Hunting

A large pile of rocks stands like a compact fortress on the mountain horizon to the north of Bontoc pueblo.  Here a ceremony is observed twice annually by rich men for the increase of ay-ya-wan’, the wild carabao.  It is claimed that there are now seventeen wild carabaos in Ma-ka’-lan Mountain near the pueblo.  There are others in the mountains farther to the north and east, and the ceremony has among its objects that of inducing these more distant herds to migrate to the public lands surrounding the pueblo.

The men go to the great rock, which is said to be a transformed anito, and there they build a fire, eat a meal, and have the ceremony called “mang-a-pu’-i si ay-ya-wan’,” freely, “fire-feast for wild carabaos.”  The ceremony is as follows: 

Ay-ya-wan ad Sa-ka’-pa a-li-ka is-na ma-am’-mung is-na. 
Ay-ya-wan ad O-ki-ki a-li-ka is-na ma-am’-mung is-na. 
Fay-cha’-mi ya’-i nan a-pu’-i ya pa’-tay.

This is an invitation addressed to the wild carabaos of the Sakapa and Okiki Mountains to come in closer to Bontoc.  They are also asked to note that a fire-feast is made in their honor.

The old men say that probably 500 wild carabaos have been killed by the men of the pueblo.  There is a tradition that Lumawig instructed the people to kill wild carabaos for marriage feasts, and all of those killed —­ of which there is memory or tradition —­ have been used in the marriage feasts of the rich.  The wild carabao is extremely vicious, and is killed only when forty or fifty men combine and hunt it with spears.  When wounded it charges any man in sight, and the hunter’s only safety is in a tree.

The method of hunting is simple.  The herd is located, and as cautiously as possible the hunters conceal themselves behind the trees near the runway and throw their spears as the desired animal passes.  No wild carabaos have been killed during the past two years, but I am told that the numbers killed three, four, six, seven, and eight years ago were, respectively, 5, 8, 7, 10, and 8.

Seven men in Bontoc have dogs trained to run deer and wild boar.  One of the men, Aliwang, has a pack of five dogs; the others have one or two each.  The hunting dogs are small and only moderately fleet, but they are said to have great courage and endurance.  They hunt out of leash, and still-hunt until they start their prey, when they cry continually, thus directing the hunter to the runway or the place where the victim is at bay.

Not more than one deer, og’-sa, is killed annually, and they claim that deer were always very scarce in the area.  A large net some 3 1/2 feet high and often 50 feet long is commonly employed in northern Luzon and through the Archipelago for netting deer and hogs, but no such net is used in Bontoc.  The dogs follow the deer, and the hunter spears it in the runway as it passes him or while held at bay.