The Tinguian eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 351 pages of information about The Tinguian.

The Tinguian eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 351 pages of information about The Tinguian.

Little occurs during the second and third days, but on these evenings the young men and girls join the mediums and dance da-eng by the fire in the yard.  The fourth and fifth nights are known as ginitbet ("dark"), for then no fires are lighted, and the mediums dance alone.  It is supposed that the black spirits, those who are deformed, or who are too shy to appear before the people, will come out at this time and enjoy the ceremony.

Beginning with the sixth day the women pound rice in the early morning.  Starting with ten bundles, they increase the number by ten each day until on the thirteenth morning they pound out eighty bundles.  A fire is lighted in the yard on the sixth day, and is kept burning continuously through the eighth, but the ninth and tenth are nights of darkness.  When the fire is burning, it is a sign for all who wish, to come and dance, and each evening finds a jolly party of young people gathered in the yard, where they take part in the festivities, or watch the mediums, as they offer rice to the superior beings.

On the eleventh day, a long white blanket (tabing) is stretched across one corner of the room, making a private compartment for the use of visiting spirits.  That evening, as it grows dark, a jar of basi is carried up into the house.  All lights are extinguished both in the yard and the dwelling, so that the guests have to grope their way about.  After the liquor is consumed, they go down into the yard, where, in darkness, they join the medium in dancing da-eng. The twelfth day is known as Pasa-ad—­“the building.”  During the preliminary days, the men have been bringing materials for use in constructing the great spirit-house called balaua, and on this morning the actual work is started.  In form the balaua resembles the kalangan, but it is large enough to accommodate a dozen or more people, and the supporting posts are trunks of small trees (Plate XXI).  After the framework is complete, one side of the roof is covered with cogon grass, but the other is left incomplete.  Meanwhile the women gather near by and pound rice in the ceremonial manner described in the Pala-an ceremony (cf. p. 329).

As soon as the building is over for the day, a jar of basi is carried into the structure, a little of the liquor is poured into bamboo tubes and tied to each of the corner poles.  The balance of the liquor is then served to the men who sit in the balaua and play on copper gongs.  Next, a bound pig is brought in, and is tied to a post decorated with leaves and vines.  Soon the medium appears, and after placing prepared betel-nut and lime on the animal, she squats beside it, dips her fingers into coconut oil, and strokes its side, then later dips a miniature head-axe into the oil, and again strokes the animal, while she repeats a diam.  This is a recital of how in ancient times Kadaklan and Agemen instructed

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The Tinguian from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.