﻿498 The Philippine Journal of Science wh 



BESAO 60 



The material for this township furnishes some very interesting 

 and important data. The township contains 8 barrios; namely, 

 Besao, Payeo, Ambaguio, Padangaan, Abeo, Ayubo, Banguitan, 

 and Agaua. The township, which was organized in 1904, con- 

 tains a population of 3,502, all Igorot and pagan, except the 

 family of the secretary-treasurer, which is Christian. A list of 

 officials since 1904 is given. 



HISTORY OF THE BARRIO OF BESAO 



We, the old men of this barrio, caused it to be written, stating the facts 

 as they have been handed down to us from our forefathers, who were the 

 original people of our barrio. 67 



Ganggang-a and his wife Casindo of Lamaoan came to make their home 

 in a place, now known as Besao, owing to the fact that their means of 

 making a living had become exhausted in Larnaoan. Ganggang-a said to 

 his wife, "We would better leave our home and find another place where 

 we can make our living." Ganggang-a had a sister by the name of Abay; 

 when Ganggang-a and his wife decided to move, Abay, his sister, did not 

 want to accompany them, but decided to go down to a town called Busalan, 

 a barrio of Candon, in the Province of Locus [that is, Ilocos] Sur, where she 

 eventually married. Ganggang-a and his wife went in the opposite direc- 

 tion looking for a good place where they could settle; on their way they 

 stopped at a place now called Besao to rest for a couple of days, during 

 which time Ganggang-a looked around for a place to make their home. 

 He observed that the land around there was very fertile, so they decided 

 to remain there. During the long time that they had to wait before their 

 camote patches began to produce, they lived on nothing but vines and wild 

 gabe." 8 During the course of many years they had 4 children, 2 girls, 

 named Lagmaya and Golla, and 2 boys whom they named Madalang and 

 Laongan. After these children became men and women their father wanted 

 them to get married, but there were no other men or women in the place 

 now called Besao whom they could marry, so they intermarried. Mada- 

 lang married his sister Lagmaya and Laongan married his sister Golla; 

 Madalang had 6 children by Lagmaya, 4 boys and 2 girls, and Laongan had 

 5 children by Golla, 2 boys and 3 girls. When Madalang and his brother 

 Laongan's children became old enough to marry, they intermarried with 

 their sisters, with the exception of one, the youngest son of Madalang, 

 because there was no girl left for him to marry. Therefore, Ganggang-a 



" For a description and partial history of Besao, see Perez, Igorrotes, 

 171-177. 



" What follows is a confused account of a primitive origin myth. The 

 marrying of brother and sister is very common in these stories. Cf. Blair 

 and Robertson, ut supra, 5, 121-127 (Loarca, Relation, ca. 15S0), in which 

 the brother and sister consult the tunnies of the sea, the doves of the air, 

 and the earthquake, successively, in order to calm the qualms of the woman. 



M Gabe, or taro, Colocasia esculoitum (L.) Schott, a plant (both root 

 and leaves) used extensively in the mountain districts. See Census of the 

 Philippine Islands (1905), 4, 121; see also Merrill, E. D., A flora of Manila. 

 Manila (1912), 134. 



