The Well-developed Polytheistic Religions of Northern Luzon
I shall mention chiefly the Igorot, Bontok, and Ifugao peoples, as these three, in addition to holding the highest order of beliefs, are the best developed in general material and social culture of any of the Philippine mountain tribes. The Tin͠ggián, Kalinga, and other tribes in that region also have religions of high type, but our information concerning them is more limited.[20]
The literature relating to the Igorot-Bontok-Ifugao group is very considerable in extent, and I shall refer only to a few of the more important papers dealing particularly with religion and mythology.
Before taking up the mythology proper, we should have some idea of the religion as a whole. These peoples believe that the regions of the sky world, earth world, and underworld are peopled by an almost incalculable number of deities of varying character and powers. Some of these deities are the great beings who inspire the phenomena of nature, while others are guardian spirits, messenger spirits, or mischievous tricksters. The great nature deities are mostly of malevolent character, and are much feared. Ancestral souls and the souls of sacred animals are looked upon as mediators between gods and men. Pigs and chickens are sacrificed to the deities, and other articles of food and drink are provided for them. Many elaborate religious feasts and ceremonies are held at which priests officiate. The priests form a well-defined class, and in some districts there are also priestesses. A religious ceremony is required for every important act of life, and the priests and priestesses are usually busy people.
It would seem that a religion of this same general type was also common among the lowland peoples of the Philippines before they were Christianized by the Spaniards. Pigafetta, the first European to write of the Philippines, describes a ceremony, which he saw performed in Cebu in the year 1520, as follows:[21]
In order that your most illustrious Lordship may know the ceremonies that those people use in consecrating the swine, they first sound those large gongs. Then three large dishes are brought in; two with roses and with cakes of rice and millet, baked and wrapped in leaves, and roast fish; the other with cloth of Cambaia and two standards made of palm-tree cloth. One bit of cloth of Cambaia is spread on the ground. Then two very old women come, each of whom has a bamboo trumpet in her hand. When they have stepped upon the cloth they make obeisance to the sun. Then they wrap the cloths about themselves. One of them puts a kerchief with two horns on her forehead, and takes another kerchief in her hands, and dancing and blowing upon her trumpet, she thereby calls out to the sun. The other takes one of the standards and dances and blows on her trumpet. They dance and call out thus for a little space, saying many things between themselves to the sun. She with the kerchief takes the other standard, and lets the kerchief drop, and both blowing on their trumpets for a long time, dance about the bound hog. She with the horns always speaks covertly to the sun, and the other answers her. A cup of wine is presented to her of the horns, and she dancing and repeating certain words, while the other answers her, and making pretense four or five times of drinking the wine, sprinkles it upon the heart of the hog. Then she immediately begins to dance again. A lance is given to the same woman. She shaking it and repeating certain words, while both of them continue to dance, and making motions four or five times of thrusting the lance through the heart of the hog, with a sudden and quick stroke, thrusts it through from one side to the other. The wound is quickly stopped with grass. The one who has killed the hog, taking in her mouth a lighted torch, which has been lighted throughout that ceremony, extinguishes it. The other one dipping the end of her trumpet in the blood of the hog, goes around marking with blood with her finger first the foreheads of their husbands, and then the others; but they never came to us. Then they divest themselves and go to eat the contents of those dishes, and they invite only women (to eat with them). The hair is removed from the hog by means of fire. Thus no one but old women consecrate the flesh of the hog, and they do not eat it unless it is killed in this way.
This ceremony, almost the same as described by Pigafetta, is in use among the Ifugaos to-day, although it is performed by men instead of by women and differs in a few minor details.
I shall next discuss the religion and mythology of the Igorots, Bontoks, and Ifugaos, treated separately and in more detail.