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The balance of the diams, 35-40, are in story form, and seem intended more as an explanation to the people as to the causes of their troubles than to be directed toward the spirits. However, the medium seldom has an audience, and rarely ever a single listener, as she recites the diams she has learned verbatim from her instructors when preparing for the duties of her office.
It seems certain that we are here dealing not with present day beliefs alone, but with at least relatively old customs and tales, which while enabling us to understand present day conceptions also give us a glimpse into the past. The myths 32-40, which are known to the people as diams, are now inseparable parts of the various ceremonies.
A woman may live the greater part of her life without any idea of becoming a medium, and then because of such a notification will undertake to qualify. She goes to one already versed, and from her learns the details of the various ceremonies, the gifts suitable for each spirit, and the chants or diams which must be used at certain times.
They are not learned word for word, as are the diams, but their content is constant and they are thoroughly believed. That they exert a great influence on the beliefs and conduct of both old and young is undoubted. The evil which befalls a person who molests the guardian stones is thus made known even to the children who generally keep at a distance from the grove in which they stand.
Myths 41-54 are of quite a different type. They are generally told by the mediums or wise old people, during the ceremonies, but always to a crowd of eager listeners. They are not learned word for word, as are the diams, but their content is constant and they are thoroughly believed. That they exert a great influence on the beliefs and conduct of both old and young is undoubted.
It seems certain that we are here dealing not with present day beliefs alone, but with at least relatively old customs and tales, which while enabling us to understand present day conceptions also give us a glimpse into the past. The myths 32-40, which are known to the people as diams, are now inseparable parts of the various ceremonies.
This spirit gave the Tinguian rice and sugar-cane, taught them how to plant and reap, how to foil the designs of ill-disposed spirits, the words of the diams and the details of many ceremonies. Further to bind himself to the people, it is said, he married "in the first times" a woman from Manabo.
This is a considerable task, for the diams must be learned word for word; and, likewise, each ceremony must be conducted, just as it was taught by the spirits to the "people of the first times." The training occupies several months; and when all is ready, the candidate secures her piling. New shells may be used, but it is preferable to secure, if possible, the piling of a dead medium.
These beings are usually invisible, but at times of ceremonies they enter the bodies of the mediums, possess them, and thus communicate with the people. On rare occasions they are visible in their own forms, as when Kaboniyan appeared as the antagonist and later as the friend of Sayen. These beings are addressed, first through certain semi-magical formulas, know as diams.
A facsimile of his drawing is here. He says that they were possessed of a rapidly moving lash, and that there were other forms without tails, which he assumed were developmental stages of the form. This is nothing less than the monad whose life-history I gave you last. My drawings, magnified 2,500 diams., of the active organism and the developing sac are here.
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