488 The Tinguian 



Frequent reference has been made to the parallels between 

 Tinguian customs and those practiced in Sumatra, while the 

 methods of rice-culture are so similar that they can have come only 

 from the same source. In the weaving the influence of India seems 

 evident, despite the fact that cotton is not bowed in Abra, and the 

 Tinguian method of spinning seems unique. These methods, 

 apparently distinctive, may once have been practised more broadly, 

 but were superseded by more efficient instruments. The primitive 

 method of ginning cotton by rolling it beneath a tapering rod 

 appears to be found nowhere in the Philippines outside of Abra, but 

 it is used in some remote sections of Burma. 



Part I of this volume presented a body of tales which showed 

 many resemblances to the Islands of the south, as well as incidents 

 of Indian lore. There is, in fact, a distinct feeling of Indian in- 

 fluence in the tales of the mythical period ; yet they lack the epics 

 of that people, and the typical trickster tales are but poorly repre- 

 sented. 



The vocabulary shows comparatively little of Indian influence ; 

 yet, at the time of the conquest, the Ilocano was one of the coast 

 groups making use of a native script which was doubtless of Hindu 

 origin. 



The many instances of Indian influence do not justify the supposi- 

 tion that the Tinguian were ever directly in contact with that people. 

 The Malay islands to the south were pretty thoroughly under Hindu 

 domination by the second century of the Christian era, and it is prob- 

 able that they were influenced through trade at a considerably earlier 

 date. Judging from our data, it would seem that the Ilocano-Tinguian 

 group had left its southern home at a time after this influence was 

 beginning to make itself felt, but before it was of a sufficiently intimate 

 nature to stamp itself indelibly on the lore, the ceremonial and 

 economic life of this people, as it did in Java and some parts of 

 Sumatra. It is possible that these points of similarity may be due to 

 trade, but if so, the contact was at a period antedating the fourteenth 

 century, for in historic times the sea trade of the southern islands has 

 been in the hands of the Mohammedanized Malay. Their influence is 

 very marked in the southern Philippines, but is not evident in north- 

 western Luzon. 



Concerning the time of their arrival in Luzon, and the course 

 pursued by them, we have no definite proof ; but it is evident that the 

 Tinguian did not begin to press inland until comparatively recent times. 

 Historical references and local traditions indicate that most of this 



