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In the detailed description of the Ilocano, all the subjects have been drawn from the cities of Bangued in Abra, and Vigan in Ilocos Sur, in order to eliminate, so far as possible, the results of recent intermixture with the Tinguian, a process which is continually taking place in all the border towns. The more general tabulation includes Ilocano from all the northern provinces.
The spirit Kaboniyan enters her body and instructs her how to perform healing ceremonies. He also teaches her how to plant and reap, and she in turn teaches the Tinguian. While she is bathing she ties a cock and dog by the water side. The dog eats the cock, and thus death comes into the world. Girl who lacks certain organs is ashamed to marry.
These Tinguian ethnically belong to the great Igorot group, and in northern Bontoc Province, where they are known as Itneg, flow into and are not distinguishable from the Igorot; but no effort is made in this monograph to cut the Tinguian asunder from the position they have gained in historic and ethnologic writings as a separate people.
Doubtless a similar inflow had been taking place, although at a slower rate, long before the Spaniards reached the Islands, and Tinguian mythology has grown up as the result of blending of native tales with those of other areas, the whole being worked over and reshaped until it fitted the social setting.
Accounts of earlier travelers offer undoubted proof that head-hunting was rampant a generation ago; while the folk-tales feature the taking of heads as one of the most important events in Tinguian life. The first incentive for head-taking is in connection with funeral rites.
According to Reyes, the child to be named is carried to a tree, and the medium says, "Your name is ;" at the same time she strikes the tree with a knife. If the tree "sweats," the name is satisfactory; otherwise, other names are mentioned until a favorable sign is obtained. The writer found no trace of such procedure in any part of the Tinguian belt.
The other structures, such as the spirit houses, rice drying frames, and granaries were similar to those seen to-day in all the villages. Likewise the house furnishings, the musical instruments, and even the games of the children were such as are to be found at present, while our picture of the village life given on page 9 still fits nearly any Tinguian settlement in Abra.
That native iron might have supplied the needs of many Philippine tribes, including the Tinguian, is certain, for important deposits of magnetite and hematite are found in Abra, in Ilocos Norte, Angat, Bulacan, Albay, and other parts of the Islands. On several occasions, when on the trail, the natives have called our attention to boulders, apparently of hematite, which they recognized as iron.
A Tinguian was once walking along a trail in the wood when he heard a strange sound in a large tree near him, and looking up he was startled to see that it was the home of the Alan spirits who live in the wood. He stopped and gazed for a moment at the horrible creatures, large as people, hanging from the limbs of the tree with their heads down like bats.
The Tinguian is naturally musical. He sings at his work, he beats time with his head-axe against his shield as he tramps the mountain trails, he chants the stories of long ago as the workers gather about the fires each evening of the dry season, he sings the praises of his host at feasts and festivals, joins with others in the dirge which follows a burial, and he and many others will sing together as they dance the da-eng.
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