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Carabaos have only one babe at a birth, so why should women have two babes? they ask. They believe that one of the twins, which unfortunate one they call "a-tin-fu-yang'," is an anito child; it is the offspring of an anito. The anito father is said to have been with the mother of the twins in her unconscious slumber, and she is in no way criticised or reproached.
The Anito occurs amongst the tribes of the Malayan Archipelago as Antu, but the Anito of the Philippines is essentially a protecting spirit, while the Malayan Antu is rather of a demoniacal kind. These idol images have never come under my observation.
The faithful i'-chu has warned the pueblo that an anito, perhaps an enemy, perhaps a former friend, threatens the pueblo; and the people seek to avert the calamity by making feasts every dwelling preparing a feast. Each household then calls the names of the classes of malignant anito which destroy life and property, and suggests to them that they spend their fury elsewhere.
Many old men and women, known as "in-sup-ak'," are considered more or less successful in urging the offending anito to leave the sick. Their formula is simple. They place themselves near the afflicted part, usually with the hand stroking it, or at least touching it, and say, "Anito, who makes this person sick, go away."
If the name a child bears is that of a dead ancestor it will receive the protection of the anito of the ancestor; if the child does not prosper or has accidents or ill health, the parents will seek a more careful or more benevolent protector in the anito of some other ancestor whose name is given the child.
Snakes, rats, crows, falling stones, crumbling earth, and the small reddish-brown omen bird, i'-chu, all warn the Igorot of pending evil. Exorcist Since the anito is the cause of all bodily afflictions the chief function of the person who battles for the health of the afflicted is that of the exorcist, rather than that of the therapeutist.
Each tends the babe while the other works in the field. Both care for the chickens and pigs, even to cooking the food for the latter. Men and women catch fish by hand in the river, manufacture tapui, and in the salt industry both evaporate the salt solution and vend the salt. In the treatment of the sick and the driving out of afflicting anito, men and women alike serve.
The anito of those who die in battle receive the special name "pin-teng'"; such spirits are not called away, but the person's slayer is told by some pin-teng', "You must take a head." Since they are warriors, the men who die in battle are the most favored, but if not killed in battle all Igorot prefer to die in their houses. Should they die elsewhere, they are at once taken home.
It is thought that, when a mortal woman conceives, an anito woman likewise becomes pregnant, and the two give birth at the same time. According to common belief, supernatural beings have become possessed at times, with menstrual blood or the afterbirth which under their care developed into human offspring, some of whom occupy a prominent place in the tribal mythology.
They are set root end up, and the fine, matted rootlets present a compact surface which the Igorot has carved in the traditional shape of the "anito." Some of these heads have inlaid eyes and teeth of stone. Hung on the ko'-mis are baskets and frames in which chickens and pigs have been carried to the place for ceremonial feasting.
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