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 blankets) | ₱16.00 | Pu-u (death blanket) | ₱8.00 | Pu-u (dili) | ₱8.00 |
| 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 of theNo-onom | |
| Natauwinan | .50 | Nuntuku | .50 | ||
| Nuntuku (3 each) | .50 | Nuntuku | .40 | ||
| Nuntuku | .50 | Nunbadi | .40 | ||
| Na-oha | .20 | ||||
| ₱27.50 | Liwa comes out of the Hin-bakid | ||||
| Liwa or fee of go-between (1 death blanket) | ₱8.00 | ||||
| Total, | ₱35.50 | Total, | ₱19.00 | Total, | ₱10.20 |
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.