Lumawig, the Supreme Being
The Igorot has personified the forces of nature. The personification has become a single person, and to-day this person is one god, Lu-ma′-wĭg. Over all, and eternal, so far as the Igorot understands, is Lu-ma′-wĭg—Lu-ma′-wĭg, who had a part in the beginning of all things; who came as a man to help the survivors and perpetuators of Bontoc; who later came as a man to teach the people whom he had befriended, and who still lives to care for them. Lu-ma′-wĭg is the greatest of spirits, dwelling above in chayya, the sky. All prayers for fruitage and increase—of men, of animals, and of crops—all prayers for deliverance from the fierce forces of the physical world are made to him; and once each month the pa′-tay ceremony, entreating Lu-ma′-wĭg for fruitage and health, is performed for the pueblo group by an hereditary class of men called “pa′-tay—a priesthood in process of development. Throughout the Bontoc culture area Lu-ma′-wĭg, otherwise known but less frequently spoken of as Fu′-ni and Kam-bun′-yan, is the supreme being. Scheerer says the Benguet Igorot call their “god” Ka-bu-ni′-an—the same road as Kam-bun′-yan.
In the beginning of all things Lu-ma′-wĭg had a part. The Igorot does not know how or why it is so, but he says that Lu-ma′-wĭg gave the earth with all its characteristics, the water in its various manifestations, the people, all animals, and all vegetation. To-day he is the force in all these things, as he always has been.
Once, in the early days, the lower lands about Bontoc were covered with water. Lu-ma′-wĭg saw two young people on top of Mount Po′-kis, north of Bontoc. They were Fa-tang′-a and his sister Fu′-kan. They were without fire, as all the fires of Bontoc were put out by the water. Lu-ma′-wĭg told them to wait while he went quickly to Mount Ka-lo-wi′-tan, south of Bontoc, for fire. When he returned Fu′-kan was heavy with child. Lu-ma′-wĭg left them, going above as a bird flies. Soon the child was born, the water subsided in Bontoc pueblo, and Fa-tang′-a with his sister and her babe returned to the pueblo. Children came to the household rapidly and in great numbers. Generation followed generation, and the people increased wonderfully.
After a time Lu-ma′-wĭg decided to come to help and teach the Igorot. He first stopped on Ka-lo-wi′-tan Mountain, and from there looked over the young women of Sabangan, searching for a desirable wife, but he was not pleased with the girls of Sabangan because they had short hair. He next visited Alap, but the young women of that pueblo were sickly; so he came on to Tulubin. There the marriageable girls were afflicted with goiter. He next stopped at Bontoc, where he saw two young women, sisters, in a garden. Lu-ma′-wĭg came to them and sat down. Presently he asked why they did not go to the house. They answered that they must work; they were gathering beans. Lu-ma′-wĭg was pleased with this, so he picked one bean of each variety, tossed them into the baskets—when presently the baskets were filled to the rim. He married Fu′-kan, the younger of the two industrious sisters, and namesake of the mother of the people of Bontoc.
After marriage he lived at Chao′-wi, in the present ato of Sigichan, near the center of Bontoc pueblo. The large, flat stones which were once part of Lu-ma′-wĭg’s dwelling are still lying in position, and are shown in [Pl. CLIII].
Lu-ma′-wĭg at times exhibited his marvelous powers. They say he could take a small chicken, feed it a few grains of rice, and in an hour it would be full grown. He could fill a basket with rice in a very few moments, simply by putting in a handful of kernels. He could cut a stick of wood in the mountains, and with one hand toss it to his dwelling in the pueblo. Once when out in I-shil′ Mountains northeast of Bontoc, Fa-tang′-a, the brother-in-law of Lu-ma′-wĭg, said to him, “Oh, you of no value! Here we are without water to drink. Why do you not give us water?” Lu-ma′-wĭg said nothing, but he turned and thrust his spear in the side of the mountain. As he withdrew the weapon a small stream of water issued from the opening. Fa-tang′-a started to drink, but Lu-ma′-wĭg said, “Wait; the others first; you last.” When it came Fa-tang′-a’s turn to drink, Lu-ma′-wĭg put his hand on him as he drank and pushed him solidly into the mountain. He became a rock, and the water passed through him. Several of the old men of Bontoc have seen this rock, now broken by others fallen on it from above, but the stream of water still flows on the thirsty mountain.
In an isolated garden, called “fĭl-lang′,” now in ato Chakong, Lu-ma′-wĭg taught Bontoc how best to plant, cultivate, and garner her various agricultural products. Fĭl-lang′ to-day is a unique little sementera. It is the only garden spot within the pueblo containing water. The pueblo is so situated that irrigating water can not be run into it, but throughout the dry season of 1903—the dryest for years in Bontoc—there was water in at least a fourth of this little garden. There is evidently a very small, but perpetual spring within the plat. Taro now occupies the garden and is weeded and gathered by Na-wĭt′, an old man chosen by the old men of the pueblo for this office. Na-wĭt′ maintains and the Igorot believe that the vegetable springs up without planting. As the watering of fĭl-lang′ is through the special dispensation of Lu-ma′-wĭg, so the taro left by him in his garden school received from him a peculiar lease of life—it is perpetual. The people claim that all other taro beds must be planted annually.
Lu-ma′-wĭg showed the people how to build the fawi and pabafunan, and with his help those of Lowingan and Sipaat were constructed. He also told them their purposes and uses. He gave the people names for many of the things about them; he also gave the pueblo its name.