Traditions of the Tinguian: a Study in Philippine Folk-Lore eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 393 pages of information about Traditions of the Tinguian.

Traditions of the Tinguian: a Study in Philippine Folk-Lore eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 393 pages of information about Traditions of the Tinguian.

The great spirit lives in the sky, and he is carrying the goods of the people.  He says to himself, “To whom shall I give these goods which I am carrying?  I shall take them to the earth.”  He looked down on Bisau, for the people there promised to make Ubaya.  Soon the people saw a man entering the town and they sent a man to prevent him [331].  He said, “Let me come in, for I bring goods for you.  Your food and animals and other things which you need shall be increased.”  After that he said, “Let all the people in the world know of this so that they will make Ubaya for me, and I will aid them also.”

41

Dayapan was a woman who lived in Ka-alang.  For seven years she was sick.  She went to the spring to bathe and while she was in the water a spirit sent by Kadaklan [332] entered her body.  The spirit held sugar-cane and rice.  He said to her, “Take this sugar-cane and rice and plant them in the ground.  After you reap the sugar-cane and rice, you will build a bin to hold the rice, and a sugar mill for the cane; after that you will make Sayang and that will make you well.”  Dayapan took those things and went back home.  She planted the sugar-cane and rice.  When she was planting, the spirit entered her body again and taught her how to plant.  When she reaped the sugar-cane and rice, she began to make Sayang.  The spirit Kaboniyan went again into her to teach her how to make Sayang.  The spirit said, “Send a man to get bolo (bamboo) and weave it into talapitap. [333] Take lono and bolo as big as a finger and make dakidak, and put a jar with water upstairs in the house.  Dance daeng [334] for ten nights.  You will pass seven evenings, then you will build balaua. [335] Send some persons to get wood and bamboo and rattan and cogon, and take ten baskets with cooked rice to follow the number of nights (i.e., on the first night one basket of cooked rice on the talapitap; the second night, two; and so on).  When you finish the time you will know how to make dawak and to call all the spirits, and you will teach the people how to do dawak.”

When she finished the dawak, the spirit sent her to wash in the river as a sign that she had finished Sayang.  He told her to get a dog and a cock.  She went to the river and she tied the cock and the dog by the water, and while she was gone, the dog killed the cock.  Dayapan wept, but for a long time the spirit did not come.  When Kaboniyan came again, he said, “If the dog had not killed the cock, no person would die, but this is a sign and now somebody will die and some will be well.”

Dayapan went home and when she arrived there she began to learn to make dawak, and she called all people to hear her and she told all she had seen and heard.  Then the people believed her very much.  When somebody was sick, they called Dayapan to see them and to show them how to make them well.  So Dayapan taught them all kinds of dawak which the spirit had told her because before when Dayapan was sick, no one knew the dawak. [336]

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Traditions of the Tinguian: a Study in Philippine Folk-Lore from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.