Fourth. Each family helps the other in all that pertains to rice culture throughout the first year following the bubun ceremony. Each family furnishes the other with the pig necessary for the sacrifice at each of the three important rice-culture feasts: the kulpe (growth feast), the kolating (harvest feast), and the tuldag (granary feast).
Fifth. From the time at which the first ceremony is performed until the dissolution of the marriage, it is the duty of either spouse to furnish a pig to the other in the event of the sickness of the other or of any of his or her lineal ascendants.
Sixth. For the same period as that embraced in the preceding paragraph it is the duty of either spouse to furnish the other in the event of the death of any of the lineal ascendants of the other, a pig and a death blanket.
If the spouses be too young to attend to any of their respective obligations to each other or to the families concerned, it is the duty of their parents to attend to the discharge of the obligations.
The non-fulfilment or the non-discharge of any of the above obligations is sufficient cause for a demand for a divorce on the part of the injured spouse. The Ifugao does not consider it to be the duty of any person to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife or husband. Rather does he consider the opposite to be the duty. A good many marriages are undone between children because of the non-fulfilment of one of these obligations on the part of one of the families involved. It matters not that the spouse be so young as to be of necessity innocent.
The husband has a right to have sexual intercourse with his wife. If she does not accede to his desires, he has the right to force her if he can, but he must not strike or injure her in his attempt. If he cannot force her, he may demand a divorce. Ordinarily no man can have sexual intercourse with an Ifugao woman possessed of her reason and of normal strength, against that woman’s will.
Bugan of Baay, a very pretty girl, was married by her parents against her will to Pingkihan of Baay, a very rich but, unfortunately, a darkish and very ugly man. The marriage proceeded as far as the hingot, when it was thought wise by Pingkihan and the part of justice by the kin of the girl that the girl give her body before the proceeding went further. Pingkihan made many futile attempts to attain this purpose, but all in vain. Finally he despaired. The girl’s father, however, told him to come to his house one night. Pingkihan did so. An uncle of the girl caught her, and held her. Pingkihan tried in vain to have sexual intercourse with her. The girl’s resistance made the thing impossible. The marriage ceremonies were carried no further.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that husband and wife are never united into one family. They are merely allies. The ties that bind each to his own family are much stronger than the ties that bind them together. An Ifugao explained this to me by putting his hands parallel, the forefingers together. The forefingers represent the two spouses; the hands the two families. Should the two families separate, should they withdraw from amity and agreement, the two spouses, the forefingers, of necessity withdraw, because they are attached to different hands.
Each succeeding feast in the consummation of the marriage carries with it an added degree of obligation and of alliance; and an added degree of culpability in cases of failure to comply with the marital obligations and in cases of crimes against the marriage.
14. The binawit relation.—Oftentimes when the spouses are children and live in different villages, as soon as they are of sufficient age to have some feeling for each other—at ten or more years, for instance—one of them goes to the house of the other. Usually the two espoused children live for a time at the house of the parents of the one, and then for a time at the house of the parents of the other. A child living thus at the house of his parents-in-law is called binawit. This matter is purely optional with the children, and is a matter of convenience to them.