Ceremony connected with ato

Young men sometimes change their membership from one a’-to to another.  It is said that old men never do.  There is a ceremony of adoption into a new a’-to when a change is made; it is called “pu-ke’” or “pal-ug-peg’.”  At the time of the ceremony a feast is made. and some old man welcomes the new member as follows: 

If you die first, you must look out for us, since we wish to live long [that is, your spirit must protect us against destructive spirits], do not let other pueblos take our heads.  If you do not take this care, your spirit will find no food when it comes to the a’-to, because the a’-to will be empty —­ we will all be dead.

PART 9

Mental Life

The Igorot does not know many things in common with enlightened men, and yet one constantly marvels at his practical knowledge.  Tylor says primitive man has “rude, shrewd sense.”  The Igorot has more —­ he has practical wisdom.

Actual knowledge

Concerning cosmology, the Igorot believes Lumawig gave the earth and all things connected with it.  Lumawig makes it rain and storm, gives day and night, heat and cold.  The earth is “just as you see it.”  It ceases somewhere a short distance beyond the most distant place an Igorot has visited.  He does not know how it is supported.  “Why should it fall?” he asks.  “A pot on the earth does not fall.”  Above is chayya, the sky —­ the Igorot does not know or attempt to say what it is.  It is up above the earth and extends beyond and below the visible horizon and the limit of the earth.  The Igorot does not know how it remains there, and a man once interrupted me to ask why it did not fall down below the earth at its limit.

“Below us,” an old Igorot told me, “is just bones.”

The sun is a man called “Chal-chal’.”  The moon is a woman named “Ka-bi-gat’.”  “Once the moon was also a sun, and then it was always day; but Lumawig made a moon of the woman, and since then there is day and night, which is best.”

There are two kinds of stars.  “Fat-ta-ka’-kan” is the name of large stars and “tuk-fi’-fi” is the name of small stars.  The stars are all men, and they wear white coats.  Once they came down to Bontoc pueblo and ate sugar cane, but on being discovered they all escaped again to chayya.

Thunder is a gigantic wild boar crying for rain.  A Bontoc man was once killed by Ki-cho’, the thunder.  The unfortunate man was ripped open from his legs to his head, just as a man is ripped and torn by the wild boar of the mountains.  The lightning, called “Yup-yup,” is also a hog, and always accompanies Ki-cho’.

Lumawig superintends the rains.  Li-fo’-o are the rain clouds —­ they are smoke.  “At night Lumawig has the li-fo’-o come down to the river and get water.  Before morning they have carried up a great deal of water; and then they let it come down as rain.”