The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe

by Fay-Cooper Cole

[10] The salaksak was also the omen bird of the Zambales (Blair and Robertson, Philippine Islands, Vol. XLVII, p. 307).

[11] Predicting of the future through the flight of birds, or by means of the entrails of slain animals, is widespread, not only in the Philippines and Malaysia generally, but was equally important in ancient Babylonia and Rome. The resemblances are so many that certain writers, namely, Hose and McDougall, Kroeber, and Laufer are inclined to credit them to common historical influences. See Hose and McDougall, Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Vol. II, p. 255 (London, 1912); Kroeber, Peoples of the Philippines (American Museum of Natural History, Handbook Series, No. 8, p. 192, New York, 1919); Laufer, Toung Pao, 1914, pp. 1–51.

The Ceremonies

A visitor, who enters the Tinguian territory in the period following the rice-harvest, quickly gains the impression that the ceremonial life of this people is dominant. In nearly every village, he finds one or more ceremonies in progress, while work is almost forgotten. This condition exists until the coming of the rains in May, when all is changed. Men and women go to the fields before daybreak, and return only when darkness forces them to cease their toil. During the period when the fields are in preparation, or the rice is growing, few ceremonials are held, except those intended to promote the growth of the crops, to cure sickness, or to ward off impending misfortune.

Aside from the rites, which attend birth, marriage, and similar events, the ceremonies may be placed in two divisions: first, those which may be celebrated by all people; second, those restricted to certain families. The first class we shall designate as the minor ceremonies.

The Minor Ceremonies

Dawak (also called Bonī and Alopag).—The name Dawak is applied to that part of important ceremonies in which the spirits enter the bodies of the mediums. It is also given as a separate ceremony, usually to cure sickness, but in some settlements it follows a birth.

According to tradition, it was taught, together with the Sayang ceremony, by the spirit Kabonīyan to a woman Dayapan; and she, in turn, taught it to others, who were then able to cure sickness.