A Study in Tinguian Folk-Lore

by Fay-Cooper Cole

GENERAL RESULTS

Our study has brought out certain general results. We have seen that Tinguian folklore has much in common with that of other tribes and lands. While a part of this similarity is doubtless due to borrowing—a process which can still be seen at work—a considerable portion of the tales is probably of local and fairly recent origin, while the balance appears to be very old. These older tales are so intimately interwoven with the ceremonies, beliefs, and culture of this people that they may safely be considered as having been developed by them. They are doubtless much influenced by present day conditions, for each story teller must, even unconsciously, read into them some of his own experiences and the current beliefs of the tribe. At the same time these traditional accounts doubtless exercise a potent influence on the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the people. In Tinguian society, where custom still holds undisputed sway, these well-known tales of past times must tend to cast into the same mould any new facts or experiences which come to them.

We believe that we are justified when we take the viewpoint of the Tinguian and consider "the stories of the first times" as essentially very old. How old it is impossible to state definitely, but a careful analysis of our material justifies us in believing that they reflect a time before the people possessed terraced rice fields, when domestic work animals were still unknown, and the horse had not yet been introduced into their land. That these are not recent events is attested by the great part they all now play in the ceremonial and economic life. It is evident that outside influences of great importance were introduced at a period later than the time when the Chinese first began to trade along the coasts of the Philippines for the prized jars, which play such an important rôle in the mythology, are not to be identified as those of native make but are ancient Chinese vessels dating back at least to the fourteenth and perhaps even to the tenth century. [86]

It is probable that the glass, porcelain, and agate beads, which are second only to the jars in importance, are exceedingly old. Many ancient specimens are still in use and are held for as fabulous prices as are those found among the interior tribes of Borneo. Nieuwenhuis has shown that the manufacture of beads had become a great industry in the middle ages, and had extended even to China and Japan, whence the products may have spread contemporaneously with the pottery. [87]

We have seen that, for the most part, the life, customs, and beliefs which appear in our reconstruction of "the first times" agrees closely with present conditions; certain things which seem formerly to have been of prime importance—such as the sending of a betel-nut covered with gold to invite guests to a festival or ceremony—appear to have their echo in present conditions. The betel-nut which played such a momentous part in the old times still holds its place in the rituals of the many ceremonies, although it is not now much used in daily life. The magic of to-day is less powerful than formerly, but is still a tremendous force. The communication of the ancient people with other members of the animate world, as well as with the inanimate and spiritual, and their metamorphosis into animals and the like, offers nothing strange or inconsistent to the people of to-day. They even now talk to jars, they converse with spirits who come to them through the bodies of their mediums, and people only recently deceased are known to have had the power of changing themselves, at will, into other forms.

In short, there is no sharp break between the mode of thought of to-day and that exhibited in the folklore. It is true that the tales give sanction to some things not in agreement with Tinguian usage—such, for instance, as the marriage of relatives, or the method of disposing of the dead—and it may be that we have here a remembrance of customs which long ago fell into disuse.

In a previous paper [88] the writer showed that there have been many migrations into Abra from the north, south, and west. A part of the emigrants have become thoroughly amalgamated with the Tinguian people and have doubtless introduced some part of their material culture and beliefs. This helps us to understand such conflicts as we have already noted in regard to the place held by thunder and lightning in the spirit world, as to the future abode of the spirits of the departed, as well as other discrepancies which the limits of this paper have prevented us from discussing.

It is not impossible that those customs of "the first times," which are at variance with those of to-day, may represent older ideas which have been swamped, or, on the other hand, the memory of the strange customs once practiced by the emigrants may have caused them to be attributed to the people of the tales.

Finally, we believe that a study of Tinguian mythology has shown us that we can gain a real knowledge of the past of a people through their folklore; that we can secure an insight into their mental life; and can learn something of the valuation they attach to certain of their activities and beliefs, which to us may seem at the surface trite and trivial.