III. Payments at ibuy ceremony
| To the witnesses: | |
| 1 death blanket | ₱8.00 |
| 1 death blanket | 8.00 |
| Inagagong (kind of blanket) | 5.00 |
| For distribution to seller’s kin: | |
| 10 chickens, Nunpatngan (?) | 8.00 |
| Alaag (cooking pot of Chinese origin) | 2.00 |
| Gogod, 1 bolo (the cutting off) | 1.00 |
| Puguy (finish) | 2.50 |
| Linuta (cooked) | 2.50 |
| Total | ₱37.00 |
| Grand total | ₱262.00 |
One of the fine points in buying consists of an insidious hospitality on the part of the purchaser, which gets the seller and his kin drunk so that they forget some of their perquisites. At the psychological moment, that is, when a few, but not all, of the presents or lukbu have been made the seller and his kin, and when the latter are at the proper stage of drunkenness, one of the purchaser’s kinsmen says: “Let us proceed with the praying.” If he is successful in getting the religious part of the ceremonies started, and can keep the minds of the seller and his kin from the unpaid gifts or fees until they eat, then the fees never have to be paid. For when they have started eating, everything is over. They may demand the unpaid fees only if they want to make themselves laughing stocks in the eyes of their fellows. For according to Ifugao law, when the seller and the purchaser eat together at the ibuy feast, the transfer of ownership is complete, and irrevocable.
Although possession of the property is given before the purchase price is paid, ownership of it is not, however, complete until after the performance of the ibuy. If one were to buy a field without performing the ibuy ceremony, the presumption would be held that the field had passed into his hands as a balal. It has been noted already that but one or two of the unit payments are made at the time possession is given, and that no particular time is set for making the rest of the various partial payments. At any time before the ibuy ceremonial which forever transfers the field, the seller may demand a payment or all the payments, except the fees to the witnesses and his kin. He may do this as a matter of malice, or he may do it as a matter of necessity. He sends a monkalun, or go-between, to demand payment. The go-between and the buyer arrange a reasonable time—usually not less than ten days—within which the payment is to be raised. If it be not then forthcoming, the field may revert to the former owner, should the latter so desire, and be sold by him. He must, however, return immediately the entire amount of the partial payments made to date by the first purchaser.
In case of such a transfer of a field as that described in the preceding paragraph, the same rules apply to the ownership of standing crops as apply in transfers of possession arising from the balal.
But should the seller of a field, after having sold it to a second person, and after having received a part of the purchase price of the field from him, without consultation or notification, and without giving this second person a chance to make the final payments on the field, sell it to another, he must repay to the first purchaser double the amount of the partial payments made by the first purchaser to the date of the sale.
Personal property is transferred without formality.
48. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands.—In both Ifugao and Kalinga, if a rice field after passing into the hands of a purchaser, is subject to an unusual number of slides in the terrace wall, or is wholly, or in part washed away by a freshet, the purchaser may, at any time within the year following the purchase, relinquish the field and demand the return of his purchase price. This is on the ground that the seller may have put a curse on the field when it left his hands, or that, at least, he did not relinquish his hold on its welfare and fertility.
In Kalinga, if a water buffalo, horse, or ox, die within the year following its sale, the purchaser may demand the return of the purchase price.