Pagadut, the son of Guminigin, to whom demand was presented for the payment of the carabao claimed to be yet due, refused to pay this debt. The Nagakaran people made an expedition into Kiangan district (about two miles distant) and captured Ormaya, the daughter of Pagadut, a very comely girl of sixteen or seventeen. In order to make her walk, and in order that she should not continually offer resistance, they took her skirt off so that she would have to cover her shame with her hands and would also hurry to arrive at the journey’s end.[8] But the Baay people managed to cut off Lubbut the son of Kuyapi, and imprison him. They took him to a granary in Baay, intending to keep him as a hostage for the return of Ormaya. But word was carried to the ears of the Spanish commandante of this capture. He had Lubbut brought before him. He struck Lubbut, tied although he was, twice in the face, and would have continued, had not Alangwauwi the husband of Ormaya seized and held his arm and beseeched him not to use Lubbut harshly. The commandante promised not to take his life. But a soldier called attention to the fact that a gun had been captured with Lubbut, which gun, it was claimed, was that of a Spanish corporal whom the Nagakaran people had killed. Alangwauwi and his companions started back to their homes in Baay. But on the road, they saw, across the valley, Lubbut with his back turned to a firing squad, saw a puff of white smoke, and saw Lubbut fall into a rice field. Alangwauwi says he burst into tears for he realized that this meant serious trouble for him and his relatives, and placed Ormaya’s life in the greatest peril.
When the Nagakaranites heard of Lubbut’s death, they at first blamed the people of Baay for it. Inasmuch as it is against the ethics of people of the Kiangan-Nagakaran-Maggok area to kill women, or at least to kill any but Silipan women, they considered walling Ormaya up in a sepulchre and leaving her to die for want of food and drink. The women relatives of Lubbut wanted very much to kill Ormaya, and pointed out that while it would not be permissible for the men to kill her, there would be no disgrace in their doing so. But Kuyapi would have none of it. He himself guarded his prisoner two or three nights to see that her life was not taken.
Soon a monkalun was sent to ascertain the true details of Lubbut’s death. His report exonerated the Baay people. The Nagakaran people held Ormaya’s ransom considerably higher, however, because of that death. They received five carabaos, twenty pigs, two gold beads, and a great number of spears and bolos, and death blankets. It was five months before the Baay people could raise the amount of this ransom. During this time, Ormaya was well treated—for was she not a kinswoman?—but she was carefully guarded.
The Paowa or Truce
139. The usual sense of the term “paowa”.—The word paowa means literally prohibition. As most commonly used, it denotes a period of truce imposed by the monkalun in cases that cannot be peaceably arranged. It is a period that gives both sides to a controversy a chance to cool off. It avoids that rash and ill-considered action that would be likely to follow the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the two parties.
I say the paowa serves these purposes. However, it is imposed by the monkalun in order to allow him to withdraw with dignity from the case, and without loss of reputation. A lance throwing or a seizure made while he is acting as monkalun or occurring soon after he has severed his connection with the case is an insult to him. People say to him: Dinalan-da tolban-mo, “they went over your head.” Such an occurrence is exceedingly hurtful to his reputation. People will not employ him as monkalun for the reason that his cases do not end in peaceable settlements. He thus loses many fat fees.
Assuming that the Ifugao’s culture would some day, if left alone, develop courts somewhat after the fashion of the courts of civilized nations, have we not here the embryo of “contempt of court”?
The period usually set by the monkalun, as truce, is fourteen days. During this time, should one of the parties to the controversy commit any act hostile to the other, the monkalun must avenge or punish it. At the conclusion of this period of truce, the two parties may fight out the dispute to suit themselves, kidnapping, seizing property, or hurling lances, without injuring the dignity of the monkalun; or the aggressive party may employ another monkalun.
140. Another sense of the term “paowa”.—Should a wife have committed a crime against the marital relation, and should her husband be unable for any reason to collect the gibu due him in the case, he may put a prohibition on her marrying any other man until the gibu be paid.