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Updated: June 11, 2025
The black ones are made by reburning the red bowls about half an hour in palay straw. Two men in Sabangan and one each in Genugan and Takong all western pueblos manufacture metal "anito" pipes. To-day brass wire and the metal of cartridge shells are most commonly employed in making these pipes. The process of manufacture is elaborate and very interesting.
This they repeat over and over again, mumbling low, and frequently exhaling the breath to assist the departure of the anito just as, they say, one blows away the dust; but the exhalation is an open-mouthed outbreathing, and not a forceful blowing. One of our house boys came home from a trip to a neighboring pueblo with a bad stone bruise for which an anito was responsible.
The man or woman of each household acts as mediator between any sick member of the family and the offending anito. There are several of these household ceremonials performed to benefit the afflicted. It is as follows: "A-li-ka' ab a-fi'-ik Ba-long'-long en-ta-ko' is a'-fong sang'-fu." The translation is: "Come, soul of Ba-long'-long; come with us to the house to feast."
The belief is that the person's spirit is being enticed and drawn away by an anito. If it is not called back shortly, it will depart permanently. The following ceremony, called "ka-taol'," is said near the river, as the other is in the mountains: "A-li-ka' ta-en-ta-ko is a'-fong ta-ko' tay la-ting' is'-na." Freely translated this is: "Come, come with us into the house, because it is cold here."
With the men are buried, besides the things interred with the married men, the basket-work hat, the basket-work sleeping hat, the spear, the battle-ax, and the earrings if any are possessed. These additional things are buried, they say, because there is no family with which to leave them, though all things interred are for the use of the anito of the dead.
The relatives have a fish feast, called "ab-a-fon'," at the hour of the evening meal. To this feast all ancestral anito are invited. All relatives again spend the night at the house, from which they return to their own dwellings after breakfast of the second day and each goes laden with a plate of cooked rice.
Among the Ilocano and some of the Tinguian, the Komau is known as a great invisible bird, which steals people and their possessions. He does not visit the people through the bodies of the mediums. Anito is a general term used to designate members of the spirit world.
Shortly after the burial a ceremony, called "kap-i-yan si na-tu'," is performed by the relatives in the dwelling wherein the corpse sat. It is said to be the last ceremony given for the dead. Food is eaten and the one in charge addresses the anito of the dead man as follows: We have fixed all things right and well for you.
To-day the pipe maker possesses a file with which to smooth and clean the crude pipe. Formerly all that labor, and it is extensive, was performed with stones. It requires two men to make the "anito" pipes tin-ak-ta'-go. One superintends all the work and performs the finest of it, and the second pumps the bellows and smooths and cleans the pipe after it is cast.
The ceremony of the ko'-mis is held before all head-hunting expeditions, except in the unpremeditated outburst of a people to immediately punish the successful foray or ambush of some other. The ko'-mis is built along all Bontoc war trails, though no others are known having the "anito" heads.
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