The Inhabitants of the Philippines

by Frederic H. Sawyer

They share the idea that seems to prevail amongst all Malays, that the soul is absent from the body during sleep, and that consequently it is dangerous and wicked to awake anybody suddenly. The most dreadful thing that can happen to anybody, therefore, is to die whilst sleeping, leaving his soul wandering about. Their most desperate curse is to wish that this may happen to an adversary. This seems to reach a higher level of cursing than the oaths of the Tagals which I have previously mentioned. The usual respect for ancestors is shown, and any weapons or ornaments which have belonged to them are carefully preserved as valued heirlooms. The names of an ancestor must, however, on no account be pronounced by his descendants, so that if any necessity arises to answer a question which involves mentioning the name of one, a friend not related to the person enquired about must be called in to answer.

Monsieur de la Gironière visited these people, and describes them as men of good stature, slightly bronzed, with straight hair, regular profiles, and aquiline noses. The women truly beautiful and graceful. They appeared to him to resemble the people of the South of France, except for their costume and language. The men wore a belt and a sort of turban made from the bark of the fig-tree. Their arms consisted of a long lance, a small axe, called aligua, and a shield. The women wore a belt and a narrow apron which came down to their knees, their heads being ornamented with pearls, and grains of coral and gold were fixed amongst their hair. The upper parts of their hands were painted blue, and they wore plaited sheaths ornamented with beads on their fore-arms; these sheaths strongly compressed the fore-arm, being put on when the women were young, and they prevented the development of the fore-arm, whilst causing the wrists and hands to swell. This is a beauty amongst the Tinguianes as the little foot is amongst the Chinese.

They occupied seventeen villages, and each family had two habitations, one on the ground for use in the day, and one fixed on piles or on the summits of lofty trees, as much as sixty or eighty feet from the ground, where they sleep, to protect themselves from the nocturnal attacks of the Guinanes, their mortal and sanguinary enemies. From these lofty dwellings they threw down stones upon assailants. In the middle of each village there is a large shed which serves for meetings and public ceremonies. He further states that after an attack of the Guinanes had been repulsed from Laganguilan-y-Madalay by the Tinguianes he went to an assembly at that village and witnessed a ceremony in honour of the victory. The heads of the slain enemies were exhibited to the crowd, and various speeches were made. The skulls were then split open and the brains removed and given to some young girls, who worked them up with their hands in a quantity of basi or native beer. The compound was then served in cups to the chiefs, who partook of it with every appearance of enjoyment, and was afterwards handed round to all the warriors in due order. M. de la Gironière and his Tagal servant also partook of this refreshment out of politeness to their hosts. The ceremony was followed by a dance and a smoking concert, during which copious libations of basi were consumed.

M. de la Gironière has omitted to mention how his hosts, after this drunken orgy, managed to regain their elevated sleeping quarters, sixty or eighty feet from the ground. One would think that the Tinguian coroner would have been busy the next morning. He, however, does tell us that, being unable to sleep, he got up in the night and looked about him, finding a well or pit, which he descended. At different levels in this shaft were short galleries or niches, and in each of these was a dried or mummified corpse. This shaft was sunk inside the house where he slept.

He learnt from the Tinguianes that they believed in the existence of the soul, that it leaves the body after death, but remains in the family. Also that they venerated any strange object, such as a rock or tree which resembled some animal. They would make a hut over or near it, and celebrate a feast, at which they sacrificed pigs; they afterwards danced and drunk basi, then burnt down the hut and retired. They had, he says, only one wife, but might have several concubines, who, however, did not inhabit the conjugal domicile, but each had a hut of her own. The riches of a Tinguian was demonstrated by the number of porcelain vases he possessed. According to M. de la Gironière, the Tinguianes mummified their dead by subjecting them to a long drying process. The body, propped up on a stool, was surrounded by braziers with charcoal or wood embers, and the moisture which exuded from it was wiped off by the women with cotton. When the body was well dried up it was kept above ground for fifteen days and then committed to the tomb. The neighbours and friends kept up the wake and pronounced eulogies on the defunct until they had consumed all the eatables and liquor in the house, when they took their departure.

These people must have very greatly increased in numbers, as the Spanish authority has extended its protection to them, checking the incursions of the Guinanes and other savages. It has been stated that in former years the Tinguianes were much sought after as recruits for the garrison of Manila. They do not appear to be a warlike race, yet so fine a body of men ought to be able to supply a battalion of infantry for the native army which the United States will have to raise, for nobody can suppose that 25,000 young Americans can be permanently kept in garrison in the Archipelago. But this I discuss in another chapter.

Adangs (28).

According to D’Almonte’s map in the latitude of Pasuquin, Province of Ilocos Notre, the Cordillera del Norte bends to the eastward and throws out a spur to the north-west, forming a Y, and enclosing a considerable valley, through which runs a river called the Bate, Bucarog, or Arimit, which falls into the Bay of Bangui. This is the habitat of the Adangs, a small tribe, yet a nation, for their language has no resemblance to that of any of their neighbours. Their customs are nearer those of the Apayaos than any other. They are civilised and have been Christians for generations. Their chief town is Adan or Adam.