Origin Myths among the Mountain Peoples of the Philippines

by H. Otley Beyer

Primitive Beliefs

Our knowledge of the more primitive tribes of the Philippines is very limited and is chiefly confined to the material culture, together with a few of the more obvious social traits. Nothing like a complete study of any one of these tribes has ever been made. Of the Ilongots, most of our knowledge[2] is contained in the records of the early Spanish missionaries of the first part of the 18th century, at which time an extensive exploration of the Ilongot country was made.[3] There are two modern sources of information: a paper by Worcester,[4] which deals chiefly with the material culture, and the notes of Dr. William Jones, who was killed while studying the ethnology of this people. Dr. Jones’ notes are now in the possession of the Field Museum, Chicago, and have not yet been published. Relating to the Man͠gyans, there are three important papers by Worcester,[5] Gardner,[6] and Miller,[7] but these likewise deal chiefly with the material and general social culture, and give only fragmentary notes regarding the religious beliefs. Two papers, one by Worcester[8] and one by Venturello,[9] relate to the Tagbanwas. The religion of these people is interesting, although primitive. The general character of their beliefs may be seen by the following quotation from Worcester:[10]

I was especially interested in their views as to a future life. They scouted the idea of a home in the skies, urging that it would be inaccessible. Their notion was that when a Tagbanua died he entered a cave, from which a road led down into the bowels of the earth. After passing along this road for some time, he came suddenly into the presence of one Taliákood, a man of gigantic stature, who tended a fire which burned forever between two tree-trunks without consuming them. Taliákood inquired of the new arrival whether he had led a good or a bad life in the world above. The answer came, not from the individual himself, but from a louse on his body.

I asked what would happen should the man not chance to possess any of these interesting arthropoda, and was informed that such an occurrence was unprecedented! The louse was the witness, and would always be found, even on the body of a little dead child.

According to the answer of this singular arbiter, the fate of the deceased person was decided. If he was adjudged to have been a bad man, Taliákood pitched him into the fire, where he was promptly and completely burned up. If the verdict was in his favour, he was allowed to pass on, and soon found himself in a happy place, where the crops were always abundant and the hunting was good. A house awaited him. If he had died before his wife, he married again, selecting a partner from among the wives who had preceded their husbands; but if husband and wife chanced to die at the same time, they remarried in the world below. Every one was well off in this happy underground abode, but those who had been wealthy on earth were less comfortable than those who had been poor. In the course of time sickness and death again overtook one. In fact, one died seven times in all, going ever deeper into the earth and improving his surroundings with each successive inward migration, without running a second risk of getting into Taliákood’s fire.

I could not persuade the Tagbanuas to advance any theories as to the nature or origin of the sun, moon, and stars. Clouds they called “the breath of the wind.”

They accounted for the tide by saying that in a far-distant sea there lived a gigantic crab: when he went into his hole the water was forced out, and the tide rose; when he came out the water rushed in, and the tide fell. The thing was simplicity itself.

I asked them why the monkey looked so much like a man. They said because he was once a man, who was very lazy when he should have been planting rice. Vexed at his indolence, a companion threw a stick at him which stuck into him; whereupon he assumed his present form, the stick forming his tail.

From the foregoing, it is evident that the Tagbanwa beliefs are not highly developed. However, several items are of interest for comparison with the beliefs of the more cultured tribes to be later described. Of these items, those most to be kept in mind are the idea of a seven-storied underworld, and the name of the chief deity of that underworld, Taliákud. This name comes from the stem tákud, túkud, or tókod, which is common to many Philippine dialects and means “post” or “support.” It is generally applied to the four legs or posts of the common Philippine house. Now, the belief in an Atlas, or god who supports the earth world, is widespread in the Philippines, and the name applied to this god is nearly always derived from this same stem túkud. The Ifugao Atlas is Tinúkud of the underworld, and I suspect that the Tagbanwa Taliákud of the underworld is a deity of the same character.