KALINGA TEXTS FROM THE BALBALASANG-GINAANG 
GROUP 1 
By Otto Scheerer 
ONE TEXT FIGURE 
LOCATION 
The people at present officially designated as Kalinga occupy 
a central position in the interior of northern Luzon. They have 
for neighbors in the north the Apayao, in the west the Itneg 
(Kal. Itnog) , in the south the Ibontok, and in the east the Iba- 
nak and Gaddang. Their country consists, in the main, of a 
portion of the high ridge of the Cordillera Central and of the 
lower sierras which from this backbone stretch forth toward 
the east, sending their waters in numerous streams to the Rio 
Chico de Cagayan. On the upper course of this river is situated 
the town of Lubuagan, the capital of the political subdivision 
of the Mountain Province known as the subprovince of Kalinga. 
The accompanying sketch will show the general disposition 
of the Kalinga territory. (See page 177.) 
NAME 
Individuals of this tribe spoken to by me called themselves 
Kalingga or, more idiomatically, Kalingka. Since kaling-d in 
Ibanak and kalinga in Gaddang (the latter in the spelling of 
P. Malumbres) both mean “enemy,” it may be surmised that 
the name in question was orginally bestowed upon the people 
from outside. 
SUBDIVISIONS 
In spite of the Kalinga having merited up to recent times the 
fame of bold warriors and inveterate head-hunters, their terri- 
tory appears to be almost nowhere demarcated by sharply drawn 
ethnic boundary lines such as those antecedents might lead us 
1 The texts here published are the first coherent records made of the 
speech of some little-known dialect groups of northern Luzon. While 
hardly more than raw material, their publication must be considered 
as opportune since, with the profound and rapid changes now going 
on in the Islands, it becomes a matter of doubt if dialects like the present 
will still be in existence when a systematic investigation may become 
possible at some time in the future. 
175 
