44 Hiitton Jl'cbstcr 



a small island off the coast of southeastern New Guinea. The 

 natives are most industrious : every morning men. women and 

 children go to work in the fields and return only at nightfall. 

 " They have a rule, to which they strictly adhere all the year 

 round, of working for two days and resting the third."-* A 

 recent student of the Bontoc Igorot, mountain farmers in the 

 northern part of Luzon, tells us that they have a " sacred " rest 

 day called tcngao', almost certainly of native origin. It occurs, 

 on an average, about every ten days during the year, though not 

 with absolute regularity. The old men of the two divisions of 

 the pueblo determine when it shall take place, and announcement 

 is publicly made on the preceding evening. " If a person goes to 

 labor in the fields on a sacred day — not having heard the an- 

 nouncement or in disregard of it — he is fined for 'breaking the 

 Sabbath.' "-" As to the remote origin of this Filipino institution 



■* Chalmers and Gill, Work and Adventure in New Guinea, London, 

 1885, pp. 40 sq. See also (Sir) William MacGregor, British Neiv Guinea, 

 London, 1897, p. 44. A close observer, G. A. J. van der Sande, did not 

 notice any special rest days among the peoples with whom he came in con- 

 tact and whose customs he has so fully described (Noz'a Guinea, iii. 

 Leiden, 1907, p. 270). 



^A. E. Jenks, in Ethnological Survey Publications, ^Manila, 1905, i. 206. 

 In a letter dated December 10, 1910, Professor Jenks tells me that these rest 

 days " are selected so that such intimate, important interests as agriculture 

 and beneficial weather may be given the amount of attention they deserve. 

 The people have no calendar for succeeding ceremonial observances, so a 

 priesthood has developed to fix such days at the opportune time when 

 needed. They are sacred because all petitions are made to Lumawig, their 

 god, a living spirit, hero and benefactor." In a second letter under date 

 March 8, 191 1, Dr. Jenks writes: "I believe the rest days are first for the 

 purpose of having time for religious observances — this fact necessitated the 

 rest. I never proved this point, however." The Bontoc Igorot observe a 

 number of ceremonies connected with their agricultural operations and 

 designed, like those of the Dayaks and Nagas, to secure an abundant crop. 

 Thus at the beginning of baliling, the fifth period of the Bontoc year, 

 when there is a general planting of camotes, a rite called loskod is per- 

 formed : the pueblo priest kills a chicken or pig, and then petitions' Luma- 

 wig for so many camotes " that the ground will crack and burst open." 

 At the close of the period of baliling there ensues a three days' rest known 

 as kopus when supplications are addressed to Lumawig and a chicken is 



44 



