FIGURE 9

Recognized phases of the moon.

Fis-ka’-na. 
Ma-no’-wa. 
Kat-no-wa’-na. 
Fit-fi-tay’-eg. 
Ka-tol-pa-ka’-na. 
Ki-sul-fi-ka’-na. 
Sig-na’-a-na. 
Li’-meng.

However, the Igorot do seldom count time by the phases of the moon, and the only solar period of time they know is that of the day.  Their word for day is the same as for sun, a-qu’.  They indicate the time of day by pointing to the sky, indicating the position the sun occupied when a particular event occurred.

There are two seasons in a year.  One is Cha-kon’, having five moons, and the other is Ka-sip’, having eight moons.  The seasons do not mark the wet and dry periods, as might be expected in a country having such periods.  Cha-kon’ is the season of rice or “palay” growth and harvest, and Ka-sip’ is the remainder of the year.  These two seasons, and the recognition that there are thirteen moons in one year, and that day follows night, are the only natural divisions of time in the Igorot calendar.

He has made an artificial calendar differing somewhat in all pueblos in name and number and length of periods.  In all these calendars the several periods bear the names of the characteristic industrial occupations which follow one another successively each year.  Eight of these periods make up the calendar of Bontoc pueblo, and seven of them have to do with the rice industry.  Each period receives its name from that industry which characterizes its beginning, and it retains this name until the beginning of the next period, although the industry which characterized it may have ceased some time before.

I-na-na’ is the first period of the year, and the first period of the season Cha-kon’.  It is the period, as they say, of no more work in the rice sementeras —­ that is, practically all fields are prepared and transplanted.  It began in 1903 on February 11.  It lasts about three months, continuing until the time of the first harvest of the rice or “palay” crop in May; in 1903 this was until May 2.  This period is not a period of “no work” —­ it has many and varied labors.

The second period is La’-tub.  It is that of the first harvests, and lasts some four weeks, ending about June 1.

Cho’-ok is the third period.  It is the time when the bulk of the palay is harvested.  It occupies about four weeks, running over in 1903 two days in July.

Li’-pas is the fourth period.  It is that of “no more palay harvest,” and lasts for about ten or fifteen days, ending probably about July 15.  This is the last period of the season Cha-kon’.

The fifth period is Ba-li’-ling.  It is the first period of the season Ka-sip’.  It takes its name from the general planting of camotes, and is the only one of the calendar periods not named from the rice industry.  It continues about six weeks, or until near the 1st of September.