Six or seven days after birth a chicken is killed and eaten by the family in honor of the child, but there is no other ceremony—there is not even a special name for the feast.
If a woman gives birth to a stillborn child it is at once washed, wrapped in a bit of cloth, and buried in a camote sementera close to the dwelling.
Twins
The Igorot do not understand twins,—na-a-pĭk′, as they say. Carabaos have only one babe at a birth, so why should women have two babes? they ask. They believe that one of the twins, which unfortunate one they call “a-tĭn-fu-yang′,” is an anito child; it is the offspring of an anito.[6] The anito father is said to have been with the mother of the twins in her unconscious slumber, and she is in no way criticised or reproached.
The most quiet babe, or, if they are equally quiet, the larger one, is said to be “a-tĭn-fu-yang′,” and is at once placed in an olla[7] and buried alive in a sementera near the dwelling.
On the 13th of April, 1903, the wife of A-li-koy′, of Samoki, gave birth to twin babies. Contrary to the advice and solicitations of the old men and the universal custom of the people, A-li-koy′ saved both children, because, as he pointed out, an Ilokano of Bontoc had twin children, now 7 years old, and they are all right. Thus the breaking down of this peculiar form of infanticide may have begun.
Abortion
Both married and unmarried women practice abortion when for any reason the prospective child is not desired. It is usual, however, for the mother of a pregnant girl to object to her aborting, saying that soon she would become “po′-ta”—the common mate of several men, rather than the faithful wife of one.