Tabing:  A large white blanket with which one corner of the room is screened off during the Sayang and other ceremonies.  In this “room” food and other offerings are made for the black, deformed, and timid spirits who wish to attend the ceremony unobserved.

Takal:  Armlets made of boar’s tusks, which are worn during certain dances in Sayang.

Talapitap (Fig. 4, No. 3):  A roughly plaited bamboo frame on which the spirits are fed during the more important rites.  Used in connection with the dakidak and clay dishes (sado).

Tongatong (Fig. 4, No. 5):  The musical instrument, which appears in many ceremonials.  It consists of six or more bamboo tubes of various lengths.  The players hold a tube in each hand, and strike their ends on a stone, which lies between them, the varying lengths of the cylinders giving out different notes.

CHAPTER V

THE CEREMONIES

A visitor, who enters the Tinguian territory in the period following the rice-harvest, quickly gains the impression that the ceremonial life of this people is dominant.  In nearly every village, he finds one or more ceremonies in progress, while work is almost forgotten.  This condition exists until the coming of the rains in May, when all is changed.  Men and women go to the fields before daybreak, and return only when darkness forces them to cease their toil.  During the period when the fields are in preparation, or the rice is growing, few ceremonials are held, except those intended to promote the growth of the crops, to cure sickness, or to ward off impending misfortune.

Aside from the rites, which attend birth, marriage, and similar events, the ceremonies may be placed in two divisions:  first, those which may be celebrated by all people; second, those restricted to certain families.  The first class we shall designate as the minor ceremonies.

SECTION 1

The Minor Ceremonies

Dawak (also called Boni and Alopag).—­The name Dawak is applied to that part of important ceremonies in which the spirits enter the bodies of the mediums.  It is also given as a separate ceremony, usually to cure sickness, but in some settlements it follows a birth.

According to tradition, it was taught, together with the Sayang ceremony, by the spirit Kaboniyan to a woman Dayapan; and she, in turn, taught it to others, who were then able to cure sickness.

It is probable that the name comes from dawat (a “request” or “petition"); yet there is little in it which corresponds to prayer or entreaty.

As there was considerable variation in each Dawak witnessed by the writer, the complete ceremony is given for the village of Ba-ak, together with striking variations from other towns.