The beating of shield and stick could easily be heard across the wide valley on that still morning. The body was in a terrible state of decomposition. It was swollen to three times its living girth. Great blisters had collected under the epidermis, which broke from time to time, a brownish red fluid escaping. The spear wound in his neck was plugged by a wooden spear-head.
In each hand Aliguyen held a wooden spear. No attempt whatever had been made to prevent decomposition of the body or the entrance to it of flies. From the mouth gas bubbled out continually. From time to time they caught the grewsome head by the hair and shook it violently, shouting, Who-oo-oo!
Aliguyen, wake up! Open your eyes! Look down on Kurug. They wanted him to kill you. All your kin are women. You will have to avenge yourself! Take them all! When an old woman got hoarse, another took her place.
As the procession came to the house it filed past Aliguyen and its leaders stopped and shouted words to the same effect. The key-note of the whole ceremony was vengeance. The explanation was a perfectly natural one to the people, and they treated me with the greatest courtesy and helped me to see whatever was to be seen.
After this the people dispersed to their homes. Wash away death by violence, death by the spear, death by sickness. Wash away pests, hunger, and crop-failure, and our enemies. Wash away our enemies. Wash as vengeance for him who has gone before. Two pigs were provided there, one being very small.
Only the old [98] men were permitted to gather around the pigs and the rice-wine and the other appurtenances of the feast. The feast began by a prayer to the ancestors, followed by an invocation to the various deities.
The people cried: Who-oo-oo! Come down and drink the rice-wine and take the pig! Deceive our enemies! Take them into the remotest quarters of the sky-world; lock them up there forever so that they may not return! Vengeance for him who has gone before! Quickly follows him a feaster who has called Umalgo, the Spirit of the Sun, and was possessed by him. Umalgo seizes a spear, dances about the pig two or three [99] times, when he steps over to it and with a thrust, seemingly without effort, pierces its heart.
Then comes the cutting up of the pig to cook in the pots. The blood that has settled in its chest is carefully caught; it is used to smear the bangibang and the jipag. The jipag are interesting. They are little images of two or three of the deities that help men to take heads. The images are of wood about six or eight inches high. Sometimes there are images of dogs also.
Then the feasters I think there were about one thousand who attended the feast leaped for their spears and shields. The people who had come from Kiangan rushed to where I was and took their stand in front of and around me, and told me to stay there and that they would protect me from any harm; all of which, as may well be supposed, produced no trifling amount of warmth in my feelings toward them.
Fortunately nothing came of the scramble. That such a thing could take place without danger was incomprehensible to the old women of Kiangan, who doubtless remembered sons or husbands, brothers or cousins, who had lost their lives in such an affair. This boy immediately thought of my horse, which was picketed near, and ran to it, taking with him one or two responsible Kiangan men to help him watch and defend it.
Had he not done so, some meat-hungry, hot-headed Ifugao might easily have stuck a bolo in his side during the scramble and its confusion; and immediately some five hundred or more Ifugaos would have been right on top of the carcase, hand-hacking at it with their long war-knives, and it would probably have been impossible ever to find out who gave the first thrust.
Finally they managed to prevail upon the meat-snatchers to bring back three small pieces, about the size of their hands, from which I concluded that Ifugao is a language which is admirably adapted to making people ashamed of themselves. For I knew how hungry for meat these Ifugao become. When this ceremony had been completed, each old man raised his spear quickly and so was enabled to secure for himself the meat impaled. In one case, one of the old men just missed ripping open the abdomen of the man who stood in front.
Then they filed along the trail to bury Aliguyen. As the procession came near the grave the men took off their head-dresses and strung them on a long pole, which was laid across the trail. His body was neglected in order to make him angry, so to incite him to vengeance. The Hudhud consists of narrative chants traditionally performed by the Ifugao community, which is well known for its rice terraces extending over the highlands of the northern island of the Philippine archipelago. It is practised during the rice sowing season, at harvest time and at funeral wakes and rituals.
Thought to have originated before the seventh century, the Hudhud comprises more than chants, each divided into 40 episodes. A complete recitation may last several days. The language of the stories abounds in figurative expressions and repetitions and employs metonymy, metaphor and onomatopoeia, rendering transcription very difficult. Thus, there are very few written expressions of this tradition. The chant tells about ancestral heroes, customary law, religious beliefs and traditional practices, and reflects the importance of rice cultivation.
The narrators, mainly elderly women, hold a key position in the community, both as historians and preachers. The Hudhud epic is chanted alternately by the first narrator and a choir, employing a single melody for all the verses. The conversion of the Ifugao to Catholicism has weakened their traditional culture.
Furthermore, the Hudhud is linked to the manual harvesting of rice, which is now mechanized. Although the rice terraces are listed as a World Heritage Site, the number of growers has been in constant decline. The few remaining narrators, who are already very old, need to be supported in their efforts to transmit their knowledge and to raise awareness among young people. Rice is of utmost importance to the Ifugao. Many Ifugao use to keep a wooden image of the god in their houses to insure prosperity.
Unfortunately many families have sold them to tourists. The Ifugao used to have festivals for the planting, growing and harvesting of rice. They have traditionally grown tinawon rice, which many say has a delightful aromatic taste that most Ifugao love. In recent years some have stop growing it in favor of more high yield varieties,. About 40 percent of the Ifugao diet comes from agriculture, most of it wetland rice.
Ten percent is from fish, clams and snails living in the rice fields. They also grow taro, cotton, beans radishes, cabbage and peaches in the rice fields and use slash and burn agriculture to produce sweet potatoes and corn elsewhere. Ifugao men hunt rodents, small mammals and wild pigs with spears, which come in three varieties: one which is used as a hunting stick, another with a magically-shaped iron tip reserved for big game, and yet another used for ceremonial dances, which never leaves the village.
Hunters carry provisions of rice and sweet potato in backpacks fashioned from wild pig hide. The Banaue area six hours from Manila by bus contains magnificent rice terraces that have been described as the eighth wonder of the world.
Originally constructed by the Ifugao people, who still maintain them, the terraces rise from the steep river gorges and ascend—and sometimes engulf— the mountains like green amphitheaters.
There is some evidence that the first rice terraces may have been carved out of the mountains as early as B. Most were built in the last four centuries. By some estimated the rice terraces would extend for 11, miles if placed from end to end. Ownership of the paddies and terraces, and the responsibility for taking care is passed down from one generation to the next.
The system, allows the Ifugao to live in fair dense concentrations. Irrigation is achieved through a network of dikes and sluices. The size of the fields range from a few square meters to more than one hectare, with the average size being square meters.
In rocky terrain the terraces are built from the top down, by first hollowing out the top of a mountain and surrounding the outside with narrow platforms.
Stones that are removed from the fields are used to construct the terrace walls, whose cracks are filled with chalk-base plaster. There is a ladder but it is hanged or removed so people or animals cannot enter the fale. Aside from their rice terraces, the Ifugaos, who speak four distinct dialects, are known for their rich oral literary traditions of hudhud and the alim. The Ifugao, like all other groups in the Mountain Province, called their highest ranking deity, Kabunian.
This deity dwelt in the fifth region of the universe. Incidentally, the Ifugao world consisted of a region above the skyworld where the important deities live.
These deities however recognized Kabunian as the powerful deity among them. Bulol —gods of household. They were held to be the souls of ancestors long departed, resembling the Roman Lares. They were represented by little statues, carved out of hard wood in the form of human beings. Gatui —divinities of practical jokes. These corresponded to the harpies of the Greeks. Unless given sumptuous offerings, they were said to feast on the souls of the villagers, especially those of the unborn.
To a great extent, miscarriages among the Ifugao mothers were attributed to these deities. Tayaban —gods of death. They revealed themselves to the world in the form of tiny, flying monsters covered with shiny scales, so that by night they look like fireflies. Kikilan —two headed monsters serving as bodyguards the Tayaban and the Gatui.
Munduntug —evil spirits of the mountains. These divinities were called mountain ghosts because they haunted hunters in the forests, causing the latter to get lost in the jungle. Makalun —messenger of the gods. They had wings. Their duty consisted in running errands for the superior deities of the skyworld and in summoning other divinities to attend the various ceremonies performed by the priest of the village.
Bakayauwan —good spirits of the mountains. Unlike the Munduntug, they were friendly and helpful to the hunters. Mahipnat —great spirits of sacred places. They dwelt in the downstream regions and were sometimes referred to as spirits of deified heroes.
Bibao —spirits of ordinary places. They were found in cliffs, in houseroofs, in boulders, and in streams. They were almost everywhere. Stealing souls and causing sickness were among their mischievous acts. However, when bribed with a sumptuous feast, they became very kind and helpful, giving the celebrant prosperity, peace and happiness.
Halupi —spirits of remembrance. These spirits were responsible for reminding villagers what their priests wanted them to remember. They pestered debtors with remembrance of their debts, calmed those in a controversy to accede to the demands of their creditors, and had a wide field of usefulness in commercial transactions and love affairs. Fill —guardians of property. These deities kept watch over the property and belongings of their favorites to prevent their being stolen or destroyed by thieves and trespassers.
He is one of those gods who expects gifts in return for his blessings. Bumigi - In charge of worms, one of the eleven beings importuned to stamp out rice pests. Liddum - Is regarded as the chief mediator between the people and the other gods.
Lumadab - Has the power to dry up the rice leaves, one of the eleven beings importuned to stamp out rice pests. Also read article about Ifugao from Wikipedia. User Contributions: 1. Thank you for your help because of you i can finish my project ummm. Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: Name:.
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