As the grain begins to ripen, the land is allowed to dry, and when all is ready for the cutting, the people put on their best garments and go to the fields. Each stalk is cut separately by means of a crescent-shaped blade (lakom or lakᴇm) attached to a small wooden cylinder ([Fig. 14], Nos. 3–3a). This handle is held between the thumb, first and fifth fingers, while the stalk is caught by the second and third fingers, Page 392and is pulled inward against the steel blade.[10] Many workers grasp the stalk near the head with the left hand, while the cutting blade is used with the right.
Both men and women may engage in cutting the rice, but as the latter are much the more dexterous workers, this task is generally assigned to them (Plate [LIV]). The grain is cut so as to leave stalks about ten inches in length; these are laid in the free hand until a bunch of considerable size has accumulated, when they are bound together with strips of bark.[11] At the end of the day these bundles are carried to the drying yards, where they remain until the whole crop is harvested. A drying yard is a plot of ground surrounded by a bamboo fence of such a height that it is impossible for fowls and the like to gain entrance. When all the bundles are thoroughly dried, they are placed in the granary, and from that time on the handling of the rice is given over to the women.
The granaries, or store-houses, of the Tinguian and Ilocano are identical (Plate [LV]), but, barring the Apayao, are different from any of the surrounding groups, except when their influence may have spread this peculiar type to a limited degree. It is worthy of note, however, that the granaries of some Sumatran groups are of similar design and construction. Such a store-house is raised high above the ground on four hard-wood poles; the framework is of bamboo, and the sides flare sharply from the floor to the grass roof. Within the framework is a closely woven matting of flattened bamboo, which is nearly water-tight; but to secure still further protection from moisture, and also to allow for free circulation of air, a rack is built in such a way that the rice is kept several inches from the outside walls. Just below the floor, each post supports a close-fitting pottery jar—without top or bottom—or a broad disk of wood, which effectually prevents the entrance of rodents.
To thrash the grain, the woman places a bundle on a piece of carabao hide, and, as she rolls it beneath her feet, she pounds it with a long wooden pestle (hala) until all the kernels are beaten loose from the straw.[12] It is then placed in a wooden mortar (luson) of hourglass Page 393form or with straight sides, where it is again beaten until the outside husks are loosened, and the grain is somewhat broken (Plate [LVI]). Winnowing is accomplished by tossing the contents of the mortar in shallow traps (īgau), so that the chaff is blown away, while the grain falls back into the winnower (Plate [LVII]).
The rice is now ready for cooking; the chaff is collected, and is used as food for the pigs and dogs, while the stalks are saved to be burned, for the ashes are commonly used in lieu of soap.
Rice has also come to have great importance, both as a standard of value and as a medium of exchange. A single stalk is known as sanga dawa. When the stalks are equal in size to the leg, just above the ankle, the bundle is called sang-abtek.[13] Ten sang-abtek equal sanga-baal. One hundred sang-abtek make sanga-ōyon. The measure of cleaned rice is as follows: Two full hands (one coconut shell full)—1 sopa (Ilocano supa; Spanish 1/8 ganta). 8 sopa—1 salop (Spanish ganta or about 2 quarts). 25 salop—1 kaban.
It is customary to pay laborers in rice; likewise the value of animals, beads, and the like are reckoned and paid in this medium. During the dry season rice is loaned, to be repaid after the harvest with interest of about fifty per cent.
According to tradition, the Tinguian were taught to plant and reap by a girl named Dayapán. This woman, who was an invalid, was one day bathing in the stream, when the great spirit Kabonīyan entered her body. He carried with him sugar-cane and unthreshed rice which he gave to the girl with explicit directions for its use. Likewise he taught her the details of the Sayang, the most important of the ceremonies. Dayapán followed instructions faithfully, and after the harvest and conclusion of the ceremony, she found herself to be completely cured. After that she taught others, and soon the Tinguian became prosperous farmers.[14]
In Part I of this volume a reconstruction of the early life of this people was attempted from their mythology. The results seemed to indicate that the tales reflect a time before the Tinguian possessed terraced rice-fields, when domestic work animals were still unknown, and the horse had not yet been introduced into the land. But it was also noted that we are not justified in considering these as recent events.
At this time, with the more complete data before us, it may be well Page 394to again subject the rice culture to careful scrutiny, in the hope that it may afford some clue as to the source from which it spread into this region. It is possible that the Tinguian may have brought it with them from their early home, which may be supposed to have been in southeastern Asia; they may have acquired it through contact with Chinese or Japanese traders, or through commercial relations with the islands to the south; or again it may have developed locally in the Tinguian, Igorot, and Ifugao territory.