
118. Rape of a married woman by an unmarried man
119. Rape of a married woman by a married man
Ma-hailyu, or minor offenses
120. False accusation
121. Baag or slander
122. Threats of violence
123. Insult
Procedure
The family in relation to procedure
124. Family unity and coöperation
The monkalun or go-between
125. Nature of his duties
Testimony
126. Litigants do not confront each other
Ordeals
127. Cases in which employed
128. The hot water ordeal
129. The hot-bolo ordeal
130. Alao, or duel
131. Trial by bultong or wrestling
132. The umpire and the decision
Execution of justice
133. Retaliation
134. Seizure of chattels
135. Seizure of rice fields
136. Enforced hospitality
137. Kidnapping or seizure of persons
138. Cases illustrating seizure and kidnapping
The paowa or truce
139. The usual sense of the term "paowa"
140. Another sense of the term "paowa"
Termination of controversies: peace-making
141. The hidit or religious aspects of peace-making
An inter-village law
142. Neutrality
Appendices
I. Ifugao reckoning of relationship
II. Connection of religion with procedure
III. Parricide
IV. Concubinage among the Kalingas
Glossary 122
Explanation of plates 130
PREFACE
There is no law so strong as custom. How much more universal, willing,
and spontaneous is obedience to the customary law that a necktie shall
be worn with a stiff collar than is obedience to the ordained law
against expectoration on sidewalks; notwithstanding that the latter has
more basis in consideration of the public weal and even in aesthetics.
This little paper shows how a people having no vestige of constituted
authority or government, and therefore living in literal anarchy,
dwell in comparative peace and security of life and property. This
is owing to the fact of their homogeneity and to the fact that their
law is based entirely on custom and taboo.
The Ifugaos are a tribe of barbarian head-hunters. Nevertheless, after
living among them for a period of eight years, I am fully satisfied
that never, even before our government was established over them,
was the loss of life from violence of all descriptions nearly so
great among them as it is among ourselves. I do not, however, wish
to be understood as advocating their state of society as ideal,
or as in any way affording more than a few suggestions possibly to
our own law-makers. Given dentists and physicians, however, I doubt
gravely if any society in existence could afford so much advantage
in the way of happiness and true freedom as does that of the Ifugaos.
But we must realize that probably neither security of the individual
life nor even happiness are the chief ends of existence. The progress
and evolution of our people are much more important in all probability,
and this seems to demand the sacrifice of ease and freedom and of
much happiness on the part of the individuals composing our society.
Acknowledgments are due first to my teacher and friend, Professor
Frederick Starr, for his encouragement and assistance, and, above all,
for his inculcation of respect for and tolerance toward customs other
than our own.
Captain Jeff D. Gallman, whose work among the Ifugaos stands to the
credit of our government of the Philippines second to that of no
other man in the archipelago, assisted me in many ways. He is a man
learned in the "lore of men,"
"Who ha' dealt with men
In the new and naked lands."
Dr. David P. Barrows, now Major Barrows, also rendered me indispensable
aid and encouragement. Dr. A. L. Kroeber of the chair of anthropology,
University of California, and his associates, Dr. T. T. Waterman and
Mr. E. W. Gifford, have read the manuscript and proofs and have made
valuable suggestions which are incorporated in the paper as finally
published. These gentlemen have been unstintedly generous in welcoming
a newcomer in the field in which they are so preëminent.
Dr. George W. Simonton has kindly assisted in preparing the manuscript
for the printer.
The photographs, with one exception, were taken by myself.
San Francisco, California, January 14, 1918.
INTRODUCTION
The Ifugaos
Philippine ethnologists generally agree to the hypothesis that the
Negritos, a race of little blacks, remnants of which now inhabit
mountain regions of many of the larger islands, were the original
inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago. They advance the hypothesis
that these little blacks were driven by Malay immigrants from their
former homes in the fertile plains to the mountains; and that these
first Malay invaders were driven from the lowlands into the mountain
regions by succeeding immigrations of Malays superior to them in
organization and weapons. [1] By and by, no one cares to hazard how
long afterward, the Spaniards came. They christianized the lowlanders,
except the Mohammedan populations of Mindanao and Sulu. But at
the time of the American occupation the mountaineer descendants
of the first immigration, for the most part, had not received the
spiritual ministrations of Her Most Catholic Majesty's missionaries,
on account of the inaccessible character of their habitat. True,
garrisons and missions had been established in a few localities
among them; but owing to the scattered character of the population,
the independent spirit of the people, their natural conservatism,
and the lack of tact and consideration on the part of the Spanish
officials and missionaries, practically no progress had been made in
christianizing or civilizing them.
The great majority of the non-Mohammedan, non-Christian Malays
inhabit the island of Luzon. The Luzon non-Christian tribes and their
estimated numbers are: Apayaos, 16,000; Benguet Igorots, 25,000; Bontoc
Igorots, 50,000; Wild Gaddanes, 4000; Ifugaos, 120,000; Ilongots,
6000; Kalingas, 60,000; Tingianes, 30,000; Lepanto Igorots, 35,000;
total, nearly a quarter million. All these tribes inhabit the mountain
ranges of the northern third of the island.
The habitat of the Ifugaos is situated in about the center of the
area inhabited by the non-Christian tribes. In point of travel-time,
as we say in the Philippines, for one equipped with the usual amount
of baggage, Ifugao-land is about as far from Manila as New York from
Constantinople. To the northeast are the Wild Gaddan, to the north
the Bontoc Igorot, to the northwest, west, and southwest the Lepanto
and Benguet Igorots; to the east, across the wide uninhabited river
basin of the Cagayan, are the Ilongots. This geographic isolation has
tended to keep the Ifugao culture relatively pure and uninfluenced
by contact with the outside world. Two or three military posts were
fitfully maintained in Ifugao by the Spaniards during the last half
century of their sovereignty; but the lives of the natives were little
affected thereby.
Ifugao men wear clouts and Ifugao women loin cloths, or short skirts,
reaching from the waist to the knees. Wherever they go the men carry
spears. Both sexes ornament their persons with gold ornaments, beads,
agates, mother of pearl, brass ornaments, and so forth. Ifugao houses,
while small, are substantially built, of excellent materials, and
endure through many generations.
It may safely be said that the Ifugaos have constructed the most
extensive and the most admirable terraces for rice culture to be
found anywhere in the world. The Japanese terraces, which excite
the admiration of tens of thousands of tourists every year, are
not to be compared with them. On these steep mountains that rise
from sea-level to heights of six to eight thousand feet--mountains
as steep probably as any in the world--there have been carved out,
with wooden spades and wooden crowbars, terraces that run like the
crude but picturesque "stairsteps" of a race of giants, from the
bases almost to the summits. Some of these terrace walls are fifty
feet high. More than half are walled with stone. Water to flood these
terraces is retained by a little rim of earth at the outer margin. The
soil is turned in preparation for planting with a wooden spade. No
mountain is too steep to be terraced, if it affords an unfailing
supply of water for irrigation. The Ifugao, too, makes clearings on
his mountains in which he plants sweet potatoes, and numerous less
important vegetables. Without his knowing it, he bases his agriculture
on scientific principles (to an extent that astounds the white man)
and he tends his crops so skillfully and artistically that he probably
has no peer as a mountain husbandman.
Of political organization the Ifugao has nothing--not even a
suggestion. Notwithstanding, he has a well-developed system of
laws. This absolute lack of political government has brought it
about that the Ifugao is a consummate diplomat. After an eight years'
residence among them, I am convinced that the Ifugaos got along very
well in the days before a foreign government was established among
them. Through countless generations the Ifugao who has survived
and prospered has been the one who has carried his point, indeed,
but has carried it without involving himself in serious trouble with
his fellows.
The Ifugao's religion is a mixture of an exceedingly complex
polytheism, ancestor worship, and a mythology that is used as
an instrument of magic. His religion seems to be far more highly
developed than that of the other non-Christian tribes.
Attempts made by Spain to colonize the Ifugao in the lowlands
invariably met with failure. The Ifugao is a hillman, and loves his
hills. He is of an independent nature and cannot stand confinement. A
great many prisoners jailed by American officials have courted death
rather than endure incarceration.
While there are well defined tribal divisions that mark off the various
mountain-Malay populations of northern Luzon, the cultures of all
of the tribes are basically similar. Numerous parallelisms, too, are
found with the lowland Filipinos, even now, in features of daily life,
religion, taboo, law, and marital relation. The dialects of all the
tribes inhabiting the islands are branches of the great family of Malay
languages--languages spoken over more than half the circumference of
the globe. The linguistic differences that exist between the mountain
and the lowland tribes seem to be not much greater than the linguistic
differences between the various mountain tribes themselves.
Many things lead us to believe that the culture of the Ifugaos is
very old. We have to do with a people who possess both as individuals
and collectively a most remarkable memory. Ifugao rich men lend to
considerable numbers of clients and others every year during the
"hungry time"--to these, varying numbers of bundles of rice, to
this one a skein of yarn, to that one a pig, and to another again a
chicken. All these bargains and their amounts and their varying terms,
our wealthy Ifugao remembers, unaided by any system of writing or other
artificial means. Many Ifugaos know their ancestors back to the tenth
or even the fourteenth generation, and, in addition, the brothers
and sisters of these ancestors. If we consider the racial or tribal
memory of these people, we find a mythology fully as voluminous as
that of the Greeks. But the Ifugaos have no recollections of having
ever migrated. Unless they have lived for many centuries in their
present habitat, it seems certain that they would have retained at
least in mythical form the memory of their migration.
Another consideration that is significant lies in a comparison of the
rate of rice-field building in these peaceful times, when such work
is not hindered but instead vigorously stimulated by the government,
with the amount of such work accomplished by past generations. One
who stands on some jutting spur of the mountain-side in Asin, Sapao,
or Benaue can scarcely help being impressed with the feeling that he
is looking upon a work of tens of centuries. Any calculation must be
based on vague and hazardous figures of course, but, without having
any theories to prove, and making due allowance for increased rate
of building during peaceful times and for the pressure of the needs
of increased population, from a comparison of the estimated area of
voluntary rice-field building with the areas already constructed,
I come to the conclusion that the Ifugaos must have lived in their
present habitat for at least two thousand years, and I believe that
these figures are too small.
SOURCES OF IFUGAO LAW AND ITS PRESENT STATUS OF DEVELOPMENT
The Ifugaos have no form of writing: there is, consequently, no written
law. They have no form of political government: there is, therefore,
no constitutional or statutory law. Inasmuch as they have no courts
or judges, there is no law based on judicial decisions.
Ifugao law has two sources of origin: taboo (which is essentially
religious) and custom. The customary law is the more important from
the greater frequency of its application.
1. Relation of taboo to law.--The Ifugao word for taboo is paniyu. The
root, which appears under the varying forms iyu, iho, iyao, and
ihao, means in general "evil" or "bad." The prefix pan denotes
instrumentality or manner. The word paniyu means both by derivation
and in use, "bad way of doing," or "evil way." By far the greater
number of taboos have their origin in magic. A very large number of
them concern the individual, or those closely related to him by blood
ties, and for this reason have no place in a discussion of law. Thus
a pregnant woman may not wear a string of beads, since the beads
form a closed circle and so have a magic tendency to close her body
and cause difficult childbirth. This, however, is not a matter that
concerns anybody else, and so could be of no interest at law. It is
taboo for brothers to defecate near each other, but only they are
harmed thereby, and the matter is consequently not of legal interest.
The breaking of a taboo that concerns the person or possessions of
an individual of another family is a crime. The following instances
will illustrate:
In nearly all districts [2] of Ifugao it is taboo for persons of
other districts2 to pass through a rice field when it is being
harvested. It is also taboo for foreigners to enter a village
when that village is observing its ceremonial idleness, tungul,
at the close of harvest time. One who broke this taboo would be
subject to fine. In case it were believed that the fine could
not be collected, he would be in danger of the lance.
It is taboo to blackguard, to use certain language, and to do
certain things in the presence of one's own kin of the opposite
sex that are of the degrees of kinship within which marriage
is forbidden or in the presence of another and such kindred
of his, or to make any except the most delicately concealed
references to matters connected with sex, sexual intercourse,
and reproduction. Even these delicately concealed references are
permissible only in cases of real necessity. The breaking of this
taboo is a serious offense. One who broke the taboo in the presence
of his own female kin would not be punished except in so far as
the contempt of his fellows is a punishment. In Kiangan, before
the establishment of foreign government, breaking the taboo in the
presence of another and his female kin of the forbidden degrees is
said to have been sometimes punished by the lance (see sec. 123).
It is taboo for one who knows of a man's death to ask a relative
of the dead man if the man is dead. The breaking of this taboo
is punishable by fine.
If asked, Ifugaos say that it is taboo to steal; to burn or destroy
the property of another; to insult, or ruin the good name of another;
to cause the death or injury of another by sorcery or witchcraft; in
short, to commit any of those acts which among most peoples constitute
a crime.
The word taboo as understood among ourselves, and as most often used
among the Ifugaos, denotes a thing rather arbitrarily forbidden. It
seems likely that moral laws--from which most criminal laws are an
outgrowth--originate thus: the social conscience, learning that some
act is antisocial, prohibits it (often in conjunction with religion)
or some feature of it, or some semblance of it, arbitrarily, harshly,
and sometimes unreasonably. Thus the first taboo set forth above has
the semblance of being aimed against interruption in the business
or serious occupation of another, or against his worship. The mere
passing near a rice field when it is being harvested or the mere
entrance into a village during the period of ceremonial idleness are
arbitrarily seized upon as acts constituting such interruptions. The
second taboo arose from the purpose of the social consciousness to
prevent marriage or sexual intercourse between near kin. [3] It is
most sweeping and unreasonable in its prohibitions. A third person
may make no remark in the presence of kin of the opposite sex as to
the fit of the girl's clothing; as to her beauty; nor may he refer
to her lover, nor play the lover's harp. Many ordinary things must
be called by other than their ordinary names. Even the aged priests
who officiate at a birth feast must refer in their prayers to the
foetus about to be born as "the friend" and to the placenta as "his
blanket." A great number of things are forbidden in the presence of
kindred of opposite sex that would not shock even the most prudish
of our own people. The third taboo seems to be aimed against the
bandying or the taking in vain of the name of the dead.
It would seem that a primitive society, once it has decided a thing to
be wrong, swings like a pendulum to the very opposite extreme, adds
taboo upon taboo, and hedges with taboo most illogically. With the
ardor of the neophyte, it goes to the other limit, becoming squeamish
in the extreme of all that can in the remotest conception be connected
with the forbidden thing. [4]
Ultimately reason and logic tend to triumph and eliminate the
illogical, impertinent and immaterial taboos, remove the prohibitions
contained in the useful taboos from their pedestal of magic, and
set them upon a firmer base of intelligence, or at least practical
empiricism.
A small part of Ifugao law consists even yet of taboos that are
arbitrary and, except in essence, unreasonable. But the greater part
has advanced far beyond this stage and is on a firm and reasonable
basis of justice. Much of it originated from taboo--even yet the taboos
are remembered and frequently applied to acts that constitute crimes
among ourselves--but the immaterial and arbitrary taboos have been
eliminated. Although the Ifugaos say that adultery and theft and arson
are tabooed, nevertheless their attitude of mind is not the same as
that toward things that are merely tabooed. It is the attitude of the
human mind toward things that are prohibited by law and by conscience.
2. Scope of customary law.--The customary law embraces that which
pertains to property, inheritance, water rights, and to a great extent,
family law and procedure. There is a certain amount of variation in
customs and taboos throughout Ifugao land. This accounts to a certain
extent, perhaps, for the reserved behavior of visitors to a district
distant from their own. Visitors are afraid of unwittingly breaking
some taboo. In general, however, it may be said that laws are very
nearly uniform throughout the Ifugao country.
3. Connection of law and religion.--Religion and law appear conjointly
in (a) transferals of family property; (b) ordeals; (c) certain taboos;
(d) payments of the larger fines; (e) peace-making. The Ifugaos state
that a large part of their customary law and procedure was given them
by Lidum, their great teacher, a deity of the Skyworld, and an uncle
of their hero-ancestor, Balitok.
4. General principles of the Ifugao legal system.--Its personal
character. Society does not punish injuries to itself except as the
censure of public opinion is a punishment. This follows naturally
from the fact that there is no organized society. It is only when
an injury committed by a person or family falls on another person or
family that the injury is punished formally.
Collective responsibility. Not only the individual who commits an
act but his kin, in proportion to the nearness of their kinship, are
responsible for the act. Their responsibility is slightly less than
his. This applies not only to crimes but to debts and civil injuries.
Collective procedure. Legal procedure is by and between families;
therefore a family should be "strong to demand and strong to resist
demands." A member of an Ifugao family assists in the punishment of
offenders against any other member of his family, and resists the
punishment of members of his family by other families. A number of
circumstances affect the ardor with which he enters into procedures
in which a relative is concerned and the extent to which he will go
into them. Among these are: (a) the nearness or remoteness of his
relationship to the relative concerned in the action; (b) relationship
to the other principal in the action; (c) the loyalty to the family
group of the relative principally concerned in the procedure and
the extent to which this relative discharges his duty to it; (d)
evidence in the case bearing on the correctness of the relative's
position in the controversy.
A corollary of the above principle. Since legal procedure is between
families, and never between individuals, nor between a family and an
individual, crimes of brother or sister against brother or sister
go unpunished. The family of the two individuals is identical. A
family cannot proceed against itself. But in the case of incest
between a father and a daughter the father might be punished by the
girl's mother's family on the ground that he had committed a crime
against a member of that family. It is true that just as great an
injury would have been committed against the family of the father,
since the relationship of the daughter to that family is the same
as to her mother's family. But the father, the perpetrator of the
crime, being a nearer relative of his own family than his daughter,
his family certainly would not take active steps against him. Were
the crime a less disgraceful one, the father's kin would probably
contest his penalty.
The family unity must at all hazards be preserved. Clemency is
shown the remoter kin in order to secure their loyalty to the family
group. A large unified family group is in the ideal position of being
"strong to demand and strong to resist demands." The family is the
only thing of the nature of an organization that the Ifugao has,
and he cherishes it accordingly.
Collective recipiency of punishment. Just as the family group is
collectively responsible for the delinquencies of its members, but in
less degree than the delinquent himself, so may punishment be meted out
to individuals of the group other than the actual culprit, although
naturally it is preferred to punish the actual culprit; and so may
debts or indemnities be collected from them. But only those individuals
that are of the nearest degree of kinship may be held responsible;
cousins may not legally be punished if there be brothers or sisters.
Ifugao law is very personal in its character. For the different classes
of society there are in the Mampolia-Kababuyan area five grades of
fines in punishment of a given crime, four in the Hapao-Hunduan area,
and three in the Kiangan area.
Might is right to a very great extent in the administration of
justice. For a given crime, one family, on account of superior
war footing, or superior diplomacy, or on account of being better
bluffers, will be able to exact much more severe penalties than
another. Especially is Ifugao administration of justice likely
to be unfair when persons of different classes are parties to a
controversy. I doubt very much, however, whether this characteristic
of Ifugao administration of justice be more pronounced than it is in
our own.
5. Stage of development of Ifugao law.--Reasons have already been given
for believing the Ifugao's culture to be very old. His legal system
must also be old. Yet it is in the first stage of the development of
law. It is, however, an example of a very well developed first-stage
legal system. It ranks fairly with Hebrew law, or even with the
Mohammedan law of a century ago. R. R. Cherry in his lectures on the
Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities demonstrates these stages
of legal development: First, a stage of simple retaliation--"an eve
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." Second, a stage
in which vengeance may be bought off "either by the individual who has
inflicted the injury or by his tribe." Third, a stage in which the
tribe or its chiefs or elders intervene to fix penalty-payments and
to pronounce sentence of outlawry on those who refuse to pay proper
fines. Fourth, a stage in which offenses come to be clearly recognized
as crimes against the peace and welfare of the king or the state.
No Ifugao would dream of taking a payment for the deliberate or
intentional murder of a kinsman. He would be universally condemned if
he did so. However, he would usually accept a payment for an accidental
taking of life. There is still, however, an element of doubt as to
whether even in such a case payment would be accepted. For nearly
all other offenses payments are accepted in extenuation. Ifugao law,
then, may be said to be in the latter part of the first stage of
legal development.
THE FAMILY LAW
MARRIAGE
6. Polygamy.--The extent to which personality affects what an Ifugao
may or may not do without being considered an offender is illustrated
in the matter of polygamy. Any Ifugao, except one of the most powerful,
who might try to take a plural wife would only bring upon himself
heavy punishment--punishment that would be administered by the kin of
the first wife. But men who are very wealthy and who are also gifted
with a considerable amount of force of character sometimes take a
second or even a third wife, and compel the kin of the first wife to
recognize her and her children. In other words, they make polygamy
legal for themselves. The first wife is of higher class than succeeding
wives. Her children have inheritance rights to all the property their
father had at the time of the taking of the plural wife. The following
is a typical instance of the taking of a plural wife:
Guade of Maggok, an extremely wealthy man, after marrying and
having a number of children by his first wife, began habitually
to have illicit intercourse with another woman. The kin of the
first wife demanded a heavy indemnity. Such was their bungot
(ferocity) that they succeeded in making Guade think that he was
in imminent peril of losing his life, and in collecting double
the amount usual in such cases. But having paid the fine, Guade
rallied to his support all his kin and kept up the relations with
the woman, taking her as a second wife. Nor did the kin of the
first wife attempt to prohibit this, well knowing that they had
gone far enough. The second wife is recognized, and her children
are recognized, as legitimate. Guade informed me recently that
he was thinking seriously of taking a third. Guade is admired
and envied by every one in the community apparently; whereas a
man of less force would be condemned by public opinion.
When a plural wife is taken a heavy payment must be made the first
wife and her kin. This may amount to about 500 pesos.
7. Nature of marriage.--Marriage among the Ifugaos is a civil
contract of undefined duration. It may last a month, a year, a
decade, or until the death of one of the parties to it. It has no
essential connection with the tribal religion. True, at almost every
step in its consummation the family ancestral spirits and the other
deities are besought to bless the union in a material way in the
matter of children and wealth and by giving the two parties long
life. But this is a matter of self interest, and not of hallowing
or consecrating the union. Should the omens be bad, the two people
do not marry because they are afraid that in the shape of sickness
or death or childlessness, ill fortune may overtake them if they do
so. And even after the marriage has been fully consummated should
it happen that at any one of three certain feasts performed by the
parents of the couple during the year in connection with their rice
crop, the omen of the bile sac [5] should promise ill, the marriage
is dissolved. No promises are made by the contracting parties to each
other or to anybody else. Nor do the contracting parties take any part
in any religious ceremonials or in any marriage ceremonials of any
kind. Marriage may be terminated at any time by mutual agreement. But
that marriage is considered a contract is shown by the fact that if
either party terminates the marriage against the will of the other
the injured party has the right to assess and collect damages.
The theory that marriage should be permanent in order to provide
the better for the training and rearing of children has no legal
embodiment. [6] It is, however, established by custom that in case of
divorce a property settlement according to the wealth of the family
must be made on the children.
8. Eligibility to marriage.--Any person of any age may marry. The
consent of the parents is not necessary. But there is taboo on
the marriage of cousins within the third degree. This taboo may
be rendered inoperative, except in the case of full cousins, by
an exchange of animals ranging from two pigs in the case of the
nearer relationships to one small pig or a chicken in the case of the
remoter. The girl's kin in all cases receive the more valuable animals
in this exchange. But the marriage of first cousins is absolutely
tabooed and never occurs. It is said that children are sometimes
coerced into marriage against their will; but I have heard of only
one case in which physical force was used, and even in this case the
attempt ended in failure.
9. The two ways in which marriage may be brought about.--Those children
that will inherit a great deal of property are married usually,
but by no means always, by a contract [7] marriage; those who will
inherit no property, or but a small amount, and those who, married
by the preceding method, have lost their spouses, or who on reaching
a maturer age, do not find themselves compatible with their spouses,
and consequently remarry, are married by a trial marriage. However,
it should be said that even a contract marriage is a trial marriage
to a great degree. In fact, one inclined to be prudent in his speech
would never pronounce an Ifugao marriage a permanent one until the
death of one of the parties to it.
The trial marriage is merely a primitive sexual mating in the
dormitories of the unmarried. It might be called a courtship,
it being understood that, except in its very incipiency, Ifugao
courtship postulates an accompaniment of sexual intercourse. It is
very reprehensible, but not punishable, for a girl to enter into two
such unions contemporaneously. The moral code is hardly so strict
with respect to the male.
In case the two individuals are satisfied with each other, that is,
in case they find themselves compatible, and nearly always in case
the girl becomes pregnant and the youth has no reason for misgivings
as to the parentage of the child, the youth, after consultation with
his parents, sends a distant relative or friend, who is not related
to the girl, with betels for a ceremonial conference in which the
hand of the girl is asked in marriage. Generally it requires two or
more trial marriages to select for a person his more permanent mate.
10. Contract marriage.--The contract marriage is usually arranged for,
and its first ceremonies at least performed while the children are
quite small. Its purpose is to guard against the commission of such
a folly on the part of the child who will be wealthy as marriage to
a less wealthy spouse. The danger is that such a child, sleeping
in the common dormitory, will give way to the ardor of youth and
temporarily mate with one below him in station, and that the union
so begun prove permanent.
As a rule the couple married by a contract marriage while yet children
are elevated by the uyauwe feast to the category of the kadangyang
(upper class). The uyauwe feast is not an essential part of the
marriage ceremonials, but is an addition to them.
The following is the history of a typical marriage of this kind:
Dulinayan of Ambabag, when his son was about two years old,
sent a go-between to Likyayu, also of Ambabag, whose daughter
was somewhat younger than Dulinayan's son, with betels for a
ceremonial conference looking toward a marriage between the two
children. He stated that he would contract to give his son his
fields at Takadang, and wished to know what fields Likyayu would
give his daughter. The go-between returned, stating that Likyayu's
people did not consider Dulinayan's fields at Takadang seriously,
and asked that he assign the boy his fields at Banggo and Dayukong
in order that they might consider the union of their daughter
with his son. The go-between stated that Likyayu was considering
bestowing on his daughter his field at Takadang.
Dulinayan returned the go-between to state that he did not take as
being very serious Likyayu's statement that he intended to give
his daughter only the field at Takadang. He made the proposal
that Likyayu add to the field at Takadang the one at Danok,
and stated that if Likyayu would do so he would give his son
the fields at Banggo and Dayukong, as Likyayu suggested. Likyayu
accepted this proposal.
After two or three more conferences, it was agreed that Dulinayan
was to assign his son the following movable family property:
1 rice-wine jar, 1 gansa, 1 gold ornament. Likyayu was to assign
his daughter 1 rice-wine jar, 1 gold ornament, and 1 pango (string
of ancient beads). Besides the above, Likyayu would give, at the
proper time, a house for the young couple. Each of the two men
would present his child a granary.
The above agreement made, Dulinayan sent a pig called tokop di
mommon and a pig called imbango. These pigs were sacrificed
by Likyayu and his kin. The omens of the bile sacs promised
well. Likyayu returned 1 natauwinan (4 spears), as the mangdad
of the imbango.
About three years elapsed before anything further was done toward
the completion of the marriage. During this period Dulinayan on
behalf of his son furnished Likyayu's household with what firewood
was needed and kept his granaries in repair. Whenever his son's
betrothed fell ill, or whenever her parents or grandparents
fell ill, Dulinayan furnished a pig for sacrifice. And whenever
Dulinayan's son or his son's parents or grandparents fell ill
Likyayu furnished a pig. Likewise when one of the direct ascendants
of either of the young couple died the other family furnished a
pig for the funeral and a death blanket as one of the burial robes.
In the year 1912--that is, three years after the contract was
made--Dulinayan sent a man to propose an uyauwe. Each family
performed a granary feast to determine whether the time was
propitious. The omens being good, each family notified the other of
the fact. Dulinayan then sent a large pig as the hingot. Likyayu's
people returned a small pig as hulul di hingot. Then Dulinayan
furnished a large pig for the bubun, and the two families met
for the first time during the period of the negotiations and
sacrificed and prayed together.
A short time afterward the children were made kadangyang by the
giving of an uyauwe feast. At this feast Dulinayan gave hakba
(marriage presents) to Likyayu and his kin.
In a contract marriage there is always an assignment to the children of
the property that they will inherit. The amount of property settled
upon either of them is equal or very nearly equal to that settled
on the other. Nor may the parent of one of the children sell any
of this property except for the purpose of providing animals for
sacrifice in case of the illness or death of the child or one of his
direct ascendants, or in case of the illness or death of the child's
betrothed, or one of his direct ascendants (see sec. 13).
11. Marriage ceremonials.--The following are the steps taken to
consummate a typical marriage in the Kiangan-Maggok area:
(a) The boy's kin send the girl's kin a pig. This pig is sacrificed
by the girl's kin. The omen of the bile sac is consulted. The pig is
eaten. This feast is called mommon.
(b) The boy's kin send another pig to the girl's kin. The girl's kin
sacrifice this pig. The omen of the bile sac is consulted. This feast
is called imbango.
A non-essential part of the ceremonials, but an important matter
in some contingencies, is the return by the girl's kin of a gift
to the boy's kin in exchange of the pig sent for this feast. This
return gift is called mangdad. Its effect is to nullify any right on
the part of the boy's kin to demand a repayment of the pig sent for
this ceremony in case the marriage should for any reason whatever
fail to be effected. Even though the failure to complete or effect
the marriage be the girl's fault, if the mangdad has been sent, the
boy's kin have no right to ask a return of the imbango. The return
gift is of much less value than that made by the boy's parents.
(c) The boy's kin send the girl's kin a pig, which pig is sacrificed
by the girl's kin. The omen of the bile sac is consulted. This feast
is called hingot.
A non-essential part of the ceremonials, but one important in the same
way as in the preceding ceremony, is the return by the girl's kin of
a small pig, called the hulul di hingot (exchange of the hingot).
(d) The kin of both the contracting principals meet at the girl's
house and sacrifice a large pig furnished by the boy's kin. This feast
is called bubun, and has for its especial purpose to obtain from the
gods of animal fertility long life, health, and many children for the
young couple. It is attended by a giving of gifts by the kin of the
boy to the kin of the girl, except that in the case of a contract
marriage between kadangyang (the upper class) the giving of these
gifts is often deferred till the uyauwe ceremony, which, while not
part of the marriage ceremonials, often follows immediately after them.
The programme of marriage ceremonials among the northern Ifugao is
somewhat different.
(a) Same as (a) above. This ceremonial is omitted except in marriages
between the wealthy.
(b) The boy's kin sacrifice a pig at his home, sending half of it,
if the omen of the bile sac promises well, to the kin of the girl
in a back basket, called bango, whence originates the term imbango,
meaning "carried in a bango."
(c) The boy's kin take a pig to the girl's home. The girl's kin
furnish another and smaller pig. Both families participate in a
religious feast. This feast is called tanig, and seems to include
both the bubun and the hingot of the Kiangan people.
(d) Ceremonial idleness for the boy and the girl is required during
a period of five days. On the third day the couple go to one of their
fields, it being taboo for either of them to stumble on the way. The
trip is in one respect somewhat like the time-honored cutting of the
cakes in one of our own marriage feasts to secure a prognostication
as to which of the two spouses will die first. Stumbling on the part
of one of the couple, however, would indicate that that one would die
not only first but soon, and would probably lead to a refusal on his
or her part to go ahead with the marriage. [8] Arrived at the field,
the girl weeds a part of it, and the boy gathers some wood from a
near-by forest. Then they go home, the boy carrying the bundle of wood.
In case a bad omen of the bile sac is encountered in any of these
ceremonies, the marriage is not proceeded with, since the belief is
that misfortune would surely attend it.
In the case of the poor, some of the above ceremonies may be omitted;
or chickens or smaller pigs may be substituted for any or all the
pigs. The above programme is simply that which is to be followed out
if the groom be financially able to do the "right thing."
In case the spouses are related, two pigs--a male and a female--are
sacrificed, and the ceremony called ponga is performed. The larger
pig is furnished by the boy. The nearer the kinship the larger the
pigs necessary for this ceremony.
At no time are any vows or promises made by the principals. At no
time, except in the fourth ceremony among the Northern Ifugao, do the
principals have any active part in the ceremonies. Indeed, they may
not eat the meat of the pigs or chickens killed at their own wedding,
for it is taboo to them.
12. Gifts to the kin of the bride: hakba.--In the Kiangan area, but
in no other, expensive gifts are made to the kin of the bride. These
gifts are called hakba. Only in the case of the very poorest are
gifts foregone. The gifts are distributed to the girl's kin, the
nearer kin receiving the more valuable and the remote kin the less
valuable articles. But the elder of a line of cousins by a single
uncle, for example, receives a more valuable present, the next in
age a less valuable one, the next in age a still less valuable one,
and so on, the youngest getting nothing if he have many brothers and
sisters. No distinction is made between male and female kin. The gifts
may range from two death blankets, worth 16 pesos, to a spearhead
worth 0.20 peso.
Except in the case of the poverty-stricken, there is nothing for it
but to pay these presents. If they be not forthcoming, the kin of the
woman seize the pig provided for the bubun ceremony, carry it home
and guard it well till such time as the groom comes forward with the
hakba gifts, when they return it for the ceremonial.
The following is a list of the hakba given by Dulinayan of Ambabag to
Likyayu's family of the same village on the occasion of the marriage
of the son of the former to the daughter of the latter.
12 clouts at P1 P12
10 woman's skirts at P2 20
42 death blankets at P8 336
10 woman's girdles at P2 20
10 war knives at P1 10
3 iron pots at P5 15
1 bayaó (blanket) at P5 5
1 rice-wine jar at P8 8
2 gansas at P8 16
620 "irons" (spears, knives,
axes, etc., at an average
value of P .50 each) 310
====
Total P752
Dulinayan stated at the time these notes were taken that there were
a number of things omitted from the above list that he had forgotten;
that he counted up the amount of all the hakba immediately after the
feast, and that it totaled over 800 pesos.
A groom whose property placed him in the upper rank of the middle
class would spend about 128 pesos as follows on hakba:
8 death blankets at P8 P64
128 "irons" at P.50 64
====
Total P128
A member of the lower middle class would spend about 92 pesos, and
a member of the poorer class would spend about 36 pesos.
13. Obligations incurred by those who enter into a marriage
contract.--First. The initial ceremony, the mommon, puts upon the
principals in a marriage contract the obligation to abstain from
sexual relations with any other persons. Sexual intercourse with
any other person constitutes the crime of adultery. The degree of
guilt for lapses in this respect depends on the progress that has
been made toward the completion of the marriage, the culpability
growing progressively with the performance of each succeeding marriage
ceremonial.
Second. The obligation rests on the boy and his kin to furnish the
immediate family of the girl with firewood from the time at which
the first ceremony is performed until the young couple separate to
live in a house by themselves.
Third. For the same period of time as that embraced in the preceding
paragraph, the obligation rests on the boy and his kin to keep the
granaries of the family of the girl in repair, and to reroof them
whenever needful.
Fourth. Each family helps the other in all that pertains to rice
culture throughout the first year following the bubun ceremony. Each
family furnishes the other with the pig necessary for the sacrifice
at each of the three important rice-culture feasts: the kulpe (growth
feast), the kolating (harvest feast), and the tuldag (granary feast).
Fifth. From the time at which the first ceremony is performed until
the dissolution of the marriage, it is the duty of either spouse to
furnish a pig to the other in the event of the sickness of the other
or of any of his or her lineal ascendants.
Sixth. For the same period as that embraced in the preceding paragraph
it is the duty of either spouse to furnish the other in the event of
the death of any of the lineal ascendants of the other, a pig and a
death blanket.
If the spouses be too young to attend to any of their respective
obligations to each other or to the families concerned, it is the
duty of their parents to attend to the discharge of the obligations.
The non-fulfilment or the non-discharge of any of the above
obligations is sufficient cause for a demand for a divorce on the
part of the injured spouse. The Ifugao does not consider it to be
the duty of any person to leave his father and mother and cling to
his wife or husband. Rather does he consider the opposite to be the
duty. A good many marriages are undone between children because of
the non-fulfilment of one of these obligations on the part of one of
the families involved. It matters not that the spouse be so young as
to be of necessity innocent.
The husband has a right to have sexual intercourse with his wife. If
she does not accede to his desires, he has the right to force her
if he can, but he must not strike or injure her in his attempt. If
he cannot force her, he may demand a divorce. Ordinarily no man can
have sexual intercourse with an Ifugao woman possessed of her reason
and of normal strength, against that woman's will.
Bugan of Baay, a very pretty girl, was married by her parents
against her will to Pingkihan of Baay, a very rich but,
unfortunately, a darkish and very ugly man. The marriage proceeded
as far as the hingot, when it was thought wise by Pingkihan and
the part of justice by the kin of the girl that the girl give
her body before the proceeding went further. Pingkihan made many
futile attempts to attain this purpose, but all in vain. Finally
he despaired. The girl's father, however, told him to come to his
house one night. Pingkihan did so. An uncle of the girl caught her,
and held her. Pingkihan tried in vain to have sexual intercourse
with her. The girl's resistance made the thing impossible. The
marriage ceremonies were carried no further.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that husband and wife are never
united into one family. They are merely allies. The ties that bind
each to his own family are much stronger than the ties that bind
them together. An Ifugao explained this to me by putting his hands
parallel, the forefingers together. The forefingers represent the
two spouses; the hands the two families. Should the two families
separate, should they withdraw from amity and agreement, the two
spouses, the forefingers, of necessity withdraw, because they are
attached to different hands.
Each succeeding feast in the consummation of the marriage carries
with it an added degree of obligation and of alliance; and an added
degree of culpability in cases of failure to comply with the marital
obligations and in cases of crimes against the marriage.
14. The binawit relation.--Oftentimes when the spouses are children
and live in different villages, as soon as they are of sufficient
age to have some feeling for each other--at ten or more years, for
instance--one of them goes to the house of the other. Usually the
two espoused children live for a time at the house of the parents
of the one, and then for a time at the house of the parents of the
other. A child living thus at the house of his parents-in-law is
called binawit. This matter is purely optional with the children,
and is a matter of convenience to them.
The father of the girl has, however, a mean advantage, which he
sometimes, though rarely, uses. If, for example, his son-in-law be a
good worker, he counsels his daughter not to go to the house of her
father-in-law, in order that she may hold her husband in his house to
the end that the family profit by his labor. And even though the couple
may have arrived at the age of separating from their elders and living
in a house to themselves, the father of the girl refuses to give her
her rice fields, putting the boy off from season to season with "Wait
till next harvest" or "Wait till next spading time." It is true that
the boy has in such conduct on the part of his father-in-law sufficient
cause to justify him in divorcing the girl; but if he divorces her,
he loses all that he has spent for sacrifices and hakba gifts!
15. Property rights acquired by marriage.--Neither spouse acquires
any interest in the property that the other possesses at the time
of the marriage. Each has, however, the right to veto the sale
or transfer of the family property [9] of the other except where
legal and sufficient reasons exist for such transfer. These legal
and sufficient reasons are the necessity of selling the field: (a)
to provide the necessary things for a funeral feast for ascendants or
kinfolk; (b) to pay rightful debts; (c) to pay fines or indemnities;
(d) to provide things necessary for feasts and sacrifices which are
considered essential--a very liberal interpretation being placed upon
the word "essential."
Should a man sell a field for a light or trivial cause without the
permission of his wife, the validity of the transfer would not be
effected by the fact of the non-consent of the wife. But the wife would
have recourse for damages from her husband, and might demand: (a) twice
the price received for the field as a settlement on their children;
(b) a divorce; (c) or both. The right of each spouse to veto the sale
of the other's property is equal and the same. This right is based
principally or perhaps wholly on the ground that each spouse is the
guardian of the interest of the children of the union, born or unborn.
The spouses have a joint right in all property acquired after
marriage as the result of their joint labors; that is to say, any
property whatever obtained except (a) by the sale of the fields
of the one and the repurchase of other fields with the proceeds;
(b) as the result of a fine or indemnity assessed by the family of
one against some person for injury done a member of that family;
(c) ceremonial gifts such as the hakba and habalag; (d) inheritance.
REMARRIAGE OF THE WIDOWED
16. The gibu payment to terminate marriage.--Even death itself does not
terminate an Ifugao marriage. It terminates neither the obligation of
the widowed to the soul of the dead spouse nor the compact of alliance
between the two families involved. This obligation and this compact
may be terminated only by the payment known as the gibu.
The word gibu means literally "finish". In its narrowest and probably
original sense it may have meant a payment to terminate all the
relations and obligations growing out of a marriage. There is another
explanation. From the day of the death of a spouse till the third
day after the interment (when the binokbok ceremony is performed),
the kin of the deceased and the kin of the surviving spouse are on
terms of theoretical enmity. They observe with reference to each
other all the taboos that are observed toward enemies. This practice
may have arisen from a former belief--a belief that is current among
many primitive peoples today--that every death is due to sorcery
or witchcraft. Whom so naturally blamed as the surviving spouse or
his kin? If this be the explanation, then the gibu originated as an
indemnity paid for the life of the deceased.
In the present day, the gibu in a broader sense applies to all fines
and indemnities paid in connection with the abuse or termination of
a marriage.
A remarriage may not properly be effected by the widowed until he has
paid the kin of the dead spouse the gibu 'n di nate (gibu of the dead),
or the datok, as it is specifically called. Failure on the part of the
widowed to make this payment would lead to a seizure of his property
or a lance throwing. In the Kiangan area this payment is not nearly
so high as in other parts of Ifugao land, and for the reason that
in the former area large payments are made to the kin of the woman
in the hakba gifts at the beginning of the marriage. In Benaue and
other areas of Ifugao the payments are about five times the amounts
shown in the subjoined table.
The following is the datok payment of the Kiangan area:
DATOK [10]
For the Wealthy
Pu-u, 1 death blanket P8.00
Haynub, 1 pot 5.00
Haynub, 1 pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku .50
Natuku .50
Na-oha .25
Amo:
6 irons 1.50
Paduldul (offering to the
soul of the dead), 1 pig 10.00
======
Total P31.75
For the Middle Class
Pu-u, 1 death blanket P4.00
Haynub, 1 pot 2.00
Haynub, 1 pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku .50
Natuku .50
Nunbadi .40
Na-oha .25
Amo:
4 irons 1.00
Paduldul, 1 pig 8.00
======
Total P20.65
For the Very Poor
Pu-u, 1 pot P4.00
Haynub 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku .50
Nunbadi .40
Na-oha .25
Amo:
4 irons 1.00
Paduldul, 1 pig 5.00
======
Total P13.15
It is considered an insult to the deceased and his kin for a widowed
person to remarry within a year from the death of his spouse. In
such an event, a larger gibu is demanded by the kin of the dead
spouse. Should the spouses have had no children, double the amount
usual is demanded as the datok.
If the widowed remarries without having first formally notified the kin
of his dead spouse of his intention, or if he scandalously has sexual
intercourse, he commits adultery according to Ifugao law, and must
pay the gibu luktap (see sec. 75, 94). As a matter of fact, I do not
believe that this law is often enforced. The Ifugaos say that it was
nearly always enforced before the establishment of foreign government.
If the widowed be a woman, both she and the man with whom she contracts
a second marriage are responsible for the gibu payment. The payment
as a matter of practice is always made by the man who marries her;
but it is said that, should her second husband for any reason fail
to pay, the widow would be held for the payment.
In the event of the birth of a bastard child to a surviving spouse,
the gibu must be paid.
The following is an instance of the non-payment of this indemnity,
and the sequelae:
Piniliu of Longa married the wife of Butlong, a deceased kinsman
of Timbuluy, also of Longa. Piniliu did not come forward with
the usual datok payment, notwithstanding the fact that it was
repeatedly demanded of him.
Finally Piniliu went to Nueva Viscaya, and there bought a
carabao. Timbuluy gathered his kin and met Piniliu when he was
bringing back the carabao. About two miles before they reached
their home village Timbuluy and his kin seized the animal,
hamstringing and slaughtering it before Piniliu's eyes.
The act of Timbuluy may very safely be said to have been justified
by Ifugao custom, and so to have been legal.
The gibu is smaller if the second spouse taken be a kinsman or
kinswoman of the first.
If the living spouse should not have furnished the animal required of
him (see sec. 13) and a death blanket for the funeral of the dead
spouse, the value of these things is added to the amount of the
gibu. [11]
DIVORCE
The following tables show some of the causes for divorce together
with the payments, if any, due and to whom they are due.
17. Divorce because of necessity.--This is always achieved by mutual
agreement.
Cause Fine Paid to
1. A bad omen of the bile sac of the animal
sacrificed at the mommon, imbango, hingot,
or bubun feasts (see sec. 17) None
2. A bad omen of the bile sac at any of the
three principal rice feasts of either
family during the year following the
performance of the bubun ceremony
(see sec. 7) None
It is considered that only ill fortune could come of a marriage
which gave even a single ill omen in any of these cases. It is not
permitted to provide another pig and consult the omen again in any
of these feasts. But in all subsequent feasts this may be done, and
does not lead to divorce. Divorce is unavoidable if the above occurs,
and neither party would dream of opposing it.
18. Divorce for mutual benefit.--Childlessness is the cause. Divorce
under these circumstances is considered a mutual benefit. It may be
achieved by mutual consent or may be demanded by either party without
liability for indemnity.
Cause Fine Paid to
1. Continuous dying of offspring None
2. Childlessness for a period of two or three
years after marriage None
It is considered that the gods of animal fertility look with
permanent disapproval on the union. This is not without some show of
reason, since spouses who have lived together for a goodly number of
years on separation and remarriage with other persons have each had
children. Ifugao experience in this matter would indicate that there
is such a matter as biologic incompatibility.
19. Divorce which may be demanded by either party.--Cruelty and
incompatibility are the causes. The divorce may be by mutual consent
or may be demanded by the injured.
Cause Fine Paid to
1. Neglect of one spouse by the other in time Hudhud
of sickness; the failure to "cherish" (see below) The injured
2. Ill treatment of one of the spouses by the In some
near kin of the other; insulting language cases
by a father- or mother-in-law hudhud Divorcer
3. Unwillingness of either party to have
sexual intercourse with the other, and
continued resistance to it, when there is
the ability to perform the sexual act Hudhud Divorcer
4. The lessening of the fields of one of the
spouses which it was agreed in the
contract of marriage would be his,
without the consent of the kin of the
other spouse Hudhud Divorcer
5. Permanent inability to perform the
sexual act None
6. Insanity None
7. Failure on the part of one spouse or his Hudhud Divorcer
family in any of the obligations (not always
heretofore mentioned (see sec. 13) paid)
8. Commission of crime by one spouse against
a member of the other spouse's family Hudhud Divorcer
9. Refusal of one family to furnish the pigs
necessary to complete the ceremonials; in
case the spouses are related, the refusal
or continued neglect of one family to
produce a pig for the ponga (see sec. 11) None
10. The selling of a rice field for Hudhud Divorcer
insufficient reasons by one spouse without (also see
the consent of the other (see sec. 14) sec. 21)
11. Continued refusal of the father of either
of the spouses to deliver the fields
called for in the contract when the couple
has reached a reasonable age (see sec. 10) Hudhud Divorcer
12. Continued laziness or shiftless conduct on
the part of one of the spouses Usually none
13. The incurring of many debts or other
obligations; the squandering of family
resources Hudhud Divorcer
14. Unreasonable or insane jealousy None
20. Cases where divorce may be demanded by one party or the other.
Cause Fine Paid to
1. Desertion of lawful spouse and Gibu of Injured
cohabitation with another; divorce already hokwit party
a fait accompli (see sec.
94)
2. Incompatibility; continuous quarreling Hudhud The
divorced
3. A change of affection or a desire not to
proceed with or complete the marriage; if
there be children, all the property or
nearly all must be settled on them Hudhud The
divorced
4. Adultery Gibu of The
luktap injured
(see sec.
94)
21. The hudhud, or payment for mental anguish.--This is the fine or
indemnity assessed in cases of divorce at the instance of one of the
parties, when uncomplicated by improper sexual relations, on the ground
of mental anguish, hakit di nemnem, literally, "hurt of the mind." In
general it may be said to be assessed against that spouse who has
made necessary the dissolution of the marriage, whether or not he be
the one who takes the initiative in effecting the divorce. Should the
divorce be effected on account of sexual crime of one of the spouses,
the greater the injury the more severely the crime is punished. The
hudhud is a small fine, but its payment is said effectually to banish
the mental anguish. The dignity and self-importance of the Malay
are of unusual proportions in comparison with his other feelings and
emotions. In Kiangan district there are three grades of the hudhud:
one for the kadangyang or wealthy; one for the tumuk or middle class;
and one for nawatat or poor. The following are the usual amounts of
the indemnity:
THE HUDHUD INDEMNITY
For the Wealthy
1 death blanket P8.00
=====
Total P8.00
For the Middle Class
1 iron pot P2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku .60
Nunbadi .40
Na-oha .25
=====
Total P4.85
For the Very Poor
Natauwinan P1.00
=====
Total P1.00
In case of a change of mind leading to an unwillingness to proceed
with the marriage, the following additional data are pertinent: Should
the girl refuse to proceed with the marriage after the performance
of the mommon ceremonial and before the performance of the imbango
ceremonial, she pays simply the hudhud; should she refuse after the
imbango, she pays the hudhud, and, unless her kin have given the
boy's kin the mangdad di imbango, she pays back the pig given her
family by the boy's family for the imbango ceremonial. The same is
true, mutatis mutandis, should she refuse to proceed after the hingot
ceremony. The boy may refuse to proceed with the marriage after the
mommon and before the imbango without liability to damages; should
he refuse after the imbango, he must pay the hudhud.
22. Divorce ceremonies.--It is only when divorce is by mutual agreement
that divorce is attended by any ceremonies. The ceremonies consist
of a honga, or general welfare feast, not greatly different in spirit
from the ceremonials by which the couple were married. In other cases,
the couple have separated prior to the formal divorce or have such
ill feeling toward each other that concerted action is impossible.
23. Property settlements in case of divorce.--(1) When there are
no children: Each spouse takes the property that he brought to the
marriage, together with any property received since by inheritance,
or solely by virtue of his relationship to his own family.
The remaining property, that is, family property such as rice
fields, gold ornaments, gansas, etc., and personal property such
as food stores, house furnishings, implements, domestic animals,
and also liabilities that rightfully bear equally on both spouses
are apportioned by two umpires, monhangdad, one chosen by each
spouse. These persons make an equitable division, taking as their fee
any odd articles of personal property. Thus if there be three bolos,
they take one; if there be a chicken "left over," they take it. They
may not carry this appropriation to themselves too far, however.
(2) When there are children of the union: The woman has the right
to the children, and nearly always exercises it. In some cases, when
the mother has no rice fields and the father does have rice fields,
and when the children are large enough not to need a mother's care,
by special agreement the father takes one or more of the children.
Whoever takes the children takes possession of the property that
belongs to them. Usually the woman takes all the children and manages
the husband's family property that has been allotted them.
All the property of both the spouses must be assigned to their children
at the time of the divorce (except the personal property). The one who
takes a child takes also the property of that child and tills it. He
may not dispose of it except for the purpose of meeting legitimate
obligations against it. Should the child die, its brothers and sisters
inherit the property.
DEPENDENTS IN RELATION TO FAMILY LAW
24. Adopted children.--An adopted child is termed inagamid, that is,
"taken to one's self"; or it may be termed na-imbalbalayen, "made
one's child." The word inagamid is also used to denote a slave taken
into a household.
Adoptions are rather rare; for the reason, I suspect, that it is only
the propertied class who make them, and that persons of this class,
being well nurtured, usually have children of their own. Usually
the child adopted is the son or daughter of a brother or sister,
and so is really, according to the Ifugao mode of reckoning kinship,
the son or daughter of the adopter. Which family the child shall be
adopted from [12] is a question that is hard for a man and his wife
to agree upon, the wife naturally wishing to adopt from her family
and the husband from his. Sometimes two children are adopted, one
from each family. More often the adopted child is married to one of
the family of the unrelated parent. The two parents by adoption then
give or will give their children by adoption a large part or nearly all
of their properties. They may not give the adopted children all. They
must give something to those who would have been their heirs had they
not made the adoption.
25. Servants.--The general term for servants is baal. As a rule no
pay is given a servant other than his board and clothing. It is the
obligation of the master, however, to furnish animals for sacrifice
when the servant falls sick. It is, further, considered good form
for the master to furnish animals for sacrifice in case of sickness
of the servant's father or mother; but I do not believe it to be an
obligation. A servant that has been a long time with his master is
called nikkop. It is an obligation resting on the master to furnish
the animals and other necessities for a marriage feast for such a
servant. As a rule there is no definite time set for the termination
of a contract between master and servant, and such contracts are
terminable at any time at the will of either party.
Sometimes an unmarried adult goes to the house of a rich man and asks
to be taken as a member of the family on such a basis; but as a rule
servants are children when first taken. Oftentimes a high degree of
affection is felt for a faithful member of the family of this class,
and if a child he is treated as a son or daughter. Sometimes a rice
field is assigned to him, and he inherits as though he were the
youngest son or daughter.
26. Slaves.--Before the American occupation, except in those few parts
of the habitat that were prosperous and in which the obtaining of the
daily ration was not a serious problem, the selling by parents who
found themselves poverty stricken of one of their children was not at
all uncommon. The price that a child brought his parents varied from
five pigs to five carabaos. There was no difference in value between
a male and a female child. A slave was most valuable at the age of
eighteen or twenty. Some men were slave dealers, and carried great
numbers of children to Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela. In those parts a
slave was worth from five to twenty carabaos.
Among the Ifugao a slave was absolutely the property of his owner. The
latter had power of life and death over him. Even if the master killed
the slave it was not considered that the slave's family would be
justified in avenging the death. But a slave's children, even though
they be the children by another slave parent, were free. Frequently one
of them was assigned to take the place of the father and another of the
mother, and these two then became free. In the lowlands, however, the
children of slaves were slaves, which accounts partly for the higher
prices paid for slaves in those parts. It would be interesting to know
whether the lowland (Christian) Filipino held children of slaves as
slaves before his civilization and christianization by the Spaniard,
or whether his practice then was that of his Ifugao brethren.
The purchase of a slave was celebrated by a very pretentious series
of religious ceremonials. Oftentimes, with the Ifugao, a slave was
set free, at or before the death of his master, and was given a rice
field. Unless set free he was inherited by the master's heirs as any
other property. Sometimes a slave child was adopted by a childless
couple as their own son or daughter.
The following "Pocahontas" story is told of a slave who lived at his
master's house in Anao. The master treated him ill, and the slave,
a young man, ran away. He went to the enemy village of Alimit. The
men of that town were going to kill him, hearing his Anao accent,
and believing him to be one of their hereditary enemies. But a
handsome girl, the daughter of a rich man, protected him with her
own body and begged for his life. She afterward married him and
bought his freedom. There was no actual necessity for her buying his
freedom, since the last thing in the world the Anao master could have
accomplished would have been the recovery of his property. She bought
his freedom, however, in order that the children of herself and her
husband might never be called the "offspring of a slave."
Mention should be made, also, of those who voluntarily entered into
slavery as a means of paying a debt. The word "voluntarily" in this
connection needs explanation, however. A man was usually frightened
into entering into servitude by the probability that if he did not
he would be killed.
In parts of Ifugao, the killing of women or children in feuds was a
disgraceful thing, and rarely, if ever, practiced. Instead they were
made prisoners and sold for debt. Sometimes, too, women or children
were carried off and held for debt. This form of collection of debts
was legal, or at least semi-legal. In case the debt was paid, the
captive was returned; otherwise, he was sold as a slave.
ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN
27. Definition of illegitimacy; its frequency.--A bastard is one whose
father refuses to take the mother as his legal wife for any period
of time, however short. The marriage of the parents after the birth
of the bastard, consequently, legitimizes the child.
Bastardy is not very frequent. It is extremely frequent, however, for
a girl to become pregnant before her marriage. But in such cases her
lover usually marries her. It is usually in cases of doubtful parentage
and in cases in which one of the parents is of vastly different status
as to wealth that a marriage does not follow pregnancy. But there
are also a few cases of bastardy surrounded by other circumstances.
28. Obligations of father to bastard child.--The father of a bastard
must give his child a rice field if he has a field unassigned. He
must also give the mother an oban, or blanket, with which to carry
the child after the Ifugao fashion on her back. The value of this gift
is principally in its constituting a formal recognition of the child.
The mother's rights are enforced by her kin. To a certain extent
the same is true of the bastard's rights. A man is never forced to
marry a woman against his will--an Ifugao woman would be ashamed to
ask such a thing. Such a marriage, too, would not be congenial. The
mere making of a bastard a legitimate child is not of sufficient
importance to justify such a marriage. Besides, the Ifugaos have a
saying, kumadangyang di inlaglaga: "The bastard becomes a rich man."
Except in the matter of division of estates, the bastard has the same
rights as legitimate children. His father's kin back him in legal
procedures and avenge his wrongs as if he were legitimate. The father
and his kin assist him in his marriage feast and in other feasts that
may be necessary.
29. Determination of parentage.--The ordeal is employed when two or
more men are accused of being the father of a bastard. The woman's word
is not sufficient to settle the parentage. The one she accuses may
lay the matter at the door of another. The ordeals used are the duel
with runo stalks, or eggs, and the hot water test. The woman, holding
the babe in her arms, sits half way between the two controversants.
The Ifugao has the remnant of a peculiar belief that a child may
be begotten by two fathers. They say, for example, that if A and B,
two men, are having sexual intercourse with a woman, Z, and that if
it is settled by fate that A and B each shall beget a child of the
male sex, Z will conceive and the child may be the son of both of
them. But if A is fated to beget a female child, and B to beget a
male child, the semen of the one undoes that of the other, and the
woman does not conceive. This belief is not taken seriously as a rule;
but I have heard it advanced in a case of illegitimate birth. [13]
Accordingly, should each of the two men be struck by the eggs thrown
in the duel to decide the parentage of the child, or should both be
scalded by hot water, the Ifugao, formerly at least, held that the
child belonged to each of them.
RECIPROCAL OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN
30. Duties of parents to children.--The Ifugao family exists
principally for the child members of it. The parents are supposed to
love, and do love their children more than the children love them. The
parents are under the obligation to provide food and clothing for
their children, and to impart to them the tribal knowledge that is
necessary to a respectable and well regulated Ifugao life. The child
may be forced to assist, according to his ability, in the matter of
household tasks, work in the fields, and the like.
Corporal punishment may be, but very rarely is, administered. It is
the mothers, strange to say, rather than the fathers, who use this
form of punishment. I never saw or heard of a father whipping his
child. Such a thing as a right of life and death over a child is as
unthought of, as it would be abhorrent, to the Ifugao if mentioned.
The Ifugao child, even at the age of ten or twelve, begins to look upon
his parents' property as his own, or at least that portion of it that
will fall to his share. A little later, he becomes independent--he
does not obey his parents unless he wants to do so. He is fully
as likely to command them as to obey them. And the parent is under
the obligation early to allow the children to displace him from his
possession. He must turn over all his property to them as soon as
they are able to marry or care for themselves. Should there be but
a single field, he assigns it to his eldest. From the time that the
fields are turned over, the father's offices are those of priest and
counselor; the mother's offices are those of priestess (sometimes)
and of household drudge (always).
31. Obligations of children to parents.--The obligations of children
to their parents are:
(a) To provide animals and other things requisite to religious feasts
that are thought necessary to keep them in good health and to restore
them when sick. This obligation is by far the most burdensome one,
usually.
(b) To provide food and clothing for them, and to care for them when
sick or helpless.
(c) To provide requisites for a funeral feast in accord with the
station of the deceased.
In case the child has not yet obtained possession of his allotment,
these obligations do not rest upon the child, but are a charge upon
the property allotted him. If the child has obtained possession of
his share in the family estate, the obligation rests upon the child
himself.
The law of primogeniture holds with respect to these obligations. Civil
obligations rest more heavily upon the older children and as nearly
as possible in proportion to the amounts of property received from
the parents. Children who receive no family property contribute
very little.
One might ask how compliance with these obligations is
enforced. Compliance with them is really not enforced. They are the
most sacred of all duties. Not to meet them would bring upon one's
self such universal reproach as to render life unbearable.
THE PROPERTY LAW
THE KINDS OF PROPERTY
32. The Ifugao's classification of properties.--The Ifugao clearly
distinguishes between two classes of property. His language,
and indeed his thought, is very poor in abstractions, however,
and he bases his classification upon the difference in the method
of transferring property by sale. The one class he calls ma-ibuy,
"that for whose transfer by sale an ibuy ceremony is necessary";
and the other, adi ma-ibuy, "that for whose transfer by sale an ibuy
ceremony is not necessary." Classifying them upon their essential
differences in status in Ifugao law and culture, I term the former
family property and the latter personal property.
FAMILY PROPERTY
33. The Ifugao attitude toward family property.--Family properties
consist of rice lands, forest lands, and heirlooms. The Ifugao
attitude is that lands and articles of value that have been handed
down from generation to generation cannot be the property of any
individual. Present holders possess only a transient and fleeting
possession, or better, occupation, insignificant in duration in
comparison with the decades and perhaps centuries that have usually
elapsed since the field or heirloom came into the possession of the
family. Their possession is more of the nature of a trust than an
absolute ownership--a holding in trust for future generations.
It is a misfortune when family property that has long been in the
possession of a family must be sold out of it. But if it be sold
to a member of another branch of the same family, the misfortune is
accounted less in proportion to the nearness of the kinship. However,
the rights of the living and of the ancestors departed, are
greater than the rights of the unborn. Consequently, a field may
properly be sold and so depart from the family, if it be in order
to provide animals to accompany the spirit of a deceased ancestor
to the spirit world, or in order to provide animals for sacrifices
to secure the recovery from dangerous sickness of some member of the
family. Inherited property, however, is not to be disposed of without
exhausting every effort to keep it within the family. Nor must it
ever be disposed of for light or trivial reasons. Except when sold to
satisfy the needs of the departed or living (in these cases, a forced
sale) family properties when sold bring exorbitant prices. Fields or
other properties which have been recently acquired or constructed,
sell at considerably lower prices, even though their intrinsic value
be the same.
Nothing that I know of in the Ifugao make-up, is so characteristically
oriental as is this subordination of individual to family rights.
34. Rice lands.--A "field" consists of all the contiguous paddies
in one place that are the property of one man. In sales and in
transfers arising out of family relationship, and in balal (pawning),
a field is never divided. If there be two heirs and only one field
to be inherited, the elder of the heirs takes the entire field. The
reason for this and for the rights of primogeniture (see sec. 53)
in inheritance and assignment of property, is to be found in the fact
that the Ifugao social consciousness considers it better--and it is
better--that a family have at least one powerful member round whom
the kin may rally and to whom they may look for aid, than that the
family property be split into insignificant parcels that would affect
but little the property of all. Aside from this consideration there is
also the practical difficulty of dividing a field. In the process of
dividing, the family unity--which is the dearest and most necessary
thing in Ifugao society--would probably be destroyed by quarrels and
squabbles. Even if an equitable division could be arranged, a great
deal of the field would be taken up in dikes and division lines. It
is a rare thing to find an Ifugao rice field as large as one acre
in extent.
There is no formal recognition of the eldest as the head of the
family. But together with the lion's share of the property, the
first-born inherits certain well defined and rather stringent
obligations. In this we seem to have the savor of a system of
patriarchy.
35. Forest lands.--Such lands, valuable principally because of the
woods upon them, are often the common property of a group of kinsmen
and their families. They are sometimes partitioned. They are nearly
sure to be partitioned if wood be scarce, or if part of the land be
suitable for rice fields.
36. Heirlooms.--Heirlooms consist of such articles as gold
neck-ornaments (intrinsic value of the gold being about 10 pesos to
20 pesos; current price among the Ifugaos, 60 pesos to 120 pesos);
gongs (value 8 pesos to 250 pesos); rice-wine jars (value 60 pesos to
400 pesos); pango, or strings of amber colored glass beads (value 80
pesos to 160 pesos); and bungol, long strings of agates and bloodstones
which are very rarely sold (value about 250 pesos). These articles
are used fully as much by the owner's kin as by the owner himself;
for they wear the beads and ornaments, play the gongs in feasts,
and brew rice wines in the jars.
37. Sale of family property.--The selling of rice fields, forest
lands, gold neck-ornaments, rice-wine jars, and the like is a matter
of practical concern to the entire family. Selling them, except in
cases of necessity and after consultation with the kin, would lead to
ill feeling toward the seller on the part of his kin, and a refusal
to assist and back him. Since there is no form of political government
in Ifugao culture, and since every man must, with the help of his kin,
"get his own justice," this would be no small punishment. How serious
a punishment it would be, the reader will, perhaps, realize when he
reads the chapter on procedure.
The sale of family property is registered by ceremonies in which
the near kin of both buyer and seller take part. In comparison with
the solemnity of these transfers, our real estate transfers are
commonplace. In comparison with their complexity, our transfers are
simplicity itself.
PERSONAL PROPERTY
38. Definition.--Such articles as knives, spears, dishes, baskets,
pots, houses, camote fields, fruit-bearing trees, blankets, animals
and articles of minor value, are on the same legal basis as personal
property among ourselves. Three items in this list demand special
attention: houses, valuable trees, and sweet potato fields.
39. Houses.--Dwellings are movable property in Ifugao. A man, with the
aid of his kinsmen can, and frequently does, take a house to pieces,
move it to a different site and set it up again before sunset. The plot
on which a house stands has no value. The value of a house is usually
about ten pesos, the range of prices being from six to sixty pesos.
40. Valuable trees.--Cocoanut trees, coffee trees, and areca palms
are sold without any sale or transfer of the land on which they
stand. The value of a cocoanut tree in full bearing is five pesos;
of a coffee tree, one to two pesos; of an areca palm one-half peso. As
a rule, the land on which these trees stand has no value. A practice
presenting parallel features that leads one to believe that the same
manner of selling trees must have prevailed among the Pangasinanes,
one of the Christian tribes, is that, in the sale of the cocoanut
groves in central Pangasinan, the trees are sold at so much apiece;
but in order to get possession of the trees, it is necessary to buy
the land at so much a hectare, since the land has a value.
Camote or sweet potato fields are discussed in section 45.
No ceremonials are involved in the transfer of personal property;
nor are witnesses necessary, as a general thing.
PERPETUAL TENURE
Tenure is either perpetual or transient.
41. Rice and forest lands.--Rice-land and forest-land tenures are
perpetual.
In case an owner abandons a rice field for any period of time, however
long, and another man takes up the field without interference or
contrary order of the true owner, clears it of underbrush, builds up
the broken dikes, levels once more the terraces, tills and plants it,
the latter has the right to use the field for the same number of years
that it was abandoned. At the end of this time, the field reverts to
the true owner. Should the owner desire possession of his field before
the expiration of the time, for which, in accordance with this rule,
the field should remain in the possession of him who redeemed it from
the wild mountain side, he must repurchase possession.
It is not incumbent on a man to secure permission of the owner of an
abandoned field before working it; it is incumbent on the owner to
prevent others from working his field against his will.
In the event a rice field is made on privately owned forest lands
from which the timber has long been cut, the owner of the land,
when he has proved title, demands payment for the land. But he may
not take advantage of the labor that the other has spent on the land
in making rice fields, to demand an exorbitant payment. To take such
a course would invite danger to himself.
Forest lands that have been divested of their wood may be planted in
camotes (sweet potatoes) by any person without asking the consent of
the owner. If the owner does not want his land so planted or intends to
use it himself, it is his business to inform any who may have started
to work the land. But if he is tardy in making this prohibition,
he must pay for the labor expended, or must allow the continuance of
the work, and the harvesting of one crop of camotes from the land. I
am not certain that this is the case in all parts of Ifugao.
42. "Homesteading."--That land which is not rice fields or forest land
and which is not owned by some individual by reason of its having
been one or the other formerly, becomes the property of whomsoever
makes it into rice fields. The tenure so acquired is perpetual.
43. Paghok, or landmarks.--Whenever a rice-field terrace is walled,
the terrace wall is an unfailing and unimpeachable landmark. But
in many districts, the terraces are not walled. In such cases, the
division lines between fields are marked by large chunks of wood or
by large stones, buried three or four feet deep along the division
line. A boulder is of course a most excellent landmark.
Weather and the elements are continually wearing back an unwalled
terrace. The amount each year is very small. But when in the course
of years the displacement is sufficient to justify it, the owner may
take that part of the field in the terrace below that belongs to him.
The moving of a landmark is said never to occur, since it would
take two or three men to lift the heavy stones, and would require a
long time. Moreover it could not be done without leaving plain and
indisputable evidence of the crime.
44. Right of way through property owned by others.--In order to get
rid of insect pests, clay is sometimes conveyed to a field to form
a layer over it about two inches thick. The clay is shovelled into
a stream of water above, and carried as silt to the field and there
allowed to settle. Sometimes leaf mold and other fertilizers are
conveyed to a field in this manner.
It makes no difference how many fields there may be above that on
which it is desired to deposit the sediment, the owner of the last
has a right to cut a ditch through the upper fields as a conduit for
the stream of water. He must, however, repair all the upper terraces
so as to leave them as they were before.
TRANSIENT TENURE
45. Tenure of sweet potato fields.--Sweet potato, or camote, fields
are clearings on the mountain sides about the village. They are nearly
always steep slopes, and quickly lose their fertility. For that reason,
they are abandoned after a period that varies in different districts
of Ifugao according as camotes are a more or less important factor
in the subsistence of the people. Thus in Banaue, where camotes form
a very large part of the subsistence of the people, the fields are
cultivated for five or even six years, if located near the village;
if more distant, they are abandoned after about two years. In Kiangan,
where camotes do not play such an important part in subsistence, the
fields are in any case abandoned after one or two years. The reason
for abandoning the fields is that the soil wears out soon, so that the
camotes grow small, and the yield does not repay the labor spent in
cultivation. But in case a large area about the village be cultivated,
rather than face the necessity of going far from the village to make
clearings, the old fields are tended to a point at which the yield
becomes almost nil. After abandoning a field, the owner still has a
claim on it, but only until such time as the field grows up in weeds,
in which case the labor spent by him in making the clearing may be
fairly presumed to have been undone. After abandonment, the field
regains its fertility slowly. The first person who begins clearing
the field again becomes its possessor for a new term of years. It
is exceedingly rare that quarrels arise over camote fields. Camote
fields are sometimes sold, but it is not the land that is sold,
but the crop with temporary possession of the land.
TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY FOR A CONSIDERATION
There are two kinds of transfer of family property for "consideration":
the balal (pawn), and outright sale.
46. The balal.--In case a man finds himself under the necessity of
raising a considerable sum of money--usually in order to provide funds
for a funeral feast or a sacrifice--he frequently borrows the sum,
giving a rice field into the hands of his creditor as a security and
as a means of paying the interest on debt. The creditor holds, plants,
and harvests the field until the debt be repaid. The field is to all
purposes his, except that he cannot sell it. He can, however, transfer
it as a balal into the hands of another. But he must transfer it for
the same or a less amount of money; that is, if he has loaned fifty
pesos on the field, he must not borrow more than that sum, unless,
of course, he be able to secure the owner's consent. This is a very
wise provision of Ifugao law that insures the prompt return of the
field to the owner as soon as he be able to get together the amount
needed to redeem the field. An example will make this clear. A borrows
fifty pesos of B, giving his field as a balal into B's charge; B gives
it as a balal to C for the same or a less amount, who gives it as a
balal to D and so on. When A is able to repay the debt, he goes to B
and delivers him the sum plus the fee of the agent through whom the
deal was effected. With this amount, including the fee, B goes to C,
C goes to D, and so on. Were B to have borrowed without A's consent
more than fifty pesos, say seventy pesos, and were he not financially
able to obtain the difference (twenty pesos) between his debt to C
and the debt that A had just paid him, there would be an excellent
beginning for a quarrel that might end in lance throwing.
Real estate of this kind continues in the hands of the creditor
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).
62. Debts for which the kin of the deceased are held.--When a debtor
dies childless, the kin who inherit, if there be such, must pay debts
that were incurred on behalf of their family. They are, too, jointly
responsible with the wife, for these debts incurred on behalf of the
debtor's descendants. If there be nothing inherited, all the kin are
responsible for these debts in proportion to nearness of the kinship.
It is a matter of doubt as to whether a man's kin or his spouse can
be held for his gambling debts. Such debts are purely personal, and
are about the only debts that an Ifugao contracts in his own selfish
interest. The Ifugaos did not gamble heavily, at least not before the
coming of the Spaniards; since their coming, custom in this matter
has not had time to crystallize.
63. Attitude toward debts.--A debt is a sacred thing to an Ifugao. The
non-payment of a debt is disgraceful. The non-collection is still more
disgraceful, for the presumption is that a man who does not collect
from his creditors cannot do so. If he cannot collect his debts, it
must be because he is a coward. In the babbling that prevails about
the rice-wine jar when tongues are loosened, one who has debts long
outstanding that other men would collect, hears things not calculated
to tickle his pride.
BORROWING AND LENDING
To a far greater proportionate extent is borrowing and lending carried
on among the Ifugaos than in our own country. Almost any event that
carries with it a large payment or expenditure carries with it as a
corollary a large amount of borrowing. The things usually borrowed
are death blankets, animals for sacrifice, and rice.
64. Lupe, or interest.--Interest on things borrowed is exceedingly
high. But where borrower and lender are brothers, no interest is
charged; where they are kin of somewhat remoter degree, a low interest,
as a rule, is charged. In any case a special agreement may be made
by which the interest is not as high as usual. It may be stated as a
general principle that a thing borrowed must be repaid by twice its
value if paid soon--that is within a year or even two years. But if
repayment be made after a long time, three perhaps, four times the
value must be repaid. The Ifugao does not hold to the calendar very
severely in reckoning interest. But where full interest is charged,
the rule is that a thing borrowed must be repaid by twice its value,
even if it be paid within two weeks. Thus rice borrowed two weeks
before harvest time must be repaid by double the quantity immediately
after harvest.
65. Patang, or interest paid in advance.--This is the Ifugao form
of bank discount. It is interest paid in advance for one year. On
a carabao (worth usually about eighty pesos) this amounts to thirty
pesos a year. At the end of the year if the carabao be not paid back,
the patang must be followed by a second payment of the same quantity,
called unud, "following," for the next year. If it be intended to
repay the carabao within three months, the interest in advance is
ten pesos, and is called baloblad.
66. Another form of patang.--Somewhat similar is the fee or interest
paid to the owner of anything seized by a man of a different district
or village to cover an unpaid indebtedness owed the latter by a
neighbor or co-villager of the former. It is the amount of interest
usually paid for one year; but there is no unud or further payment,
since it is presumed that by the end of the year the delinquent
neighbor ought to have been compelled to pay.
Thus A of one village owes C of another village a debt. After several
fruitless attempts to collect, C seizes a carabao belonging to B,
a co-villager of A. C sends a go-between to pay B thirty pesos,
telling him of A's debt, and informing him that he must get his
carabao back from A.
GO-BETWEENS
67. The go-between.--No transaction of importance of any sort between
persons of different families is consummated without the intervention
of a middle man, or go-between, called monbaga (bespeaker) in civil
transactions; and monkalun (admonisher) in criminal cases.
Go-betweens are used commonly in (a) buying and selling of family
property of whatever kind or value; (b) buying and selling of
animals and the more valuable personal property, except chickens,
and in some cases pigs; (c) the borrowing of money or other wealth;
(d) marriage proposals and the negotiating of marriage contracts;
(e) collection of debts; (f) all steps connected with the balal, such
as pawn of rice fields, or their redemption; (g) demands for damages
to property or persons; (h) the buying back of heads lost in war,
the ransoming of the kidnapped, or the making of peace.
The go-between is the principal witness to a transaction. For his
services he receives pay which is fixed to a fair degree of exactness
for a particular service. This pay ranges from a piece of meat to a
fee of twenty or twenty-five pesos.
68. Responsibility of go-betweens.--Go-betweens are responsible to
both parties to a transaction, for the correct rendering of tenders,
offers, and payments. Their word binds only themselves, however--not
their principals. Go-betweens are not agents of one party more than
another. They are supposed to be impartial, and interested only in
consummating the transaction involved in order to get their fee.
Thus, suppose that A sends B as a go-between to sell a field to C,
a man of another district. B finds that he cannot sell the field for
the price A asked for it, and, anxious to consummate a sale and so
collect his fee, he agrees to sell the field to C for a lower price
than that asked by A.
In such a case as this, B is responsible to C in case A refuses to
abide by C's agreement to sell. C has the right to collect damages.
The oriental propensity to "squeeze" is proverbial. It is condoned
in law--one might almost say legitimized, provided it be not found
out. Thus:
A sends B to Nueva Vizcaya to buy a carabao. The regular commission
for this service is ten pesos, the agent to deliver a living
carabao to the principal, and to be responsible for the value
if the carabao die on the route. This, the usual agreement,
holds between them. A furnishes B with eighty pesos with which
to purchase the animal. B returns with the animal, representing
that he paid seventy pesos for it, when, as a matter of fact,
he paid out sixty pesos, thus gaining ten pesos "squeeze."
If A finds out that B paid only sixty pesos for the carabao,
the only thing he can do is to collect the ten pesos difference
between what A paid and what he said he paid. He cannot assess
punitive damages.
69. Conditions relieving a go-between of responsibility.--An act of God
or the acts of a public enemy relieve a go-between or an agent from
responsibility. Thus an agent sent to purchase an animal in baliwan
(the stranger country) is under obligation to deliver it alive. But if
it be struck by lightning, or if the carabao be taken away from him
by enemies, and he has a wound to bear witness that he offered due
resistance to them; or, in case he has no wound, if he has witnesses
or good proof of the fact that the enemy was so superior in force as to
make resistance foolhardy, he cannot be held for payment of the animal.
70. Payment due those who find the body of one dead by violence.--An
Ifugao who finds the body of one dead by violence or drowning, and not
an inhabitant of the same district as himself, must perform a general
welfare feast to remove the liability to misfortune that is likely
to result from such an incident. Consequently, he is entitled to a
payment, varying from one to ten pesos, according to the rank of the
dead person. If there be more than one who encounter the dead body,
all are entitled to the same payment. This payment is called halat.
CONTRACTS FOR THE SALE OF PROPERTY
71. On whom binding.--Contracts for the transfer of property for
consideration are binding on the seller only. Rarely, if ever, is there
a payment to bind the bargain. The simple promise to sell is sufficient
to constitute a contract to sell. The breaking of a contract to sell
renders the breaker of the contract liable for damages only in case
he took the initiative in making the contract.
Damages paid for the breaking of a contract to sell, are called
hogop. In case an agreement to sell a rice field is broken, the
damages are usually one large pig (fifteen or twenty pesos). In the
case of questions of this sort over minor property, the hogop may be
a death blanket, a small pig, or a chicken.
The following examples will serve to illustrate:
A sends B as a go-between to sell a rice field. B first contracts
to sell the field to C. Later, knowing the terms of the sale
offered by A to be very advantageous, he sells the field to a
kinsman D.
In this case B is liable for the hogop to C.
In the above case B, after contracting to sell the field to C,
duly reports to A that C has accepted the terms offered, and
that he is raising the amount required for the first payment;
that he will go again by agreement with C to receive this first
payment on such and such a day. A sells the field to somebody else.
In this case A is liable to C for the hogop, and to B for his
fee as go-between.
It becomes a matter of common knowledge that A has a gold
neck-ornament for sale. C agrees to purchase at the stated price
and A agrees to sell to him. A sells the ornament to somebody else.
A is not liable for the hogop, for the reason that C made the
first advances.
In no case can one who makes a contract to buy be held for any payment
of damages for breaking his contract.
IRRIGATION LAW
72. The law as to new fields.--If all the land below a spring or
small stream located on ownerless land, be common land--that is,
land without an owner--he who makes the first rice field below the
source of the water supply is entitled to all the water needed for
his rice field. Another man, making a rice field between the field
of the first comer and the source of the water supply, may not use
the spring or stream to the detriment of the first comer.
But should a man make a field, be it on common or on owned land,
below a spring or stream, and should another man make a field between
the first field and the source of the water supply on owned land,
the second comer would have the right to whatever water might be
useful to him.
73. The law as to water.--Water which has been flowing to an area of
irrigated land may under no circumstances be diverted to irrigate
a different area, even though that area be nearer the source of
the water.
A person who acquires rice fields, one of which is near the source
of the water supply and the other at a considerable distance from it,
may not pipe or trough the water from the upper field to the lower one
if the water has meantime been irrigating an intervening area. Thus:
Manghe of Ambabag, having a field near Baay, acquires a field near
Ambabag, about a quarter of a mile upstream from the first. He
threatens to put a line of troughs from one field to another so
as to supply sufficient water to the lower field. This action
would rob intervening fields of their accustomed water supply,
and would be illegal.
A spring belongs to him on whose land it is situated, and so also does
all the water issuing from the spring. The owner may sell the surplus
water to whom he pleases. The water rights so sold are perpetual. Thus:
A has a rice field in which there is a spring. He sells the water
to B, whose field is to one side--perhaps at a considerable
distance from A's. C has a field immediately below A's. He
purchases A's field and unites it with his own. But he may not
divert the water from A's original field to his own original field,
unless he buy the water right from B.
74. The law as to irrigation ditches.--Constructors of an irrigation
ditch may sell interest in the ditch. The ditch thus shared with
others becomes an equal burden as to upkeep on all the owners.
The constructors of an irrigation ditch who have sold part of the
water from their ditch, must share the water in time of water scarcity
with those to whom they have sold, in proportion to the respective
areas of the rice fields. That is, every owner of an irrigation ditch
is entitled to a share proportionate to the area of his rice land,
of the water diverted by means of the ditch.
Repetition of the malicious destruction of an irrigation ditch, or the
turning of the water from it or out of it, is an offense punishable
by fine or even in some cases by death. The first offense, when
the culprit is discovered, is not punished; but there is a warning
against repetition.
Diversion of water from an irrigation ditch in which the diverter has
no interest is not a very serious offense. On the first offense the
diverter is warned. If he repeats it, all the water is drained from
his field or he is given a beating.
PENAL LAW
PENALTIES
The Ifugaos have two punishments for crime: the death penalty and
fine. These punishments are inflicted and executed by the offended
person and his kin.
75. Nature and reckoning of fines.--Fines are of two sorts: fines of
"tens," bakid, and fines of "sixes," na-onom, each unit of the ten or
six being a portion of the whole fine. The different parts of the fine
go to different people. Oftentimes sticks, knots, or notches are used
to assist in calculation. In Banaue and neighboring districts these
aids to calculation are also kept as a record. The unit payments grow
successively smaller from the first to the last.
The first unit of any series is called pu-u, meaning "base." It is
of the greatest value, and goes to the injured individual. The second
payment, sometimes, goes to the go-between. In that case, the kin of
the injured man take all the rest. If the fee of the go-between be
provided for outside of the fine, the kin of the injured man take
all except the pu-u, the first unit. This is but just, since they
have backed their kinsman in his action against the offender, have
perchance risked their lives in his cause, and also stand ready at
all times to help pay any fines that others may assess against him.
The second, and sometimes the third and fourth units, are called
haynub di pu-u, meaning "followers of the base." They are of less
value than the pu-u. Then follow units consisting, each, of four irons
(spear-heads, axes, knives). These units are called natauwinan. Then
come units of three irons each, called natuku; then units of two irons
each, called nunbadi; then units of one iron each, called na-oha. In
the case of fines composed of six units, there is usually no haynub.
The Malay does nothing without first thoroughly talking it over. After
a payment has been tentatively consented to by the offender and his
family, there yet remain many conferences with the go-between before
everything is arranged. An uninitiated white man on seeing a group of
these people, squatted in a circle, moving little sticks about, and
in heated discussion, might think they were playing some primitive
but absorbing native game. And, I am not sure that the attitude of
their minds is very different!
The following tables of fines assessed for the four degrees of
adultery illustrate the manner of reckoning fines, their amounts,
the value of the units, as well as the fines proper to the three
classes of society in the Kiangan district.
Tabulation Showing the Payment Exacted for Adultery in Its Various
Degrees and for Individuals of Different Rank
For adultery committed after the mommon (first ceremony) and before
the bango (second ceremony)
For the Wealthy
Na-onom or "six" fine
Divisions of the fine Article exacted Appraisal
1. Pu-u 1 death blanket P8.00
2. Haynub 1 kettle 5.00
3. Natauwinan 4 irons 1.00
4. Natauwinan 4 irons 1.00
5. Natuku 3 irons .50
6. Natuku 3 irons .50
Liwa (fee of the
go-between) 1 ceremonial clout 2.00
======
Total, P18.00
For the Middle Class
Na-onom or "six" fine
Divisions of the fine Article exacted Appraisal
1. Pu-u 1 kettle P5.00
2. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
3. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
4. Natuku 1 kettle .50
5. Natuku 1 kettle .50
6. Na-oha 1 kettle .20
Liwa (fee of the
go-between) 1 natauwinan 1.00
=====
Total, P9.20
For the Poor
Na-onom or "six" fine
Divisions of the fine Article exacted Appraisal
1. Pu-u 1 kettle P2.00
2. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
3. Natuku 1 kettle .50
4. Natuku 1 kettle .50
5. Nunbadi 2 irons .40
6. Na-oha 2 irons .20
The go-between takes the first natuku
listed above
=====
Total, P4.60
For adultery committed after the bango (second ceremony) and before
the bubun (final ceremony)
For the Wealthy
Hin-bakid or "ten" fine
Divisions of the fine Article exacted Appraisal
1. Pu-u 2 death blankets P16.00
2. Haynub 1 death blanket 8.00
3. Haynub 1 death blanket 4.00
4. Haynub 1 death blanket 4.00
5. Haynub 1 kettle 4.00
6. Haynub 1 kettle 2.00
7. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
8. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
9. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
10. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
Liwa (fee of the
go-between) 1 kettle 5.00
======
Total, P47.00
For the Middle Class
Hin-bakid or "ten" fine
Divisions of the fine Article exacted Appraisal
1. Pu-u 1 death blanket P8.00
2. Haynub 1 kettle 5.00
3. Haynub 1 kettle 2.00
4. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
5. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
6. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
7. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
8. Natuku 1 kettle .50
9. Natuku 1 kettle .50
10. Na-oha 1 kettle .20
Liwa (fee of the
go-between) 1 kettle 4.00
======
Total, P24.20
For the Poor
Na-onom or "six" fine
Divisions of the fine Article exacted Appraisal
1. Pu-u 1 kettle P5.00
2. Haynub 1 kettle 2.00
3. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
4. Natauwinan 1 kettle 1.00
5. Natuku 1 kettle .50
6. Nunbadi 1 kettle .40
Liwa (fee of the
go-between) 1 kettle 2.00
======
Total, P11.90
For adultery committed after the bubun (final ceremony) the penalty
is doubled for the higher classes, and increased to a fine of "ten"
for persons of the lower class. That is, a poor man pays for adultery
after the bubun what a middle-class man would pay for adultery before
the bubun.
For adultery in the aggravated degree known as hokwit (see sec. 94)
the fines just mentioned are doubled; so that a wealthy man would pay
188 pesos, a middle-class man 96.80 pesos, and a poor man 48.40 pesos.
CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH AFFECT PENALTY
Certain circumstances, namely, criminal responsibility, alienship,
kinship, confession, and the relative rank of offender and offended,
affect penalty, either as to its severity or as to the likelihood of
its being inflicted at all.
76. Moral turpitude not a factor.--Moral turpitude, which plays no
small part in our own law in determining punishment, seems not to
enter into the consideration of Ifugao law. Thus, such crimes as
incest between brother and sister, parricide, matricide, fraticide,
and treason against one's family, all go unpunished. Even the
betrayal of a co-villager into the hands of the enemy subjects the
offender to only a third degree of likelihood of being punished
(see sec. 80). These crimes probably go unpunished in accordance
with the following correlated fundaments of Ifugao society: Legal
procedure is conducted by and between families; the family unit is
the most precious thing in Ifugao social life; family unity must,
at all hazards, be preserved. In the case of a murder accomplished by
treachery, as for example, the killing of a guest, the moral turpitude
involved might perhaps hasten punishment--it might even increase its
severity in that the kin of the murdered person might retaliate on
a greater number of those concerned in the murder. But such an abuse
of hospitality appears never to have occurred.
Another reason why what we consider moral turpitude does not enter
into punishment is that treachery, ambush, and accomplishment by
superior force are the rule, not only in commission of crime, but
also in perfectly legal capital executions and seizures of property.
PENAL RESPONSIBILITY
As between principals and their accomplices and accessories, Ifugao
law recognizes only gradations in likelihood of punishment. The
penalty is the same for all of them; but very frequently the offense
is considered as having been expiated by the punishment of those
whose responsibility for it is greatest, and the rest go free.
77. The nungolat, or principal.--The nungolat (he who was strong)
is the conceiver, planner, and director of an offense. He may or may
not take an active part in its commission. Whether or not he does so,
he is considered to be responsible for it in the highest degree. He is,
of all who take part in the offense, the most likely to be punished.
The following example, continued through several succeeding sections,
shows the various degrees of criminal responsibility, and the
corresponding degrees of likelihood of punishment:
A decides to avenge the death of a kinsman. He consequently calls
a number of his kinsmen and proposes a war expedition to take the
head of Z, an enemy concerned in the death of the murdered kinsman,
in another village. They agree. A calls the family priests to
his house to perform the necessary religious preliminaries to
setting out on a head-hunting expedition. The ceremonies are
performed, and the omen of the bile sac promises well. But, just
before starting, some accident happens to A, which the priests
attribute to the sorcery of the enemy. A consequently does not
accompany the expedition. He is, notwithstanding, the nungolat,
and is more likely to be the object of vengeance than any other,
should the crime be accomplished.
78. The tombok, or "thrower."--In offenses in which a spear is
thrown, he who throws the effective spear is called the tombok. His
responsibility for the crime is second to that of the nungolat,
as is also his likelihood of being punished.
79. Iba'n di nungolat, the "companions of the one who was
strong."--Those who assist in the commission of a crime by reinforcing,
accompanying, assisting, backing, giving aid and comfort to the
committer thereof, or furnishing anything needful to the consummation
of the crime incur the next lesser degree of criminal responsibility
and of likelihood of being punished to those of the conceiver and
committer of the crime.
80. The montudol, "shower," or informer.--One who gives a person in
the act of committing a crime information necessary to the successful
carrying out of his intent, is guilty in the same degree as are
persons of the preceding paragraph.
Thus, continuing the illustration started above, suppose that
B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I go to take the head of A's enemy and
theirs. They meet O, a co-villager of Z, the man whose head they
want to take, and ask him regarding Z's whereabouts. The fact
could not be otherwise than patent to O, that a head-hunting
party was addressing him. He answers truthfully that Z is in
his sweet potato field, and that the party may reach the field
by such and such by-path without their being seen by Z's kin or
co-villagers. The party follows O's directions. B spears Z.
B is the tombok; C, D, E, F, G, H, and I are the "companions of
the one who was strong," and O is the montudol.
81. Servants who commit crimes at the bidding of their
masters.--Retainers incur a lesser degree of criminal responsibility
than does the master. They will be punished if the master cannot be
punished. Sometimes both are punished.
82. Likelihood of punishment.--
(Continuation of illustration given above.) Z's kinsmen of course
decide to avenge his death. It is a general rule that all debts
must be paid with liberal interest, the interest being at least
equal to the debt. The debt of life is no exception to this
rule. The kinsmen, whom we will call Q, R, S, T, and U, decide
that, at least, they will kill A, the nungolat, and B, the tombok,
and that if opportunity offers they will kill one or two of the
others. They go to the vicinity of the village of A and B and lie
in wait for them. They may do this a number of times. Finally we
will suppose that they kill A. Their thirst for blood is somewhat
appeased, and they may not pursue their first intention. But it
would be the part of wisdom for B to be extremely cautious. Z's
kinsmen are likely to make an expedition or two to take his head.
On the other hand, suppose that A dies a natural death or falls in
some other feud. The full likelihood of punishment now falls on B.
Suppose that B, H, and O walk past the place of ambush of the
avengers. The latter will try to make sure of B, but will also
try to kill the other two.
Suppose that B, like A, meets death in some other way than at
the hands of Z's avengers. C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and O are now
equally likely to be punished.
In case several unsuccessful expeditions are made to secure the
head of A and B, the avengers are likely to take a head or heads
from some of the others rather than continually to place themselves
in jeopardy by their expeditions into an enemy region. Especially
is this true if the enemy's village be distant. If the villages
be near, it is probable that C, D, E, F, G, H, I, or O might walk
past the ambush of the avengers at first with impunity, since
the avengers are desirous of taking the heads of the principals,
and do not want to put the principals on their guard by slaying
those whose guilt is less.
83. Drunkenness and insanity in relation to criminal
responsibility.--Except in the case of murder, drunkenness mitigates
the severity of punishment, provided there be no evidence to show that
the culprit became intoxicated with the intent to commit the crime,
and provided he sincerely repents on becoming sober. Even insanity
is not an alleviating circumstance in the case of murder; but it is
one in all other crimes.
84. The relation of intent to criminal responsibility.--Gulad or
intent, is probably the greatest single factor in determining penal
responsibility. Thus:
A deed committed without intent, and without carelessness, is
excused. One has not, usually, even to make restitution for the
injury done. Thus, in the case of a bolo flying out of a man's hand,
and putting out the eye of another, no damages were assessed. An
enormous number of men, every year, are injured in the free-for-all
scrambles over sacrificed carabaos. Many of these injuries result in
stiff joints; some of them in deaths. In no case, not even in the
case of death, is a payment demanded. Suppose that in the chase a
number of hunters have surrounded a wild boar. The boar charges one of
them. This man leaps backward, and, at the same time, draws back his
spear to throw it at the boar. In so doing, he stabs a companion behind
him with the shod end of the spear handle. This is not an uncommon
accident. The others of the party are witnesses that the killing was
purely accidental (naloktat). No fine is assessed; but the killer,
to show that he is sorry, usually assists in the funeral feast. Of
course, if there were no witnesses, and if there were a possible motive
to complicate matters, the ending of the case might not be so happy.
Suppose that a number of men are throwing at a target with their
spears. A child runs in the way, and is killed. One-half the usual
fine for manslaughter is assessed on the ground that the thrower was
careless in that he did not make sure before he threw the spear that
such an accident could not occur. In this case there was an absence
of intent; but carelessness was present.
A man kills a neighbor at night, acting under the impression that
he is killing an enemy seeking his life. He is subjected to a much
heavier fine than if he had killed him through carelessness, since
there is present both the intent to kill, although not criminal,
and carelessness in that he did not make sure at whom he was casting
his spear. [15]
OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING LIABILITY
85. Alienship.--If the culprit be of a foreign village, the fact that
he is a foreigner is a strong aggravating circumstance. If found in
delicto, he is almost sure to be killed, in cases of theft or the
more serious crimes. In such crimes as insult, the same fine might be
demanded of the foreigner as of a co-villager, but not so much effort
would be made to arrange matters peaceably. If the fine demanded be
not paid and paid quickly, a kidnapping would ensue, or the culprit
would be killed. A man committing a minor crime in a foreign village
if not killed would be caught, tied, and held prisoner until redeemed.
86. Confession.--Confession before steps have been taken to inflict
punishment alleviates to a considerable degree except in murder and
adultery. In the latter case, if the adulterer made a voluntary
confession of guilt to the offended spouse, without having been
confronted with the evidence, it would be taken as brazen boasting,
and of the nature of an insult.
87. Kinship.--Kinship is so strong a mitigating circumstance as often
to excuse crime altogether. It has already been stated that crimes
of one brother or sister against another are not punished. Inasmuch
as all procedure is conducted by and between families, and since the
family of the two brothers is identical, procedure in such cases is
impossible. In the case of relatives of remoter degree, kinship is
a strong extenuating circumstance in the event of the more serious
crimes. In minor crimes, while the usual amount of the fine might
be demanded, it would very frequently not be collected; especially,
if the offender were very poor.
It has previously been said that the family is the only organization,
political or social, that the Ifugao has, and that, in proportion
as it is precious and necessary to him, he cherishes it; that Ifugao
law, consequently looks with the greatest disfavor upon anything that
would divide a family or destroy its unity.
In case a man steals from his cousin, who is married, restitution is
usually demanded, together with half the usual fine, which half goes
to the cousin's spouse--not to himself. Insults on the part of one
cousin to another are rare and are more rarely prosecuted.
88. Rank and standing in the community.--This is probably the greatest
single factor in determining the severity of punishment in cases
where a crime is punishable by fine. But the aggressiveness and the
war footing of the two parties to the controversy enter even here to
an astounding degree.
In the Kiangan-Maggok area, there are three grades of fines--the
highest for the punishment of crimes of one kadangyang or rich man,
against another; a medium grade for crimes of persons of the tumok,
or middle class, against each other; and a third and lowest grade for
the nawatwat, the poverty stricken. [16] Each lower grade of fine is
a little more than half the next higher one.
In the Kababuyan area, there are five grades of fines--one for the
very rich, one for the fairly rich, one for the middle class, one
for the poor, one for the poverty stricken. In Sapao and in Asin,
there are four grades.
So long as both offender and offended are of the same class, there
is no trouble about determining the fine proper in a given case. But
when they are of different classes, the case is not so simple, and
the factors of fighting strength and personality enter.
Suppose that R, a rich man, commits adultery against P, a poor
man. P sends a go-between to demand the highest grade of fine
for this crime--that is, the grade which kadangyang pay. R does
not deny the crime, but states that he considers the payment of
the fine that is due one rich man from another preposterous. He
states that he is willing to pay the fine proper to the poorer
class. To this P replies that he did not begin this action for the
purpose of getting money, but for the purpose of so punishing R
as to make a repetition of the crime improbable. There are three
possible endings in such a case:
(a) P's kin represent to him that they cannot afford to have war
with R; that R's people hold a lot of debts over their heads;
that should R prove obdurate, and should the affair end in a
lance throwing, R's people would wipe them off the earth. They
advise P to be satisfied with the lowest grade of fine. He agrees.
(b) P and R compromise on the grade of fine that is midway between
their stations; that is, the fine of the middle class. In Kiangan
this is the usual settlement.
(c) P shows such bungot (wrath and ferocity) that R's kin advise
him to pay the larger fine. They point out that the fine is a
small matter as compared with the loss of life, and state that
there is no telling what this poverty-stricken but rampant dog
will do. This settlement is not uncommon in the Kiangan area,
where the poor people have a great deal of pride and bravery,
but rare in other parts of Ifugao.
Aside from other matters, the diplomacy and tact of the go-between
would have a great deal to do toward determining which of these
contingencies would result.
It is extremely hard to make a general statement as to fines when
offender and offended are of different classes. It may safely be said
that the fines assessed average the amount midway between the fines
proper to the two classes concerned. Thus, when a poor man offends a
rich man, and when a rich man offends a poor man, the average of the
fines assessed equals approximately the fine assessed for injuries
within the middle class. In questions in which rich and middle class
persons are involved, the fines approximate an amount half way between
the fines of the rich and of the middle classes.
89. Importance of influential position and personality.--The fact
has already been mentioned (see sec. 4) that Ifugao administration
of justice is remarkably personal in nature. We have just seen,
in the example given in section 88, to what an extent personality
and war-footing enter into the infliction of fines when offender and
offended are of different classes. Nowhere can a man of magnetism and
force reap greater benefit from these qualities, relatively speaking,
than in an Ifugao controversy. The fact stares us in the face in
every phase of Ifugao law, especially in procedure.
89a. Cripples and unfortunates.--Cripples and those afflicted by
disfigurements or disfiguring diseases are often in a desperate
mood for the reason that life is not at all precious to them. They
are likely to be erratic and to constitute exceptions in punishment
of crimes and procedure. I remember a case that happened in Baay
District a few years ago which illustrates to what extent determination
and absolute abandon to a single purpose are valuable in carrying a
point in Ifugao procedure. I did not make note of the names but shall
designate the rich man as R and the poor man as P. P was afflicted with
the disease hiphip--probably ichthyosis--a skin disease in which the
skin becomes white, rough, and scaly. R met P one day and sneered at
him, saying, "Although you have neither fields, gongs, nor jewelry,
I see that you have become a kadongyang, for you are wearing a white
coat" (referring to the skin disease). P became violently angry but
restrained himself from assaulting R. He calmly informed R that for
this insult he fined him a large and valuable field, R's property in
Dayukong; that life meant little to himself, and that if R resisted and
interfered with his taking possession of the field, he would certainly
kill him. P further stated that he knew that R's kin would retaliate
and that he would lose his own life but that he did not care since he
was miserable anyway. None of the women would deign him their favors
and being poor--well, what was the use of living! P carried his point
and maintains possession of the field to this day. Having the field,
he managed to get a wife, who, although homely, has borne him two or
three children who are not afflicted with his disease.
Another case in point is the following: Piklud, a fairly wealthy man
of Kurug, was paralyzed from the knees down and in his locomotion he
had to crawl on all fours. He loaned a neighbor a chicken. There was a
quarrel over the repayment of this which left ill feeling between the
two. A little while after the quarrel, the neighbor met Piklud crawling
along the path through the village, and called to him as to a dog,
"Doa! doa! dé-dé-dé!" Piklud pretended not to notice and even feigned
amiability. He gossiped a little about the drought which was parching
the rice fields. Finally he said, "Let me see your spear." He felt
the edge and then with the words, "It is pretty sharp, isn't it?" he
thrust it upward into the other's abdomen.
THE PRINCIPAL CRIMES AND THEIR FREQUENCY
90. List of offenses.--In the Kiangan-Nagakaran-Maggok area, the
principal crimes, in order of their probable frequency, are: sorcery;
adultery; theft; murder (or in the case of women and children,
kidnapping); the putting of an innocent person in the position of
being considered an accessory to crime; manslaughter; rape of a
married woman; arson; incest. Minor crimes are: insult; slander;
false accusation; rape of a girl.
SORCERY
91. The ayak (soul-stealing) is a series of religious ceremonies in
which the sorcerer calls to a feast the ancestral spirits of some man
whose death he desires to encompass, together with many maleficent
spirits and deities, and bribes them to bring to him, incarnated as
a blue-bottle fly, a dragon fly, or a bee, the soul of the man whose
death he desires. When one of the insects mentioned comes to drink
of the rice wine in front of the sorcerer, it is imprisoned and put
into a bamboo joint tightly corked. The enemy, being thus deprived
of his soul, will die.
This form of sorcery cannot be practiced unless the sorcerer knows the
names of the ancestral spirits of his victim-to-be. For this reason,
when the Lamot people, who are famous sorcerers, come to Kiangan and
approach a religious feast, the Kiangan people do not invoke their
ancestral spirits until after the visitors have gone. Needless to say,
sorcery is always practiced in secret. It sometimes happens that it
is practiced by a man against his kin. In such a case, kinship does
not extenuate his punishment, since the preservation of the family
necessitates the extirpation of the sorcerer within its gates. This
is the only exception I know of to the general rule that a family
may not proceed against one of its members.
92. Other forms of sorcery.--Certain persons have an evil "cut" of
the eye, which, whether they wish it or not, brings misfortune or
sickness on whomsoever or whatsoever they see. Injury by means of the
"evil eye" may be effected intentionally or entirely unintentionally.
The words of certain persons even though innocent and unconnected with
evil, and though spoken as they usually are without malicious intent,
have the quality of bringing whatever is spoken to an evil end.
Thus A, afflicted with the "blasting word," goes to the house of B,
and, seeing a sow with a litter of handsome pigs, remarks, "That's
a fine litter of pigs you have!" If A be truly afflicted with
the blasting word, the pigs will die, even though A was without
intent to do injury, and was even ignorant of his affliction.
The evil eye and the blasting word are frequent
afflictions--afflictions that their possessor is the last to learn
about. They may be cured by the possessor's offering sacrifices of
the proper sort. In the event of injury unintentionally being done
by evil eye or blasting word, no punishment is meted out, although
in some cases restitution is demanded.
Curses are of two kinds: directly by word, and indirectly by curses
laid on food, drink, or betels. Kiangan people are afraid to purchase
rice from the Lamot people to the south of them through fear of being
affected by curses that may have been laid on the rice.
93. Punishment of sorcery.--Sorcerers are not punished hysterically. To
his credit, it must be said that the Ifugao proceeds slowly in
condemning a person for this crime. Before he takes action, he demands
not merely strong grounds for suspicion, but proof beyond a reasonable
doubt that the suspected person is a sorcerer. Proof that one has
performed the ayak ceremony against a person is sufficient ground for
the infliction of the death penalty. But in the case of the evil eye
and the blasting word, it must be proved that the death of the pigs,
the betel vine, or whatever it be that dies, was due to the glance
or words of the bewitched, and that both glance and words were used
with evil intent. This would obviously be hard to do; but for the
purpose of justifying an injured person in killing such a sorcerer or
bewitched one, a record of previous misdeeds of the kind, and a general
conviction, in which a portion, at least, of the man's kin concurred,
that the suspect was a malicious sorcerer, would be sufficient.
A curse, by one who has no reputation for supernatural powers, is
punishable by the following fine:
KADANGYANG MIDDLE CLASS NAWATAVAT
Hin-bakid (One ten) Hin-bakid (One ten) Na-onom (Six)
Pu-u (2 death Pu-u (death
blankets) P16.00 blanket) P8.00 Pu-u (dili) P8.00
Hay nub palyuk 5.00 Haynub palyuk 5.00 Natauwinan 1.00
Hay nub palyuk 2.00 Haynub palyuk 2.00 Nuntuku .50
Natauwinan 1.00 Natauwinan 1.00 Natuku .50
Natauwinan 1.00 Natauwinan 1.00 Na-oha .20
Natauwinan 1.00 Natauwinan .50 Liwa comes out
Natauwinan .50 Nuntuku .50 of the No-onom
Nuntuku (3 each) .50 Nuntuku .40
Nuntuku .50 Nunbadi .40
====== Na-oha .20
P27.50 Liwa comes out
Liwa or fee of of the Hin-bakid
go-between (1 death
blanket) P8.00
====== ====== ======
Total, P35.50 Total, P19.00 Total, P10.20
A curse by one who had a reputation of being a sorcerer might possibly
lead to the death of the sorcerer on the spot. In case he were not
killed, and the person or thing cursed died, the death penalty would
be inflicted later.
The following instances will be of value as illustrations. Some are
recent, others historical:
Before the coming of the Spaniards, Atiwan of Longa acquired
a reputation as a sorcerer. He killed several of his kinsmen in
Baay. Even his relatives in Longa admitted that he was a sorcerer,
and said that he ought to be killed. Ginnid of Baay and several
companions went to Longa one night, and called to Atiwan that
they had come to see him. He opened the house and put down the
ladder. The party ascended, and set upon Atiwan with their war
knives and killed him. In trying to protect him, his wife, Dinaon,
was wounded. The killing was universally approved.
Kimudwe (alias Dulnuan) of Tupplak is a famous, or rather an
infamous, sorcerer. Owing to a quarrel with one of his nephews,
Butlong, over a debt, he performed an ayak to cause the latter's
death. Butlong was informed of the fact by one who, eavesdropping
below Kimudwe's house, heard the prayers and incantations. On
a certain day on which there was a feast in Ambabag, to which
Kimudwe was nearly certain to come, Butlong waylaid him, firing
a rifle at him from cover near Ambabag. His marksmanship was
atrocious. Before he could reload women rushed out from the
village and covered Kimudwe with their bodies, interceding, and
stating that there was not sufficient certainty that Kimudwe was
guilty to justify his nephew in killing him. (This occurred in
the interval between Spanish and American rule.)
Kimudwe is reputed to have killed by means of sorcery several
of his kinsmen. Recently a child died in Tupplak whose death was
attributed to him. He killed, it is said, the son of Bahni, another
of his nephews. Bahni sent Dulinayan of Ambabag as a go-between
to Kimudwe to challenge him to an ordeal, saying that he had no
intention of killing him, even if guilty, owing to the peculiar
prejudice of the Americans against such doings, but for his own
satisfaction he wanted to know if Kimudwe were the sorcerer. He
stated that in case Kimudwe won in the ordeal, he (Bahni) would pay
a fine of a gold bead for having accused him falsely. This was an
unusually large fine. Kimudwe refused, or rather evaded, saying:
"If I am a sorcerer, it is a case of the entire family, including
Bahni, being guilty." In other words, he took refuge behind the
Ifugao doctrine of collective responsibility (see sec. 4).
In cases of strong suspicion, a supposed sorcerer was often openly
accused and challenged to an ordeal. The ordeal was usually more
in the nature of a duel, the two exchanging spears at twenty steps
(20 meters) distance. If the ordeal showed the suspect guilty, he was
killed if he stayed in the region. He was not, however, killed on the
field of duel--unless killed in the duel or ordeal itself--because
such an execution might precipitate a battle with this kin.
ADULTERY
94. Forms of adultery.--In its unaggravated form, adultery is called
luktap. Luktap signifies sexual intercourse between a spouse and some
person other than the one to whom he (or she) be married, uncomplicated
by insults and scandalous behavior flaunted in the face of the injured
spouse. The intention to abandon the spouse is either not present,
or is concealed.
The aggravated form of adultery is called hokwit. It consists of openly
and scandalously bestowing one's love and body upon some other person
than the spouse; of insulting the injured spouse; or of repeatedly,
while living under the same roof with the spouse, meeting the third
person and having sexual intercourse. The intention is present of
separating (or effecting a separation) from the injured spouse. The
following is an illustration:
Maxima, a girl of Umbul, was married to Ananayo of
Pindungan. But Ananayo had not yet reached the age of puberty,
while Maxima herself had reached that age. Sergeant Dominong,
of the constabulary company at Kiangan, began paying attentions
to Maxima, while Maxima was living in the house of Ananayo 's
father. During the season of watching the rice fields against
theft of water these two continually cohabited, the sergeant
going to where Maxima was watching the fields at night. Ananayo
attaining the age of puberty in the meantime, Maxima refused
to have anything to do with him. Both Maxima and Dominong were
guilty of hokwit in this case. Maxima's conduct was considered
especially reprehensible, since she was a binawit in the house
of Ananayo 's father (see sec. 14).
95. Punishment of adultery.--In both luktap and hokwit, the offending
spouse and the lover (or mistress) are equally guilty. Each is
equally liable to punishment. However, the offended spouse may, if he
chooses, forgive the offending spouse without forgiving the partner
in crime. This frequently happens. A wife is more likely to forgive
than is a husband.
The adulterer when taken in delicto is sometimes punished by death. The
offended spouse is justified by public opinion in administering this
punishment to a considerably greater degree than our laws in the United
States would justify him. Several stories are told of persons caught
in the commission of this crime who were impaled by a single spear
thrust. It should be stated that the kin of those killed for this crime
rarely look upon the killing as justified, and often avenge it. They
take the stand that the offended spouse ought to have demanded the
usual fine; that if this had not been immediately forthcoming no one
would have questioned the propriety of the killing. On the other hand,
the kin of the offended spouse take the ground, and it may be said
that in general public opinion backs them in it that a self-respecting
man could not well do otherwise than kill the offender, and that the
holding off and demanding money would savor too much of the mercenary.
It is to be noted that a sexual offense committed after the mommon
ceremony is punished by a small fine; that an offense committed after
the imbango or hingot ceremonies is punished by a larger fine, and
that an offense committed after the bubun ceremony is punished by what
to the Ifugao is a very large fine. These fines are diagramed Ifugao
fashion in sec. 75. Hokwit, aggravated adultery, is punished by twice
the greatest fine demanded in the case of simple adultery, luktap.
Adultery being a very hard crime to prove, the Ifugao takes as proof:
(1) the confession of either party; (2) evidence that the accused
wilfully and intentionally placed themselves in such a position or
circumstances that the crime would be presumed by any reasonable person
to have been consummated. Thus, the sleeping of the accused together
at night in the absence of the spouse would be sufficient evidence.
Both offenders must pay the fine demanded by the circumstances to the
offended party or parties. Thus, if both the offenders be married,
each must pay a fine to (a) his own offended spouse, and (b) to the
offended spouse of the partner in the crime. The pu-u of the fine goes
to the offended spouse--the rest to the kin of the offended spouse. In
addition to paying the fine, should the offender desire to continue
the marriage relation with his offended spouse, he must provide
animals and other perquisites for a honga (general welfare feast)
in which the kin of both parties take part, and which is supposed
to start the spouses anew in domestic harmony and felicity, and in
all that the Ifugao considers prosperity, namely, abundance of pigs,
chickens, rice, and children.
96. Sex in relation to punishment for adultery.--Although the
punishment for adultery is the same for either sex, the likelihood of
the adulterer's being punished is much greater if the offender be a
woman than if he be a man. This is for the reason that men are more
jealous than women and less attached to their spouses, usually. A
great deal of adultery on the part of men goes unpunished. Most women
would rather not hear about the peccadillos of their husbands. They do
not want to take action unless it be forced upon them. But once the
matter is brought to their "official attention," they have to take
action in order to "save face." Women sometimes tell their husbands
"It would be all right for you to have a mistress if you could only
do so without my hearing of it." And when they learn of some such
offense on the part of their husbands, they sometimes upbraid them,
saying: "Oh, why didn't you do this thing in such a way that I would
not hear of it?"
The husband, on the other hand, usually punishes, and often divorces
his offending wife.
Once an offense is known, it must be acted on. Otherwise, the offended
spouse is considered to be lacking in self respect. And indeed I
believe that the insult involved in adultery is more serious than
any other phase of the crime. The Malay's "face" is exceedingly dear
to him.
THE TAKING OF LIFE
97. General considerations.--It is extremely difficult to unravel
the law, if there be a law, with respect to murder, executions, and
war. The Ifugao has no tribunals to sentence, and no government to
execute. He makes no declarations of war. Doubtless no two nations or
tribes of the world ever engaged in a warfare in which each did not
consider the other the aggressor, or at least, the offender. The same
is true with respect to feuds between families, which were almost
as numerous as the families themselves. In spite of the years of
American occupation during which comparative peace has prevailed,
these feuds still exist. We must substitute, however, for patriotism,
fraternal and filial love; the sense of duty to the unavenged dead,
love of vengeance, and intense hatred engendered and justified by
a well learned catalogue of wrongs and assassinations inflicted on
the family by the enemy family. Once started, a blood feud was well
nigh eternal (unless ended by a fusion of the families by means of
marriage), for the reason that what was a righteous execution to one
family was a murder (usually treacherous) to the other.
Outside of manslaughter, to be treated of later, it may be stated as
a general tenet of Ifugao practice that the taking of a life must be
paid by a life. Considering, too, that a member of an Ifugao family
rarely if ever effected or accomplished any except the most ordinary
and elemental acts without previous consultation with his family,
and that nearly all killings were effected pursuant to a decision
of a family council, it was not without a fair show of reason that
Ifugao law held that a murder might be punished almost as well by the
execution of some member of the murderer's family as by the execution
of the murderer himself. For, if not principals in the commission of
the crime, other members of the family were at least accomplices or
accessories. Indeed Ifugao law held the whole family guilty, looking
upon the crime, quite correctly, as an offense for which the whole
family was responsible.
War, murder, and the death penalty exacted in execution of justice, in
the Ifugao's society are so near each other as to be almost synonymous
terms. We have already seen that a capital execution for crime is
nearly always looked upon by the kin of the executed as being a murder;
it is retaliated by them, by what to them is a justifiable execution;
but by what, to the killers, is considered as a murder to be punished
by another execution, and so on ad infinitum.
The Ifugao has one general law, which with a few notable exceptions he
applies to killings, be they killings in war, murders, or executions,
which public opinion would pronounce justifiable and legal. That law
is: A life must be paid by a life. Let us pass now to a consideration
of various classes of the takings of human life.
98. Executions justifiable by Ifugao law.--Public opinion or custom,
or both, justify the taking of a life in punishment for the following
crimes: sorcery; murder; persistent and wilful refusal to pay a debt
when there is the ability to pay; adultery discovered in flagrante;
theft by one of a foreign district; refusal to pay a fine assessed
for crime or for injury suffered. But even though custom and public
opinion justify the administration of the extreme penalty in these
cases, the kin of the murdered man do not, in most cases, consider the
killing justified. There are innumerable circumstances that complicate
a given case. Was the sorcery proven or only suspected? Was it a murder
that the man committed; or was he justified in the killing? Would
not the debtor have come to his right mind had his creditor waited
a little longer; and did the creditor approach him in the right way
with reference to the debt? Did not the woman make advances in the
adultery case that no self-respecting male could turn down? Was not
the indemnity assessed too large or otherwise improper; or did the
injured party wait long enough for the payment? These and a thousand
other questions may arise with respect to the various cases.
If the death penalty be inflicted by persons of a foreign district,
it is sure to be looked upon as a murder.
At feasts and gatherings about the "bowl that cheers" and especially in
drunken brawls, an unavenged killing, no matter what the circumstances,
is likely to be brought up as a reflection upon the bravery or manhood
of the living kin, and so urge them to the avenging of what was really
a justified execution.
Murder, sorcery, and a refusal to pay the fine for adultery justify
the infliction of the death penalty even on a kinsman if he is not
too close a relative. An execution of one kinsman by another is not
so likely to be avenged as is justifiable execution by one outside
the family. This is in accordance with the principle of Ifugao law:
The family must at all hazards be preserved.
99. Feuds.--A feud is a series of takings of human life as vengeance,
in which the heads may or may not be taken. There are some hundreds
of ways in which feuds may start. As a rule they begin with a taking
of life that is not justified in the eyes of the kin of him whose
life was taken. They may begin from a retaliation for a kidnapping
or even from an accidental killing. Feuds exist between neighboring
districts, or districts not far distant between which to a certain
extent ties of blood and marriage exist. It is exceedingly rare--if
it ever occurs--that entire villages or districts are involved. The
feud is an affair between families only. It consists of a series of
vengeances and "returning of vengeances." Feuds may even start within
the district: but as a rule, they are short lived, being stopped by
the counsel of the influential. Feuds between districts are well nigh
interminable usually, but may come to an end by means of intermarriage
or when one or two of the leaders of each family are afflicted by
certain diseases [17] thought to be inflicted by certain deities that
desire the peace ceremony. As has been hitherto stated, each killing
in a feud is considered by the killers to be an entirely justifiable
execution in punishment of crime. The deities of war and justice are
called to witness that the debt is not yet paid. Contemporaneously,
the kin of the slain are calling on the same deities to witness that
their family is sorely afflicted; that no debt was owed the others;
that no chickens or pigs, or rice had been borrowed; that no theft
or other crime had been committed, and so on; yet, that innocent,
they are being slaughtered.
100. War.--Before the American occupation, districts that were far
distant might be said to be continually at war with each other. The
war was carried on as a series of head-takings. There was no formal
declaration of war. As a rule there were no large expeditions to the
enemy country, and heads were taken from ambush, on the outskirts of an
enemy village or along much traveled paths. Women's heads were taken in
these exploits; but not as a rule, in feuds. To avenge lives taken in
war, while no doubt the life of the actual head-taker was preferable,
the life of any person of the enemy village might be taken; just as
in feuds, the life of any member of the enemy family might be taken.
101. Head-taking.--Heads were not taken in the case of executions for
injury. In feuds within a district, heads were not taken. In feuds
between families of different districts, heads might or might not be
taken. Usually they were taken if there were no ties of kinship between
the districts. It should be emphasized, however, that there was no
definite boundary between districts, and consequently, no well-defined
line beyond which heads might be taken. Families from the southern part
of a district would take heads in territory from which those in the
northern part of the district would not take them. Heads were always
taken in the case of those killed in war, if circumstances permitted.
102. Hibul or homicide.--The Ifugao law clearly recognizes several
grades of homicide.
(a) The taking of life when there is an entire absence of both
intent and carelessness. As for example, in the case already cited
(see sec. 54). when a party of hunters have a wild boar at bay. The
boar, as there stated, charges the most advanced of the hunters,
and in retreating backwards, the latter jabs one of his companions
with the shod point of his spear handle. There is no penalty for
such a taking of life.
(b) The taking of life when there is clearly an absence of
intent, but a degree of carelessness. For example, a number of
men are throwing spears at a mark. A child runs in the way, and
is killed. The penalty is a fine varying from one third to two
thirds the amount of the full fine for homicide according to the
decree of carelessness.
(c) Intentional taking of the life of another, under the impression
that he is an enemy when in reality he is a co-villager or a
companion. In case the killer can make the family of the slain
understand the circumstances, only a fine is assessed. This fine
is called labod. (See sec. 106.) If the killer be unrelated to
the slain, the full amount of the labod is demanded: if related,
the amount is usually lessened.
Example: Pumauwat of Raay was irrigating his fields at night. Some
of his companions told him that there were some head-hunters from
an enemy village near. In the darkness. Pumauwat encountered
another man. Likyayu, the betrothed of his daughter. He asked
him who was there. On account of the noise of water falling
from the rice fields, Likyayu did not hear the inquiry, and
said nothing. Pumauwat speared him. Likyayu cried out. Pumauwat
recognized his voice, and carried him home. He furnished animals
for sacrifice to secure Likyayu's recovery. Likyayu recovered. Had
he died, Pumauwat would have been called on for the full amount
of the fine: but had Likyayu been firmly engaged to Pumauwat's
daughter, that is, had the bango ceremony been performed the full
amount of the labod fine would not have been demanded, since the
relationship would have been an extenuating circumstance.
(d) The taking of life by persons in a brawl or by an intoxicated
or insane person. In case the slain died before his slayer
could agree to provide animals for sacrifice, the latter would
probably be killed by the kin of the slain if he were of a foreign
district. He might be killed if a non-related co-villager. He
would be fined the labod if a kinsman. He would probably go scot
free if a brother or uncle.
Example: A of Longa became insanely drunk at a feast at the house
of his brother Gimbungan. He attempted to embrace the comely
daughter of Gimbungan, his niece. Gimbungan tried to quiet him,
and in so doing aroused his ire. He drew back his spear menacingly,
and in so doing pierced the girl--who was at his back--with the
shod point at the end. She died. A was properly penitent when
he sobered, and furnished animals for sacrifice. The fine labod
was not, however, demanded of him. This was about thirty five
or forty years ago. Considerable feeling exists between the two
branches of the family to this day, owing to this occurrence.
The burden rests upon the slayer in the above cases to show that the
killing was accidental or that he was so drunk as to have utterly
lost his reason. The absence of a motive is a great help to him in
this. If he has ever had a serious altercation with the slain, in
the absence of controverting evidence, the presumption is likely to
be that the killing was intentional, and that he has been "feigning
friendship in order to kill by ugâ (treachery)."
103. Attempts to murder.--An attempt on the part of an enemy of
another district on the life of a person is punishable by death. An
attempt by one of the same district may or may not be punished by
death; in most cases peace would be arranged by mutual friends and
kinsmen. In such a case, he who made the attempt would be required
to furnish animals for a peace feast.
104. Wounding.--Wounds inflicted accidentally and without intent
or carelessness are not punished. In case the element of intent or
carelessness be present, he who inflicts the wounds must furnish
animals for sacrifice, pay the wounded man and his kin a fine,
and stand the expense of a feast to make peace. The following is a
typical list, for the kadangyang (wealthy)class, of the expenses of
animals for sacrifice and fine:
(a) First feast for the recovery of the wounded man, sacrifices
to the war deities: 3 pigs at 15 pesos; 10 chickens at 1 peso;
total 55 pesos.
(b) Second feast for recovery, the pinochla, or feast to cure
wounds and infections: 1 pig at 10 pesos; 2 chickens at 1 peso;
8 spear heads as fees of priests at 25c; total 14 pesos.
In case the wounded man lives, the following fine is paid him and
his kin:
(c) Fine of two bakid (two tens) amounting to 72 pesos; fee of
the monkalan, 10 pesos; total 82 pesos.
(d) Peace making ceremony: 1 pig at 15 pesos; other appurtenances
of feast, 2 pesos; total 17 pesos.
105. Special liability of the givers of certain feasts.--The givers
of uyauwe or hagabi feasts (glorified general welfare feasts to which
great numbers of people come) are responsible for wounds or deaths
that occur at these feasts. When a man decides to initiate himself
and his wife into the ranks of the kadangyang by giving one of these
feasts, he appoints one of the old priests of his family to perform
the tikman ceremonies. These ceremonies are sacrifices to the various
classes of deities whose special function is the "tying up" of men's
stomachs and passions. Prayers are addressed to these deities that a
little food satisfy the guest that attends the feast, to the end that
the giver be not eaten out of house and home; that a little rice wine
suffice to intoxicate the people; that the passions of men be tied up
to the end that no quarrels or frays occur; that no rice-wine jars or
gongs be broken; that no accidents occur--in short, that the whole
feast pass off smoothly. The duties of the manikam (the priest who
performs these ceremonies) are rather arduous. To say nothing of the
ceremonies he conducts, he must fast for a number of days and must
observe a number of taboos. He receives rather a large fee for these
services. And, indeed, their importance, in the eyes of the Ifugaos,
and the legal responsibility he incurs, certainly justify a large fee.
The manikam priests are jointly responsible with the giver of the
feast for accidents or violence that may occur. This liability of
the giver of the feast for wounds or loss of life is based on the
supposition that if he had not given the feast the wound would not
have occurred; and possibly that he gave the feast with the motive
of bringing about such an occurrence. The liability of the manikam
is based on the supposition that there must have been a remissness
on his part in his religious duties, else the accident or loss would
never have occurred. The following is an actual instance that would
indicate that this provision of the law is an incipient employer's
liability provision.
Malingan of Pindungan, many years ago, gathered together his
kin and friends, performed the preliminary feasts, and went to
Payauan to make a hagabi (lounging bench, the insignium of the
kadangyang class). They made a very large hagabi that weighed
nearly a ton. In helping to carry it across the river two men
were carried downstream by the current and drowned. Demand was
made on Malingan and the manikam of the feast for the labod fine
(see sec. 106). It was paid, and that is the reason Malingan's
descendants are not wealthier today, for formerly Malingan was
one of the wealthiest men of the district.
It should be stated that brawls and accidents are much more common
in feasts of this character given in parts of Ifugao other than the
Kiangan-Nagakaran-Maggok area. This is due to the fact that in the
area named above only relatives and persons invited by relatives
attend, while in other regions the event is not so exclusive. There
is the further consideration that in this area, on the night before
the general drink-fest begins, an old man makes a speech in which
he tries to put the crowd assembled in a good humor, and in which he
warns each and every one to seize and hold any person who begins to
disgrace hospitality by unseemly brawling.
106. The labod, fine assessed for homicide.--This fine is paid to
the family of the slain. For the kadangyang, or wealthy class, the
full fine consists of ten portions or divisions, totaling 975 pesos
in the case tabulated below. These divisions may be briefly described
as follows:
THE LABOD FINE
1. Outlay for a honga (general The honga is performed by the man's
welfare feast): kin as a means of preventing the
recurrence of such misfortunes in
(1) carabao P80.00 the family. The animals are
(2) 3 pigs 60.00 sacrificed to all the deities.
=======
Total P140.00
2. Dangale (sacrifices at funeral The animals of this part of the
feast): fine are killed at the funeral
feast of the slain.
(1) 2 carabaos P160.00
(2) 5 pigs 80.00
=======
Total P240.00
3. Gagaom (funeral shrouds): The clouts are to tie the dead man
in the death chair: one about the
(1) 8 death blankets P64.00 chest; one about the head; one
(2) 4 clouts 4.00 about the shoulders; and one to
(3) 1 ceremonial clout 1.00 tie on the head and beak of the
====== hornbill worn as a mark of rank.
Total P69.00 The ceremonial clout is worn on
the breech of the corpse.
The corpse is wrapped and entombed
in the eight death blankets.
4. Habalag (hangings at funeral The nine cheap blankets are
feast): distributed among the man's kin.
(1) 2 death blankets as
fee of the monkalun P16.00
(2) 9 maginlotan (cheap
death blankets) 36.00
======
Total P52.00
5. Mata-na (his eyes):
(1) 1 gold neck-ornament
for left eye P80.00
(2) 1 gold neck-ornament
for right eye 80.00
=======
Total P160.00
6. Putu-na (his belly): Articles listed under numbers 5 to
9 inclusive, go to the dead man's
(1) 1 pango (string of heirs and kin.
beads) P120.00
7. Puhu-na (his heart):
(1) 1 guling (rice-wine
jar, small) P80.00
8. Ubuna-na (his seat):
(1) 1 gong P80.00
9. Nunlidludagan (his place to
lie):
(1) 2 death blankets P16.00
10. Hidit (peace-making): For making peace with the family of
the slain.
(1) 1 pig and other
essentials of feast P18.00
=======
Total P314.00
The rank of the slain has something to do with the amount of the
labod. The amounts given above are those that would be collected in
the case of the killing of a Kiangan man of the kadangyang class. If
the slain were a middle class or poor man the amounts would not be
so great. [18] If the slayer were a middle class, or poor man, the
amounts above might be lessened somewhat, but not very much. If the
slayer be unable to pay, he is saddled with the rest as a debt. If
he cannot pay the debt during his lifetime, his children must pay it.
107. Accidental killing of animals.--The accidental killing of an
animal is not a crime. Sometimes even the value of the animal is not
demanded or accepted if tendered.
If a dog runs out threatening to bite a passer-by, and the latter
kills it, he is required to pay the value of the dog. If a dog bites
a passer-by, the latter may kill the dog and need not pay a fine. If
the dog bites him, and he does not kill it, he may demand a payment
from the owner. It was a provision of primitive Roman law that "If an
injury were done by a slave, the person injured had the right to exact
vengeance against the slave personally, thus injuring the master's
property; and the master or owner was consequently allowed to prevent
this vengeance by making compensation for the injury done." [19]
Should a pig, at that period of the year when rice is stacked below
the granary to dry out, enter through the fence and eat of the rice,
it may be killed by the owner of the granary; but he must give the
owner another pig in place of it. Such a killing is not considered
malicious, for the pig was spoiling the "miraculous increase" of the
year's harvest.
A pig that enters a rice field and eats of the unharvested rice is
usually returned to the owner with the request that he tie the pig
up. Should it again enter the field, the damage it does must be paid
for. Should the owner refuse to pay this indemnity, and should the
pig again enter the field, the owner of the field would be likely to
kill the animal. The owner of the pig might consider such a killing
malicious and improper. Public opinion would sustain the owner of
the field.
108. Malicious killing of animals.--This is a serious crime. Its
seriousness is due partly to the fact that domestic animals are
to a great extent considered members of the household and as such
loved and protected, and further to the fact that the intentional
and malicious killing of such a member of a household would have a
tendency to bring a like fate on the human members thereof, owing to
the mystic power and force of analogy.
A labod fine is demanded for the malicious killing of a pig. The fine,
in case a wealthy family is concerned, is as follows:
LABOD FINE FOR MALICIOUS KILLING OF A PIG
1. The corpse of the dead pig is surrounded by living pigs,
one on each side, i.e., four pigs are exacted in return.
2. Dangale (see sec. 106): 1 carabao. This animal is simply
handed over, not killed for a funeral as is the case when
a human being is concerned.
3. Gagaom (see sec. 106): 6 death blankets; 1 bayaó (fancy
blanket); 1 tin-unwe (ceremonial clout); 4 clouts.
4. Habalag (see sec. 106): precisely as in the case of a
homicide.
5. Liwa, fee of the monkalun, or go-between: 1 death blanket.
PUTTING ANOTHER IN THE POSITION OF AN ACCOMPLICE
109. The tokom, or fine for compromising another.--He who, voluntarily
or involuntarily, puts another in the position of an accomplice, or
in such a light that he might be regarded as being an accomplice in
the commission of a crime, and so be liable to punishment as such,
must pay the person so injured a fine, called tokom. It may almost
be said that he who causes another person's name to be prominently
mentioned or bandied in connection with a crime must pay this fine.
The following are instances in which a tokom would be demanded:
A of another district comes to the house of B, and is received
by B as a guest. While he is going home and while he is in the
outskirts of the district he is speared by C, a neighbor of B's
or a resident of the same district. B must force C to pay a tokom.
B steals or illegally confiscates property belonging to A. C sees
B in the act. He demands a tokom--in this case it may be the bolo
or spear that B is carrying--and so puts himself "on record" as
not having been an accomplice. But he says nothing about the crime
unless it come to light that he was a witness of it. In this case
he proves by the tokom that he received that he had no connection
with it. As a matter of practice it would seem that a gift received
from the thief would tend to lead the witness to conceal the crime.
A gives an uyauwe feast. At the attendant drink feast B in a
drunken brawl kills C. A and the manikam D must demand a tokom
from B in order to clear their reputations.
The following is the amount of the tokom usually demanded in the case
of murder, head-hunting, or slaughter:
In case of the death In case of the death In case of the death
of a kadangyang Honga of a middle-class man of a poor man Honga
Honga
1 carabao P80.00 8 pigs P80.00 4 pigs P40.00
2 pigs 30.00 1 bakid 25.00 1 bakid 15.00
1 bakid 44.00
======= ======= ======
Total P154.00 Total P105.00 Total P55.00
One who is put in a position in which a tokom is due him must collect
the tokom. It is not sufficient that he demand the payment of it--he
must enforce the payment. Otherwise he will be considered by the kin
of the injured as having been an accomplice, and liable to punishment
accordingly.
Should the culprit refuse to pay the tokom, the obligation rests
on those to whom the tokom is due to take the leading part in the
punishment of the crime. Thus, in the first example given above, if C
does not pay the tokom to B, the obligation rests on B more heavily
even than it rests on A's relatives to kill C, and so avenge A's
death. Should he not do this, he would be held liable to punishment
by A's relatives along with C.
Visitors came to the house of Timbuluy of Ambabag from the district
of Maggok. It was suggested that a contract of friendship and
alliance be accomplished between Timbuluy and his Maggok visitors
by means of the feast called monbiyao. A day was appointed for
this feast, and Binwag of Bolog was named as the go-between in
matters pertaining to the feast. These preliminaries having been
finished, the Maggok people started home. On the road they were
killed by some people from Wingian.
The following persons were under obligation to demand a
tokom: Timbuluy, whose guests they had been, and Binwag,
the go-between. But the murderers were poor people, while the
murdered were wealthy. It would have been impossible for the
murderers to have paid the tokom proper for having killed a
kadangyang. Consequently without any ado, Binwag killed one of the
murderers, and Timbuluy kidnapped one of the women folk of another.
Timbuluy sold this woman to slavery in Nueva Vizcaya, receiving
four carabaos. He gave one carabao to each of the four villages
Pindungan, Ambabag, Bango, and Baay--all in Kiangan valley--on
the consideration that if the people of Wingian retaliated by
capturing a Kiangan woman in the open territory surrounding or
adjacent to one of these villages, the people of that village
would collect the necessary sum and redeem the woman.
THEFT
110. Of theft in general.--There is a considerable degree of difference
in the severity with which theft is punished in different parts of
Ifugao. The following is the general law with respect to the theft
of articles of medium or slight value:
Kadangyang class: It is a general principle that true kadangyang
do not steal. However, it sometimes occurs, especially in the
Kiangan-Maggok area, that persons who have the right to claim
this rank become needy. The rule for the punishment of members of
this class is: The kadangyang must return the stolen thing, or,
if it shall have been consumed, its equivalent in value, and must
entirely surround it with like things of equivalent value. This
rule merely amounts to the paying of five times the value of the
stolen thing. He must also pay a fee to the go-between.
Middle class: A thief of this class must return the stolen thing
and ulpitan it, i.e., place a like thing, or an equivalent value,
on either side of it. He must also pay a liwa fee to the go-between
of the case.
Very poor: A thief of this class must repay the stolen article
or its equivalent value, tokopna, and pay a fee to the go-between
in the case.
In the case of the theft of heirlooms of great value, such as rice-wine
jars, or gansas, the thief must repay, besides the stolen articles,
their tokop, or equal, and in addition must furnish a certain number
of pigs or other articles of medium value. The following shows how
the Ifugao visualizes a payment of this sort.
* The stolen article.
* Its equal or equivalent.
* Honga, a full-grown pig.
* Yubyub, a full-grown chicken.
Theft should not be confused with improper or illegal
confiscation. This latter is commonly effected by members of the
kadangyang class. It is punished in much the same way as theft,
but is not so disgraceful.
A thief discovered in delicto is likely to be punished by death if
the thief be of a different district. If not punished by death, the
culprit is caught and tied and kept prisoner until his kin in the
other district pay the fine demanded. This fine, needless to say, is
somewhat larger than would ordinarily be assessed for the crime. If
a member of the home district be caught in an unaccomplished theft,
the case is not altered in any way from an ordinary, consummated theft.
111. Theft of rice from a granary.--The theft of rice is considerably
more serious than would be theft of any other article of equal value,
because it ruins the miraculous increase of the rice that the Ifugao
as well as all other Malay tribes in these islands so thoroughly
believe in. If the thief confesses and shows himself docile, he may
wipe out his guilt with the following payment:
* Hulul-na, 1 large pig, payment of the stolen rice.
* Honga, 1 large pig and 1 large chicken, for granary feast to
secure return of the miraculous increase.
If, however, the accused persistently deny his guilt, he is challenged
to an ordeal. If by this he is proven guilty, he is fined one bakid or
one "ten"--in Kiangan about thirty pesos--in addition to the payment
above. If he refuse to submit to the ordeal, he is adjudged guilty,
and has to make the same payments as if he had submitted to the ordeal
and had been adjudged guilty. The fee of the monkalun is included in,
and is not additional to, the bakid in this case.
112. Theft of unharvested rice.--In a case of this sort, the amount
of rice stolen can be determined by estimating it from the number of
headless stalks. The punishment is:
* The return of the stolen rice or its equivalent value.
* A full-grown pig for the owner's harvest feast.
* The fee for the monkalun.
113. Illegal confiscation.--What the Ifugao recognizes as legal
confiscation is treated below under Procedure, sections 134 to 138. The
following is a case of illegal confiscation in the district of Banaue.
A owes B a debt, which he persistently refuses to pay. Both men
are of the Kadangyang class. B is somewhat afraid of A, or for
some reason cannot or does not dare collect the debt according
to the ordinary mode of procedure. He accordingly runs away with
a valuable rice-wine jar belonging to A, leaving nothing behind
to show who took it.
B finds out who ran away with his jar. He pays the debt he owes B,
if it be truly owed, and demands the following from him for his
improper procedure:
* The return of the stolen jar.
* Another one like it, or an equivalent of some sort.
* A gong as a dalag (fine for illegal confiscation).
* A large pig for a honga (general welfare feast).
* A kettle worth five pesos called habale (pegs on which house
charms are hung).
* 4 yards of brass wire. This payment is called nundopa,
referring to the jumping down of the culprit when he carried
off the jar.
* Death blanket with which to carry jar home.
If B, when he ran away with the jar, had left behind his scabbard
or bolo or some other of his belongings to show his identity,
the above would have been a case of legal confiscation, and
not punishable.
Illegal confiscation lacks the elements of disgrace that theft carries
with it, and, in the mind of the confiscator and his relatives at
least, is justifiable. It may be that it is for this very reason that
this crime is punished more severely than ordinary theft.
ARSON
114. Fines assessed for goba or arson.--One caught in the act of
setting fire to a house or granary would be likely to be killed on the
spot. Should he consummate the act and escape, demand would probably
be made upon him and his kin for two granaries full of rice and for the
animals necessary to consecrate them by the usual feasts. This would be
the probable punishment. The crime of arson is rare, and consequently
there is no penalty or restitution well defined by law. The punishment
might be death, or the kidnapping and selling into slavery of a member
of the culprit's family, or a fine as above. Which of these it would
be would depend very much on the personality of the injured party.
KIDNAPPING
115. Circumstances under which kidnapping may occur.--If performed
to cover a debt for which payment had been repeatedly demanded, or to
cover an injury for which a proper fine had been repeatedly demanded
in due form, kidnapping was a legal seizure, although the victim and
his kindred might not consider it so.
But there were a good many cases in which the kidnapper's motive was
utterly different. He might wish, for example, to display his valor,
or to profit financially by the sale of his captives. Sometimes,
too, a head-hunting party, failing to get a head, would capture a
woman and carry her back with them to their village. In some parts
of Ifugao the woman was ravished for a period of five days by the
party of head-hunters. She was then sold into slavery.
The penalty inflicted by the kin of the kidnapper was either death
or retaliation by kidnapping.
INCEST
116. Rarity of such offenses.--Incest is a very rare crime in
Ifugao. It seems to be becoming more frequent, for there has
undoubtedly been a growing laxity in morality ever since the
establishment of foreign government. A case recently occurred in
Mongayan, in which a father, on humane grounds as he put the matter
to her, deflowered his own daughter. This case was not punished.
RAPE
117. Both parties being unmarried.--The unmarried Ifugaos, from
earliest childhood, are accustomed to collect in certain houses,
using them as dormitories. Usually both sexes sleep together in
these dormitories. Naturally, too, there is a great deal of sexual
intercourse each night, for sexual intercourse takes the same place
among the Ifugaos that embraces and kisses do in the courtship of
some other peoples. The nature of the female human being, says the
Ifugao, is to resist the advances of the male. He naïvely points out
that the hens, the cows, and, in fact, the females of any species
resist the male in this respect, notwithstanding they may be quite
as anxious for the sexual act as the male himself. It is so with
women, he says. It is considered shocking in some sections of Ifugao
for a girl to yield herself to her lover the first time without
resistance. This idiosyncracy of feminine nature being a fact, it
is sometimes difficult to be certain as to whether the resistance
offered by a girl is bona fide or not--as to whether she is willing
for the sexual act to occur, half willing, or entirely opposed to
it. There may or may not be doubt in the mind of the male--usually
there is none--but friends of the girl, by distorting or by putting a
slightly different interpretation on what occurred, could make a case
of rape in the white man's courts out of almost any of these common
events. Furthermore, a girl on the advice of her parents, were such a
rape punishable by fine, might and frequently would, entice some youth
into forcing her, in order that her family might benefit financially.
Consequently if a girl be "caught" in a sleeping house by a youth
who habitually sleeps there, the Ifugaos do not look upon it as a
case of rape, even though force be used. By following this principle
a great many questions and "put-up-jobs" are avoided. If a girl be
seized and raped by one who does not habitually sleep in or frequent
the girl's dormitory, and the evidence establishes a case of bona
fide resistance on the part of the girl, a fine of "six" is assessed
against the raptor as follows:
Kadangyang class
Death blanket P8.00
Cooking pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku .50
Natuku .50
======
Total, P13.00
Middle class
Cooking pot P2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Nunbadi .40
Nunbadi .40
Na-oha .25
=====
Total, P5.05
Very poor
Cooking pot P2.00
Na-oha .25
Na-oha .25
Na-oha .25
Na-oha .25
Na-oha .25
=====
Total, P3.25
It will be noted that the above are very light fines. In some parts
of Ifugao they would be considerably higher--notably in the Silipan
country.
The committing of the crime of rape in broad daylight, as, for
example, the "catching" of a woman in a camote field, constitutes an
aggravating circumstance. Such a rape as that punishable by a fine of
"six" above would be punishable by a fine of "ten" of a value for the
three classes respectively of about thirty-two pesos, sixteen pesos,
and eight pesos, if committed in broad daylight. This is owing to the
greater "shame" which the woman feels on account of the unwonted hour.
118. Rape of a married woman by an unmarried man.--This is a serious
offense. It is punishable by a fine equivalent to twice the fine
assessed for luktap, or unaggravated adultery. One-half of this fine
goes to the husband of the outraged woman and his kin and one-half
to the woman and her kin.
119. Rape of a married woman by a married man.--This is a case
still more serious for the offender, since in addition to paying the
afore-mentioned fine, he must pay to his own wife an additional fine
as penalty for luktap.
MA-HAILYU OR MINOR OFFENSES
Minor fines are punishable by fines called hailyu. The rape of an
unmarried woman by an unmarried man, considered in the preceding
section in connection with the more serious forms of rape, is a
minor crime.
120. False accusation.--He who accuses another falsely or he who,
accusing another of crime, challenges him to an ordeal, which ordeal
proves the accused to be innocent, must pay the following fine:
HAILYU PAID BY THE ACCUSER TO THE FALSELY ACCUSED
Kadangyang class
One bakid (ten)
2 death blankets P16.00
Cooking pot 5.00
Cooking pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Nuntuku .60
Nunbadi .40
======
P28.00
Fee of go-between:
1 death blanket 8.00
======
Total, P36.00
Middle class
One bakid (ten)
1 death blanket P8.00
1 cooking pot 5.00
1 cooking pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan .60
Nunbadi .40
Na-oha .25
======
Total, P18.85
Fee of go-between: iron pot of value of P5 included above.
Very poor
One onom (six)
1 death blanket P8.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku .60
Natuku .60
Na-oha .40
======
Total, P11.60
Fee of go-between: one natauwinan included above.
The amount of the fine depends to a great extent on the seriousness
of the offense of which one is accused.
121. Baag or slander.--This offense is punishable by a somewhat smaller
fine than that above. The following is an instance to illustrate
what trivial statements may be considered as slanders. At an uyauwe
feast Bahni of Tupplak made remarks derogatory to Bumidang of Palao,
the principal of which was to the effect that Bumidang would never
have been a kadangyang had it not been for the fees that he received
from the Palao people for acting as go-between in buying back the
heads of their slain from their Silepan enemies. Bumidang considered
this as slander, and seized a carabao belonging to Bahni, holding it
until payment of the fine assessed for insult was made.
122. Threats of violence.--Ongot, or threat, is punished by about
the same fine as slander.
123. Insult.--The saying to another person of anything reflecting on
his honor, prestige, or rank; the use of abusive language to an equal
or superior; insinuations as to improper relations with kinswomen;
improper language and behavior in the presence of people of opposite
sexes who are related to each other within the forbidden degrees;
breaking of various taboos--all of these constitute insults, and are
punishable by a fine varying in size from the fine for slander to
that for false accusation.
There exist a considerable number of taboos, for breaking of which
a penalty is exacted.
First. There are taboos relating to exogamy. In the presence of male
and female kin that are of the degrees within which marriage is
forbidden it is taboo: (a) to look fixedly at the woman's breasts
or hips; (b) to speak of the dormitory of the unmarried; (c) to
mention the love affairs of an unmarried couple except most guardedly;
(d)to break wind; (e) to blackguard; (f) to play the bikong, lover's
harp. Matters connected with sex must not be referred to unnecessarily;
whenever it is necessary to refer to them, the most delicately veiled
euphemisms must be used. Thus an unborn babe must be called "the
friend"; the placenta must be termed a "blanket"; the short plank
that constitutes the Ifugao's bed must be designated as a "level";
even an egg must be referred to as a "soft stone" or "stone of the
chickens." It is a very grave insult, knowing two people to be of the
forbidden degrees of kinship, to ask them if they are married. Even
if asked in ignorance of the kinship, such a question is considered
to show exceeding ill breeding. On my first arrival among the Ifugaos
I was several times made to feel like a boorish lout by having asked
the question of the wrong people. I then hit upon the scheme of asking
two people if they were brother and sister before asking if they were
married. This, however, was equally a faux pas in case the two were
husband and wife, since to the Ifugao it amounted to asking a man if
he had married his sister. I then learned to do as a well-bred Ifugao
does in such cases: to observe and deduce from the conduct of the two
what their relationship might be. This was never a difficult matter.
Second. Acts which savor of adultery are tabooed. Among such are the
intentional touching of the body of a married woman. If a man meets
a married woman on a rice-field dike, the proper thing for him to do
is to step off into the mud and water and let her pass. He may not
grasp her body in order to squeeze past her and thus avoid stepping
into the water. It is forbidden, too, to enter a house in which a
married woman is alone.
Third. It is taboo, knowing a person to be dead, to ask his sons or
near kin if he is dead.
Fourth. Certain acts are believed to be injurious to others because
they are bad in their magic influence. Thus trying to collect a debt
when a member of the debtor's household is ill is taboo. The penalty
for this act is the loss of the debt, be it large or small. It is
believed that any subtraction from the sick person's or his family's
possessions is bound to react injuriously on his health.
Passing near or through a field of rice in a foreign district during
harvest is taboo, because it is a disturbing factor and interferes
with the miraculous increase.
PROCEDURE
THE FAMILY IN RELATION TO PROCEDURE
124. Family unity and coöperation.--The mutual duty of kinsfolk
and relatives, each individual to every other of the same family,
regardless of sex, is to aid, advise, assist, and support in all
controversies and altercations with members of other groups or
families. The degree of obligation of the various members of a family
group to assist and back any particular individual of that group
is in direct proportion: first, to the kinship or the relationship
by marriage; second, to the loyalty the individual in question has
himself manifested toward the family group, that is, the extent to
which he discharges his obligations to that group.
The family is without any political organization whatever. It is a
little democracy in which each member is measured for what he is worth,
and has a voice accordingly in the family policy. It is a different
body for every married individual of the whole Ifugao tribe. [20]
There are a great many relationships that complicate matters. An
Ifugao's family is his nation. The family is an executive and a
judicial body. Its councils are informal, but its decisions are none
the less effective. The following rules and principles apply to the
family and to individuals in the matter of procedure.
Brothers of the blood can never be arrayed against each other. They
may fall out and quarrel, but they can never proceed against each
other. This is for the reason that their family is identical (before
marriage at least), and a family cannot proceed against itself.
Cousins and brothers of the half-blood ought never to be arrayed
against each other in legal procedure. In case they should be so
arrayed, the mutual kin try to arrange peace. Only in the event of
serious injuries may a cousin with good grace and with the approval
of public opinion collect a fine from another cousin, and even then
he should not demand as much as from a non-related person. In the
case of minor injuries he should forego punishing his kindred. The
following is an example:
A steals some rice from his cousin B. Theft and thief become
known. B takes no steps against the thief; but B's wife cannot
overlook it--and the injury was an injury to her as much as
to B. Her kin take the matter up. They collect half the usual
indemnity for their kinswoman. B foregoes his half of the
indemnity.
In cases of minor injury, procedure against more distant kin is
frowned on, but sometimes occurs.
It is the duty of mutual, equally related relatives and kin to try
to arrange peace between opposing kin or relatives.
In the event of procedure on the part of one kinsman against another,
those who are related to both take sides with him to whom they are
more closely related. Besides blood relationship, there is marriage
relationship oftentimes to make it a very complex and difficult problem
for a man to decide to which opponent his obligation binds him. This
is most frequently the case among the remoter kin. A man who finds
himself in such a position, and who knows that on whichever side
he may array himself he will be severely criticized by the other,
becomes a strong advocate of compromise and peaceful settlement.
In case a kinsman to whom one owes loyalty in an altercation is in the
wrong and has a poor case, one may secretly advise him to compromise;
one must never openly advise such a measure. One may secretly refuse
him assistance and backing--one must never oppose him.
One owes no obligation in the matter of procedure to another merely
because he is a co-villager or inhabitant of the same district.
The obligation to aid and assist kinsmen beyond the third or fourth
degree is problematic, and a question into which elements of personal
interest enter to a great extent. One of the greatest sources of the
power of the principal kadangyang lies in their ability to command
the aid of their remote kin on account of their prestige and wealth
and ability to dispense aid and favor.
There is also a class, small in number, corresponding somewhat to the
"clients" of the chiefs of the ancient Gauls. This body is composed of
servants who have grown up in the service and household of a master,
and who have been well treated, and in times of need sustained and
furnished with the things needful to Ifugao welfare; another division
consists of those who habitually borrow or habitually rent from one
who stands in the nature of an overlord to them. This class is most
numerous in districts where most of the lands are in the hands of a
few men. The duty of the clients to their lord and of their lord to
them seems to be about the same as those duties have always been in
a feudal society; that is to say, the duty of rendering mutual aid
and assistance.
The first step in any legal procedure is to consult with one's kin
and relatives. In initiating steps to assess a fine or collect an
indemnity, the next step is the selection of a monkalun.
THE MONKALUN OR GO-BETWEEN
125. Nature of his duties.--The office of the monkalun is the most
important one to be found in Ifugao society. The monkalun is a whole
court, completely equipped, in embryo. He is judge, prosecuting
and defending counsel, and the court record. [21] His duty and his
interest are for a peaceful settlement. He receives a fee, called lukba
or liwa. To the end of peaceful settlement he exhausts every art of
Ifugao diplomacy. He wheedles, coaxes, flatters, threatens, drives,
scolds, insinuates. He beats down the demands of the plaintiffs or
prosecution, and bolsters up the proposals of the defendants until
a point be reached at which the two parties may compromise. If the
culprit or accused be not disposed to listen to reason and runs away
or "shows fight" when approached, the monkalun waits till the former
ascends into his house, follows him, and, war-knife in hand, sits in
front of him and compels him to listen.
The monkalun should not be closely related to either party in a
controversy. He may be a distant relative of either one of them. The
monkalun has no authority. All that he can do is to act as a peace
making go-between. His only power is in his art of persuasion, his
tact and his skillful playing on human emotions and motives. Were
he closely related to the plaintiff, he would have no influence with
the defendant, and mutatis mutandis the opposite would be true.
Ultimately in any state the last appeal is to a death-dealing
weapon. For example, in our own society a man owes a debt which he does
not pay. Action is brought to sell his property to pay the debt. If
he resists, he is in danger of death at the hands of an agent of the
law. Much more is he in danger if he resists punishment for crime. The
same is true in the Ifugao society. The lance is back of every demand
of importance, and sometimes it seems hungry.
An Ifugao's pride as well as his self-interest--one might almost
say his self-preservation--demands that he shall collect debts that
are owed him, and that he shall punish injuries or crimes against
himself. Did he not do so he would become the prey of his fellows. No
one would respect him. Let there be but one debt owed him which he
makes no effort to collect; let there be but one insult offered him
that goes unpunished, and in the drunken babbling attendant on every
feast or social occasion, he will hear himself accused of cowardice
and called a woman.
On the other hand, self-interest and self-respect demand that the
accused shall not accept punishment too tamely or with undue haste,
and that he shall not pay an exorbitant fine. If he can manage to
beat the demands of the complainant down below those usually met in
like cases, he even gains in prestige. But the monkalun never lets
him forget that the lance has been scoured and sharpened for him,
and that he walks and lives in daily danger of it.
The accuser is usually not over anxious to kill the accused. Should he
do so, the probabilities are that the kin of the accused would avenge
the death, in which case he, the slayer, would be also slain. The
kin of each party are anxious for a peaceable settlement, if such
can be honorably brought about. They have feuds a-plenty on their
hands already. Neighbors and co-villagers do not want to see their
neighborhood torn by internal dissension and thus weakened as to
the conduct of warfare against enemies. All these forces make for a
peaceful settlement.
It is the part of the accused to dally with danger for a time,
however, and at last to accede to the best terms he can get, if they
be within reason.
TESTIMONY
126. Litigants do not confront each other.--From the time at which a
controversy is formally entered into, the principals and their kin are
on a basis of theoretical--perhaps I ought to say religious--enmity. A
great number of taboos keep them apart. Diplomatic relations between
the two parties have been broken off and all business pertaining to
the case is transacted through the third party, the monkalun. He
hears the testimony that each side brings forward to support its
contention. Through him each controversant is confronted with the
testimony of the other. It is greatly to the interest of the monkalun
to arrange a peaceful settlement, not only because he usually receives
a somewhat larger fee in such case, but because the peaceful settlement
of cases in which he is mediator builds up a reputation for him,
so that he is frequently called and so can earn many fees. To the
end of arranging this peaceful settlement, the monkalun reports to
each party to the controversy the strong points of the testimony in
favor of the other party, and oftentimes neglects the weaknesses.
There are no oaths or formalities in the giving of testimony.
ORDEALS
127. Cases in which employed.--In criminal cases in which the accused
persistently denies his guilt, and sometimes in case of disputes over
property the ownership of which is doubtful, and in cases of disputes
over the division line between fields, ordeals or trials are resorted
to. The challenge to an ordeal may come from either the accuser or
the accused. Refusal to accept a challenge means a loss of the case,
and the challenger proceeds as if he had won the case.
If the accused comes unscathed from the ordeal, he has the right to
collect from his accuser the fine for false accusation.
If two people mutually accuse each other, panuyu, they are both tried
by ordeal. If both be scathed, they are mutually responsible for
the indemnity to the injured person. If only one be scathed, he is
responsible for the indemnity to the injured person and for a payment
of the fine for false accusation to the one whom he accused. [22]
128. The hot water ordeal.--A pot, a foot or more in depth, is filled
with water and heated to a furious boiling. A pebble is dropped into
it. The accused must reach his hand into the water without undue haste,
extract the pebble, and then replace it. Undue haste is interpreted
as a confession of guilt. This ordeal is used in certain sections of
Ifugao, while in others the hot bolo test is used. It is interesting to
note that neither of them is efficacious in determining accusations of
adultery. This is for the reason that the gods of animal fertility and
growth do not permit an accused to receive an injury for that act which
is so eminently useful in their particular sphere of activity. Thus,
Ifugao religion looks with the greatest disfavor upon things which
tend to restrict population, just as our law frowns upon statutes in
restriction of marriage.
129. The hot bolo ordeal.--In this, if two persons mutually accuse
each other, their hands are placed side by side. The monkalun lowers
a hot knife on their hands. The knife burns the guilty person much
more seriously than the guiltless one. If only one person be put to
the test, it is said that the knife bends away from the hands of
an innocent person. The monkalun, with all his might, it is said,
cannot put the knife down on the hand: the gods of war and justice
will not permit it. But if the person be guilty, the knife grips the
hand in its eagerness. If the accused show fear and try to withdraw,
the kin of the accuser may catch him and burn him well. I know a man
whose fingers were burned off in this way, the thumb adhering to and
coalescing with the palm.
130. The alao or duel.--Eggs, runo stalks, or spears are used in
trials, the accused facing each other and, at the word of the monkalun,
hurling their missiles. The duel is not without its dangers. Even
though eggs or runos be used, the one struck is likely to return a
stone; and from throwing stones to throwing spears is an easy step. The
two parties of kin are likely to take a hand. How much more likely
are they to take a hand and avenge their kinsman if spears be the
missiles and he be wounded!
The duel is used in cases of adultery, sorcery, and in some disputes
over rice fields, everywhere in Ifugao. In adultery cases, only eggs
are used in the duel.
131. Trial by bultong or wrestling.--This ordeal is used throughout
Ifugao, preëminently to settle cases of disputed rice-field boundaries.
The Ifugao clearly recognizes that the processes of nature--landslides,
the erosion of rainfall in wet weather, and caking and crumbling
in dry weather--tend to wear away a terrace not maintained by a
stone wall. A terrace maintained by a stone wall is a rarity in
the Kiangan district. Should the boundary not be well marked by
pagbok (see sec. 43) a dispute is nearly sure to result sooner or
later. These disputes are usually settled by wrestling matches. The
wrestling matches are usually friendly. The Ifugao believes that the
ancestral spirits of the controversants know which party is in the
right, that they know just where the true boundary is, and that they
see to it that he who is right shall win, provided always that they
be invoked with the proper sacrifices; and that they "hold up" even
the weaker of the wrestlers, and cause him to win, provided his cause
be just. Notwithstanding this belief, the people are sufficiently
practical to demand that the wrestlers be approximately evenly
matched. The owners of the adjacent fields may themselves wrestle,
or they may choose champions to represent them. Between kinsmen these
matches are presumably friendly; and only sacrifices of dried meat
are offered the ancestral spirits. But between those not related,
there is often a great deal of unfriendly feeling. In this latter
case numerous chickens and two or three pigs are sacrificed, and
ceremonies like those against enemies are performed.
On the appointed day the two parties meet at the disputed boundary
and occupy opposite ends of the disputed land. A party of mutual
kin follows along and occupies a position midway between the
adversaries. With each party is one of the family priests. Taking
betels and dried meat (presuming the contest to be a friendly one)
from a head-basket, the priest prays very much as follows: "Come,
Grandfather Eagle, Grandfather Red Ant, Grandfather Strong "Wind,
Grandfather Pangalina; come, Grandmother Cicada, Grandmother Made
Happy, Grandmother Ortagon; come, Grandfather Gold, etc. [throughout
a list of perhaps a hundred ancestors]. Here are betels and meat;
they are trying to take our field away from us. And was it here,
Grandmother Grasshopper, that the boundary of the field was? No, you
know that it was a double arm's length to the right. Hold us up, you
ancestors, in order that we may be the wearers of gold neck-ornaments;
in order that we may be the ones who give expensive feasts. Exhort
[here the priest names over the gods of war and justice] to hold
us up. Was it here, Grandfather Brave, that the boundary was when
you bought the field? Do not let them take our land away from us,
for we are to be pitied. We are sorely tried!"
After the prayers of the priests, each champion is led by one of his
kinsman to the place where the first wrestling is to occur. This
leading is very ceremoniously done, and suggests the heralding of
the champions in feudal days. The dike of the upper terrace has been
cleaned off at intervals of fifteen to twenty-five feet in order that
the owner of the upper field may have no advantage. The champions
frequently work themselves down half-thigh deep in rice-field mud,
water, and slime. Catching fair and even holds, they begin to
wrestle, encouraged each by the shouts and cries of his kinsmen
and by the calling of the old men and old women on the spirits of
the ancestors. Each wrestler tries to push his opponent into the
territory that that opponent is defending and to down him there. If A
throws B in B's field, ten feet from the line on which they wrestle,
A wins ten feet of the rice field at that point. Finally, there is a
fall that more than likely capsizes one or both of them in the black
mud. One point in the boundary is determined. Frequently the lower
terrace is eight or ten feet lower than the upper one, but there are
no injuries for the reason that the mud is at least two feet deep
and is a soft place in which to fall.
At every fifteen or twenty feet along the disputed boundary there
is another wrestling match. Sometimes the champions are changed. The
new boundary runs through every point at which there has been a fall.
132. The umpire and the decision.--The monkalun is the umpire in
trials by ordeal. He interprets undue haste or a faulty performance
as a confession of guilt. On the day following the trial by fire or
hot water he goes to the house of the accused and examines the hand
and forearm. If he finds white inflamed blisters, he pronounces him
guilty. In the case of a duel, he pronounces the one struck by the
missile guilty. The Ifugaos believe that the gods of war and justice
turn missiles aside from the innocent in these duels. For the umpire
to be manifestly unfair, would be for him seriously to imperil his
own life.
As a matter of fact, a person whose skin is rough, dry, and horny has a
great advantage in these ordeals. Since sword climbing and the walking
on hot stones and live coals have occurred in other parts of the world,
it would seem that a question might be raised whether state of mind,
or other factors as yet unexplained, may not enter these affairs.
EXECUTION OF JUSTICE
133. Retaliation.--In the case of lives lost in feuds, sorcery,
murders, and head-hunting, capital punishment inevitably follows,
provided the kin of the slain be sufficiently daring to execute it.
Capital punishment is the rule, and is almost invariably inflicted
in cases of the refusal to pay proper fines, for which demand has
been made in correct form, and after a reasonable length of time
has been given in which to raise the sum demanded, in punishment
of adultery, manslaughter, the putting of another in the position
of an accomplice in case of murder or death in feud, or for wounds,
provided the culprit be not a kinsman or person closely related by
marriage. Rarely would there be much trifling in the infliction of
this penalty. Seizure of something of sufficient value to cover the
fine assessed might sometimes be made, except in the cases of adultery
and manslaughter. To practice seizure in the case of adultery--except
when a kinsman were the offender--would have the aspect of anxiety
to profit by the pollution of the wife's body and might give rise
to suspicion of conspiracy on the part of husband and wife to bring
about the crime in order to profit financially. In the same way, a
self-respecting family would disdain to accept payment for the life
of a kinsman except as a matter of forbearance and mercy to the taker
thereof. We have seen before that unless the tokom be collected the
injured person is in danger of losing his own life should he not slay
him from whom the tomok is due.
The crime of arson undoubtedly justifies the death penalty; but it
is so rare a crime that it is impossible to say what is the usual
Ifugao practice in punishing it.
The non-payment of a debt when there is the ability to pay it, and
after many and repeated demands have been made in the proper manner
for it, justifies the infliction of the death penalty.
Capital punishment is administered by the injured person and his
kin. In all cases it is fraught with the greatest danger to the
inflicters. Usually it is inflicted from ambush, although it may
be a sudden slaying in the heat of passion. The culprit is never
notified that he has been sentenced to death. The withdrawal of a
go-between from a serious case is, however, a pretty good warning. It
has about the same significance as the withdrawal of an embassy in
an international complication.
The infliction of a death penalty has been the starting point of
many an interminable feud between families. For this reason the
injured person exhausts every effort to effect a punishment in some
other way if any other punishment be consistent with his dignity
and respectability.
134. Seizure of chattels.--If a kinsman of remoter kinship than that
existing between brothers commit a crime punishable by death, except
sorcery or murder, and obstinately refuse to pay the fine assessed,
seizure of his property or part of it is made.
Seizures are made from unrelated persons to cover fines due in
punishment of theft, malicious killing of animals, arson, and the
minor crimes, also to secure payment of a debt.
The following is a list of the things usually seized: gongs, rice-wine
jars, carabaos, gold beads, rice fields, children, wives.
A seizure may be made by fraud or deceit, or it may be made in the
absence of the owner of his household, or it may be made by superior
force. Considering only the manner of the seizure, there is but one law
to be followed: the seizure must be made in such a manner as to leave
no doubt as to the identity of him who seizes. Thus if B persistently
refuses to pay a fine owed to A, A may go to B's house when there is
nobody at home and may run away with a gong. If he leaves his bolo,
his scabbard, his blanket or some other personal effect in the house
as a sort of a visiting card, his seizure is legal. Or A may go to
B's house and, pretending friendship, borrow the gong, representing
that he wants to play it at a feast and, having secured possession
of it, refuse to return it till the fine be paid. Or suppose that an
agent of B's is bringing a carabao up from Nueva Vizcaya, and that
the agent has to travel through A's village. A and his friends stop
the agent and take the carabao away from him, telling him to inform
B that the carabao will be delivered to him when the fine is paid.
There is a second kind of seizure, a seizure of the property of
some relative or kinsman of the culprit. The property of a wealthy
kinsman may be seized to cover a fine due from a poor kinsman who has
no property. This kind of seizure is more likely to lead to a lance
throwing than a seizure from the culprit himself. The danger of such
an ending increases with the remoteness of the kinship between the
culprit and the person from whom the seizure is made.
A third kind of seizure is practiced against neighbors of delinquents
who live in another district. Suppose a man B in one of the districts
to the west of Kiangan to have gone to Nueva Vizcaya (east of Kiangan)
and there to have purchased a carabao. He owes no debts, nor have any
fines been levied against him. He returns through Kiangan, however,
and his carabao is seized by A, a Kianganite. B is informed that C,
a resident of the same district as he, stole a pig a year or two ago
from A. The evidence against C is placed before him in the minutest
details. He is given thirty pesos as patang (interest in advance) and
told to collect from C the payment proper to the case, and in addition
the thirty pesos advanced as patang. When he makes these collections,
and delivers them to A, he gets back his carabao. If C is innocent
of the crime charged, he may kill A for this, or he may do so even
if guilty. More likely he kidnaps A's wife or child and sells them
for a ransom sufficiently great to repay B, and leave a substantial
surplus for himself. A may or may not retaliate with the lance.
In quarrels between kadangyang (for their dignity is very dear to
them) and between persons of different districts or contrary parties,
it is more frequently than not the case that the thing seized is
not returned. Powerful individuals in a district are rather glad to
have a seizure made of their property, since they can nearly always
manage to come out winner in the finish. Thus in the case above,
B, if a powerful individual, probably collects two or even three
carabaos or their equivalent value from C, and besides he receives
thirty pesos patang. It would seem that the obligation rests on
every Ifugao--notwithstanding there is no political government--so
to conduct himself as not to involve his neighbors in trouble with
individuals of inimical or semi-inimical districts; and that should
he so involve them, he is liable to whatever punishment circumstance
metes out to him.
In the case of altercations between individuals of different
districts, seizure of animals was generally practiced by persons
of those districts through which the road led to the region from
which the animals were imported. Of all districts, Kiangan was most
advantageously situated in respect to this matter; since, for the
greater part of Ifugao-land, the road to Nueva Vizcaya (whence most
of the animals imported into Ifugao came) led through it.
135. Seizure of rice fields.--The seizure of rice fields is
practicable only in case the fields are near the village of him who
seizes them. For if located in a distant district, the working of the
field would be extremely hazardous, and its protection and continuous
holding impossible.
Fields may properly be seized for collection of debt or for refusal
to pay fines or indemnities. Portions of fields are seized sometimes
in disputes as to ownership or boundaries.
Disputes over ownership and boundary come to a head during spading
time. One party begins to spade for the next year's crop the land
claimed by the other. The other party sticks up runos, tied "ethics
lock" fashion (alpud), along the line which he claims to be the true
boundary. The first party then pulls up these runos, and sticks down
others along the line claimed by it as the true boundary. The issue
is joined. The defendant has made his "rejoinder." A monkalun is
now selected by the plaintiff party, and tries to arrange--and in
case of disputed boundaries nearly always does arrange--a means
of peaceful settlement, either by compromise or through trial
by wrestling. Sometimes the ownership of a field itself is in
question. Usually the question is one of inheritance; although there
are a number of other causes that may give rise to dispute. [23]
Ownership is usually peaceably settled by means of a wrestling match.
"We come now to those cases in which a field is seized for debt as
payment of a fine or indemnity. The plaintiff or prosecutor seizes
the field at spading time by planting runo stalks, alpud, in it. The
defendant probably pulls up these stalks and throws them away. [24]
An attempt may be made by mutual friends and relatives to secure a
peaceful settlement of the trouble. A rice field is a thing so dear
to the Ifugao, and so necessary and useful to him, that such attempts
are extremely likely, however, to come to naught.
If the matter be not arranged otherwise, the seizer of the field
sends a body of men to spade it, holding in reserve an armed force of
kinsmen and relatives to protect and maintain the spaders if they be
attacked. The other party emerges with an armed force to drive the
spaders away. The two parties meet. If one be greatly superior in
strength, the other usually retires, and surrenders the field. If
they be fairly evenly matched, a battle is likely to ensue. If the
first wound be a slight one, the party receiving it is likely to
withdraw; but if it be serious, or if one of their number be killed,
they fight to avenge him. Sometimes four or five men are killed in
one of these frays.
But in the meantime, and often before actual fighting begins, a body
of mutual relatives, friends, and neighbors emerges and tries to make
peace and secure an amicable settlement.
136. Enforced hospitality.--Sometimes a creditor and a numerous
and powerful following of kinsmen descend upon a debtor's house as
unwelcome guests, consume his stores of food, and force his hospitality
until appeased by the payment of the debt.
This form of collection can only be used in the case of debts, for in
all other controversies, taboos forbid the eating of the adversary's
food, drinking his water, chewing his betels, etc. Even in the case of
debt, if a go-between has been sent to the debtor, this means may not
be used. It can only be used in a case where "diplomatic relations"
have not been ruptured.
137. Kidnapping or seizure of persons.--Interior districts had no
opportunity to seize animals from those districts nearer than they
to the region whence animals were imported. Of necessity, then,
they kidnapped and sold or held for ransom women and children from
those districts.
138. Cases illustrating seizure and kidnapping.--The following
instances actually occurred in times past. They are excellent and
veritable illustrations of this phase of Ifugao administration
of justice:
Bahni of Tupplak spoke scornfully of Bumidang of Palao. Some time
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."
On the morrow they visited the various Gods of Animal
Fertility. They gathered pigs and chickens as gifts to Balitok
and Bugan. "Return to Kiangan," they said. "We will go with you."
[At this point, some priests change the myth into a tulud, while
some continue it as a myth. We will here insert the method of
this change.]
[Fiat by the priest, i.e., a statement of the priest's will:]
It is not formerly, but now; not to Kiangan that they come but
here to our village of X, in order that they relieve A and B
of childlessness; in order that they increase the life here in
our village of X. They bring children and pigs and chickens and
miraculous increase of rice to A and B here in our village of X.
They return to Lumbut. They come west to Agab. They continue
to X. [Here follows a detailed "pushing" of the party from the
East Region to the village in which the priest is performing the
invocation, and to the house of the childless couple.] They look
up. "Why, it is our children in X," they say.
"Yes," [says the priest,] "for they are childless. Give them
children. Let some be male and some be female. Let there be a
myriad of shields [figuratively: men] and a myriad of tudong
[women's sweet potato baskets; figuratively: women] here in our
village of X. Let the pigs and the chickens become many. May the
rice be miraculously increased. Bring us much life here in our
village of X.
[If the priest does not change the myth to a tulud at the point
above, he continues it as follows:]
They continued with Bugan to Kiangan. They gathered together the
"sitters" [priests] at Kiangan. They sacrificed the pigs and the
chickens. The Gods of Animal Fertility taught them how to perform
the bubun ceremony. They divided [as a tribute] the meat with
Ambahing [who takes semen from the womb of women and carries it
off in his hip-bag] and with Komiwa [who stirs up semen in the
womb so that conception is prevented].
Bugan and Balitok multiplied at Kiangan. There came to be a myriad
of shields [men] and a myriad of sweet-potato baskets [women]
in Kiangan. The pigs and the chickens became many. Their children
scattered throughout the hills of Pugao [the Ifugao's earth]. The
rice dikes climbed up the mountains. The hills smoked day by day
[from the burning off of clearings for sweet-potatoes]. Life was
miraculously increased.
[Fiat by the priests:] It is not then but now; not in Kiangan,
but here in our village of X. It shall be the same with these
children, A and B. Their children will be many. Let some be male
and some female. Let their pigs and the chickens, etc., etc.
[Tulud.] "We will go now," said Umbumabakal. "All right," said
Bugan. "There is a calling above," said Ngilin.
"Have you kin yonder?" said Umbumabakal.
"Yes," said Bugan, "we have kin in the village of X."
"Let us thither," say the Gods of Animal Fertility. They come
westward to Tulbung. They continue to X. [The priest "pushes"
the deities step by step on the way to the village in which he
is performing the invocation. When they arrive, the same occurs
as shown in the tulud inserted above.]
The halupe feast.--The halupe are a class of deities that keep an idea
constantly before the mind of one whom they are sent to harass. They
are most frequently used against debtors; but they may be sent to
soften the wrath of an enemy or the stubbornness of a pretty girl,
or for other purposes. They are induced to serve the end of him who
invokes them by the sacrifice of a pig or chicken and by offerings
of betels and rice wine. There are about a hundred of these deities.
After the ancestral spirits have been invoked, and beseeched to
intercede with the halupe for the purpose desired, the halupe
themselves are invoked, in some such words as the following:
"Ye halupe of the Skyworld, of the Underworld, of the West Region,
and of the East Region, are beseeched to attend. It is prayed
ye that ye go and harass (name) so that he will not sleep for
thinking of his debt to me. If he goes to get water, go with him;
if he goes to get wood, go with him; if he goes on a trading trip,
go with him. Harass him to the extent that he will give me his
pigs, his rice, his chickens, his death blankets, his money,
his rice fields, his "irons," his house furnishings: [There is
no danger of asking too much of a deity or a white man!] May the
speech of the go-between make him ashamed to refuse! Do not let
him sleep till he pays the debt."
A subclass of the halupe deities have, for their especial function,
the soothing of obstinate debtors so that they may not get angry at
the words of the go-between, nor run away from him when they see him
coming. These are also invoked.
The priest then is possessed by the halupe one by one, and through him,
each of the halupe takes a sip of rice wine, and states that he will
harass the debtor and that he will not allow him to sleep till he pays.
After this ceremony, a fowl or pig is sacrificed and given the
halupe. The meat is cooked and spread out on some cooked rice. Myths
relating how some ancestor successfully invoked the halupe, are
then recited for the magic power that lies in the recital, and are
followed by tulud, ceremonies of witchcraft in which the deities are
"pushed along" by the compelling power of the word of the priest to
do his bidding. More frequently than not, the myth changes abruptly
into the tulud. The following instance is taken verbatim from a series
of ceremonies that I had a priest perform against a delinquent debtor
who owed me a sum of money. I regret to say that the ceremonies were
not efficacious.
Bukad (Myth).--Oadda kano da Tumayaban ud Kakunian ke da Panubok
ke da Binantawan ke da Banaban ke da Dimpuyu. Kon-da takon da
monnigi, dola-da 'd Kabunian. Panganun-da amaiyu da. Ahi da peman
padapadan. Inhungal di amaiyu. Bohwagon-da hagiit. Punayaman
'd Kabunian, ya nunudnud-da ud Pangagauwan. Unudun di halupe ya
dimatong ud Pangagauwan. Agan-da ya domatong-da amaiyo. Mondaiyo-da
ud Baladong ya hidi peman kano balobgon-da. Buyangon-da ta
dauntan-da. Oadda Halupe Binantawan ya ibaga-na banting. "Maid
banting-ko," konan Tumayaban. Oadda kano Bugan da nak Tadona ud
Kiangan ya monbuliwong, te "Eak," kano, "monbaga di mangigamal
ke haoy ta kaliwak di gimauwat an haoy, an adi-da umidet
di guwat-da." Pitaowan-na paiyo ud Kiangan. Oadda, kano,
Binantawan ya inanang-na Bugan, an "Eka, Tumayaban," konana,
"ta tumutung-ka 'n Bugan! Ime Tumayaban hi kadwan Bugan ya
Konana Tutung-ok nihbo! Bugan" Kimali Bugan, ya konana "Kon
manahauliu-ka? "Antipi?" konan Tumayaban. "Ya te monbuliwong te
eak manila mangigamal ke haoy," "Antipi?" konan Tumayaban. "Om
te maato-ak an mangibaga di gimauwat an haoy." "Antipi, tuali
adi-da mitugun?" konan Tumayaban. "Ibangad mo hi balei-yo, ta
itugun-mo dakami 'n halupe."
Bimangad Bugan, ya patayon-na manok ya ayago-na
halupe. "Umetako," konan Banaban, "te intugan ditako di nak
Tadona 'd Kiangan. Higupan-mi dola-da ud Kiangan. Ibaga-da
punbagaan da. Badangan-mi tulang-mi ud Kiangan." Ime-da halupe,
ya halupaiyan-da punbagaan an gimauwat di babui 'n di tulang-da
ud Kiangan, ya ununud Bugan, ya monbaga, ya inala-na babui-da ya
peho-da ya gumok-da ya manok-da ya page-da ya paiyo-da. [Then he
waves his hand.]
[The priest blows, in the direction of his debtor.]
Bokun ud Kiangan, te hitu, ta ume-ak hi bigat ta alak di babui
Kodamon ya gamong-na ya paiyo-na peho-na ya manok-na. Balinan
di hapihapito-ko. Kai-ak halupe, kai-ak Banaban, ta idet-na ta
magibu ta maid di pangidoh-dohana.
[Here the myth changes into a tulud, "pushing."]
Oadda, kano, halupe, ya monbaga-da ya "Monbangad, tako" konana
dolatako ud Kakunian. "Oadda tugun," konan Tumayaban. "Tipi oadda
tugun ud tapâ? Dehidi iba-yo?" "Om," konan Bugan. "Dehidi iba mi
'd tapâ."
Oadda halupe, ya tikidan da ud Tataowang. Agan ud
Kulab. Ladangon ud Gitigit. Ladangon ud Pangibanutan. Tikidan
ud Nunbalabog. Itanglig-da tungun ud Baay ya Pindungan ya
maid. "Aha! ud Ablatan di montugun" kalion-da. Mondotal ud
Panaangan. Mondayu ud Iwakal. Paadan ud Upupan. Agan-da ya
ladangan ud Tobal. Buduan-da ud Uhat. Agwatan ud Nungimil. Abatan
ud Boko. Agan-da ud Pugu. Montikid ud Takadang. Humabiat
ud Domok. Mondotal ud Palatog. Dongolon-da tugun. Mihidol ud
Palatog. Monbanong ud Kabonwang. Agwatan ud Tudunwe. Ladangon ud
Umbul. Domatong ya belibelion-da, ya "Kon da Barton ya Patikwal"
konan Tumayaban. "Daan di punbagaan-yo?" konana. Dehidi hi Kodamon
an adi-na idet di gauwat-mi. Ume-kayo ta mipong alitaangan-na ta
halhalupayan-yo ta nemnemon-na gauwat-na; ta takon di adi mahuyop
hi tonga 'n di labi. Balinan-yo. Banabanan-yo. Halupayan-yo ta
maid di udum an nemenemon-na, ta gibuan-na gauwat-na, ta igatang-na
paiyo-na, ta idetan-na peho-na ya manok-na ya babui-na ya page-na
ya gumok-na.
[The priest blows and waves his hand in the direction of Kodamon's
house]. Ooo-of! Hadon-yo, ta umeak hi bigat!
Translation.--And it is said that Tumayaban and Panubok and
Binantawan and Banaban and Dimpuyu of the Skyworld decided to go
hunting there in their region of the Skyworld. They fed their
dogs. And then, indeed, they sent them on the chase. The dogs
found a trail. They started up a wild boar. They chased it about
the Skyworld, and followed down to Pangagauwan [the mountain
that towers over Kiangan]. The halupe [the deities above named]
followed after. They came up with their dogs, and there, it is
said, they speared the quarry. They spread grass on the earth
and cut it up. And Halupe Binantawan asked for fire.
"I have no flint and steel," said Tumayaban.
And it is said that Bugan, the daughter of Tadona of Kiangan, was
sick of life; for she said, "I will beg some one to eat me up in
order that I may forget my debtors who will not pay the debt they
owe me." She set out across the rice fields at Kiangan. Binantawan
saw her and said: "Go, Tumayaban; get fire from Bugan." Tumayaban
got up and went to where Bugan was.
"Let me have fire, Bugan."
"Are you in a hurry?" said Bugan.
"Why?" said Tumayaban.
"For I am tired of life, and am hunting for somebody to eat me up,"
said Bugan.
"Why?" said Tumayaban.
"Yes, "for I am tired of beseeching my debtors to pay their debts."
"Why, indeed, will they not listen to reason?" said Tumayaban. "Go
back to your house and call upon us halupe."
Bugan returned, and sacrificed chickens, and called upon the
halupe. "Let us go, for the daughter of Tadona has called upon
us at Kiangan," said Banaban. [The old Kiangan about four miles
below the village now called Kiangan by American officials.] "They
have gathered together in Kiangan. Let us assist our kinsfolk
there." The halupe went and they harassed those of whom it was
asked [the debtors], those who had borrowed pigs of the kin in
Kiangan. And Bugan followed after and took their pigs and their
"irons" and their money and their chickens and their rice and
their rice fields and their death blankets.
[The priest blows and waves his hand in the direction of his
debtor's house.]
Let it be so, not at Kiangan, but here, so that I may go in the
morning and take Kodamon's pigs, death blankets, rice fields,
money, chickens. May my words carry shame to him. May I be like a
harasser and like a soother, in order that he pay, in order that
it may be finished, in order that there come no serious result
of the controversy.
[Here the myth changes into a tulud, "pushing".]
The halupe speak, saying, "Let us return to our village in the
Skyworld."
"There is a calling," said Tumayaban. "Whence comes this call
from above? Have you kin there?"
"Yes," said Bugan, "we have kindred above."
And the halupe ascend at Tataowang. They come on to Kulab. They
continue to Gitigit. They continue to Pangibautan. They climb up to
Nunbalabog. They listen for a calling at Baay and Pindungan. [These
are villages in the vicinity of Urnbul, the village where the
priest was performing the ceremony.] "Aha! the calling is at
Umbul!" they say. They walk on the level at Panaangan. They descend
at Iwakal. They come to Upupan. They continue to Tobal. They come
out at Uhat. They wade at Nungimel. They go around the hill to
Boko. They continue to Pugu. They climb at Takadang. They ascend
to Domok. They walk on the level at Palatog. They listen for
the calling. They hear it there. They travel on the rice dikes
at Kabonwang. They wade at Tudunwe. They come round the hill at
Umbul. They arrive and, "Why, it is Barton and Patikwal," says
Tumayaban. "Where are your refractory debtors?"
"There is Kodamon. He does not pay his debts to us. Go and disperse
yourselves in the vicinity of his house, and harass him continually
with the remembrance of his debt, so that he may not sleep, even
in the middle of the night. Make him ashamed. Soothe him (so that
he will not be angry). Harass him so that he may think of nothing
else than his debt; so that he will finish with it; so that he
will sell his rice fields (in order to pay); so that he will give
us his pigs, his money, his irons, his rice, and his rice fields."
[The priest blows and waves his hand in the direction of Kodamon's
house.] "Ooo-of! Wait there till I come in the morning."
The collector of a large fine performs an unpretentious series of
ceremonies directed to the gods of animal fertility and growth. The
fact that he has won out in collecting the fine shows that his
star is in the ascendancy and that a more pretentious feast is
not needed.
Peace-making ceremonies.--A full account of these ceremonies would
be too extended to give here. The following are two of the myths
that are recited in the course of these ceremonies:
(1) And it is said that the father of Amtalao of the Skyworld spoke
to his son, saying: "Go down and cause the enemies of earth to make
peace, in order that there be no longer coughings, and shortness of
breath, and bleedings from the nose, and quick fatigue among them."
Amtalao packed his betels, put on his hip-bag, and took his spear
in hand. He descended to Habiatan. [Here the myth goes into a
detailed account of the places passed in the journey.] He arrived
in Kiangan. He went to the house of Balitok [the hero ancestor
of the people of Kiangan culture area]. He thrust the shod point
of his spear handle into the flat stone used as a seat in front
of the house. It crackled like a dry leaf.
"You have spoiled the flat stone," said Balitok. Amtalao kicked
the pieces of stone with his foot. They all joined together as
if never broken apart. "I did not spoil it," said Amtalao.
"Why is it, Balitok, that you do not make peace with your
enemies? Is it that you wish to be afflicted by the hidit?"
"I do not know how," said Balitok. Amtalao went to the sons of
Imbalitayan. "Make peace with Balitok, in order that ye be not
afflicted with coughings and snorings and bleedings from the nose
and shortness of the breath," said he.
And they caught their pigs and chickens, the sons of Imbalitayan,
and the people of Kiangan, and Amtalao taught them to make
peace. And when they had finished, Amtalao ascended into the
Skyworld.
"How many did you cause to make peace?" said his father.
"There are no more enemies on earth," said Amtalao. Even though the
Ifugao travel far, they are safe. Even though spears be thrown,
they do not scathe. No longer is there shortness of the breath,
and labored breathing, bleeding from the nose, and coughings and
quick fatigue. The people are like unto gold, which tarnishes not,
like unto the waters of the river, which never become small, and
like unto the dancing plumes of the cogon and runo grass. They
talk and talk, and talk straight. They ask for what they want
and get it."
Let it be so, not at Kiangan, but here; not then, but now; in order
that there be no more shortness of breath and coughing and labored
breathing [the priest's will being that the benefits mentioned
by Amtalao in the paragraph immediately preceding become existent].
(2) The Thunderer of the Skyworld was sitting on his lounging
bench in the Skyworld. "Alas! why do the people keep fighting
all the time?" he said. He took his spear in hand. He descended
unto Kiangan. He went to the house of Balitok. "Why do you not
make peace with the sons of Imbaluog?" said he.
"I desire to make peace, but they will not," said Balitok.
"Come with me," said the Thunderer. They went to the village of
the sons of Imbaluog. The Thunderer shouted to them. They came
down out of their houses, spears in hand, and carrying their
shields. They advanced toward Balitok. The Thunderer was angry.
"Why did the people of Kiangan offer to make peace, and ye would
not?" shouted he. The Thunderer snorted. The branches fell from
the trees. The sons of Imbaluog were blown to pieces. Their limbs
were torn from their trunks and went hurtling hither and thither.
And below every house was heard the wailing of the old women. And
every woman's head was encircled by mourning bands.
Let it be so, not then, but now, with those that do not keep
the peace! Let them be blown to pieces and scattered hither and
thither, and may there be none to avenge them.
The chewing of betels together by the reconciled enemies is the
essential part of the peace-making ceremony. Three constituents
are used in betel chewing: the betel leaf, the areca nut, and the
lime. The priest takes position between the two (as yet) enemies. One
of the enemies then gives the other an areca nut, and his courtesy
is returned by his enemy giving him a betel leaf. Both are then
supplied by the priest with lime. They proceed to chew betels then,
and the priest prays as follows:
"Ye are chewed, Betel Leaf, Areca Nut, and Lime. Let not them
who were enemies be afflicted with coughings, shortness of
breath, quick-coming fatigue, bleeding from the nose, nor labored
breathing. Let them, instead, be like gold, which tarnishes not;
like the tail feathers of the full-grown cock, which never touch
the earth; like the waters of the river, which never cease coming;
like Talal of Ambuaya, who ate his own children, yet was not
afflicted by the hidit. Let them be as active as the waters of
Inude (a cataract) or the feathery plumes of the cogon and runo
grass. Let them be like the rising sun, like the Cobra of the
White Mountain, like the Full-grown Cock of Dotal, like the Hard
Stone of Huduan. [28] May their enemies stand aside from them in
fear. May their valor be heard of in all the hills."
Ceremonies connected with the payment of large fines.--At the
termination of a controversy in which a large fine is paid, the two
parties perform the hidit, peace-making ceremonies, as a matter
of self-interest. To leave them unperformed would be to subject
themselves to the wrath of the hidit deities who would afflict them
with tuberculosis, shortness of breath, etc. The peace so made is
theoretical, oftentimes, rather than actual. Usually there is a great
deal of ill feeling smoldering in the breasts of the controversants.
He who pays any large fine invariably performs a general welfare
feast soon afterward. To this feast he invites all the deities of
the Skyworld, the Underworld, the Fabulous Region of the East and
the Fabulous Region of the West. In addition, if he feels great
resentment against the fine collector, he secretly performs the
following ceremony:
Tulud (Pushing).--"The Ender of the East Region sits on his
lounging bench there. He hears a call. He arises and puts betels
in his hip-bag and takes his spear in hand. He hesitates, and then
starts westward. He comes on to Payya. [The priest "pushes" him,
as in the preceding tulud, stage by stage through the following
places: Ulikon, Hapid, Ulalahi, Lana, Kudug, Lingay, Balahiang,
Lau, Bayukan, Ula, Tuktukbayahan, Kituman, Kiangan. From Kiangan
onward the route is variable, depending on the village of the
priest.]
He arrives at [village]. He receives the chicken. He chops off its
head. [The priest at this stage chops off the chicken's head.] Even
so [he says] I chop off the life of the fine collector. [The priest
blows and swings his arm in the direction of the fine-collector's
house.] Travel thither, Ender, to the house of him who took from
us the death blankets. Stay with him. If he goes to get wood,
turn the axe into his body. If he travels, push him off the
steep. If he sleeps, sleep with him. In the middle of the night
stab him, and we will hear about it with the rising sun. For we
are poverty stricken. We owed them no debt, yet they have taken
our pigs and our chickens and our death blankets and our rice
[etc.]. We are to be pitied, alas!"
Other deities that may be sent against the fine collector are the
Spider-webbed One, the Smotherer, Dysentery, the Short-winded One,
the Trapper, the Twister.
APPENDIX 3: PARRICIDE
A rather startling case was called before the Court of First
Instance in Kiangan in December, 1913. Limitit of Ayangan was
charged with having murdered his father. The phrase "Are you guilty
or not guilty?" translated into Ifugao changes significance slightly,
and stands "Are you at fault or not at fault?" With a candor almost
pitiable, Limitit admitted the facts in the case, but pleaded "not
at fault." "He was my father," he said. "I had a right to kill him. I
am blameless, for I provided a generous funeral feast for him."
Interrogation developed that Dilagan, the father, was a spendthrift. He
had raised a sum of money--possibly for the purpose of gambling--by
pawning, balal, his son's rice field. The son was angry, but Dilagan
promised faithfully to redeem the field by planting time. But planting
time came round, and Dilagan was unable to keep his promise and
redeem the field. In a quarrel over this matter, the son lost patience
and killed his father. So far as I am able to ascertain, his act is
justified, or at the very least, condoned by his co-villagers. They
excuse him on two grounds:
First, the old man was worthless, and deserved killing for having
wronged his son. Even though the damage done was not irremediable, it
was probable that it would be repeated, and that he would impoverish
his son for life.
Second, the old man was Limitit's father, and Limitit had the right
on that account to kill him if he wanted to; at least it was the
business of nobody else.
The American court, if I remember aright, sentenced Limitit to life
imprisonment. He died shortly after being incarcerated.
Another case of parricide was that of Bayungubung of Kurug. He killed
his father for the same reason that Limitit killed Dilagan: that is,
for the wrongful pawning of a field.
The essence of the attitude of the people in both these cases seemed
to be that the son had the right to kill his father if the latter
imperiled the family livelihood or position in society. It seems to
us an inhuman doctrine. But remember that the be-all and the end-all
of Ifugao existence is the family, and not the individual. With us,
the opposite is true: the rights of the individual supersede those
of the family. The fields in question had been handed down from past
generations. The son in each case was responsible at the time of the
parricide for the welfare of future generations of the family. The old
man in each case was a traitor to the welfare of the family. He had
had his day, and was worse than useless. Remember that in a country
where a living must be eked from a tough, stony mountain-side with a
wooden spade, the means to life handed down from the sweat of former
generations is a thing as sacred, as it is precious.
Besides these considerations, there is the principle on which Ifugao
society is based: The family exists principally for the youthful and
future generations of it.
APPENDIX 4: CONCUBINAGE AMONG THE KALINGAS
The Kalingas are a tribe having a culture remarkably similar to the
Ifugao. In respect of warfare, head-hunting, and social organization,
it is an even more dazzling example of a barbarian culture, I
believe. Concubinage is universally practiced by the wealthy. The
concubine has a legal status. A man must secure his wife's consent
to take a concubine, but the consent is universally forthcoming.
During a six months' residence in Kalinga I became quite well
acquainted with the unusually intelligent wife of a Kalinga headman. I
asked her one day why the women permitted their men to take unto
themselves additional wives.
"Oh, that's the custom of us Kalingas."
"I know it's the custom. But I think it's a poor one for you women
who are so unfortunate as to be married to men who practice it."
"Why are we unfortunate? Their children can inherit none of his
wealth. Our children get it all."
"Yes, but doesn't it hurt you to see your husband running after
other women?"
"I never see it. The other women never come here. Or if they do come
to the house it is as if they were perfect strangers. They have their
own house."
"But you must know that your husband does leave you to go to these
other women."
"Oh yes! But I don't see it. Besides their children are subject to my
children. If my children suffer injury, they fight to avenge them. If
my children demand, they stand back of them. It is good to have a
large family."
The logic of concubinage is embraced in this last reply, I think. It
is an institution to render the family "strong to demand, and strong
to resist demands."
A strong healthy Kalinga chief has usually two, often more
concubines. He gives them rather limited material support: now and
then a suckling pig to rear, a little rice to help out the year, work
at good wages, yarn to keep them busy at the loom, a little capital
for trading trips, and the like. He may help them a great deal, but
they rarely cost him much. As indicated above, their children have
no inheritance rights.
GLOSSARY [29]
adi, term of negation.
agamang, dormitory of the unmarried. In some sections of northern
Ifugao a special building is constructed for this purpose. Among the
Ifugaos generally a vacant house or the house of a widow is used.
agba, a magic stick used for the purpose of determining the cause of
illness, or the answering of other difficult questions. The stick is
believed to grow longer when it desires to make an affirmation.
aiyag, call, name. A ceremony to recall the soul of a sick or dead
person.
alaag, a cooking pot of Chinese origin.
alao, duel with lances.
alauwin, a gourd carried as a water jug by women working in the
rice fields.
alpud, runo stalks with blades tied in a loop. It is an "ethics lock,"
and denotes private property. Used by placing near or on whatever it is
desired shall remain unmolested; as, for example, a sugar-cane thicket,
cord of wood, house in the absence of owners, rice field in dispute,
and so forth.
ama, father (see Appendix 1).
amana-on, father-in-law (see Appendix 1).
amaon, aunt's husband, etc. (see Appendix 1).
anak, son or daughter (see Appendix 1).
apo, grandparent (see Appendix 1).
*areca, a slender graceful palm which produces the areca nut,
erroneously called the betel-nut, which, with the leaf of the betel
pepper and lime, are universally chewed by the Ifugaos. The physiologic
effect is similar to that of coffee.
ayak, sorcery.
baag, facetious or uncalled-for remarks.
baal, a hand servant; a household servant.
bakid, a "ten"; a half-score.
balal, a form of pawning of family property, in which a sum is loaned,
the property passing into the hands of the lender, and remaining
so until the sum is repaid. The use of the property constitutes the
interest on the loan.
baloblad, interest paid in advance at the time a loan is made.
banga, a pot or tobacco pipe.
bango, a back-basket used for carrying necessities on a journey. It
affords a considerable protection against rain.
banting, flint and steel for fire making. Even applied sometimes,
though improperly, to modern methods of fire drawing by means of
matches. Never applied to fire making by means of sticks or fire
syringe.
bayaó, a kind of fancy blanket.
binangwa, anything that has been cut in two; halved. Sometimes used
to denote the half of anything.
binawit, a child spouse that lives in the home of his or her
parents-in-law.
binokbok, a ceremony performed three days after a burial. The soul
of the deceased is brought back to the village and interviewed.
bobod, a tie, a knot.
*bolo, a heavy knife about 14 to 16 inches long, whose shape varies
among the different tribes. It serves a multitude of purposes,
answering now for an axe, now for a spade or hoe, now for a weapon,
now for the ordinary uses of knives.
bubun, the final ceremony of marriage. Its main purpose is to secure
offspring for the couple.
budut, one of the principal payments in the Benaue district in the
purchase of a rice field.
bukad, a religious ceremony in which a myth is recited for its
magic effect.
bultong, a wrestling match; trial by wrestling.
bungol, jewel, specifically, ancient agate beads.
bungot, ferocity; the nearest approach in the Ifugao language perhaps
to "bravery". The Ifugao's ideal of bravery seems to be an aggressive
and relentless, boastful, angry assertiveness. Mahui, a synonym,
has the sense of relentless boldness.
*camote, a tropical sweet potato, of which there are numerous
varieties.
dalag, offering to the soul of a deceased person.
dangale, funeral feast.
datok, offering to the soul of a deceased person.
di, the article, "of the."
dotag, flesh; meat.
duyu, a wooden dish.
*fiat, a term which I use to denote those phrases in religious
ceremonies in which the priest clinches or compels the magic effect
of an analogy by means of the spoken word.
gagaom, funeral shrouds.
*gansa, or gangha, a gong made of copper alloyed with zinc, tin,
or silver. Many are very old. Some have been made in Igorot-land,
others imported from China.
gatang, purchase price; business transaction, the main payment.
gibu, fine for marital or postmarital delinquency.
goba, arson, burn.
gogod, cut, bisect.
gulad, intent.
guling, a small but valuable, and usually artistic, rice-wine jar.
habalag, a peg on which articles are hung up. One of the payments in
the fine for illegal confiscation.
habale, peg or bracket upon which articles are hung.
hablal, flood; flooding of fields with water.
hagabi, a lounge cut out of a large tree trunk. It is the insignia of
the upper class Ifugao. Its carving out of the trunk, and its bringing
in from the forest, is an affair in which many villages participate,
and is accompanied by pretentious ceremonies and feasts.
hagaphap, cleaning of terrace wall; chopping off grass and weeds.
hailiyu, a lesser fine.
hakba, gifts to kindred of bride from kindred of bridegroom.
hakit, hurt, anguish.
halat, payment due persons of a foreign village who find the body of
one dead by violence.
halupe, a class of deities somewhat corresponding to the Greek Furies;
suggesting and harassing deities.
hapud, blowing, or breathing on.
haynub, follower; succeeding units of a series.
hibul, treachery.
hidit, peace ceremony; peace deities; sickness inflicted by peace
deities because of delayed peace ceremony.
hin, a form of the word oha, meaning "one".
hingot, the third of the marriage ceremonies.
hogop, damages due the injured party in case of breach of contract.
hokwit, scandalous adultery, accompanied by insults to the offended
spouse.
honga, a general welfare ceremony.
hudhud, fine for offense against engagement or for breaking off
engagement.
hukup, lid.
hulul, exchange.
iba, companions; sometimes, kindred.
ibuy, ceremony at transfer of ownership of rice field.
iho, evil, bad.
imbango, sacrifice at second ceremony of marriage.
ina, mother (see Appendix 1).
inagagong, a kind of Ifugao blanket.
inagamid, adopted; taken to oneself.
inaon, uncle's wife, etc. (see Appendix 1).
inay, exclamation of pain or awe.
inhida, eaten; one of the payments at the ibuy ceremony.
inipit, something held with pincers or pliers; also something grasped
between the toes. In eating meat the Ifugao holds his knife between
the toes and, grasping the meat with his hands, cuts it by sawing it
back and forth on the knife.
inlaglaga, bastard.
iyao, form of iho.
iyu, a form of iho.
kadangyang, a wealthy person; person of the upper class. Some
observers have interpreted kadangyang as "noble"; others as
"chieftain". Correctly speaking, there are neither chieftains nor
nobles among the Ifugaos. The more powerful kadangyang rise to the
dignity of headmen--no further.
kalakal, an edible water beetle found in the rice fields.
kalun, advice.
kindut, carried under the arm.
kinta, surplus; portion of food left after appetite has been satisfied.
kolating, harvest feast.
kulpe, feast at time rice fields are planted.
kumadangyang, to become wealthy.
labod, blood payment; indemnity for homicide or severe wounds.
lanad, commission of go-between. Also called liwa.
linutu, cooked.
liwa, fee of go-between. See lanad.
lukbu, commission; fee paid an agent.
luktap, unaggravated adultery; adultery unaccompanied by great scandal
and by insults to offended spouse.
lupe, interest; increase.
maginlotan, death blanket, usually imported. Of less value than
the dili.
ma-ibuy, property for whose transfer the ibuy ceremony is necessary.
mangdad, pig or chicken, given by kindred of bride to kindred of groom
as a return for pig given the former by the latter in the hango and
hingot ceremonies.
manikam, priest who performs certain ceremonies preliminary to the
uyauwe feast (see tikman).
mata-na, his eyes.
mommon, preliminary marriage ceremony.
monbaga, asker, requester.
monbiyao, an alliance between families of different
districts. Celebrated by very pretentious ceremonies.
mongatang, seller.
monkalun, advocate, adviser. Specifically, in law, the go-between in
a penal or civil case.
montudol, a "shower"; specifically, a traitor to his village;
a betrayer.
nabungol, jeweled.
nadulpig, in addition to; accompanying.
na-imbalbalayen (lit., "made one's child"), adopted child.
na-oha, single; one only; one alone.
na-onom, six at a time; a unit consisting of six subunits, or parts.
natauwinan, four at a time.
nate, dead.
natuku, consisting of three subunits, or parts.
nawatwat, poverty-stricken; term applied to the lowest class of
Ifugao society.
nemnem, mind, feeling, thought, emotion, worry, intention. The term
is of very broad meaning and applies to the mind or any act thereof.
nikkop (lit., "taken to one's self"), adopted child, or a servant
that is treated as one of the family.
nunbadi, a pair; consisting of two subunits or parts; two together.
nundopa, the "jumping down from."
nungolat (lit., "he who was strong"), the conceiver, or originator,
of a plot; he who assembles others to himself, and leads them in
committing an injury or offense.
nunlidludagan, place where it was laid, or had fallen.
nunókop, a payment of two units of a series by means of a
single article. The Ifugao prefers to divide all sales into ten
subpayments. If the sale be comparatively small, two subpayments may
be paid by one article, as by a death blanket.
oban, a blanket, about eight feet long and two feet wide, with which
a baby is carried on the back of an elder. It is of great religious
and poetic significance.
ohok, sticks or trellis for climbing vines.
om, yes; affirmative.
ongot, menace; threat.
otak, a large knife, universally carried by the Ifugaos. It is used
in war or in work; commonly called throughout the Philippines "bolo"
in both English and Spanish.
paduldul, comfort; causing consolation.
paghok, landmark; usually chunks of wood or stone buried at a
boundary line.
pakimáan, "causing to chew betels together."
pango, jewels, usually agate beads.
paniyu, taboo.
panuyu, mutual accusation, false accusation.
paowa, prohibition, truce.
patang, interest paid in advance on something borrowed.
piduan, repetition.
pinokla, a ceremony to cure wounds.
pinohat, carried under the arm.
ponga, ceremony to remove the prohibition on marriage of cousins. Full
cousins may not marry.
pugug, finish; termination.
puhu-na, his heart.
putu-na, his belly.
pu-u, base.
*runo, a tall reed that covers the mountain sides. House walls, mats,
floors, and fences are made of it. It also makes an effective missile.
tandong, one of the principal payments made on family property. It
corresponds to the initial payment made when an article is bought on
installments among our people.
tanig, term applied to the principal marriage ceremony in the Benaue
district. Corresponds to bubun in the Kiangan district.
tayap, wing.
te, because.
tikman, ceremony of tying up the bellies, appetites, passions, and
desires of the guests at a feast.
tobong, spit on which edible water beetles are grilled.
tokop, the placing beside an article its equivalent.
tokom, fine assessed for putting another in the position of being
an accomplice.
tombok, gossip.
tomok, fine for manslaughter, wounds.
tudong, woman's sweet-potato basket. It is used as a raincoat when
at work in the fields.
tulang, brother (see Appendix 1).
tuldag, series of ceremonies at the time rice is put in the granaries.
tulud, a ceremony of witchcraft, in which, following the recitation of
a myth for magic purposes, the characters of the myth recited are made
to perform, or declare their will to perform, the desire of the priest.
tumuk, persons of the middle class. Persons are accounted of this
class who have rice sufficient for the use of their family throughout
the year, and those who, having surplus rice, have not been initiated
into the ranks of the kadangyang by means of the uyauwe feast.
tungul, ceremony at the time of placing rice in granaries. One of
the three greater ceremonials of rice culture.
ubunana, his seat.
ugâ, treachery.
ulitao, uncle (see Appendix 1).
ulitaon, spouse of uncle or aunt (see Appendix 1).
ulpitan, the placing on each side of an article its equivalent.
umuhun, burning off the grass preparatory to spading fields.
unud, follow, a term applied to a second payment of interest in
advance. Thus, a man borrows a carabao, paying P30 as the interest in
advance for one year, and if at the end of the year he cannot repay
the carabao he makes a second payment, or unud, as interest in advance
on the following year.
uyauwe, a series of pretentious and ostentatious ceremonies by which
a person attains the rank of kadangyang. Sometimes it is combined
with the last ceremony of marriage.
NOTES
[1] The present population of the Philippine Islands is about
10,000,000. Notwithstanding, there are vast stretches of unoccupied
lowlands. At the coming of the Spaniards the population of the tribes
that now are Christian has been estimated at 500,000. These second
Malay immigrants undoubtedly gained the principal part of their
livelihood from agriculture, for which they needed little land. Why,
then, is it hypothesized that any immigration drove another to the
mountains? My own belief is that the first immigrants went to the
mountains of their own volition for the reason that they had been a
mountain people and a terrace-building people in their former home.
[2] I use the word "district" to denote the inhabitants of one of the
many smaller culture sections into which the habitat of the Ifugaos
is divided.
[3] The possibility that these sex taboos are survivals of a former
clan system in which exogamy was the rule does not in the least
invalidate this statement.
[4] Taboo is for the most part undoubtedly derived from magic. Indeed,
there are not wanting those who hold that all taboo has its origin in
magic. While doubting if so sweeping an assertion as this can be true,
especially when we consider that even in its most primitive phases
human life is exceedingly complex and intricate, I invite attention
to the fact that magic is such an all-embracing thing in primitive
society, and is so closely connected with matters of morality and
public policy, that there is nothing in this paragraph that can
offend even those who hold that the field of taboo is one wholly of
magic prohibitions.
[5] When the Ifugao sacrifices a chicken or pig, he always consults
the omen of the bile sac. A full distended bile sac normally placed
is a good omen. An empty one, or one abnormally placed is a bad
omen. Needless to say, most omens are good.
[6] There is a feeling on the part of the social consciousness
that marriages ought to be permanent--that it is better when such
is the case. Inasmuch, however, as all the uncles and aunts consider
themselves, and, in the scheme of the reckoning of Ifugao relationships
are considered, in loco parentis with respect to their nephews and
nieces, and almost equally bound with the parents themselves to impart
instruction and give training, the removal of one parent is of little
detriment to the mental and moral phase of the rearing of children.
[7] I prefer using the term contract marriage to using antenuptial
agreement. The latter is an occidental institution of which the reader
has a definite notion. The contract marriage is different in motive
and nature.
[8] Stumbling is not merely a prognostication; it is also a cause. It
would tend to bring about that he who stumbled would die or be
unfortunate if he went ahead with the marriage.
[9] Family property: for definition see sec. 33.
[10] For an explanation of the Ifugao's method of making payments
and of reckoning fines and indemnities, see sec. 75.
[11] The fact that an Ifugao spouse remains always a member of the
family of his blood kindred, and that the ties binding him to his
conjugal partner are light indeed is shown by the fact that, at his
death, funeral expenses fall mainly on his father and mother and
brothers and sisters.
[12] The Ifugao reckons kinship by generations. Those of a
contemporaneous generation are tulang, brothers and sisters, children
of the preceding generation of blood relatives, grandchildren of the
generation of ascendants twice removed, fathers of the succeeding
generation, and so on (see appendix 1).
[13] It is a Malay's pride never to be caught without an explanation or
excuse. However flimsy or absurd this may be, or perhaps in proportion
to its absurdity, he advances it boldly and brazenly.
[14] This payment is based on ideas of magic. It tends to cause the
field to produce in like manner: that is, to produce enough and a
surplus besides.
[15] In one case, to be hereafter considered, the absence of both
intent and carelessness do not excuse (see sec. 105).
[16] Kadangyang: an upper-class person. In most parts of Ifugao persons
must give expensive feasts to attain this rank. Tumok: persons who
have enough rice to last them throughout the year, but who do not
sell rice. Nawatwat: persons who are poverty stricken.
[17] Tuberculosis and persistent cough (see sec. 141).
[18] Compare the practice of our Saxon forefathers among whom the
"life of a king's thane was worth 1200 shillings, while that of a
common free man was valued only a sixth as high," and that of a slave
at only his property valuation.
[19] R. R. Cherry, The Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities
(London, 1890). Dr. Cherry shows how masters' liability for injuries
done by their employees has arisen from this principle (pp. 4 ff.).
[20] Thus A and B, two brothers, are members of the same family until
they marry. After marriage A's family consists of his blood kin and
of his relatives by marriage, and the same holds of B's family. Thus
after marriage only half the individuals of the families of the two
brothers are identical. The families of two cousins are identical as
to one-half the component individuals before their marriage and as
to one-fourth of the component individuals after their marriage.
[21] The word monkalun comes from the root kalun, meaning advise. The
Ifugao word has the double sense, too, of our word advise, as used
in the following sentences, "I have the honor to advise you of your
appointment" and "I advise you not to do that."
[22] When a crime such as theft has been committed, and it cannot be
determined from any evidence at hand who was the culprit, the injured
person frequently resorts to the hapud. One form of this ceremony
consists in placing an egg or areca nut on the edge of a knife or
the bevel of a spear and repeating the prayers necessary to make
the egg or areca nut balance and stand on end at the mention of the
guilty person. Another form consists in spanning an agba stick. At
the mention of the guilty person the stick grows longer, as revealed
by its length in relation to the span of the priest. These sticks are
kept for generations. Many of them are over a hundred years old. These
ceremonies are not of virtue as evidence and are entirely without
the pale of Ifugao procedure. They are of value only to the injured
person in assisting him to determine who has committed the crime.
[23] The very day that I wrote this, the ownership of a field was
settled by a wrestling match. An Ifugao some time before pawned a
field to a christianized Ifugao. This worthy had the temerity to sell
the field. Although the pawner would have surely been sustained in
his right had he appealed to the lieutenant-governor, nevertheless,
he was so confident, being in the right, that he would not lose,
that he consented to settle the ownership by a wrestling match. He
won. The christianized Ifugao may possibly now have more faith in
the tenet of his former religion that the ancestral spirits uphold
him who is in the right.
[24] He may gratuitously add an insult by implanting a few of them
in a pile of fecal matter.
[25] The villages of Pindungan and Ambabag are less than a mile
distant from each other.
[26] The Nagakaran people claim that only five out of forty of the
first expedition returned.
[27] This was the usual method of treating kidnapped persons. It is
interesting to note an almost parallel practice on the part of the
Allies in the present war. When prisoners are taken, the buttons are
cut off their clothing, in order to keep their hands engaged during
the march to the rear.
[28] Myths relate how the Full-Grown Cock overcame the Half-Grown
Cock, how the Cobra overcame the Python, how the Hard Stone overcame
the Soft Stone.
[29] Starred words are not Ifugao.
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