While this spirit was talking, another, who said he lived in Langbosan, and had been sent by Gilen, came to the body of the second medium. Paying no attention to the other spirit, he began to give instructions for the conduct of the ceremony. The tangpap was to be build the next morning, also two balags (p.308), and for them they were to prepare one pig. “Do not fail to prepare this pig, but you may use it for both tangpap and balag. You will also make a taltalabong (p.311). For this you must prepare a different pig, for this is for the sons and servants of Kadaklan.”
After the departure of these beings, ten other spirits came in quick succession. Two of the latter claimed to be Igorot spirits, and both Page 333talked with the peculiar stacatto accent of the people who live along the Kalinga-Igorot border.[21]
After the departure of the Igorot spirits, both mediums were possessed, one by Sanadan, a male spirit, and the other by the female spirit of Pangpangdan. At their request the men began again to play on the tongátong, and the spirits danced. Soon Sanadan began to fondle the woman, to rub her face with his, to feel of her body and at last of her privates. Other spirits, who stayed only long enough to drink, followed them, and then Gonay appeared. The spectators had been openly bored by the last few visitors, but the name of Gonay quickly revived their interest. She began to sing a wailing song in which she told of her sad plight. Time after time she repeated the sentence, “Gongay has no husband, for her mother put a stone in her vagina, yet she loves all young men.” From time to time she would pause, and make ludicrous attempts to fondle the young boys, and then when they resisted her, she again took up her plaint. At last she succeeded in getting one young fellow to exchange cigars and headbands with her, and began to rub her hands on his body, urging him not to leave her. Just when she seemed on the verge of success in winning him, another spirit Baliwaga came to the medium, and the fun-maker had to depart. The newcomer placed an agate bead in a dish, and held it high above his head while he danced. Finally he called out that the bead had vanished, but when he lowered the plate, it was still there, and he left in chagrin. He was succeeded by a dumb female spirit named Damolan, who undertook to do the trick in which her predecessor had failed. Holding the plate high above her head, she danced furiously, and from time to time struck against the side of the dish with the medium's shells. Twice when she lowered the dish, the bead was there, but on the third attempt it had vanished. The trick was so cleverly done that, although we were beside her and watching closely, we did not detect the final movement. With much satisfaction, the medium assured us that the bead would be found in the hair of the man who broke the first ground for the tangpap, a boast which was made good the following morning.
Adadog came next, and not finding the chicken which should have been placed on the mat for him, he broke out in a great fury and tried to seize a man in its place. He was restrained from doing injury to his victim, and soon left, still highly indignant. Seven other spirits Page 334stopped only for a drink, and then Daliwaya appeared. Upon her arrival, one of the headmen gravely informed her that the people wished to adopt four Americans, but that only one was then present. The spirit bade the writer to arise from the mat, where he was lying, and after stroking his head for a time, said, “You wish to make this American an Itneg,[22] but before you can do anything, the spirits must approve and give him a name. I will give him a name now, and then to-morrow all the people must say if they wish to give him another name and make him Ipogau.[23] His name shall be Agonan, for that is the name of the spirit who knows many languages.” Again she stroked the writer's head, and then taking a large porcelain platter, she filled it with basi, and together we drank the liquor, alternately, a swallow at a time.
After her departure, an Alzado[24] came and danced with high knee action, meantime saying, she was there to make some one ill, and that she would do so unless the American gave her a cloth for her clout when she returned the following day.
The next visitor was Sanadan, the spirit who owns and guards the deer and wild pig. Up to this time the people had been mildly interested in the arrivals, but when this important being appeared, the men at once became alert; they told him of their troubles in the hunts, of the scarcity of deer, and urged him to send more of them to Mt. Posoey, where they were accustomed to hunt. He offered much good advice concerning the methods of hunting, but refused to take any action regarding the game on the nearby mountain, for, he said, the spirit Dapwanay who owns Posoey was watching the game there. Just before he departed, he called to the headmen, “I am very rich and very bold. I am not afraid to go anywhere. I can become the sunset sky. I am going to Asbinan in Kalaskígan to have him make me a shoe of gold. To-morrow you must not use any of the things you have had out-of-doors, but you may make use of them when you build the taltalabong.”
The last spirit to come that night was Ablalansa who keeps guard over the sons of Kadaklan. He paused only for a drink and to tell the people that America was very near to the place, where the big birds live who eat people. Page 335
It was midnight when the medium informed us that no more spirits would come that evening, and we went to rest.
About six o'clock the next morning, the women began the ceremonial pounding of the rice known as kītong (cf. p. 329) in the yard, while one of the mediums went to the bound pig lying in the dwelling and recited a dīam as she stroked its side; she also poured a little basi through the slits in the floor for the use of any visiting spirits. While the women were thus engaged, the men were busy constructing spirit houses in the yard. Of greatest importance was the tangpap (Plate [XXVII]), a small bamboo structure with a slanting roof, resting on four poles, and an interwoven bamboo floor fastened about three feet above the ground.[25] Near one of the house poles a funnel-shaped basket was tied, and in it was set a forked stick, within the crotch of which was a little floor and roof, the whole forming a resting place for the Igorot spirits of Talegteg. The pala-an needed a few repairs, and two of the old men looked after these, while others made two long covered bamboo benches which might be used either by visiting men or spirits.[26] Four long bamboo poles were set in the ground, and a roof placed over them to form the bang-bangsal, a shelter always provided for the spirits of Soyau.
By ten o'clock all was in readiness, and the people then gathered in the dwelling, where the mediums began summoning the spirits. The first to arrive was Omgbawan, a female spirit whose conversation ran as follows: “I come now because you people ought to make this ceremony. I did not come last night, for there were many spirits here, and I was busy. You people who build tangpap must provide all the necessary things, even though they are costly. It is good that the Americans are here. I never talked with one before.”