Chapter VII: Part 7

[4] Taboo is for the most part undoubtedly derived from magic. Indeed, there are not wanting those who hold that all taboo has its origin in magic. While doubting if so sweeping an assertion as this can be true, especially when we consider that even in its most primitive phases human life is exceedingly complex and intricate, I invite attention to the fact that magic is such an all-embracing thing in primitive society, and is so closely connected with matters of morality and public policy, that there is nothing in this paragraph that can offend even those who hold that the field of taboo is one wholly of magic prohibitions.

[5] When the Ifugao sacrifices a chicken or pig, he always consults the omen of the bile sac. A full distended bile sac normally placed is a good omen. An empty one, or one abnormally placed is a bad omen. Needless to say, most omens are good.

[6] There is a feeling on the part of the social consciousness that marriages ought to be permanent--that it is better when such is the case. Inasmuch, however, as all the uncles and aunts consider themselves, and, in the scheme of the reckoning of Ifugao relationships are considered, in loco parentis with respect to their nephews and nieces, and almost equally bound with the parents themselves to impart instruction and give training, the removal of one parent is of little detriment to the mental and moral phase of the rearing of children.

[7] I prefer using the term contract marriage to using antenuptial agreement. The latter is an occidental institution of which the reader has a definite notion. The contract marriage is different in motive and nature.

[8] Stumbling is not merely a prognostication; it is also a cause. It would tend to bring about that he who stumbled would die or be unfortunate if he went ahead with the marriage.

[9] Family property: for definition see sec. 33.

[10] For an explanation of the Ifugao's method of making payments and of reckoning fines and indemnities, see sec. 75.

[11] The fact that an Ifugao spouse remains always a member of the family of his blood kindred, and that the ties binding him to his conjugal partner are light indeed is shown by the fact that, at his death, funeral expenses fall mainly on his father and mother and brothers and sisters.

[12] The Ifugao reckons kinship by generations. Those of a contemporaneous generation are tulang, brothers and sisters, children of the preceding generation of blood relatives, grandchildren of the generation of ascendants twice removed, fathers of the succeeding generation, and so on (see appendix 1).

[13] It is a Malay's pride never to be caught without an explanation or excuse. However flimsy or absurd this may be, or perhaps in proportion to its absurdity, he advances it boldly and brazenly.

[14] This payment is based on ideas of magic. It tends to cause the field to produce in like manner: that is, to produce enough and a surplus besides.

[15] In one case, to be hereafter considered, the absence of both intent and carelessness do not excuse (see sec. 105).

[16] Kadangyang: an upper-class person. In most parts of Ifugao persons must give expensive feasts to attain this rank. Tumok: persons who have enough rice to last them throughout the year, but who do not sell rice. Nawatwat: persons who are poverty stricken.

[17] Tuberculosis and persistent cough (see sec. 141).

[18] Compare the practice of our Saxon forefathers among whom the "life of a king's thane was worth 1200 shillings, while that of a common free man was valued only a sixth as high," and that of a slave at only his property valuation.

[19] R. R. Cherry, The Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities (London, 1890). Dr. Cherry shows how masters' liability for injuries done by their employees has arisen from this principle (pp. 4 ff.).

[20] Thus A and B, two brothers, are members of the same family until they marry. After marriage A's family consists of his blood kin and of his relatives by marriage, and the same holds of B's family. Thus after marriage only half the individuals of the families of the two brothers are identical. The families of two cousins are identical as to one-half the component individuals before their marriage and as to one-fourth of the component individuals after their marriage.

[21] The word monkalun comes from the root kalun, meaning advise. The Ifugao word has the double sense, too, of our word advise, as used in the following sentences, "I have the honor to advise you of your appointment" and "I advise you not to do that."

[22] When a crime such as theft has been committed, and it cannot be determined from any evidence at hand who was the culprit, the injured person frequently resorts to the hapud. One form of this ceremony consists in placing an egg or areca nut on the edge of a knife or the bevel of a spear and repeating the prayers necessary to make the egg or areca nut balance and stand on end at the mention of the guilty person. Another form consists in spanning an agba stick. At the mention of the guilty person the stick grows longer, as revealed by its length in relation to the span of the priest. These sticks are kept for generations. Many of them are over a hundred years old. These ceremonies are not of virtue as evidence and are entirely without the pale of Ifugao procedure. They are of value only to the injured person in assisting him to determine who has committed the crime.

[23] The very day that I wrote this, the ownership of a field was settled by a wrestling match. An Ifugao some time before pawned a field to a christianized Ifugao. This worthy had the temerity to sell the field. Although the pawner would have surely been sustained in his right had he appealed to the lieutenant-governor, nevertheless, he was so confident, being in the right, that he would not lose, that he consented to settle the ownership by a wrestling match. He won. The christianized Ifugao may possibly now have more faith in the tenet of his former religion that the ancestral spirits uphold him who is in the right.

[24] He may gratuitously add an insult by implanting a few of them in a pile of fecal matter.

[25] The villages of Pindungan and Ambabag are less than a mile distant from each other.

[26] The Nagakaran people claim that only five out of forty of the first expedition returned.

[27] This was the usual method of treating kidnapped persons. It is interesting to note an almost parallel practice on the part of the Allies in the present war. When prisoners are taken, the buttons are cut off their clothing, in order to keep their hands engaged during the march to the rear.

[28] Myths relate how the Full-Grown Cock overcame the Half-Grown Cock, how the Cobra overcame the Python, how the Hard Stone overcame the Soft Stone.

[29] Starred words are not Ifugao.