This form of sorcery cannot be practiced unless the sorcerer knows the names of the ancestral spirits of his victim-to-be. For this reason, when the Lamot people, who are famous sorcerers, come to Kiangan and approach a religious feast, the Kiangan people do not invoke their ancestral spirits until after the visitors have gone. Needless to say, sorcery is always practiced in secret. It sometimes happens that it is practiced by a man against his kin. In such a case, kinship does not extenuate his punishment, since the preservation of the family necessitates the extirpation of the sorcerer within its gates. This is the only exception I know of to the general rule that a family may not proceed against one of its members.
92. Other forms of sorcery.—Certain persons have an evil “cut” of the eye, which, whether they wish it or not, brings misfortune or sickness on whomsoever or whatsoever they see. Injury by means of the “evil eye” may be effected intentionally or entirely unintentionally.
The words of certain persons even though innocent and unconnected with evil, and though spoken as they usually are without malicious intent, have the quality of bringing whatever is spoken to an evil end.
Thus A, afflicted with the “blasting word,” goes to the house of B, and, seeing a sow with a litter of handsome pigs, remarks, “That’s a fine litter of pigs you have!” If A be truly afflicted with the blasting word, the pigs will die, even though A was without intent to do injury, and was even ignorant of his affliction.
The evil eye and the blasting word are frequent afflictions—afflictions that their possessor is the last to learn about. They may be cured by the possessor’s offering sacrifices of the proper sort. In the event of injury unintentionally being done by evil eye or blasting word, no punishment is meted out, although in some cases restitution is demanded.
Curses are of two kinds: directly by word, and indirectly by curses laid on food, drink, or betels. Kiangan people are afraid to purchase rice from the Lamot people to the south of them through fear of being affected by curses that may have been laid on the rice.
93. Punishment of sorcery.—Sorcerers are not punished hysterically. To his credit, it must be said that the Ifugao proceeds slowly in condemning a person for this crime. Before he takes action, he demands not merely strong grounds for suspicion, but proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspected person is a sorcerer. Proof that one has performed the ayak ceremony against a person is sufficient ground for the infliction of the death penalty. But in the case of the evil eye and the blasting word, it must be proved that the death of the pigs, the betel vine, or whatever it be that dies, was due to the glance or words of the bewitched, and that both glance and words were used with evil intent. This would obviously be hard to do; but for the purpose of justifying an injured person in killing such a sorcerer or bewitched one, a record of previous misdeeds of the kind, and a general conviction, in which a portion, at least, of the man’s kin concurred, that the suspect was a malicious sorcerer, would be sufficient.
A curse, by one who has no reputation for supernatural powers, is punishable by the following fine:
| Kadangyang | Middle Class | Nawatavat | |||
| Hin-bakid (One ten) | Hin-bakid (One ten) | Na-onom (Six) | |||
| Pu-u (2 death blankets) | ₱16.00 | Pu-u (death blanket) | ₱8.00 | Pu-u (dili) | ₱8.00 |
| Hay nub palyuk | 5.00 | Haynub palyuk | 5.00 | Natauwinan | 1.00 |
| Hay nub palyuk | 2.00 | Haynub palyuk | 2.00 | Nuntuku | .50 |
| Natauwinan | 1.00 | Natauwinan | 1.00 | Natuku | .50 |
| Natauwinan | 1.00 | Natauwinan | 1.00 | Na-oha | .20 |
| Natauwinan | 1.00 | Natauwinan | .50 | Liwa comes out of theNo-onom | |
| Natauwinan | .50 | Nuntuku | .50 | ||
| Nuntuku (3 each) | .50 | Nuntuku | .40 | ||
| Nuntuku | .50 | Nunbadi | .40 | ||
| Na-oha | .20 | ||||
| ₱27.50 | Liwa comes out of the Hin-bakid | ||||
| Liwa or fee of go-between (1 death blanket) | ₱8.00 | ||||
| Total, | ₱35.50 | Total, | ₱19.00 | Total, | ₱10.20 |
A curse by one who had a reputation of being a sorcerer might possibly lead to the death of the sorcerer on the spot. In case he were not killed, and the person or thing cursed died, the death penalty would be inflicted later.