The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine TribeCole, Fay-Cooper
Religion
The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe
Cole, Fay-Cooper
Tinguian (Philippine people)
Mamonglo, who had been present during the morning, returned for a
moment to again rub the family and guests with his lead sinker. While
he was thus engaged, the second medium was possessed by Baniyat,
a female who made a bit of fun by trying to steal the beads of the
young girls, "so the men would love her." Several times she tried
to scale the house ladder, but was always repulsed, and each failure
was greeted with jeers and ridicule.
Gomogopos, who causes stomach troubles, came, and after dancing
before the rice-mortar, demanded that a small pig be laid before the
_tangpap_. Scarcely had the animal been deposited, when the spirit
seized a head-axe and cut it in two at one blow. Then he dipped the
weapon in its blood and applied it to the stomach of each member
of the family. "The pig is his pay, and now he takes away his kind
of sickness."
The second medium secured a live rooster, and using its wings as a
brush, she took up the blood and the two halves of the pig, and put
them in the _tangpap_. "The rooster is the spirits' brush, and when
the dirt In front of the _tangpap_ is cleaned up, then the people will
be clean and well inside their bodies." At the command of the medium,
the husband of the patient went to the opposite side of the _tangpap_;
then she threw a bundle of rice over the structure to him. He caught
it, and immediately threw it back. This was repeated six times, but
on the seventh the bundle lighted on the roof, where it was allowed
to remain. "The spirit threw away the lives of the people, but the
man returned them. The bundle is now on the _tangpap_, so now the
people's lives will remain safe."
An unnamed spirit was next to appear, and at his command the fore part
of the pig was stood upright in the winnower, and a stick was placed in
each nostril. These were seized by the spirit, who pumped them up and
down, then withdrew them, and stroked each member of the family, while
he chanted, "I did this to your lives, so now I must do it to you."
Saking, a lame spirit, called for one of the pig's legs, and with
it rubbed the limbs of each member of the family, "so that they will
not become ill in their legs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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