j g Traditions of the Tinguian 



Quite as easy as the creation of beings is the causing of sleep or death. 

 All the people of a village are put to sleep at the will of a single person 

 (p. 145) and Albaga — while still at a distance — causes the death of 

 Aponlbolinayen (p. 44). At a word of command the spears and head- 

 axes of the people of Kadalayapan and Kaodanan go out and kill great 

 numbers of the enemy, and the heads and booty take themselves in or- 

 derly fashion to towns of their new owners (pp. 66, 75). Many meth- 

 ods of restoring the dead to life are employed; spittle is applied to the 

 wounds, or the victim is placed in a magic well, but the common method 

 is for the hero "to whip his perfume," 1 whereupon the dead follow his 

 commands (pp. 152, 157). 



The birth of a child, to a woman of these times, is generally preceded 

 by an intense itching between the third and last fingers, and when this 

 spot is pricked the child pops out "like popped rice. " 2 Its growth is al- 

 ways magical, for at each bath its stature increases by a span (p. 102). 

 Within a few days the baby is a large child and then begins deeds of 

 valor worthy of the most renowned warriors (pp. 95, 96). 



The power of assuming animal forms appears to be a common pos- 

 session, and we find the different characters changing themselves into 

 fire-flies, ants, centipedes, omen birds, and in one case into oil 3 (pp. 85, 



99)' 



One of the most peculiar yet constantly used powers of these people 



is their ability to send betel-nuts on various missions. Whenever an 



invitation to a ceremony or celebration is to be extended, nuts covered 



T 4- ~ ..rvT ciT ff (ThiVapn iqoqV. Evans, Journal Royal Anthro. Inst., 

 v^oTxLin &¥» lSS Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, 

 Vol' I p SwftfelK Katha Sarit Sagara, Vol. II, p. 3, (Calcutta, 1880); Beze- 

 mer, Volksdichtung aus Indonesien, p. 49, (Haag, 1904). 



iThis peculiar expression while frequently used is not fully understood by the 

 storv tellers who in place of the word "whip" occasionally use "make In one text 

 iS!SSSmS!SSm ceremony, I find the following sentence which may help 

 ™to undStSd- the foregoing: "We go to make perfume at the edge of the town 

 S^tSjSSwhidi^SkS, which Ire our perfume, are the leaves of trees and 

 Sme others it i7the perfume for the people, which we give to them which we go 

 to Wk off Ine treesat the edge of the town." Again in tale 20 Kanag breaks 

 Se Srfume of Baliwan off a tree.- The use of sweetly scented oil, in raising the 

 dead P '?rund in Dayak legends. See Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and 

 British North Borneo, Vol. I, p. 3*4- . .. . 



« According to a Jakun legend, the first children were produced out of the calves 

 of their SotSs" legs Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula 

 Vol 1ITIT5 "A creation tale from Mangaia relates that the boy Rongo came 

 from a boil on his mother's arm when it was pressed. Gill, Myths and Songs of the 



South Pacific, p. 10 (London, 1876). 



* This power of transforming themselves into animals and the ^s a common 

 possession among the heroes of Dayak and Malay tales^ See Lm ; Roth jJThe 

 Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, Vol. I, p. 312, i'ERHAM oto 

 sSsBranchR., Asiatic Society, No. 16, 1886; Wilkinson, Malay Beliefs, pp.32, 59 

 (London, 1906). 



