UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS
IN
AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY
Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-186, plates 1-33 February 15, 1919
IFUGAO LAW
BY
R. F. BARTON
'• M- art likely to think of the savage as a freakish creature, all moods — at one
a friend, at the next moment a fiend. So he might be were it not for the
social drill imposed by his customs. So he is, if you destroy his customs, and expect
him nevertheless to behave as an educated and reasonable being. Given, then, "
primitirt society in a healthy and ui, contaminated condition, its members will inva-
riably be found to be on the averag< more law-abiding, as judged from tin stand-
point of their own law, than is the case in any civilized state.
"Of course, if ice liave to do with a primitive society on the doion-grade — and
very few that havi been ' Civilizaded,' as John Stuart Mill firms it. at the hands of
the white man are not on the doivn-grade — its disorganized and debased custom no
serves a vital function. But a healthy society is bound, in a wholesale way,
to have a healthy custom."
R. R. Marrett, in Anthropology.
CONTENTS
[ntrodugtion
PAGE
The Ifugaos S
Sources of Ifugao Law and its present status of development 11
-* 1. Relation of taboo to law 11
2. Scope of customary law 14
■* 3. Connection of law and religion 14
4. General principles of the Ifugao legal system 14
5. St:iLx.- of development of Ifugao law 16
The Family Law
Marriage 17
6. Polygamy 17
7. Nature of marriage 17
8. Eligibility to marriage IS
9. The two ways in which marriage may lie brought about IS
10. Contract marriage 1'.'
11. Marriage ceremonials 21
12. (lifts t,, tl„. kin of the bride: hakba 22
13. Obligations incurred by those who enter into a marriage contract 24
14. The binawit relation 25
15. Property rights acquired by marriage 26
University of California Publications in Am. Arch, ami Eihn. [Vol.15
Remarriage of the widowed 27
16. The gibu payment to terminate marriage 27
Divorce 30
17. Divorce because of necessity 30
18. Divorce for mutual benefit 30
19. Divorce which may be demanded by either party 30
20. Cases where divorce may be demanded by one party or the other 31
21. The hudhud, or payment for mental anguish 32
22. Divorce ceremonies , 33
23. Property settlements in ease of divorce 33
Dependents in relation to family law 34
24. Adopted children 34
25. Servants 34
26. Slaves 35
niegitimate children 36
27. Definition of illegitimacy; its frequency 36
28. Obligations of father to bastard child 36
29. Determination of parentage 37
Reciprocal obligation of parents and their children 37
30. Duties of parents to children 37
31. Obligations of children to parents 38
The Property Law
The kinds of property 39
32. The Ifugao's classification of properties 39
Family property 39
33. The Ifugao attitude toward family property 39
34. Rice lands 40
35. Forest lands 40
36. Heirlooms 40
37. Sale of family property 41
Personal property 41
38. Definition '. 41
39. Houses 41
40. Valuable trees 41
Perpetual tenure 12
41. Rice and forest lands 42
42. " Homesteading" 43
i:;. Paghok, or landmarks 43
44. Right of way through property owned by others 43
Transient tenure 43
45. Tenure of sweet potato fields 43
Transfers of property for a consideration 44
46. ThebaM 44
47. Sales of family property 45
is. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands 49
Transfers of property arising from family relationships 50
49. Methods of transfer 50
50. Assignment and transfer of property during the lifetime of the owner... 50
51. Inheritance 50
52. The passing of property between relatives because of relationship 50
53. The law of primogeniture 51
1919] Barton : Ifugao I an
PAGE
54. The passing of property to legitimate sons and daughters by assignment
or inheritance 51
55. The passing of property to other relatives 51
56. Property rights of bastards 52
57. Transfers of property to adopted children 53
58. Servants and slaves as inheritors 54
59. Willsand testaments 54
Settlements of debts of the aged and deceased 55
60. W hen the debtor lias children 55
61. When the debtor is childless but leaves a spouse 55
62. Debts for which the kin of the deceased are held 55
63. Altitude toward debts 56
Borrowing and lending 56
64. Lupe, or interest 56
65. Fatang, or interest paid in advance 56
66. Another form of patang 57
( to-betweens 57
07. The go-between 57
6S. Responsibility of go-betweens 57
69. Conditions relieving a go-between of responsibility 58
70. Payment due those who find the body of one dead by violence 58
Contract- for the sale of property 59
71. On whom binding 59
Irrigation law 59
72. The law as to new fields 59
73. The law as to water 60
74. The law as to irrigation ditches 60
Penal Law
Penalties 61
75. Nature and reckoning of fines 61
Circumstances which affect penalty 63
76. Moral turpitude not a factor 63
Penal responsibility 63
77. The nungolat, or principal 63
78. The tombok, or "thrower" 64
79. Iba 'n di nungolat, ' ' the companions of the one who was strong " 64
80. The monludol, "shower," or informer 64
81. Servants who commit crimes at the bidding of their masters 64
82. Likelihood to punishment 6 '
83. Drunkenness and insanity in relation to criminal responsibility 65
84. The relation of intent to criminal responsibility 65
Other factors affecting liability .' 66
85. Alien-hip 66
86. Confession 66
87. Kinship 67
88. Rank and standing in the community 67
89. Importance of influential position and personality 6S
89a. Cripples and unfortunates 68
The principal crimes and their frequency 69
90. List of offenses 69
Sorcery '"
\y of California Publicai ■ Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
91. The ai/nl: or soul-stealing 70
Other forms of sorcery 70
93 Punishmenl of Borcery 71
Adultery 72
!M Forms of adultery 72
Punishmenl of adultery 73
96. Sex in relation to punishmenl for adultery 74
The taking "t" life 75
'.i7. General considerations 75
98 Executions justifiable by [fugao law 76
99 Feuds 77
100. War 77
101. Head-taking 78
102. Htbvl, or homicide 78
103 attempts to murder 79
nil Wounding 79
in.",. 8pecial liability of the givers of certain feasts 79
106. The labod, fine assessed for homicide -81
in;. Accidental killing of animals 82
108 Malicious killing of animals 83
Putting another in the position of an ace »mplice 83
109 The tokom, or fine for compromising another 83
Theft 85
110. Of theft in general 85
111. Theft of rice from a granary 86
112 Theft of unharvested rice 86
113. Dlegal confiscation 86
Arson 87
1 1 I. I'iiics assessed for goba or arson 87
Kidnapping 87
115 Circumstances under which kidnapping may occur 87
[ncesl 88
1 16 Rarity of such offenses 88
Rape SS
117. I'.'.th parties l •< 1 1 1 tz unmarried 88
liv l.'.-ipi- of a married woman by an unmarried man 89
119. RApeofa married woman by a married man 89
Ma-hailvu, or minor offenses 89
120. false accusation 89
121. Baag or slander 90
122. Threats of violence 90
123 ln-ult 90
PSOCI i'i m
The family in relation to procedure . 92
l-i Family unity and cooperation 92
The monkalvm nr go-between 94
125. Nature "f In- dul ii 94
Testimony 95
1 26 Litig mi- '1 ■ ii"! «• infronl each other 95
< frdeale 96
r_'7 Cases in which employed 96
i«H!>| Barton : Ifugao Law 5
PAGE
128. The hot water ordeal 96
L29. The hot-bolo ordeal 97
L30. Alao, or duel 97
131. Trial by bultong or wrestling 97
132. The umpire and the decision 99
Execution of justice 99
133. Retaliation 99
134. Seizure of chattels 100
135. Seizure of rice fields 102
136. Enforced hospitality 103
137. Kidnapping or seizure of persons 104
i:;s. Cases illustrating seizure and kidnapping 104
The paowa or truce 107
139. The usual sense of the term "paowa7' 107
1 10. Another sense of the term "paowa" 107
Termination of controversies: peace-making 108
-M41. The liidit or religious aspects of peace-making 108
An inter-village law : 109
142. Neutrality 109
Appendices
I. Ifugao reckoning of relationship 110
II. Connection of religion with procedure 110
III. Parricide 120
IV. Concubinage among the Kalingas 121
( rlossary 122
Explanation of plates 130
Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
PREFACE
There is no law bo strong as custom. How much more universal,
willing, and spontaneous is obedience to the customary law that a
necktie shall be worn with a stiff collar than is obedience to the ordained
law against expectoration on sidewalks; notwithstanding that the
latt.T lias more basis in consideration of the public weal and even in
aesthetics.
This little paper shows how a people having no vestige of consti-
tuted authority or government, and therefore living in literal anarchy,
dwell in comparative pe; and security of life and property. This
is owing to the fad of their homogeneity and to the fact that their law
is based entirely on custom and taboo.
The [fugaos are a tribe of barbarian head-hunters. Nevertheless,
after living among them for a period of eight years, I am fully satisfied
that never, even before our government was established over them, was
the loss of life from violence of all descriptions nearly so great among
them as it is among ourselves. I do not, however, wish to be under-
stood as advocating their state of society as ideal, or as in any way
affording more than a few suggestions possibly to our own law-makers.
Given dentists and physicians, however, I doubt gravely if any society
in existence could afford so much advantage in the way of happiness
and true freedom as does that of the Ifugaos.
Bui we must realize that probably neither security of the individual
life nor even happiness are the chief ends of existence. The progress
and evolution of our people are much more important in all prob-
ability, and this seems to demand the sacrifice of ease and freedom
and of much happiness on the part of the individuals composing our
society.
Acknowledgments are due first to my teacher and friend, Professor
Frederick Starr, for his encouragement and assistance, and, above all,
for his inculcation of respect for and tolerance toward customs other
than our own.
Captain Jeff I>. Gallman, whose work among the Ifugaos stands to
the credit of our govemmenl of the Philippines second to that of no
other man in the archipelago, assisted me in many ways. He is a man
leaned in the " lore of men,"
•• Who ha ' deall with men
I ii tic new and naked lands. "
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 7
\)\\ David P. Barrows, now Major Barrows, also rendered me
indispensable aid and encouragement. Dr. A. L. Kroeber of the chair
of anthropology, University of California, and his associates, Dr. T. T.
Waterman and Mr. E. \Y. Gifford, have read the manuscript ami proofs
and have ma.lc valuable suggestions which are incorporated in the
paper as tinally published. These gentlemen have been unstintedly
generous in welcoming a newcomer in the field in which they are so
preeminent.
Dr. George W. Simonton has kindly assisted in preparing the
manuscript Eor the printer.
The photographs, with one exception, were taken by myself.
San Pbancisco, California, January 14, 1918.
8 Univeri '..■ of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
INTRODUCTION
THE IFUGAOS
Philippine ethnologists generally agree to the hypothesis that the/
Negritos, a race of little blacks, remnants of which now inhabit
mountain regions of many of the larger islands, were the original
inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago. They advance the hy-
pothesis that these little blacks were driven by Malay immigrants
from their former homes in the fertile plains to the mountains: and
that these first .Malay invaders were driven from the lowlands into
the mountain regions by succeeding immigrations of Malays superior
to them in organization and weapons.1 By and by, no one cares to
hazard how long afterward, the Spaniards came. They christianized
the lowlanders, except the Mohammedan populations of Mindanao and
Sulu. P.nt at the time of the American occupation the mountaineer
descendants of the first immigration, for the most part, had not re-
ceived the spiritual ministrations of Her Most Catholic Majesty's
missionaries, on account of the inaccessible character of their habitat.
True, garrisons and missions had been established in a few localities
among them; but owing to the scattered character of the population^
the independent spirit of the people, their natural conservatism, and
the lack of tad and consideration on the part of the Spanish officials
and missionaries, practically no progress had been made in christian-
izing or civilizing them.
The great majority of the non-Mohammedan. non-Christian Malays
inhabit the island of Luzon. The Luzon non-Christian tribes and
their estimated numbers are: Apayaos, 16,000; Benguet Igorots,
25,000; Bontoc [gorots, .",0,000; Wild Gaddanes, 4000; Ifugaos,
120,000; Elongots, 6000; Kalingas, 60,000; Tingianes, 30.000; Lepanto
Igorots, :',:,,()()(); total, nearly a quarter million. All these tribes in-
habit the mountain ranges of the northern third of the island.
The habitat of the [fugaos is situated in about the center of the
area inhabited by the non-Christian tribes. In point of travel-time,
" The present population of + 1 . * ■ Philippine [elands is about 10,000,000. Not-
withstanding, there are vast stretches of unoccupied Lowlands. At the coming
of the Spaniards the population of the tribes that now are christian has been
estimated at 500,000, These second Malay Immigrants undoubtedly gained the
principal part of their livelihood from agriculture, for which they aeeded little
land. Why, then, is it hypothesized that any immigration drovt another to the
mountains 1 My own belief is thai the first immigrants went to the mountains
Of their own volition for the reason that they ha. I been a mountain people ami
a terrace building people in their former h e.
L919 1 Barton : Ifugao Law . '.)
as we say in the Philippines, for one equipped with the usual amount
of baggage, [fugao-land is aboul as far from Manila as New York
from Constantinople. To the northeasl are the Wild Gaddan, to the
north tlic Bontoc [gorot, to the oorthwest, west, and southwesl the
Lepanto and Benguel [gorots; to the east, across the wide uninhabited
river basin of the Cagayan, are the Elongots. This geographic isolation
has tended to keep the [fugao culture relatively pure and uninfluenced
by eontad with the outside world. Two or three military posts were
fitfully maintained in Ifugao by the Spaniards during the Las1 half
century of their sovereignity; but the lives of the natives were little
affected thereby.
Ifugao men weai' clouts and Ifugao women loin cloths, or short
skii-ts, reaching from the waist to the knees. Wherever they go the
men cany spears. Both sexes ornament their persons with gold orna-
ments, beads, agates, mother of pearl, brass ornaments, and so forth.
[fugao houses, while small, are substantially built, of excellent
materials, and endure through many generations.
/ It may safely be said that the Ifugaos have constructed the most
extensive and the most admirable terraces for rice culture to be found
anywhere in the world. The Japanese terraces, which excite the
admiration of tens of thousands of tourists every year, are not to be
compared with them. On these steep mountains that rise from sea-
level to heights of six to eight thousand feet — mountains as steep
probably as any in the world — there have been carved out. with
wooden spades and wooden crowbars, terraces that run like the crude
but picturesque "stairsteps" of a race of giants, from the bases almost
to the summits. Some of these terrace walls are fifty feet high. More
than half are walled with stone. Water to flood these terraces is re-
tained by a little rim of earth at the outer margin. The soil is turned
in preparation for planting with a wooden spade. No mountain is too
steep to be terraced, if it affords an unfailing supply of water for irri-
gation. The I t'nirao, too, makes clearings on his mountains in which
he plants sweet potatoes, and numerous less important vegetables.
Without his knowing it, he bases his agriculture on scientific principles
(to an extenl thai astounds the while man | and he tends his crops so
skillfully and artistically that he probably has no peer as a mountain
husbandman.
Of political organization the Ifugao has nothing — not even a sug-
gestion. Notwithstanding, he has a well-developed system of laws.
This absolute lack of political government has broughl it about that
$
10 ersity of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
the It'ugao is a consummate diplomat. After an eight years' residence
among them, I am convin 1 that the Ifngaos got along very well in
the days before a foreign government was established among them.
Through countless generations the Ifugao who has survived and pros-
pered has hern ih te who has carried his point, indeed, but has
carried it without involving himself in serious trouble with his fellows.
The Ifugao's religion is a mixture of an exceedingly complex
polytheism, ancestor worship, and a mythology that is used as an
instrument of magic. His religion seems to be far more highly de-
veloped than that of the other non-Christian tribes.
Attempts made by Spain to colonize the Ifugao in the lowlands
invariably met with failure. The Ifugao is a hillman, and loves his
hills. He is of an independent nature and cannot stand confinement.
A great many prisoners jailed by American officials have courted
death rather than endure incarceration.
While there are well defined tribal divisions that mark off the
various mountain-Malay populations of northern Luzon, the cultures
of all of the tribes are basically similar. Numerous parallelisms, too,
are found with the lowland Filipinos, even now, in features of daily
life, religion, taboo, law, and marital relation. The dialects of all
the tribes inhabiting the islands are branches of the great family of
Malay languages — languages spoken over more than half the circum-
ference of the globe. The linguistic differences that exist between
the mountain and the lowland tribes seem to be not much greater than
the linguistic differences between the various mountain tribes them-
selves.
any things lead us to believe that the culture of the Ifugaos is
very old. We have to do with a people who possess both as individuals
and collectively a most remarkable memory. Ifugao rich men lend
to considerable numbers of clients and others every year during the
"hungry time" — to these, varying numbers of bundles of rice, to this
one ;i skein of yarn, to that one a pig, and to another again a chicken.
All these bargains and their amounts and their varying terms, our
wealthy Ifugao remembers, unaided by any system of writing or other
artificial means. Many Ifugaos know their ancestors back to the
tenth or even the t'onrt rent h generation, and, in addition, the brothers
and sisters of these ancestors. If Ave consider the racial or tribal
memory of these people] we tind a mythology fully as voluminous as
that of the (i recks, lint the Ifugaos have no recollections of having
ever migrated. Unless they have lived for many centuries in their
L919] Barton : Tfugao Law 1 1
present habitat, it seems certain that they would have retained at
least in mythical form the memory of their migration.
Another consideration thai is significant lies in a comparison of
the rate of rice-field building in these peaceful times, when such work
is not hindered hut instead vigorously stimulated by the government,
with the amount of such work accomplished by past generations. One
who stands on some jutting spur of the mountain-side in Asin. Sapao,
or Benaue can scarcely help being impressed with the feeling that he
is looking upon a work of tens of centuries. Any calculation must
be based on vague and hazardous figures of course, but, without having
any theories to prove, and making due allowance for increased rate
of building during peaceful times and for the pressure of the needs of
increased population, from a comparison of the estimated area of
voluntary rice-field building with the areas already constructed, I
come to the conclusion that the Ifugaos must have lived in their present
habitat for at least two thousand years, and I believe that these figures
are too small.
SOURCES OF IFUGAO LAW AND ITS PRESENT STATUS OF
DEVELOPMENT
The Tfngflos have tip form of writings there is. consequently, no
written law- They have no form of political government: there is,
therefore., no constitutional or statutory law. Inasmuch as they have
no courts or judges, there is no law basecfon judicial decisions.
Ifugao law has two sources of origin : taboo ("which is essentially
religious) and custom. The customary law is the more important from'
the greater frequency of its application.
1. Relation of taboo to law. — The Ifugao word for taboo is pamyu.
The root, which appears under the varying forms iyu, iho, iyao, and
ihuo, means in general "evil" or "bad." The prefix pan denotes
instrumentality or manner. The word paniyu means both by deri-
vation and in use, "bad way of doing," or "evil way." By far the
greater Dumber of taboos have their origin in magic. A very large
number of them concern the individual, or those closely related to
him by blood ties, and for this reason have no place in a discussion
of law. Thus a pregnant woman may not wear a string of heads,
since the beads form a closed circle and so have a magic tendency to
close her body and cause difficult childbirth. This, however, is not
a matter that concerns anybody else, and so could be of no interest
12 University of California Publications m Am. Arch, and Etlin. [Vol.15
at law. It is taboo for brothers to defecate near each other, but only
they arc harmed thereby, and the matter is consequently not of legal
interest.
The breaking of a taboo that concerns the person or possessions
of an individual of another family is a crime. The following instances
will illustrated '
Jn nearly all districts2 of Ifugao it is taboo for persons of other districts? to
pass through a rice field when it is being harvested. It is also taboo for for-
eigners to enter a village when that village is observing its ceremonial idleness,
tungul, at the close of harvest time. One who broke this taboo would be subject
to fine. In case it were believed that the fine could not be collected, he would
be in danger of the lance.
It is taboo to blackguard, to use certain language, and to do certain things
in the presence of one's own kin of the opposite sex that are of the degrees of
kinship within which marriage is forbidden or in the presence of another and
such kindred of his, or to make any except the most delicately concealed
references to matters connected with sex, sexual intercourse, and reproduction.
Even these delicately concealed references are permissible only in cases of real
necessity. The breaking of this taboo is a serious offense. One who broke the
taboo in the presence of his own female kin would not be punished except
in so far as the contempt of his fellows is a punishment. In Kiangan, before
the establishment of" foreign ^uveTrTmenT, breaking the taboo in the presence of
another and his female kin of the forbidden degrees is said to have been some-
times punished by the lance (see sec. 123).
It is taboo for one who knows of a man's death to ask a relative of the dead
man if the man is dead. The breaking of this taboo is punishable by fine.
If asked, Ifugaos say that it is taboo to stgal; to burn or destroy
the property of another; to insult, or rum the pood name of another ;
to causiLthe deafh or injury of another by sorcery or witchcraft ; in
short, to commit any of those acts which among most peoples constitute
a crimc_.
The word taboo as understood among ourselves, and as most often
used among the Ifugaos, denotes a thing rather atfnt rttril >/ forbidden.
It seems likely that moral laws — from which most criminal laws a re
an outgrowth — originate thus: the social conscience, learning that some
act ia antisocial, prohibits it (often in conjunction with religion) or
some feature of it, or some '< mbUnirr of it, arbitrarily, harshly, and
sometimes unreasonably. Thus the first taboo set forth above lias the
semblance of being aimed against interruption in the business or
serious occupation of another, or against bis worship. The mere
passing near a rice held when it is being harvested or the mere
entrance into a village during the period of ceremonial idleness are
- I use the word "district" to denote tlie inhabitants of one of the many
smaller culture sections into which the habital of the [fugaos is divided.
L919] Barton : Ifugao Law 13
arbitrarily seized upon as acts constituting such interruptions. The
second taboo arose from the purpose of the social consciousness i<>
prevenl marriage or sexual intercourse between near kin.8 It is mosl
sweeping and unreasonable in its prohibitions. A third person may
make no remark in the presence of kin of the opposite Sex as to the
fit of the girl's clothing; as to her beauty; nor may he refer to her
lover, nor play the Lover's harp. Many ordinary things must be
called by other than their Ordinary names. Even the aged priests
who officiate at a birth feast must refer in their prayers to the foetus
about to be born as "the friend*' and to the placenta as "his blanket."
A great number of things are forbidden in the presence of kindred of
opposite sex that would not shock even the most prudish of our own
people. The third taboo seems to be aimed against the bandying or
the taking in vain of the name of the dead.
It would seem that a primitive society, once it has decided a thing
to be wrong, swings like a pendulum to the very opposite extreme,
adds taboo upon taboo, and hedges with taboo most illogically. With
the ardor of the neophyte, it goes to the other limit, becoming squeam-
ish in the extreme of all that can in the remotest conception be con-
nected with the forbidden thing.4
Ultimately reason and logic tend to triumph and eliminate the
illogical, imperth* nt and immaterial taboos, remove the prohibitions
contained in the useful taboos from their pedestal of magic, and set
t hem upon a firmer base of intelligence, or at least practical empiricism.
A small part of Ifugao law consists even yet of taboos that a 1 ■ e
arbitrary and, except in essence, unreasonable. But the greater^ p art
has advanced far beyond this stage and is on a firm and reasonable
basis of justice. . "Much of it originated frflmlabqo — even yet the taboos
are remembered and frequently applied to acts that constitute crimes
among ourselves — but the immaterial and arbitrary taboos have been
eliminated. Although the Ifugaos say that adultery and theft and
arson an- tabooed, nevertheless their attitude of mind is not the same
as that toward things that are »xr<l>j tabooed. ItMs the attitude qf
3 The possibility that these sex taboos are survivals of a former dan system
in which exogamy was the rule does Qot in the least invalidate this statement.
1 Taboo is for the most part undoubtedly derived from magic, [ndeed, there
are not wanting those who hold that all taboo has its origin in magi''. While
doubting it' so sweeping an assertion as this can be true, especially when we
consider that even in its most primitive phases human life is exc lingly com-
plex and intricate, 1 invite attention to the fact thai magic is Buch an all-
embracing thing in primitive society, and is bo closely connected with matters
of morality ami public policy, that there is nothing in this paragraph that can
offend even those who hold that the field of taboo is one wholly of magic
prohibitions.
14 l ' rsity of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
tin- human mind toward things that are prohibited by law and by
conscience. '
2. S±-t,p< of customary law. — Thp customary law embraces that _
which pertains to property, inheritance, water rights, and to a great
extent, family law""an<l procedure. There is a certain amount of
variation in customs and taboos throughout Ifugao land. This ac-
counts to a certain extent, perhaps, for the reserved behavior of visitors
to a district distant from their own. Visitors are afraid of unwit-
tingly breaking some taboo. In general, however, it niay be said that
laws are very nearly uniform throughout the Ifugao country.
3. Connection of law and religion. -^Religion and law appear con-
jointly in (a) transferals of family property; (o) ordeals; (c) certain
taboos; (d) payments of the larger fines; (e) peace-making. The
Ifugaos state that a large part of their customary law and procedure
was given them by Lidum, their great teacher, a deity of the ISkyworld,
and an uncle of their hero-ancestor, Balitok.
4. General principles of tin Ifugao legal system. — Its personal
character. Society does not punish injuries to itself except as the
censure of public opinion is a punishment. This follows naturally
from the fact that there is no organized society. It is only when an
injury committed by a person or family falls on another person or
family that the injury is punished formally.
Collective responsibility. Not only the individual who commits an
act but his kin, in proportion to the nearness of their kinship, are
responsible for the act. Their responsibility is slightly less than his.
This applies not only to crimes but to debts and civil injuries.
Collective procedure. Leggi procedure is by and between families ;
therefore a family should he "strong- to demand imd i'i ■ ^ *n '''""t
demands." A member of an Ifugao family assists in the punish mc n t
of offenders against any other member of his family, and resists the
punish ment of members of his family b;/ other families. A number
of circumstances affed the ardor with which he enters into procedures
in which a relal Lve is concerned and the extent to which he will go into
them. Among these are: (a) the nearness or remoteness of his rela-
tionship to the relative concerned in the action; (b) relationship to
the other principal in the action; (c) the loyalty to the family group
of the relative principally concerned in the procedure and the extent
to which this relative discharges his duty to it; (d) evidence in the
case bearing on the correctness of the relative's position in the
coni roversy.
i!»i;>] Barton : Ifugao Law L5
.1 corollary of tin abovt principle. Since Legal procedure is be-
tween families, and never between individuals, • between a family
and an individual, crnnosjrMn-other or sister against brother j)r sister
go unpunished. The family of the two individuals is identical. A
family cannot proceed agaiitst^JtscJl. But in the ease of incest be-
tween a father and a daughter the father mighl he punished by the
girl's mother's family on the ground that he had committed a crime
against a member of that family. It is true that just as great an
injury would have been committed against the family of the father,
since the relationship of the daughter to that family is the same as to
her mother's family. But the father, the perpetrator of the crime,
being a nearer relative of his own family than his daughter, his family
certainly would not take active steps against him. Were the crime
a less disgraceful one, the father's kin would probably contest his
penalty.
The family jniitji must at all hazards be preserved. Clemency is
shown the remoter kin in order to secure their loyalty to the family
group. A large unified family group is in the ideal position of being
"strong to demand and strong to resist demands." The family is
the only thing of the nature of an organization that the Ifugao has,
and he cherishes it accordingly.
Collectivi recipiency of punishment. Just as the family group is
collectively responsible for the delinquencies of its members, but in
less degree than the delinquent himself, so may 'punishment be meted
out to individuals of the group other than the actual culprit, although
naturally it is preferred to punish the actual culprit; and so may
del its or indemnities be collected from them. But only those indi-
viduals that are of the nearest degree of kinship may be held respon-
sible; cousins may not legally be punished if there be brothers or
sisters.
Ifugao law isvej2[_££^£^^JJi--^s ckam£tcj\ For the different
classes of society there are in the Mampolia-Kababuyan area rive grades
of fines in punishment of a given crime, four in the Hapao-Hunduan
area, and three in the Kiangan area.
Might is right to a very great extent in the administration of
j u st ice. For a given crime, one family, on account of superior war
footing, or superior diplomacy, or on account of being better bluffers,
will he able to exact much more severe penalties than another. Espe-
cially is Ifugao administration of justice likely to be unfair when
persons of different classes are parties to a controversy. I doubt \^\-y
16 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
much, however, whether this characteristic of Ifugao administration
of justice be more pronounced than it is in our own.
5. Stage of development of Ifugao la u\— Reasons have already been
given for believing the Ifugao's culture to be very old. His legal
System must also be old. Yet it is in the first stage of the development
of law. It is, however, an example of a very well developed first-stage
legal system.' It ranks fairly with Hebrew law, or even with the
Mohammedan law of a century ago. R. R. Cherry in his lectures on
the Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities demonstrates
these stages of legal development: First, a stage of simple retali-
ation—"an "ye f"i- «n 'T° » tnnth for R tooth' a life for a li^e-
Second, a stage in wbHi ypnypan^P may ho. bought off "either by the
individual who has inflicted the injury or by his tribe/' Third, a
stage in which the tribe or its chiefs or elders intervene to fix penalty-
payments and to pronounce sentence of outlawry on those who refuse
to pay proper fines. Fourth, a stage in which offenses come to be
clearly recognized as crimes against the peace and welfare of the king
or the state-
No Ifugao would dream of taking a payment for the deliberate
or intentional murder of a kinsman. Hewould be universally con-
demned if he did. so. However, he would usually accept a payment
for an accidental taking of life. There is still, however, an element
of doubt as to whether even in such a case payment would be accepted.
For nearly all other offenses payments are accepted in exrenuailon.
Ifugao law, then, may be said to be in the latter part of the first stage
of li'gal di'vplnpinpnt.
1919 1 Hiuti'ii : Ifugao Lata
THE FAMILY LAW
M A B KM AGE
6. Polygamy. — The extent to which personality affects what an
[fugao may or may not do without being considered an offender is.
illustrated in the matter of polygamy. Any Ifugao, except one of
the most powerful, who might, try to take _a plural wife would only
bring upon himself heavy punishment^ — punishment that would-be
administered by the kin of the first wife. But men who are very
wealthy and who are also gifted with a considerable amount of force
of character sometimes take a second or even a third wife, and compel
the kin of the first wife to recognize her and Her cinidren. In other
words, they make polygamy legal for themselves. The first wife is
of higher class than succeeding wives. Her children have inheritance
rights to all the property their father had at the time of the taking of
the plural wife. The following is a typical instance of the taking of
a plural wife:
Guade of Maggok, an extremely wealthy man, after marrying and having a
number of children by his first wife, began habitually to have illicit intercourse
with another woman. The kin of the first wife demanded a heavy indemnity.
Such was their bungoi (ferocity) that they succeeded in making Guade think
that he was in imminent peril of losing his life, and in collecting double the
amount usual in such cases. But having paid the fine, Guade rallied to his
support all his kin and kept up the relations with the woman, taking her as a
second wife. Nor did the kin of the first wife attempt to prohibit this, well
knowing that they had gone far enough. The second wife is recognized, and
her children are recognized, as legitimate. Guade informed me recently that
he was thinking seriously of taking a third. Guade is admired and envied by
every one in the community apparently; whereas a man of less force would be
condemned by public opinion.
When a_plui-al wife is_t«kPn a hpavv payment must hp made thft.
first wife and her kin. This may amount to about 500 pesos.
7. Xa-tun of marriage— Marriage amonfr the, Tfno-aos is a civil
contract of undefined jhpn+inn j| m«y last a month, a year, a decade.
or until__the death of one of the parties to it. It has no rsscntig],
condition with the tribal religion. True, at almost every step in its
consummation the family ancestral spirits and the other deities are
besought to bless the union in a material way in the matter of children
and wealth and by .giving the two parties long life. But this is a
matter of self interest, and not of hallowing or consecrating the union.
Should the omens be bad, the two people do no1 marry because they
18 University of California Publications to Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
are afraid that in the shape of sickness or death or childlessness, ill
fortune may overtake them if they do so. And even_after the mar-
rh^jinqj^en fw"y- "otisi"""™*"1 should it. happen Ihat-aLany one
of three certainfeasts performed bv the parents of the_couple during
"thTyearfareonnect ion with their ricecrop. the omen_of_the_bile sac40
ahQuld^promjsejll the marriage is dissolved^ No promises are made
hv the r-qntrirt — rr p«"-^"" +» »™^ ^Vi..r nr to anybody else. Nor do
t he contracting parties take any part in any religious ceremonials
or in any marriage ceremonials of any kind. Marriage may be termi-
nntl'il Ti+ ""T timr hj +-"1 "r"°"""1n, T*ut that marriage is con-
sidered a contract is shown bv the fact that if either party terminates
the marriage against the will of the other the injured party has the
right to assess and collect damages.
TIip theory that marriage should be permanent in order to provide
tha better for the training and rearing of children has no legal em-
bodiment." It is, however, established by custom that in case of
divorce a property settlement according to the wealth of the family
must be made on the children.
8. Eligibility to niarriagc.—AAiy_^evson_of_ar\y a,ge may marry.
Tbp consent of the parents is not necessary. But there is_^fcaboo
onjhe marriage_oJ_cojisjnajathin the third dfigra?. This taboo may
be rendered inoperative, except in the case of full cousins, by an
exchange of animals ranging from two pigs in the case of the nearer
relationships to one small pig or a chicken in the case of the remoter.
The girl's kin in all cases receive the more valuable animals in this
exchange. But the marriage of first cousins is absolutely tabooed and
never occurs. It is said thai children are sometimes coerced into
marriage against their will; but I have heard of only one case in
which physical force was used, and even in this case the attempt ended
in failure.
<). Tin two w(nis_Jji which marriaa_r_m(itj be brought about —
TJinse children that will inherit a great (leal of property are married
w When the [fugao sacrifices a chicken or pig, he always consults the omen
of the bile sac. A Cull diBtended bile sac normally placed is a good omen. An
emptj one, or one abnormally placed is a bad omen. Needless to say, most
omens are good.
s There is a feeling on the pari of the social consciousness that marriages
oughl to be permanenl thai it is Letter when such is the case, [nasmuch,
however, as all the uncles and aunts consider themselves, ami, in the scheme of
the reckoning of [fugao relationships are considered, in loco parentis with respect
to their nephews and nieces, and almost equally hound with the parents them-
selves to imparl instruction and give training, the removal of one parent is of
little detriment to the mental and moral phase of the rearing of children.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Lou- L9
usually, but by no means always, by a contract9 marriage ; those who
will inherit no property, or but a small amount, and those who, mar-
ried by the preceding method, have lost their spouses, or who on
reaching a maturer age, do not find themselves compatible with their
spouses, and consequently remarry, are married by a trial marriage.
However, it should be said that even a contract marriage is a trial
marriage to a great degree. In fact, one inclined to be prudent in
his speech would never pronounce an Ifugao marriage a permanent
our until the death of one of the parties to it.
The trial marriage is merely a primitive sexual mating in the
dormitories of the unmarried. It might be called a courtship, it being
understood that, except in its very incipiency, Ifugao courtship postu-
lates an accompaniment of sexual intercourse. It is very reprehen-
sible, but not punishable, for a girl to enter into two such unions
contemporaneously. The moral code is hardly so strict with respect
to the male.
In case the two individuals are satisfied with each other, that is,
in case they find themselves compatible, and nearly .always in ease
thpjnj-1 becomes pregnant and the youth has no reason for misgivings
flsjo tbP parentage of the child, the youth, after consultation with.
his-pageBts--£ends a distant relative or friend, ivho is not related to
thec[irl, with betels for a ceremonial conferencejn which the handjvf_
the .girl is asked in marriage. Generally it requires two or more trial
marriages to select for a person his more permanent mate.
10. Contract marriage. — The contract marriage is usually arranged
for, and its first ceremonies at least performed while the fhiHv™ a™
quite small. Its purpose is to guard against the commission of such
a follv on the,parl_"f tlu> r-hiltL^dia will he-werrlihy- as-4aamage_to_a
less wealthy spouse The danger is that such a child, sleeping in the
common dormitory, will give way to the ardor of youth and tempor-
arily mate with one below him in station, and that the union so begun
prove permanent.
As a rule the couple majxied by a contract marriage while yet,
children are elevated by the uiiauwe fr»RRt tr> t]lp ^atoprorv of tlm
liadanquanff ("upper class). The uyauwi feast is not an essential part
of the marriage ceremonials, but is an addition to them.
The following is the history of a typical marriage of this kind :
« I prefer using the term contract marriage to using antenuptial agreement.
The hitter is an occidental institution of which the reader has a definite notion.
The contract marriage is different in motive and nature.
20 / veraity of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
Dulinayan of Ambabag, when his son was about two years old, sent a go-
between to Likyayu, also of Ambabag, whose daughter was somewhat younger
than Dulinayan 'a Bon, with betels for a ceremonial conference looking toward
a marriage hetween the two children. Ee Btated that he would contract to give
his son his fields at Takadang, and wished to know what holds Likyayu would
give his daughter. The go-between returned, stating that Likyayu 's people
did not consider Dulinayan 's fields at Takadang seriously, and asked that he
assign the boy his fields at Banggo and Dayukong in order that they might
consider the union of their daughter with his son. The go-between stated that
Likyayu was considering bestowing on his daughter his field at Takadang.
Dulinayan returned the go-between to state that he did not take as being
very serious Likyayu 's statement that he intended to give Lis daughter only
the field at Takadang. He made the proposal that Likyayu add to the field at
Takadang the one at Danok, and stated that if Likyayu would do so he would
give Ins son the fields at Banggo and Dayukong, as Likyayu suggested. Likyayu
accepted this proposal.
After two or three more conferences, it was agreed that Dulinayan was to
assign his son the following movable- family property: 1 rice-wine jar, 1 gansa,
1 gold ornament. Likyayu was to assign his daughter 1 rice-wine jar, 1 gold
ornament, and 1 pango (string of ancient beads). Besides the above, Likyayu
would give, at the proper time, a house for the young couple. Each of the two
men would present his child a granary.
The above agreement made, Dulinayan sent a pig called tokop di mommon
and a pig called imbango. These pigs were sacrificed by Likyayu and his kin.
The omens of the bile sacs promised well. Likyayu returned 1 natawvinan
(4 spears), as the mangdad of the inibango.
About three years elapsed before anything further was done toward the
completion of the marriage. During this period Dulinayan on behalf of
his son furnished Likyayu 's household with what firewood was needed and kept
his granaries in repair. Whenever his son's betrothed fell ill, or whenever her
parents or grandparents fell ill, Dulinayan furnished a pig for sacrifice. And
whenever Dulinayan 's son or his son's parents or grandparents fell ill Likyayu
furnished a pig. Likewise when one of the direct ascendants of either of the
young couple died the other family furnished a pig for the funeral and a death
blanket as one of the burial robes.
h, the vear 1 ill 2— that is, three years after the contract was made — Dulinayan
8eni a man to propose an innunn. Larh family performed a granary feast to
determine whether the time was propitious. The omens being good, each family
ll(>tili,.,| the other of the fact. Dulinayan then sent a large pig as the hingot.
Likyayu \s people returned a small pig as hulul d, hingot. Then Dulinayan fur-
nished a large pig for the bahiin. and the two families met for the first time
during the period of the negotiations and sacrificed and prayed together.
A. shorl tune afterward the children were made kadang gang by the giving
,,,- ai, uyauwe feast. At this feast Dulinayan gave hakba (marriage presents)
to Likyayu and his kin.
n a contract : marriage there js^ahmys mi fiftsipmnn'iit, to the
children of the property that they__\yill inherit. The .amount pj
properly settled npon_either of them is ecmaLflr. very nearly equal tn.
that settled nn the other. . Nor may the parent of one of the children
sell any of this properly except for the purpose of providing animals
L919] Barton: Ifugao Law 21
for sacrifice in case of the illness or death of the child <>r one <>f his
direcl ascendants, or in case of the illness or death of the child's
betrothed, or one of his direcl ascendants (see see. 13).
11. Marriagi ceremonials. — The following are the steps taken to
consummate a typical marriage in the Kiangan-Maggok area:
I a The hoy's kin scii'l 1hp fT'1'1 ^ kl" M P'ff — This rti^ is saeHfieed
by the ^irl 's kin. The omen_of tho hil» sue is ^m^ultpd — The pig is
-ii;iti'ii. This feast is called mommon.
(b) ^he_JTOvJsJdn_ send another pig to the girl's kin. The girl's
kiii_sacrifice this pig. The omen of the bile sac, is consulted. This
feast is called imbango.
A non-essential part of the ceremonials, but an important matter
in some contingencies, is the return by the girl's kin of a gift to the
boy's kin in exchange of the pig sent for this feast. This return
gifl is called man (/dad. Its effect is to nullify any right on the part
of the boy's kin to demand a repayment of the pig sent for this cere-
mony in ease the marriage should for any reason whatever fail to be
effected. Even though the failure to complete or effect the marriage
be the girl's fault, if the mangdad has been sent, the boy's kin have
no right to ask a return of the imbango. The return gift is of much
less value than that made by the boy's parents.
(c) The boy 's kin send the girl 's kin a pig, which pig is sacrificed
bv_the girl's kin. The omen of the bile sacJs nonsuited. This feast
is called hingot.
A non-essential part of the ceremonials, but one important in the
same way as in the preceding ceremony, is the return by the girl's
kin of a small pig, called the hulul di hingot (exchange of the hingot).
(d) 3^ieJdiL_of both the contracting principals meet at the girl's
house and sacrifice a lm-go pig furnished bv the bov's kin This feast
is called bubun, and has for its especial purpose to obtain from the
gods of animal fertility long life, health, and many children for the
young couple. It_ is attended by a giving of gifts _bv the kin of the
boy to the kin of the girl, except that in the case of a contract marriage
between Jcadangyang (the upper class) the giving of these gifts is
often deferred till the uyauwe ceremony, which, while not part of the
marriage ceremonials, often follows immediately after them.
The programme of marriage ceremonials among the northern
[fugao is somewhat different.
(a) Same as («) above. This ceremonial is omitted except in
marriages between the wealthy.
University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
(b) The boy's kin sacrifice a pig at his home, sending half of it,
if the omen of the bile sac promises well, to the kin of the girl in a
back basket, called bango, whence originates the term imbango, mean-
ing "carried in a ban go."
(c) The boy's kin take a pig to the girl's home. The girl's kin
furnish another and smaller pig. Both families participate in a
religious feast. This feast is called tanig, and seems to include both
the buhim and the hingot of the Kiangan people.
(d) Ceremonial idleness for the boy and the girl is required during
;i period <>r five days. On the third day the couple go to one of their
fields, it being taboo for either of them to stumble on the way. The
trip is in one respect somewhat like the time-honored cutting of the
cakes in one of our own marriage feasts to secure a prognostication
as to which of the two spouses will die first. Stumbling on the part
of one of the couple, however, would indicate that that one would die
not only first but soon, and would probably lead to a refusal on his
or her pari to go ahead with the marriage.7 Arrived at the field, the
gi rl weeds a part of it, and the boy gathers some wood from a near-by
forest. Then they go home, the boy carrying the bundle of wood.
In case a bad omen of the bile sac is encountered in any of these
ceremonies, the marriage is not proceeded with, since the belief is that
misfortune would surely attend it.
In the case of the poor, some of the above ceremonies may be
omitted; or chickens or smaller pigs may be substituted for any or
all the pigs. The above programme is simply that which is to be
followed out if the groom be financially able to do the "right thine."
In case the spouses are related, two pigs — a male and a female —
are sacrificed, and the ceremony called ponga is performed. The
larger pig is furnished by the hoy. The nearer the kinship the larger
the pigs necessary for this ceremony.
At n<> lime are any \<>ws or promises made by the principals.
At mi time, except in the fourth ceremony among the Northern Ifugao,
do the principals have any active part in the ceremonies. Indeed,
they may not eat the meat of the pigs or chickens killed at their own
wedding, for it is taboo to them.
12. <iifts toJJicJdn of jhvjiddii: hakba. — In .the Kiiwgttn area,
hut in no other, expensive gifts are made to the kin of the bride.
i Stumbling is not merely :i prognostication; it is also a cause. It would
i. mi in bring about thai lie who stumbled would die or be unfortunate if he went
ahead wit b t lie marriage.
1919 J Barton : Ifugao Law 23
These gifts are called hakba. Only in the case of the very pooresl
are gifts foregone. The gifts arc distributed to the girl's kin, the
oearer kin receiving the more valuable and the remote kin the Less
valuable articles. Bu1 the elder of a line of cousins by a single uncle,
for example, receives a more valuable present, the next in age ;i less
valuable one, the next in age a still less valuable one, and so on, the
youngesl getting nothing if be have many brothers and sisters. No
distinction is made between male and female kin. The gifts may
range from two death blankets, worth 16 pesos, to a spearhead worth
0.20 peso.
Kxcept in the ease of the poverty-stricken, there is nothing for it
but to pay these presents. If they be not forthcoming, the kin of
the woman seize the pig provided for the bubun ceremony, carry it
home and guard it well till such time as the groom comes forward
with the hakba gifts, when they return it for the ceremonial.
The following is a list of the hakba given by Dulinayan of Ambabag
to Likyayu *s family of the same village on the occasion of the marriage
of the son of the former to the daughter of the latter.
22 clouts at PI 1*12
10 woman's skirts at f*2 20
42 death blankets at 1*8 336
10 woman's girdles at =r*2 20
10 war knives at 1*1 10
:: iron pots at 1*5 15
1 bayao (blanket) at 1*5 5
1 rice-wine jar at 1*8 8
2 gansas at 1*8 16
620 "irons" (spears, knives, axes, etc., at an
average value of 1*.50 each) 310
Total 1*752
Dulinayan stated at the time these notes were taken that there
were a number of things omitted from the above list that he had
forgotten : thai be counted up the amount of all the hakba immediately
after the feast, and that it totaled over 800 pesos.
A groom whose property placed him in the upper rank of the
middle class would spend about 128 pesos as follows on hakba:
B death blankets at 1*8 P64
128 "irons" at P.50 64
Total P128
24 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
A member of the lower middle class would spend about 92 pesos,
and a member of tin- poorer class would spend about 36 pesos.
13. Obligations incurred by tliose who <nl<r into a marriagt c<>n-
tract. — First. The initial ceremony, the mommon, puts upon the
principals in a marriage contract the obligation to abstain from sexual
relations with any other persons. Sexual intercourse with any other
pci son constitutes the crime of adultery. The degree of guilt for
lapses in this respect depends on the progress that has been made
toward the completion of the marriage, the culpability growing pro-
gressively with the performance of each succeeding marriage cere-
monial.
Second. The obligation rests on the boy and his kin to furnish
the immediate family of the girl with firewood from the time at which
the first ceremony is performed until the young couple separate to
live in a house by themselves.
Third. For the same period of time as that embraced in the pre-
ceding paragraph, the obligation rests on the boy and his kin to keep
the granaries of the family of the girl in repair, and to reroof them
whenever needful.
Fourth. Each family helps the other in all that pertains to rice
culture throughout the first year following the bubun ceremony. Each
family furnishes the other with the pig necessary for the sacrifice at
each of the three important rice-culture feasts: the kulpe (growth
feast), the kolating (harvest feast), and the tuldag (granary feast).
Fifth. From the time at which the first ceremony is performed
until the dissolution of the marriage, it is the duty of either spouse
to furnish a pig to the other in the event of the sickness of the other
or of any of his or her lineal ascendants.
Sixth. For the same period as that embraced in the preceding
paragraph h is the duty of either spouse to furnish the other in the
event of the death of any of the lineal ascendants of the other, a pig
and a death blanket.
If the spouses he too young to attend to any of their respective
obligations to each other or to the families concerned, it is the duty
of their parents to attend to the discharge of the obligations.
The non-fulfilment or the Qon-discharge of any of the above obli-
gations is sufficient cause for a demand for a divorce on the pari of
the injured spouse. The [fugao does not Consider it to he the duty
of any person to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife
1919] Barton : Ifugao Law 25
or husband. Rather docs he consider the opposite to be the duty.
A good many marriages are undone between children because of the
Qon-fulfilmen1 of one of these obligations on the part of one of the
families involved, h matters not thai the spouse be so young as to
be of necessity innocent.
The husband has a righl to have sexual intercourse with his wife.
If she does not accede to his desires, he has the right to force her
if h, can, but he must not strike or injure her in his attempt. If lie
cannol force her, he may demand a divorce. Ordinarily no man can
have sexual intercourse with an Ifugao woman possessed of her reason
and of normal strength, against that woman's will.
Bugan of Baay, a very pretty girl, was married by her parents against her
will to Pingkihan of Baay. a very rich but. unfortunately, a darkish and
very ugly man. The marriage proceeded as far as the hingot, when it was
thought wise by Pingkihan and the part of justice by the kin of the girl that
the girl give her body before the proceeding went further. Pingkihan made
many futile attempts to attain this purpose, but all in vain. Finally he de-
spaired. The girl 'a father, however, told him to come to his house one night.
Pingkihan did so. An uncle of the girl caught her, and held her. Pingkihan
tried in vain to have sexual intercourse with her. The girl's resistance made
the thing impossible. The marriage ceremonies were carried no further.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that hush?*!'"! flnrl "Tifp n™
m ver united into one famihi^JThci/ are merehjjilE£&~ The ties that . *
HnTTeach to his own familyare much_stronger than the ties that bind
them together. An Ifugao explained this to me by putting his hands
parallel, the forefingers together. The forefingers represent the two
spouses ; the hands the two families. Should .the two families separate,
should they withdraw from amity and agreement, the two spouses,
the forefingers, of necessity withdraw, because they are attached to
different hands.
Each succeeding feast in the consummation of the marriage carries
with it ,111 added degree of obligation and of alliance; and an added
degree of culpability in cases of failure to comply with the marital
obligations and in cases of crimes against the marriage.
14. 77,. binawit reform.— Oftentimes, when the spouses are ehil-
dren and live in different villages, as soon as 1hey are of sullieient
age to havelsome" feeling for each other— at ten or more years, for
instance— one of them goes to the house of the other. Usually the
two espoused children live for a time at the house of the parents of
the one, and then for a time at the house of the parents of the other.
26 l trsity of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
A child living thus at the house of his parents-in-law is called binawit.
This matter is purely optional with the children, and is a matter of
convenience to them.
The father of the girl has, however, a mean advantage, which he
sometimes, though rarely, uses. If, for example, his son-in-law be a
good worker, he counsels his daughter not to go to the house of her
father-in-law, in order that she may hold her husband in his house to
the end that the family profit by his labor. And even though the
couple may have arrived at the age of separating from their elders
ami living in a house to themselves, the father of the girl refuses to
give her her rice fields, putting the boy off from season to season with
"Wait till next harvest" or "Wait till next spading time." It is
true that the boy has in such conduct on the part of his father-in-law
sufficient cause to justify him in divorcing the girl ; but if he divorces
her, he loses all that he has spent for sacrifices and kakba gifts!
15. Prop* rty rights acquired bij >ntirri<i<fc. — Neither spouse acquires
any interest in the property that the other possesses, at the time of
the marriage. Each has, however, the right to veto the sale or transfer
of the family property8 of the other except where legal and sufficient
reasons exist for such transfer. These legal and sufficient reasons are
the necessity of selling the field: («) to provide the necessary things
for a funeral feast for ascendants or kinfolk ; ( b ) to pay rightful
debts; (c) to pay fines or indemnities; (d) to provide things necessary
for feasts and sacrifices which are considered essential — a very liberal
interpretation being placed upon the word "essential."
Should a man sell a field for a light or trivial cause without the
permission of his wife, the validity of the transfer would not be
effected by the fact of the non-consent of the wife. But the wife
would have recourse for damages from her husband, and might de-
mand: (a) twice the price received for the field as a settlement on
i heir children; (b) a divorce; (c) or both. The right of each spouse
to vet., the sale of the other's property is equal and the same. This
righl is based principally or perhaps wholly on the ground that each
spouse is the guardian of the interest of the children of the union,
horn or unborn.
The spouses have a joint righl in all property acquired after mar-
riage as the result of their joint labors; that is to say. any property
whatever ohtained excepl (a) by the sale of the fields of the one and
the repurchase of other fields with the proceeds; (b) as the result of
Family property: Cor definition Bee Bee, 33.
[919 l Barton : Ifugao Law -7
a fine or indemnity assessed by the family of one againsl some person
for injury done a member of thai family; (c) ceremonial gifts such
as the kakba and habalag; (d) inheritance.
BEMAERIAGE OF THE WIDOWED
16. Tin gibu payment to terminate marriage. — Even death itself
does not terminate an Ifugao marriage. It terminates neither the
obligation of the widowed to the soul of the dead spouse nor the
compact of alliance between the two families involved. This obli-
gation and this compact may be terminated only by the payment known
as the gibu.
The word gibu means literally "finish". In its narrowest and
probably original sense it may have meant a payment to terminate
all the relations and obligations growing out of a marriage. There
is another explanation. From the day of the death of a spouse till
the third day after the interment (when the bhiokbok ceremony is
performed), the kin of the deceased and the kin of the surviving
spouse are on terms of theoretical enmity. They observe with refer-
ence to each other all the taboos that are observed toward enemies.
This practice may have arisen from a former belief— a belief that is
current among many primitive peoples today — that every death is
due to sorcery or witchcraft. Whom so naturally blamed as the
surviving spouse or his kin? If this be the explanation, then the
gibu originated as an indemnity paid for the life of the deceased.
In the present day, the gibu in a broader sense applies to all fines
and indemnities paid in connection with the abuse or termination of
a marriage.
A remarriage may not properly be effected by the widowed until
lipjiag pfljil thn.ki»-«rf-rtni d^il U[U\\iM'. lln ih7i» 'u rli -natfi. ( (lihu of tllP
dead), or the datok, as it is specifically called. Failure on the part
of the widowed to make this payment would lead to a seizure of his
property or a lance throwing. In the Kiangan area this payment is
not nearly so high as in other parts of Ifugao land, and for the reason
thai in the former area large payments are made to the kin of the
woman in the hakba gifts at the beginning of the marriage. In
Benaue and other areas of Ifugao the payments are about five times
the amounts shown in the subjoined table.
The following is the datok payment of the Kiangan area:
28 ■ rsity of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
Datoko
For the Wealthy
Pu-u, 1 death blanket 1*8.00
Haxjnub, 1 pot 5.00
llaijnub, 1 pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natawvinan 1.00
Natuku 50
Natuku 50
Na-oha 25
A mo:
6 irons _ 1.50
Paduldul (offering to the soul of the dead),
1 pig 10.00
Total 1*31.75
For the Middle Class
Pu-u, 1 death blanket 1*4.00
Haynub, 1 pot 2.00
Haynub, 1 pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku 50
Natuku 50
Nunbadi 40
Na-oha -~.
A mo:
4 irons 1.00
Paduldul, 1 pig 8.00
Total 1*20.65
For I lie Very Poor
Pu-u, 1 pot 1*4.00
Haynub 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku 50
Nunbadi 4<)
Na-oha 2.">
Amo:
4 irons 1.00
Paduldul, I pig 5.00
Total 1*13.15
'I'... mi explanation of the [fugao's method of making payments and of
reckoning ones and Indemnities, see sec. 75.
li»lii| Juti-ton: if Hi/, u> Law 29
h is considered as insult to the deceased and his kin for a widowed
person to remarry within a year from the death of his spouse. In
such an event, a Larger gibu is demanded by the kin of the dead spouse.
Should the spouses have bad no children, double the amounl usual is
demanded as the datok.
If the widowed remarries without having first formally notified
the kin of his dead spouse of his intention, or if he scandalously lias
sexual intercourse, he commits adultery according to Ifugao law, and
must pay the gibu luktap (see sec. 75, 94). As a matter of fact, I
do not believe that this law is often enforced. The Ifugaos say that
it was nearly always enforced before the establishment of foreign
government.
If the widowed he a woman, both she and the man with whom she
contracts a second marriage are responsible for the gibu payment.
The payment as a matter of practice is always made by the man who
marries her; hut it is said that, should her second husband for any
reason fail to pay. the widow would be held for the payment.
In the event of the birth of a bastard child to a surviving spouse,
the gibu must be paid.
The following is an instance of the non-payment of this indemnity,
and the sr<ji/< hi, :
Piniliu of Longa married the wife of Butlong, a deceased kinsman of
Timbuluy, also of Longa. Piniliu did not come forward with the usual datok
payment, notwithstanding the fact that it was repeatedly demanded of him.
Finally Piniliu went to Nueva Viscaya, and there bought a carabao. Tim-
buluy gathered his kin ami met Piniliu when he was bringing back the carabao.
About two miles before they reached their home village Timbuluy and his kin
seized the animal, hamstringing and slaughtering it before Piniliu 's eyes.
The act of Timbuluy may very safely be said to have been justified by
Ifugao custom, and so to have been legal.
The gibu is smaller if the second spouse taken be a kinsman or
kinswoman of the first.
If the living spouse should not have furnished the animal required
of him (see sec. 13) and a death blanket for the funeral of the dead
spoils,., tin- value of these things is added to the amount of the gibu.10
'"The fact that an Lfugao spouse remains always a member of the family
of hi- 1,1, ,o.l kindred, and that the tics binding him to his conjugal partner are
light in. led i,- shown by the fact that, at his death, funeral expenses fall
mainly on his father ami mother ami brothers ami sisters.
30 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
DIVOECE
The following tables show some of the causes for divorce together
with the payments, if any, due and to whom they are due.
17. Divorce because of necessity. — This is always achieved by
mutual agreement.
(hum- Fine Paid to
1. A bail omen of the bile sac of the animal sac-
rifice.1 at the mommon, imbango, hingot,
or bubun feasts (see sec. 17) None
2. A bad omen of the bile sac at any of the
three principal rice feasts of either family
during the year following the performance
of the bubun ceremony (see sec. 7) None
It is considered that only ill fortune could come of a marriage
which gave even a single ill omen in any of these cases. It is not
permitted to provide another pig and consult the omen again in any
of these feasts. But in all subsequent feasts this may be done, and
does not lead to divorce. Divorce is unavoidable if the above occurs,
and neither party would dream of opposing it.
18. Divorce for mutual benefit. — Childlessness is the cause. Divorce
under these circumstances is considered a mutual benefit. It may be
achieved by mutual consent or may be demanded by either party
without liability for indemnity.
Cause Fine Paid to
1. Continuous 'lying of offspring None
L'. Childlessness for a period of two or three
years after marriage None
It is considered that the gods of animal fertility look with per-
manent disapproval on the union. This is not without some show
of reason, since spouses who have lived together for a goodly number
of years on separation and remarriage with other persons have each
had children. Ifugao experience in this matter would indicate that
there is such a matter as biologic incompatibility.
If). Divorce which may &< d< mandi d by < ithi r party. — Cruelty and
incompatibility are the causes. The divorce may be by mutual consent
or may be demanded by the injured.
Cause Pine Paid to
1. Neglect nt' spouse by the ether ill time
of sickness; the failure to "cherish" Eudhud (see The injured
below)
2. Ml treatment of one of the spouses by the
near kin of the other; insulting language
by a father- or mother-in-law In some cases
liuillnid Divorcer
L919]
Barton : Ifugao Law
:;i
Cause
:;. Unwillingness of either party to have Bexual
intercourse with the other, and continued
resistance to it. when there is the ability
to perform the sexual acl
I. The lessening of the lid. Is of one of the
spouses which it was agreed in the con-
tract of marriage would be his, without
the consenl of the kin of the other Bpouse
5. Permanent inability to perform the sexual
act
ti. Insanity
7. Failure on the part of one spouse or his
family in any of the obligations hereto-
fore incut ioned (sec sec. L3 |
8. Commission of crime by one spouse against
a member of the other spouse's family
9. Refusal of one family to furnish the pigs
necessary to complete the ceremonials;
in case the spouses are related, the re-
fusal or continued neglect of one family
to pro. luce a pig for the ponga (see sec. 11)
10. The selling of a rice field for insufficient
reasons by one spouse without the con-
sent of the other (see sec. 14)
11. Continued refusal of the father of either
of the s|„,u-cs to deliver the fields called
for in the contract when the couple has
reached a reasonable age (seesec. L0)
12. Continued laziness or shiftless conduct on
the part of one of the spouses
13. The incurring of many debts or other obli-
ons; the squandering of family re-
sources
14. Unreasonable or insane jealousy
Eudhud
I >i\ orcer
Eudhud
1 >i\ orcer
None
None
Eudhud (not
Divorcer
always paid)
Huilltmt
None
Divorcer
II a, I Imd (also
see sec. 21)
Eudhud
Usually none
II ihlhihl
None
Divorcer
Divorcer
Divorcer
20. Cases win rt divorce
other.
may
In d( manded by one porta or tin
< ":i if-.-
1. Desertion of lawful spouse and cohabitation
with another; divorce already a fait
accompli
2. Incompatibility; continuous quarreling
3. A change of affection or a desire not to
proc I with or complete the marriage;
[f there be children, all the property or
aearly all must be settled on them
4. Adultery
Pine
Gibu of hoTcwit
(sec sec. 94)
// mill ml
Eudhud
Gibu of I'd. tnii
(see sec. 9 I )
Paid to
Injured party
The divorced
The divorced
The injured
32 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
21. The hudhud, or payment for mental anguish.— This is the fine
or Indemnity assessed in cases of divorce at the instance of one of
the parties, when uncomplicated by improper sexual relations, on the
ground of mental anguish, hakit di nemnem, literally, "hurt of the
mind." In general it may be said to be assessed against that spouse
who has made necessary the dissolution of the marriage, whether or
not he be the one who takes the initiative in effecting the divorce.
Should the divorce be effected on account of sexual crime of one of
the spouses, the greater tin injury the more seventy tin crime is pun-
ished. The hudhud is a small fine, but its payment is said effectually
to banish the mental anguish. The dignity and self-importance of
the Malay are of unusual proportions in comparison with his other
feelings and emotions. In Kiangan district there are three grades
of the hudhud: one for the kadangyang or wealthy; one for the tumult
or middle class ; and one for nawatat or poor. The following are the
usual amounts of the indemnity:
The Hudhud Indemnitv
For the Wealthy
1 <loath blanket 5PS.00
Total P8.00
For the Middle Class
1 iron pot =?2.00
. Natauwinan 1-00
Natuku 60
Nuribadi *0
Na-oha -■»
Total P4.85
For //"' Very "Boor
Natauwinan 1*1.00
Total P1.00
In ease of a change of mind Leading to an unwillingness to proceed
with the marriage, the • following additional data are pertinent:
Should the girl refuse to proceed with the marriage after the per-
formance of the mommon ceremonial and before the performance of
the imbango ceremonial, she pays simply the hudhud; should she
refuse after the imbango, she pays the hudhud. and, unless her kin
have given the boy's kin the mangdad di imbango, she pays back the
L919 | Barton : Ifugao Law 33
pig given her family by the boy'a family for the imbango ceremonial.
The same is true, mutatis mutandis, should she refuse to proceed after
the hingoi ceremony. The boy may refuse to proceed with the mar-
riage after the mommon and before the imbango without liability to
damages; should he refuse after the imbango, he must pay the hudhud.
22. Vivoru ceremonies. — It is only when divorce is by mutual
agreemenl that divorce is attended by any ceremonies. The ceremonies
consist of a honga, or general welfare feast, not greatly different in
spirit from the ceremonials by which the couple were married. In
other cases, the couple have separated prior to the formal divorce or
have such ill feeling toward each other that concerted action is
impossible.
'2'). Property settlements in cast of divorce — (1) When there are
no children: Each spouse takes the property that he brought to the
marriage, together with any property received since by inheritance,
or solely by virtue of his relationship to his own family.
The remaining property, that is, family property such as rice
fields, gold ornaments, gansas. etc., and personal property such as
food stores, house furnishings, implements, domestic animals, and also
liabilities that rightfully bear equally on both spouses are apportioned
by two umpires, monhangdad, one chosen by each spouse. These
persons make an equitable division, taking as their fee any odd articles
of personal property. Thus if there be three bolos, they take one; if
there he a chicken "left over," they take it. They may not carry this
appropriation to themselves too far, however.
(2) When there are children of the union: The woman has the
right to the children, and nearly always exercises it. In some cases/
when the mother has no rice fields and the father does have rice fields,
and when the children are large enough not to need a mother's care,
by special agreement the father takes one or more of the children.
Whoever takes the children takes possession of the property that
belongs to them. Usually the woman takes all the children and man-
ages the husband's family property that has been allotted them.
All the property of both the spouses must be assigned to their
children at the time of the divorce (except the personal property).
The one who takes a child takes also the property of that child and
tills it. He may not dispose of it except for the purpose of meeting
Legitimate obligations against it. Should the child die, its brothers
and sisters inherit the property.
34 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
DEPENDENTS IX RELATION TO FAMILY LAW
24. Adopted children. — An adopted child is termed inagamid, that
is, "taken to one's self"; or it may be termed na-imbalbalayt n, •"made
oiir*s child." The word inagamid is also used to denote a slave taken
into a household.
Adoptions are rather rare; for the reason, I suspect, that it is
only thi propertied class who make them, and that persons of this
class, being well nurtured, usually have children of their own. Usually
the child adopted is the son or daughter of a brother or sister, and so
is really, according to the Ifugao mode of reckoning kinship, the
son or daughter of the adopter. Which family the child shall be
adopted from11 is a question that is hard for a man and his wife to
agree upon, the wife naturally wishing to adopt from her family and
the husband from his. Sometimes two children are adopted, one from
each family. .More often the adopted child is married to one of the
family of the unrelated parent. The two parents by adoption then
give or will give their children by adoption a large part or nearly all
of their properties. They may not give the adopted children all.
They must give something to those who would have been their heirs
had they not made the adoption.
25. Servants. — The general term for servants is baal. As a rule
no pay is given a servant other than his board and clothing. It is
the ohligation of the master, however, to furnish animals for sacrifice
when the servant falls sick. It is, further, considered good form for
tin' master to furnish animals for sacrifice in case of sickness of the
servant *s father or mother; but I do not believe it to be an obligation.
A servant that has been a long time with his master is called nikkop.
It is an obligation resting on the master to furnish the animals and
other necessities for a marriage feast for such a servant. As a rule
there is no definite time set for the termination of a contract between
master and servant, and such contracts are terminable at any time
at the will of either party.
Sometimes an unmarried adult e-(>rs to the house of a rich man
ami asks to he taken as a member of the family on such a basis; hut
as a rule servants are children when firsl taken. Oftentimes a high
degree of affection is felt for a faithful member of the family of this
11 The [fugao reckons kinship by generations. Those of ;i contemporaneous
generation are tulang, l>r<>thers and sisters, children of the preceding generation
ef l. hid. I relatives, grandchildren of the generation of ascendants twice removed,
fathers <>t' tin- succeeding generation, and bo on (see appendix 1).
L919] Barton : Ifugao Law 35
class, ami it' a child he is treated as a son or daughter. Sometimes a
rice Held is assigned to iiim, and li<' inherits as though lie were the
youngesl son or daughter.
26. shirrs. — Before the American occupation, except in those few
parts of the hahitat that were prosperous and in which Hie obtaining
of the daily ration was not a serious problem, the selling by parents
who found themselves poverty stricken of one of their children was
not at all uncommon. The price that a child broughl his parents
varied from live pigs to live carabaos. There was no difference in
value between a male and a female child. A slave was most valuable
at the age of eighteen or twenty. Some men were slave dealers, and
.•aiiied .ureal numbers of children to Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela.
In those parts a slave was worth from five to twenty carabaos.
Among the [fugao a slave was absolutely the property of his
owner. The latter had power of life and death over him. Even if
the master killed the slave it was not considered that the slave's family
would be justified in avenging the death, lint a slave's children,
even though they be the children by another slave parent, were free.
Frequently one of them was assigned to take the place of the father
ami another of the mother, and these two then became free. In the
lowlands, however, the children of slaves were slaves, which accounts
partly fur the higher prices paid for slaves in those parts. It would
be interesting to know whether the lowland (Christian) Filipino held
children of slaves as slaves before his civilization and christianization
by the Spaniard, or whether his practice then was that of bis Ifugao
brethren.
The purchase of a slave was celebrated by a very pretentious series
.»f religious ceremonials. Oftentimes, with the Ifugao, a slave was
set U-rv, at or before the death of his master, and was given a rice
field. Unless set free be was inherited by the master's heirs as any
other property. Sometimes a slave child was adopted by a childless
couple as their own son or daughter.
The following "Pocahontas" story is told of a slave who lived at
his master's house in Anao. The master treated him ill, and the slave,
a young man, ran away. lie went to the enemy village of Aliniit.
The men of that town were going to kill him, hearing his Anao accent,
and believing him to he one of their hereditary enemies. Bu1 a hand-
some girl, the daughter of a rich man, protected him with her own
body and begged for his life. She afterward married him and bought
his freedom. There was no actual necessity for her buying his free-
36 University of California Publication* in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
dom, sine., the last thiug in the world the Anao master could have
accomplished would have been the recovery of his property. She
bought his freedom, however, in order that the children of herself
and her husband mighl never be called the "offspring of a slave."
Mention should be made, also, of those who voluntarily entered
into slavery as a means of paying a debt. The word "voluntarily"
in this connection needs explanation, however. A man was usually
frightened into entering into servitude by the probability that if he
did noi he would be killed.
In parts of Ifugao, tin killing of women or children in feuds was
a disgraceful thing, and rarely, it ever, practiced. Instead they were
mad.' prisoners and sold for debt. Sometimes, too, women or children
weir carried oil' and held for debt. This form of collection of debts
was legal, or at hast semi-legal. In case the debt was paid, the captive
was returned ; otherwise, he was sold as a slave.
ILLEGITIMATE CHILDRKX
27. />< // nition of illegitimacy; its frequency. — A bastard is one
whose father refuses to take the mother as his legal wife for any
period of time, however short. The marriage of the parents after
the birth of the bastard, consequently, legitimizes the child.
Bastardy is not very frequent. It is extremely frequent, however.
for a girl to become pregnant before her marriage. But in such cases
her Lover usually marries her. It is usually in cases of doubtful
parentage and in cases in which one of the parents is of vastly different
status as to wealth that a marriage does not follow pregnancy.
Hut there are also a few cases of bastardy surrounded by other
circumstances.
28. Obligations of father I" bastard child. — The father of a bas-
tard must give Ids child a rice field if he has a field unassigned. He
must also give the mother an oban, or blanket, with which to carry
the child after the [fugao fashion on her back. The value of this
gifl is principally in its constituting a formal recognition of the child.
The mother's rights are enforced by her kin. To a certain extent
the same is true of the bast.-n-d's rights. A man is never forced to
marry a woman againsl his will— an I fugao" woman would be ashamed
1<> ask such a thing. Such n marriage, too, would not be congenial.
The mere making of a bastard a legitimate child is not of sufficient
importance t<> justify such a marriage. Besides, the Efugaos have a
Baying, kumadangyang <li i>il<i</l<i<i<i: "The bastard becomes a rich
man."
L919] Barton: Ifugao Law 37
Bxcepl in the matter of division of estates, the bastard lias the
same rights as legitimate children. Bis father's kin back him in
legal procedures and avenge his wrongs as it' he were legitimate. The
father and his kin assist him in his marriage feast and in other feasts
that may he necessary.
29. Determination of parentage.— The ordeal is employed when
two or more men are accused of being the father of a hastard. The
woman "s word is not sufficient to settle the parentage. The one she
accuses may lay the matter at the door of another. The ordeals used
are the duel with runo Stalks, or eggs, and the hot water test. The
woman, holding the babe in her arms, sits half way between the two
controversants.
The Ifugao has the remnant of a peculiar belief that a child may
l.e begotten by two fathers. They say, for example, that if A and B,
two men. are having sexual intercourse with a woman. Z. and that if
it is settled by fate thai A and B each shall beget a child of the male
sex. Z will conceive and the child may be the son of both of them.
But if A is fated to begel a female child, and B to beget a male child,
the semen of the one undoes that of the other, and the woman does
not conceive. This belief is not taken, seriously as a rule; but I have
heard it advanced in a case of illegitimate birth.12
Accordingly, should each of the two men be struck by the eggs
thrown in the duel to decide the parentage of the child, or should
both be scalded by hot water, the Ifugao. formerly at least, held
that the child belonged to each of them.
RECIPROCAL OBLIGATIONS OF PABENTS AND THEIR CHILDRKX
30. Duties of parents to children.— The, Ifugao family exists prin-
cipally for the child members of it. The parents are supposed to
love, and do love their children more than the children love them.
The parents are under the obligation to provide food and clothing for
their children, and to impart to them the tribal knowledge that is
necessary to a respectable and well regulated [fugao life The child
may he forced to assist, according to bis ability, in the matter of house-
hold tasks, work in the fields, ami the like.
Corporal punishment may lie, hut very rarely is. administered. It
is the mothers, strange to say, rather than the fathers, who use this
1^ Tt is a Malay's pride never to be caught without an explanation or excuse.
However flimsy or absurd this may be, or perhaps in proportion to its absurdity,
lie advances it boldly and brazenly.
38 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
form of punishment. I never saw or heard of a father whipping his
child. Such a thing as a right of life and death over a child is as
unthought of, as it would be abhorrent, to the Ifugao if mentioned.
The Ifugao child, even at the age of ten or twelve, begins to look
upon his parents' property as his own, or at least that portion of it
that will fall to his share. A little later, he becomes independent — he
does not obey his parents unless he wants to do so. He is fully as
likely to command them as to obey them. And the parent is under
the obligation early to allow the children to displace him from his
possession. He must turn over all his property to them as soon as
they are able to marry or care for themselves. Should there be but
a single field, he assigns it to his eldest. From the time that the fields
are turned over, the father 's offices are those of priest and counselor ;
the mother's offices are those of priestess (sometimes) and of house-
hold drudge (always).
31. Obligations of children to parents. — The obligations of children
to their parents are :
(a) To provide animals and other things requisite to religious
feasts that are thought necessary to keep them in good health and to
restore them when sick. This obligation is by far the most burden-
some one, usually.
(b) To provide food and clothing for them, and to care for them
when sick or helpless.
(c) To provide requisites for a funeral feast in accord with the
station of the deceased.
In case the child has not yet obtained possession of his allotment,
these obligations do not rest upon the child, but are a charge upon
the property alloted him. If the child has obtained possession of his
share in the family estate, the obligation rests upon the child himself.
The law of primogeniture holds with respect to these obligations.
Civil obligations rest more heavily upon the older children and as
nearly as possible in proportion to the amounts of property received
from the parents. Children who receive no family property contribute
very little.
One might ask how compliance with these obligations is enforced.
Compliance with them is really not enforced. They are the most
sacred of all duties. Not to meet them would bring upon one's self
such universal reproach as to render life unbearable.
1919] Barton : Ifugao Law 39
THE PROPERTY LAW
THE KINDS OF PROPERTY
32. The Ifugao^s classification of properties. — The [fugao clearly
distinguishes between two classes of property/ His language, and
indeed his thought, is very poor in abstractions, however, and he bases
his classification upon the difference in the method of transferring
property by sale. The one class he calls ma-ibuy, "that for whose
transfer by sale an ibuy ceremony is necessary"; and the other, adi
ma-ibuy, "that for whose transfer by sale an ibuy ceremony is not
necessary. " Classifying them upon their essential differences in status
in Ifugao law and culture, I term the former family property and the
latter personal property.
FAMILY PROPERTY
33. The Ifugao attitude toward family property. — Family prop-
erties consist of rice lands, forest lands, and heirlooms. The Ifugao
attitude is that lands and articles of value that have been handed down
from generation to generation cannot be the property of any indi-
vi dual: Present Holders possess only a transient and fleeting
sion, or better, occupation, insignificant in duration in comparison with
the decades and perhaps centuries that have usually elapsed since the
field or heirloom came into the possession of the family. Their posses-
sion is more of the nature of a trust than an absolute ownership — a
holding in trust for future generations.
It is a misfortune when family property that has long been in the
possession of a family must be sold out of it. But if it be sold to a
member of another branch of the same family, the misfortune is
accounted less in proportion to the nearness of the kinship. How-
ever, the rights of the living and of the ancestors departed, are greater
than the rights of the unborn. Consequently, a field may properly
be sold and so depart from the family, if it be in order to provide
animals to accompany the spirit of a deceased ancestor to the spirit
world, or in order to provide animals for sacrifices to secure the
recovery from dangerous sickness of some member of the family,
[nherited property, however, is not to be disposed of without exhaust-
ing every effort to keep it within the family. Nor must it ever be dis-
posed of for light or trivial reasons. Except when sold to satisfy the
40 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
needs of the departedjjiiJiiaiig (in these cases, a forced sale) family
properties when sold bring exorbitant prices. Fields or other prop-
erties which have been recently acquired or constructed, sell at con-
siderably lower prices, even though their intrinsic value be the same.
Nothing that I know of in the Ifugao make-up, is so characteris-
tically oriental as is this subordination of individual to family rights.
34. Rice lands. — A "field" consists of all the contiguous paddies
in one place that are the property of one man. Insaiee-and in trans-
fers arising out of family relationship, and in balal (pawning), afield
is never divided... If there be two heirs and only one field tobe
inherited, the elder of the heirs takes the entire field. The reason for
this and for the rights of primogeniture (see sec. 53) in inheritance
and assignment of property, is to be found in the fact that thejfugao
social consciousness considers it better — and it is better — that a family
have at leaTTone powerful member round whom thekm__may rally
aucTto whom they may look for aid, than that the family property be
split into insignificant parcels that would affect but little the property
of all. Aside from this consideration there is also the practical diffi-
culty of dividing a field. In the process of dividing, the family unity —
which is the dearest and most necessary thing in Ifugao society — would
probably be destroyed by quarrels and squabbles. Even if an equitable
division could be arranged, a great deal of the field would be taken
up in dikes and division lines. It is a rare thing to find an Ifugao
rice field as large as one acre in extent.
There is no formal recognition of the eldest as the head of the
family. But together with the lion'Pshare of the property, the first-
born inherits certain well defined and rather stringent obligations. In
this we seem to have the Savor of a system ol ITaU'iHl'cfiy.
35. Forest lands. — Such lands, valuable principally because of the
woods upon them, are often the common property of a group of kins-
men and their families. They are sometimes partitioned. They are
nearly sure to be partitioned if Avood be scarce, or if part of the land
be suitable for rice fields.
S6.-ILdj.'looms. — Heirlooms consist of such articles as gold neck-
ornaments (intrinsic value of the gold being about 10 pesos to 20
pesos; current price among the Ifugaos, 60 pesos to 120 pesos) ; gongs
(value 8 pesos to 250 pesos) ; rice- wine jars (value 60 pesos to 400
pesos) ; pango, or strings of amber colored glass beads (value 80 pesos
to 160 pesos) ; and bungol, long strings of agates and bloodstones
which are very rarely sold (value about 250 pesos). These articles
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 41
arc used fully as much by the owner's kiu as by the owner himself;
for they wear the heads and ornaments, play the gongs in feasts, and
brew rice wines in the jars.
37. Sale of famj(;/ pr<>pr£hi — The selling of rice fields, forest Lands,
gold neck-ornaments, riee-wine jars, and the like is a matter of prac-
tical concern to the entire family. Selling them, except in cases of
necessity and after consultation with the kin, would lead to ill feeling
toward the seller on the part of his kin, and ^ refund to nssist ^nd
back him. Since there is no form of political government in Ifugao
culture. Mud sjncp every infln, must, with the help of his kin, "get his
own justice," this would be no small punishment. How serious a
punishment it would be, the reader will, perhaps, realize when he
reads the chapter on procedure.
The sale of family property is registered by ceremonies in which
the near kin of both buyer and seller take part. In comparison with
the solemnity of these transfers, our real estate transfers are common-
place. In comparison with their complexity, our transfers are sim-
plicity itself.
PPyRSONAT, PROPERTY
38. Definition. — Such articles as knives, spears, dishes, baskets,
pots, houses, camote fields, fruit-bearing trees, blankets, animals and
flvtieleg r.f mi^nr vqIhq gve on the same legal basis as personal property
among ourselves. Three items in this list demand special attention :
houses, valuable trees, and sweet potato fields.
39. Houses. — Dwellings are movable property in Ifugao. A man,
with the aid of his kinsmen can, and frequently does, take a house to
pieces, move it to a different site and set it up again before sunset.
The plot on which a house stands lias no value. The value of a house
is usually about ten pesos, the range of prices being from six to sixty
pesos.
40. Valuable trees. — Cocoanut trees, coffee trees, and areca palms
are sold without any sale or transfer of the land on which they stand.
The value of a cocoanut tree in full bearing is five pesos; of a coffee
tree, one to two pesos; of an areca palm one-half peso. As a rule,
the land on which these trees stand has no value. A practice pre-
senting parallel features that leads one to believe that the same man-
ner of selling trees must have prevailed among the Pangasinanes, one
of the Christian tribes, is that, in the sale of the cocoanut groves in
42 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Etlin. [Vol. 15
central Pangasinan, the trees are sold at so much apiece ; but in order
to get possession of the trees, it is necessary to buy the land at so
much a hectare, since the land has a value.
Camote or sweet potato fields are discussed in section 45.
No ceremonials are involved in the transfer of personal property ;
nor are witnesses necessary, as a general thing.
PERPETUAL TENURE
Tenure is either perpetual or transient.
41. Rice and forest lands. — Rice-land and forest-land tenures are
perpetual.
In case an owner abandons a rice field for any period of time, how-
ever long, and another man takes up the field without interference or
contrary order of the true owner, clears it of underbrush, builds up
the broken dikes, levels once more the terraces, tills and plants it, the
latter has the right to use the field for the same number of years that
it was abandoned. At the end of this time, the field reverts to the
true owner. Should the owner desire possession of his field before
the expiration of the time, for which, in accordance with this rule,
the field should remain in the possession of him who redeemed it from
the wild mountain side, he must repurchase possession.
It is not incumbent on a man to secure permission of the owner
of an abandoned field before working it ; it is incumbent on the owner
to prevent others from working his field against his will.
In the event a rice field is made on privately owned forest lands
from which the timber has long been cut, the owner of the land, when
he has proved title, demands payment for the land. But he may not
take advantage of the labor that the other has spent on the land in
making rice fields, to demand an exorbitant payment. To take such
a course would invite danger to himself.
Forest lands that have been divested of their wood may be
planted in camotes (sweet potatoes) by any person without asking the
consent of the owner. If the owner does not want his land so planted
or intends to use it himself, it is his business to inform any who may
have started to work the land. But if he is tardy in making this
prohibition, he must pay for the labor expended, or must allow the
continuance of the work, and the harvesting of one crop of camotes
from the land. I am not certain that this is the case in all parts of
Ifugao.
L919] Barton: Ifugao Law 43
42. " Homesteading." — That land which is not rice fields or forest
land and which is not owned by some individual by reason of its hav-
ing been one or the other formerly, becomes the property of whomso-
ever makes it into rice fields. The tenure so acquired is perpetual.
4;?. Paghok, or landmarks. — Whenever a rice-field terrace is walled,
the terrace wall is an unfailing and unimpeachable landmark. But
in many districts, the terraces are not walled. In such cases, the divi-
sion lines between fields are marked by large chunks of wood or by
large stones, buried three or four feet deep along the division line.
A boulder is of course a most excellent landmark.
"Weather and the elements are continually wearing back an un-
walled terrace. The amount each year is very small. But when in
the course of years the displacement is sufficient to justify it, the
owner may take that part of the field in the terrace below that belongs
to him.
The moving of a landmark is said never to occur, since it would
take two or three men to lift the heavy stones, and would require a
long time. Moreover it could not be done without leaving plain and
indisputable evidence of the crime.
44. Bight of way through property owned by others. — In order to
get rid of insect pests, clay is sometimes conveyed to a field to form a
layer over it about two inches thick. The clay is shovelled into a
stream of water above, and carried as silt to the field and there allowed
to settle. Sometimes leaf mold and other fertilizers are conveyed to a
field in this manner.
It makes no difference how many fields there may be above that
on which it is desired to deposit the sediment, the owner of the last
has a right to cut a ditch through the upper fields as a conduit for
the stream of water. He must, however, repair all the upper terraces
so as to leave them as they were before.
TRANSIENT TENURE
45. Tenure of sweet potato fields. — Sweet potato, or camote, fields
are clearings on the mountain sides about the village. They are nearly
always steep slopes, and quickly lose their fertility. For that reason,
they are abandoned after a period that varies in different districts of
Ifugao according as camote s are a more or less important factor in
the subsistence of the people. Thus in Banaue, where camotes form
a very large part of the subsistence of the people, the fields are cul-
44 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
tivated for five or even six years, if located near the village ; if more
distant, they are abandoned after about two years. In Kiangan, where
camotes do not play such an important part in subsistence, the fields
are in any case abandoned after one or two years. The reason for
abandoning the fields is that the soil wears out soon, so that the
camotes grow small, and the yield does not repay the labor spent in
cultivation. But in case a large area about the village be cultivated,
rather than face the necessity of going far from the village to make
clearings, the old fields are tended to a point at which the yield becomes
almost nil. After abandoning a field, the owner still has a claim on
it, but only until such time as the field grows up in weeds, in which
case the la-bor spent by him in making the clearing may be fairly
presumed to have been undone. After abandonment, the field regains
its fertility slowly. The first person who begins clearing the field
again becomes its possessor for a new term of years. It is exceedingly
rare that quarrels arise over camote fields. Camote fields are some-
times sold, but it is not the land that is sold, but the crop with tem-
porary possession of the land.
TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY FOR A CONSIDERATION
There are two kinds of transfer of family property for ' ' considera-
tion": the balal (pawn), and outright sale.
46. The oalal. — In case a man finds himself under the necessity
of raising a considerable sum of money — usually in order to provide
funds for a funeral feast or a sacrifice — he frequently borrows the
sum, giving a rice field into the hands of his creditor as a security
and as a means of paying the interest on debt. The creditor holds,
plants, and harvests the field until the debt be repaid. The field is
to all purposes his, except that he cannot sell it. He can, however,
transfer it as a balal into the hands of another. But he must transfer
it for the same or a less amount of money ; that is, if he has loaned
fifty pesos on the field, he must not borrow more than that sum, unless,
of course, he be able to secure the owner's consent. This is a very wise
provision of Ifugao law that insures the prompt return of the field
to the owner as soon as he be able to get together the amount needed
to redeem the field. An example will make this clear. A borrows
fifty pesos of B, giving his field as a balal into B's charge ; B gives it as
a balal to C for the same or a less amount, who gives it as a balal to D
and so on. When A is able to repay the debt, he goes to B and
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 4.~>
delivers him the sum plus the fee of the agent through whom the
deal was effected. With this amount, including the fee, B goes to C,
C goes to D, and so on. Were B to have borrowed without A's con-
sent more than fifty pesos, say seventy pesos, and were he not finan-
cially able to obtain the difference (twenty pesos) between his debt to
C and the debt that A had just paid him, there would be an excellent
beginning for a quarrel that might end in lance throwing.
Real estate of this kind continues in the hands of the creditor
until the debt be paid. Transfers of the same piece of land may go
on indefinitely. The transfers are witnessed each time by the agent
who obtains the loan for the person in whose charge the field is. This
agent receives as his fee about five to twelve per cent of the value of
the loan obtained. He is the only witness necessary. His fee is paid
him in the first place by the creditor. But the fee is added to the
amount loaned, and must be returned by the debtor when the debt is
paid. As soon as the agent has received his fee, it is his duty to
inform his oldest son, in case he be of sufficient age, otherwise his
wife or a brother, of the terms of the transaction. This is a precau-
tionary measure against his death and the consequent leaving of the
transaction without a witness.
Each creditor is liable to his debtor for the return of the field
upon the payment of the sum due, the case being precisely parallel
to the liability of the indorsers of a check or a note, one to another.
Suppose, however, that the field be planted in rice. In such an
event, the owner must leave the creditor in possession of the field
until the crop shall have been harvested. In case the field be newly
planted, it is sometimes returned to the owrner on the agreement that
he care for the growing crop, harvest it, and give the creditor half.
If the field be spaded, but not planted, the owner may pay his creditor
for the cost of the labor expended in spading the field, together with
a bonus as interest.
The amount loaned on a field never equals the value of the field.
Usually it is about half the value. It makes no difference how long
a field remain in the status known as balal, the field, subject to the
conditions of the preceding paragraph, must be n turned to II" mem r
or his heirs whenever th( amount lo<no<l h< returned. Sometimes
a field remains a balal for two or three generations.
47. Sales of family property. — The Ifugao has a very peculiar
system of buying and selling in connection with family property, by
which, paradoxical as it may sound, a man has to pay for an article
46 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
almost twice its price. In order to complete the purchase of a rice
field, there are "extras" almost without number, to be paid, each
extra bearing as its metaphorical name, the name of some act of rice-
field cultivation or of a feature of the trade itself. So far as has yet
been ascertained, there is no myth or story to explain how this
peculiar idiosyncracy originated.
The price is divided into ten parts, each part being represented
by a runo stick or a notch cut in a stick, or by knots in a string. In
the Banaue district, these sticks are kept for generations as records
of the sale. The first two sticks are called budut, and represent the
payment down. They are the heaviest payments, not necessarily
made on the day of the transfer, but at a set time. The eight others
represent some standard in the Ifugao's system of barter, and are
called gatang, or price. They are paid at some indefinite time in the
future. Possession of the field is given after the first payment. In
order to make the sticks conform to the standards of barter, it is
sometimes necessary to represent one payment by two sticks.
Fee of witnesses and agent. This fee is called lukbu, or lagbu
(in Benaue dialect). The principal witnesses are preferably the
distant kin of the seller, and the agent or agents who effected the sale.
The names of the different sticks, knots, or notches are translated
literally in the tables diagraming the transactions in purchasing fields.
These fees are paid and the presents made to the kin of the seller
at a feast called ibuy. This feast is performed whenever the purchase
price of the field has been paid. The kin of buyer and seller meet
in the purchaser's house.
A. Transactions in the Purchase of a Field in the Kiangan Area
I. Payments on the property h
Paid down at time purchase is consummated, or soon after:
Name of transaction and
Budut, or tandong
Budut, or tandong
meaning
Article transferred Value
1 pig 1*20.00
1 pig 15.00
Additional instalments
(gatang)
paid
irregularly:
Gatang
NunoMp (two at a time)
Nunol-op (two at a time)
Gatang
Gatang
1 death blanket 8.00
1 death blanket 8.00
1 pig 20.00
1 pig 8.00
1 pig 8.00
Total
1*87.00
1919] Barton
: Ifvgao Law
II. Fees (ItiLhit) ,
of tin principal witnesses
Name of transaction and meaning
Article transferred
Value
Bobod (the tying)
1 Pig
f*10.00
Page (rice)
1 small pig
6.00
Lanad (commission of the go-between)
5.00
Pugug (finished)
4.00
Gogod (cut)
3.00
Kinta (left over)
1.00
Total
47
? 29.00
III. Advance interest paid to the seller
Baldblad ** c-50
(If the seller is a kinsman, he may not
take this amount. If taken, the
seller and the purchaser may not
eat together for five days, since
they are on a basis of ' ' theoretical
enmity." This "theoretical en-
mity" exists in several other in-
stances in Ifugao life. See sec-
tion 15 and appendix 2.)
IV. Gifts to the seller's kin
Piduan di gogod (repetition of the cut)
Piduan di kinta (repetition of the surplus) *
Hablal (flooding of field)
Hagaphap (chopping of grass from terrace
wall)
Oholc (sticks for beans to climb up)
Umuhun (burning off grass)
Aiyag (dinner call)
Bant i n a (flint and steel)
Pakimdan (chewing betels together)
Alauwin (woman's rice-field jug)
Kalakal (edible water beetle living in
rice-field)
Tobong (spit on which kalakal are strung)
Inipit di olak (holding bolo between toes to
cut meat with)
Banga (cooking pot)
Iluknp (lid for the same)
Buyu (dish)
Tayap di gatang (wings of the sale)
Tayap di mongatang (wings of the seller)
Kindut (carried under the arm)
Inhida (eaten chicken)
Total ?9-50
Natauwin
P1.00
X at mi win
1.00
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
X a -oli a
.25
Natauwin
1.00
Natauwin
1.00
Natauwin
1.00
Natauwin
1.00
Grand total f 132.00
"This payment is based on ideas of magic. It tends to cause the field to
produce in like manner: that is, to produce enough and a surplus besides.
48 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Etlin. [Vol. 15
B. Transactions in the Purchase op a Field in Benaue
I. Payments on the property
Budut ndbungol (the jeweled budnut) f*60.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) . 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00
Total (value of field, 15 pigs) P150.00
II. Additional payments made to the seller, his kindred, and the
witnesses after payments of purchase price but before
the ibny feast
Tayap di gatang (wings of the sale) §*30.00
Bobod (tie) 20.00
Binangwa de bobod (half of the tie) 10.00
Pinohat (carried under the arm) 8.00
Botag (meat) 5.00
Gogod (cut) 2.00
Total 1*75.00
///. Payments at ibuy ceremony
To the witnesses:
1 death blanket §*8.00
1 death blanket 8.00
Inagagong (kind of blanket) 5.00
For distribution to seller's kin:
10 chickens, Nunpatngan (?) 8.00
Alaag (cooking pot of Chinese origin) 2.00
Gogod, 1 bolo (the cutting off) 1.00
Puguy (finish) , 2.50
Linuta (cooked) 2.50
Total f*37.00
Grand total 1*262.00
One of the fine points in buying consists of an insidious hospitality
on the part of the purchaser, which gets the seller and his kin drunk
so that they forget some of their perquisites. At the psychological
moment, that is, when a few, but not all, of the presents or lukhu
have been made the seller and his kin, and when the latter are at the
proper stage of drunkenness, one of the purchaser's kinsmen says:
"Let us proceed with the praying." If he is successful in getting
the religious part of the ceremonies started, and can keep the minds
l<)li) | Barton : Ifugao Law 49
of the seller and liis kin from the unpaid gifts or fees until they eat,
then the fees never have to be paid. For when they have started
eating, everything is over. They may demand the unpaid fees only
if they want to make themselves laughing stocks in the eyes of their
fellows. For according to Ifugao law, when the seller and the pur-
ehaser eat together at the ibuy feast, the transfer of ownership is
complete, ami irrevocable.
Although possession of the propprty is given before the purchase
price is paid, ownership of it is not, however, complete until after
the performance of the ibuy. If <ni< were to buy a field without per-
forming tht ibuy ceremony, tin presumption would be held that the
field had passed into his hands as a balal. It has been noted already
that hut one or two of the unit payments are made at the time posses-
sion is given, and that no particular time is set for making the rest
of the various partial payments. At any time before the ibuy cere-
monial which forever transfers the field, the seller may demand a
payment or all the payments, except the fees to the witnesses and his
kin. He may do this as a matter of malice, or he may do it as a
matter of necessity. He sends a monkalun, or go-between, to demand
payment. The go-between and the buyer arrange a reasonable time —
usually not less than ten days — within which the payment is to he
raised. If it be not then forthcoming, the field may revert to the former
owner, should the latter so desire, and be sold by him. He must,
however, return immediately the entire amount of the partial pay-
ments made to date by the first purchaser.
In case of such a transfer of a field as that described in the pre-
ceding paragraph, the same rules apply to the ownership of standing
crops as apply in transfers of possession arising from the balal.
But should the seller of a field, after having sold it to a second
person, and after having received a part of the purchase price of the
field from him, without consultation or notification, and without giv-
ing this second person a chance to make the final payments on the
field, sell it to another, he must repay to the first purchaser double
the amount of the partial payments made by the first purchaser to the
date of the sale.
Personal property is transferred without formality.
48. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands. — In
both Ifugao and Kalinga, if a rice field after passing into the hands
of a purchaser, is subject to an unusual number of slides in the
terrace wall, or is wholly, or in part washed away by a freshet, the
50 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
purchaser may, at any time within the year following the purchase,
relinquish the field and demand the return of his purchase price.
This is on the ground that the seller may have put a curse on the
field when it left his hands, or that, at least, he did not relinquish his
hold on its welfare and fertility.
In Kalinga, if a water buffalo, horse, or ox, die within the year
following its sale, the purchaser may demand the return of the pur-
chase price.
TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY ARISING FROM FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
49. Methods of transfer. — Property is transferred within a family
by two methods : by assignment and transferal during the life of
the owner; and by inheritance.
50. Assignment and transfer of property during the lifetime
of the owner. — At some undefined time all the family property that
one possesses is. assigned to his children. By "assigned," I mean
"provisionally allotted," subject to any legitimate charge or obligation
against it. A family property is always subject to sale or pawn
for the purpose of providing funeral feasts, sacrifices in time of sick-
ness or other grave necessity, payments of fines, and indemnities,
made on behalf of lineal ascendants and descendants and near col-
lateral kin. The property is usually assigned when the children are
quite small.
Property is transferred (that is to say, possession is given) to the
children when they marry and separate from the household of the
parents. By the time the youngest child has so separated, or even
before, the parents have become a charge on their children. It is
only sometimes, in the case of the very rich, that a portion of the
property is reserved. Childless widowed aunts or uncles usually
transfer their property to those who would otherwise inherit it, and
so become a charge upon those persons.
51. Inheritance. — It is only in case of the death of the parents when
the children are very small, or of the death of a more distant relative
from whom it is inherited, that the Ifugao receives property by
inheritance.
52. The passing of property between relatives because of relation-
sliip. — The same laws govern both the assignment and transfer of
property while the possessor is yet living, and the inheritance of
property. Of all Ifugao laws, they are the most definite and the most
invariably followed.
1919] lUu ton: If nihil, Laiv 51
53. Tin law of primogeniture. — By this law. the elder children
inherit a greater portion of the property than the younger ones, the
proportion being governed by the ordinal rank of the children as to
birth. If there be but one rice field, the eldest takes it. Because of
his greater wealth, the eldest is frequently the family leader,
counselor, and advocate. He has no actual authority over his brothers
and sisters, however — indeed no person in Ifugao society has authority
over another.
54. The passing of property to legitimate sous and daughters by
assignmi nt or inheritana .
(a) No distinction is made because of sex.
(6) The greatest proportion of an estate goes to the eldest child.
(c) If the number of children be greater than the number of
rice fields, the elder children take the fields. If there be but one
field, the eldest takes it.
(d) If all the children inherit rice fields, the heirlooms and
personal property are divided in accordance with the laws of primo-
geniture that apply to real estate.
(e) If there be children that inherit no rice fields, a slight com-
pensation is made them by giving them a larger share of the heir-
looms and personal property than would fall to their lot otherwise.
This compensation by no means equals the value of the real estate
they would inherit under our laws.
(/) In the event of the death of either spouse before the property
of the spouses has been allotted to the children, the living spouse
allots the property to the children at the proper time. In this allot-
ment, the brothers of the dead spouse are usually called in consulta-
tion. The living spouse may not deviate from custom in allotting
the property of the deceased. All the property of both the spouses
must be allotted at this time. None may be held back.
55. The passing of property to other relatives. — In the appor-
tionment or inheritance of property in which blood relatives other
than sons and daughters benefit, two general principles hold :
(a) Property received from the father goes to the father's
family: property received from the mother goes to the mother's
family. The families of the two parents coalesce in, and are identical
in, their children and their childrens' descendants.
(b) So near as may be, those persons inherit who would have
inherited the property had the deceased never lived. Tt is only in
the case of the childless that others than sons and daughters have
rights in the property left.
52 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
If the deceased were unmarried, his property goes to his relatives
in the following order:
(1) To his brothers and sisters, if living. To the brothers and
sisters descended from one parent, passes that portion of the property
received from that parent ; to the brothers and sisters descended from
the other parent, that portion of the property received from that
parent.
(2) To the nephews and nieces, the offspring of the brothers and
sisters, or to their descendants.
(3) To the cousins in order, first of degree, and second of primo-
geniture.
If the deceased were married, in the the inheritance of his prop-
erty there are the following rules :
(1) The living spouse inherits the sole right in, and possession
of, half the property jointly acquired by the spouses subsequent to
their marriage. It is not, properly speaking, the property that is
inherited: it is the sole right in what was a joint possession before.
(2) That half of the property jointly acquired by the spouses
which is the share of the 'deceased, goes to his heirs, being divided
(if his heirs be not his brothers and sisters or their descendants)
equally between the heirs on the father's side, and those on the
mother's side.
(3) The property that the deceased brought to the marriage and
that which he acquired subsequently owing to and by virtue of his
relationship to his family, goes to the deceased's family.
Personal property acquired by the deceased and his spouse is
not, however, taken from the surviving spouse. The above applies
only to family property.
56. Property rights of bastards. — Bastards usually inherit ap-
proximately half the property of a father who dies without legitimate
children, the other half going to those who would be the sole heirs
had the father died childless. But if there be only one field, the
bastard takes it.
Should a parent have only one legitimate child, the bastard
inherits usually as if he were a yotolger legitimate child.
A bastard is entitled to a rice field from his father if the father
has a rice field that is unassigned to a legitimate child. He is not
entitled to any special value of fields, and as a rule, receives less
than his legitimate brothers and sisters if there be such.
The above paragraphs apply equally to the bastard's right in
1919] Barton : Ifugao Loir 53
the property of his mother. He has, however, no kin to enforce
his rights against his mother. Since he is of illegitimate birth, the
kin of the father are not in a position to enforce bis rights against
her; while his mother's kin would not take issue in any mallei' for
him against their nearer kin, his mother. If the mother marries
after the birth of the bastard, she usually makes a settlement on
her bastard child before marrying. Not infrequently he who marries
a woman having a bastard child recognizes that child as his own,
and even assigns him a portion of his property. The following are
examples :
Dulnuan and Ngahiu of Tupplak carried on a courtship, after the Ifugao
fashion, in the agamang (dormitory). Ngahiu became pregnant; but Dulnuan
refused to marry her. However, and notwithstanding the fact that he knew
tier to be pregnant, a third party, Baliu, married Ngahiu. From what motive
lie did this does not appear: it was probable that he gained financially, since
Ngahiu was wealthier than he; and being pregnant as she was, she was in no
position to stipulate too closely as to the property of the one who might
become her husband. The bastard child, notwithstanding the fact that there
were legitimate half brothers and sisters, was given fields by (a) his mother;
(b) his natural father, Dulnuan; (c) Baliu, who recognized him as his son.
E, a Christianized Ifugao woman, and a wife who had borne five legitimate
children to B, her husband, was indiscreet in her relations with a Spaniard.
She bore a mestizo child. B, her husband, did not proceed against his wife and
her paramour according to Ifugao law and recognized the child as his own.
The legitimate children except one having died, the bastard child inherited
from his mother and his mother's husband as if he had been of legitimate birth.
There is a Malay proverb which is used to describe the attitude of
the husband in such cases as the above: "Although I did not plant
the tree, yet it grew in my garden."
The amount of property that parents settle on a bastard is to a
great extent a matter of caprice. His rights to any property what-
ever, except a single field from his father, are decidedly weaker
than those of children of legitimate birth, added to which he has
not the right in any case to so great a portion of property.
57. Transfers of property to adopted children. — Customs relat-
ing to these transfers are as follows:
(a) An adopted child related to only one of the spouses may
inherit from that spouse only.
(b) If the adopted child be a niece or nephew, he inherits or
has assigned_hini all the property of the related parent; provided
that there be no brothers or sisters of the related parent except the
adopted child's own blood parents. If there be other brothers and
sisters, and if these brothers and sisters agree to help stand the
54
University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
funeral expenses of the adopting brother or sister, a small part of
the property is given them. But the adopted child inherits the
greater part of the property.
(c) If the adopted child be the son or daughter of a cousin, there
is assigned him, or he inherits all the property that his parents would
inherit in case of the death of the related parent, and a portion in
addition. Should the parents not be in the position of being likely
to become heirs to the related adopting parent, the adopted child
inherits, or has assigned him, only a minor portion of the estate.
If there be no brothers and sisters of the parent by adoption, he
may have assigned him the greater portion of the estate, however.
(d) If the adopted child be not related by blood to either of the
parents by adoption, he inherits, or has assigned him, a small por-
tion of the estate of both adopting parents. The kin of these parents
take the lion's share of the estate.
(e) If the adopted child marry a kinsman of the unrelated
adopting parent, the unrelated parent usually settles on the spouse
of the adopted child, an amount of property about equal to that
settled on the adopted child by his kinsman, his other adopting
parent, subject, however, to the four rules above.
(/) It is optional with the blood parents of an adopted child to
settle no property on him, in case the parents by adoption provide for
him in this respect.
The above settlements are customary. They can hardly be said
to be rights, however. Often when a child is adopted, his blood parents
stipulate with those who adopt as to the property settlement that will
be made on the child.
58. Servants and slaves as inheritors. — Retainers have no rights
whatever as to the property of their masters. Frequently, however, a
small field is settled on them.
59. Wills and testaments. — There are no wills or testaments among
the Ifugaos. If a man desires to make a settlement of his property
that is out of the ordinary, he must do it before he dies. Even then
he would have to get the family's consent to the unusual features.
Ifugao parents are singularly impartial in the allotment of the family
property to their children. That some children are not loved more
than others is unbelievable ; but it is exceedingly rare that any child
is favored above another in property settlements, except by the law
of primogeniture. There is always a lot of talk in connection with
the assignment or inheritance of family property — in the matter of
1919 J Barton: Ifugao Law 55
talk the Ifugao is not different from other Malays. But it is not
often thai permanent ill feeling is engendered in such settlements. The
laws of the descent of property are, as has been said, the clearest and
most concise of all Ifugao laws.
SETTLEMENT OF DEBTS OF THE AGED AND DECEASED
60. When tht debtor has children. — At the same time that the
wealth of the family is apportioned to the children, account is taken
of the debts owed by the family. The debts may or may not be indi-
vidually apportioned among the children. If the eldest child inherits
or receives any property, the obligation of primogeniture holds as to
the debts • that is to say, he is responsible for the payment of a greater
proportion of them. Otherwise all the children are equally responsible.
There are many cases in which the debts that are handed down by an
Ifugao 's parents greatly exceed the property handed down.
Children who receive no family property are not responsible for
the payment of the debts of the parents, provided there be a child or
children that do receive family property. The apportionment of the
debts of the deceased must be in proportion to the amount of prop-
erty received. If none receive family property, all are responsible
for payment.
61. When the debtor is childless but leaves a spouse. — A spouse is
responsible only for those debts incurred in behalf of the couple's
mutual interests: for example, debts incurred in obtaining animals
for sacrifice in case of sickness of the children of the couple, or for
sacrifice at the funeral feasts of the children, or for the purchase of
rice fields or other joint possessions of the spouses. A spouse may
not be held for debts incurred in the purchase of animals for sacrifice
at tli*- funeral feast of a member of the other's family (except for the
pig and death blanket due from her family in such cases), nor for
debts incurred in paying fines or indemnities levied as a result of the
other's misdoing. A spouse may not even be held for debts incurred
in providing sacrifices to secure the recovery of her husband from
sickness (except for the pig due as stated under section 13; however,
this pig is really her own obligation).
62. Debts for which the kin of the deceased arc held. — When a
debtor dies childless, the kin who inherit, if there be such, must pay
debts that were incurred on behalf of their family. They are, too,
jointly responsible with the wife, for these debts incurred on behalf
56 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethu. [Vol.15
of the debtor's descendants. If there be nothing inherited, all the kin
are responsible for these debts in proportion to nearness of the kinship.
It is a matter of doubt as to whether a man's kin or his spouse
can be held for his gambling debts. Such debts are purely personal,
and are about the only debts that an Ifugao contracts in his own selfish
interest. The Ifugaos did not gamble heavily, at least not before the
coming of the Spaniards; since their coming, custom in this matter
has not had time to crystallize.
63. Attitude toward debts. — A debt is a sacred thing to an Ifugao.
The non-payment of a debt is disgraceful. The non-collection is still
more disgraceful, for the presumption is that a man who does not
collect from his creditors cannot do so. If he cannot collect his debts,
it must be because he is a coward. In the babbling that prevails about
the rice-wine jar when tongues are loosened, one who has debts long
outstanding that other men would collect, hears things not calculated to
tickle his pride.
BORROWING AND LENDING
To a far greater proportionate extent is borrowing and lending
carried on among the Ifugaos than in our own country. Almost any
event that carries with it a large payment or expenditure carries with
it as a corollary a large amount of borrowing. The things usually
borrowed are death blankets, animals for sacrifice, and rice.
64. 'Lupe, or interest. — Interest on things borrowed is exceedingly
high. But where borrower and lender are brothers, no interest is
charged ; where they are kin of somewhat remoter degree, a low inter-
est, as a rule, is charged. In any case a special agreement may be
made by which the interest is not as high as usual. It may be stated
as a general principle that a thing borrowed must be repaid by twice
its value if paid soon — that is within a year or even two years. But
if repayment be made after a long time, three perhaps, four times
the value must be repaid. The Ifugao does not hold to the calendar
very severely in reckoning interest. But where full interest is charged,
the rule is that a thing borrowed must be repaid by twice its value,
even if it be paid within two weeks. Thus rice borrowed two weeks
before harvest time must be repaid by double the quantity immediately
after harvest.
65. Patang, or interest paid in advance. — This is the Ifugao form
of bank discount. It is interest paid in advance for one year. On a
L919] Barton: Ifugao Law 57
earabao (worth usually about eighty pesos) this amounts to thirty
pesos a year. At the end of the year if the earabao be not paid hack,
the patang must be followed by a second payment of the same quantity,
called u nud, "following," for the next year. If it be intended to repay
the earabao within three months, the interest in advance is ten pesos,
and is called baloblad.
66. A not In r form of patang. — Somewhat similar is the fee or inter-
est paid to the owner of anything seized by a man of a different district
or village to cover an unpaid indebtedness owed the latter by a neigh-
bor or co-villager of the former. It is the amount of interest usually
paid for one year; but there is no unud <v further payment, since it
is presumed that by the end of the year the delinquent neighbor ought
to have been compelled to pay.
Thus A of one village owes C of another village a debt. After sev-
eral fruitless attempts to collect, C seizes a earabao belonging to B,
a co-villager of A. C sends a go-between*to pay B thirty pesos, telling
him of A's debt, and informing him that he niust get his earabao back
from A.
GO-BETWEENS
67. The go-between. — No transaction of importance of any sort
between persons of different families is consummated without the inter-
vention of a middle man, or go-between, called monbaga (bespeaker)
in civil transactions; and monkalun (admonisher) in criminal cases.
Go-betweens are used commonly in (a) buying and selling of family
property of whatever kind or value ; ( b ) buying and selling of animals
and the more valuable personal property, except chickens, and in some
cases pigs; (c) the borrowing of money or other wealth; (d) marriage
proposals and the negotiating of marriage contracts; (c) collection of
debts : (/) all steps connected with the baled, such as pawn of rice fields,
or their redemption ; (g) demands for damages to property or persons ;
(70 the buying back of heads lost in war, the ransoming of the kid-
napped, or the making of peace.
The go-between is the principal witness to a transaction. For his
services he receives pay which is fixed to a fair degree of exactness
for a particular service. This pay ranges from a piece of meat to a
fee of twenty or twenty-five pesos.
68. Responsibility of go-betweens. — Go-betweens are responsible to
both parties to a transaction, for the correct rendering of tenders,
offers, and payments. Their word binds only themselves, however —
58 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
not their principals. Go-betweens are not agents of one party more
than another. They are supposed to be impartial, and interested only
in consummating the transaction involved in order to get their fee.
Thus, suppose that A sends B as a go-between to sell a field to C,
a man of another district. B finds that he cannot sell the field for
the price A asked for it, and, anxious to consummate a sale and so
collect his fee, he agrees to sell the field to C for a lower price than
that asked by A.
In such a case as this, B is responsible to C in case A refuses to
abide by C's agreement to sell. C has the right to collect damages.
The oriental propensity to "squeeze" is proverbial. It is con-
doned in law — one might almost say legitimized, provided it be not
found out. Thus :
A sends B to Nueva Vizeaya to buy a carabao. The regular commission for
this service is ten pesos, the agent to deliver a living carabao to the principal,
and to be responsible for the value if the carabao die on the route. This, the
usual agreement, holds between them. A furnishes B with eighty pesos with
which to purchase the animal. B returns with the animal, representing that
he paid seventy pesos for it, when, as a matter of fact, he paid out sixty pesos,
thus gaining ten pesos ' ' squeeze. ' '
If A finds out that B paid only sixty pesos for the carabao, the only thing he
can do is to collect the ten pesos difference between what A paid and what he
said he paid. He cannot assess punitive damages.
68. Conditions relieving a go-between of responsibility. — An act
of God or the acts of a public enemy relieve a go-between or an agent
from responsibility. Thus an agent sent to purchase an animal in
baliwan (the stranger country) is under obligation to deliver it alive.
But if it be struck by lightning, or if the carabao be taken away from
him by enemies, and he has a wound to bear witness that he offered
due resistance to them ; or, in case he has no wound, if he has witnesses
or good proof of the fact that the enemy was so superior in force as
to make resistance foolhardy, he cannot be held for payment of the
animal.
70. Payment due those who find the body of one dead by violence.
— An Ifugao who finds the body of one dead by violence or drowning,
and not an inhabitant of the same district as himself, must perform
a general welfare feast to remove the liability to misfortune that is
likely to result from such an incident. Consequently, he is entitled
to a payment, varying from one to ten pesos, according to the rank
of the dead person. If there be more than one who encounter the dead
body, all are entitled to the same payment. This payment is called
halat.
1919] Barton: lfugao Law 59 /
CONTEACTS FOR THE SALE OF PROPERTY
71. On whom binding. — Contracts for the transfer of property for
consideration are binding on the seller only. Rarely, if ever, is there
a payment to bind the bargain. The simple promise to sell is suffi-
cient to constitute a contract to sell. The breaking of a contract to
sell renders the breaker of the contract liable for damages only in
case In took tin iiiitiotin in making the contract.
Damages paid for the breaking of a contract to sell, are called
hogop. In case an agreement to sell a rice field is broken, the damages
are usually one large pig (fifteen or twenty pesos). In the case of
questions of this sort over minor property, the hogop may be a death
blanket, a small pig, or a chicken.
The following examples will serve to illustrate :
A sends B as a go-between to sell a rice field. B first contracts to sell the
field to C. Later, knowing the terms of the sale offered by A to be very advan-
tageous, he sells the field to a kinsman D.
In this case B is liable for the hogop to C.
In the above case B, after contracting to sell the field to C, duly reports to
A that C has accepted the terms offered, and that he is raising the amount
required for the first payment; that he will go again by agreement with C to
receive this first payment on such and such a day. A sells the field to some-
body else.
In this case A is liable to C for the hogop, and to B for his fee as go-between.
It becomes a matter of common knowledge that A has a gold neck-ornament
for sale. C agrees to purchase at the stated price and A agrees to sell to him.
A sells the ornament to somebody else.
A is not liable for the hogop, for the reason that C made the first advances.
In no ease can one who makes a contract to buy be held for any
payment of damages for breaking his contract.
IRRIGATION LAW
72. The law as to new fields.— If all the land below a spring or
small stream located on ownerless land, be common land — that is,
land without an owner — he who makes the first rice field below the
source of the water supply is entitled to all the water needed for his
rice field. Another man, making a rice field between the field of the
firsT comer and the source of the water supply, may not use the spring
or stream to the detriment of the first comer.
But should a man make a field, be it on common or on owned
land, below a spring or stream, and should another man make a field
between the first field ^nd the source of the water supply on owned
land, the second comer would have the right to whatever water might
be useful to him.
60 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
73. The law as to water. — Water which has been flowing to an
area of irrigated land may under no circumstances he diverted to
irrigate a different area, even though that area be nearer the source
of the water.
A person who acquires rice fields, one of which is near the source
of the water supply and the other at a considerable distance from it,
may not pipe or trough the water from the upper field to* the lower
one if the water has meantime been irrigating an intervening area.
Thus :
Manghe of Ambabag, having a field near Baay, acquires a field near Amba-
bag, about a quarter of a mile upstream from the first. He threatens to put a
line of troughs from one field to another so as to supply sufficient water to the
lower field. This action would rob intervening fields of their accustomed water
supply, and would be illegal.
A spring belongs to him on whose land it is situated, and so also
does alL the water issuing from the spring. The owner may sell the
surplus water to whom he pleases. The water rights so sold are
perpetual. Thus :
A has a rice field in which there is a spring. He sells the water to B, whose
field is to one side — perhaps at a considerable distance from A's. C has a field
immediately below A's. He purchases A's field and unites it with his own.
But he may not divert the water from A's original field to his own original
field, unless he buy the water right from B.
74. The law as to irrigation ditches. — Constructors of an irrigation
ditch may sell interest in the ditch. The ditch thus shared with
others becomes an equal burden as to upkeep on all the owners.
The constructors of an irrigation ditch who have sold part of the
water from their ditch, must share the water in time of water scarcity
with those to whom they have sold, in proportion to the respective
areas of the rice- fields. That is, every owner of an irrigation ditch
is entitled to a share proportionate to the area of his rice land, of
the water diverted by means of the ditch.
Repetition of the malicious destruction of an irrigation ditch, or
the turning of the water from it or out of it, is an offense punishable
by fine or even in some cases by death. The first offense, when the
culprit is discovered, is not punished ; but there is a warning against
repetition.
Diversion of water from an irrigation ditch in which the diverter
has no interest is not a very serious offense. On the first offense the
diverter is warned. If he repeats it, all the •water is drained from
his field or he is given a beating.
L919] Barton : Ifugao Law 61
PENAL LAW
PENALTIES
The Ifugaos have two punishments for crime: the death penalty
and fine. These punishments are inflicted and executed by the
offended person and his kin.
75. Natun and reckoning of fines. — Fines are of two sorts: fines
of "tens," bakid, and fines of "sixes," na-onom. each unit of the ten
or six being a portion of the whole fine. The different parts of the
fine go to different people. Oftentimes sticks, knots, or notches are
used to assist in calculation. In Banaue and neighboring districts
these aids to calculation are also kept as a record. The unit payments
grow successively smaller from the first to the last.
The first unit of any series is called pu-u, meaning "base." It
is of the greatest value, and goes to the injured individual. The
second payment, sometimes, goes to the go-between. In that case, the
kin of the injured man take all the rest. If the :£e'e, of the go-between
be provided for outside of the fine, the kin of the injured man take
all except the pu-u, the first unit. This is but just, since they have
backed their kinsman in his action against the offender, have per-
chance risked their lives in his cause, and also stand ready at all
times .to help pay any fines that others may assess against him.
The second, and sometimes the third and fourth units, are called
haynub di pu-u, meaning "followers of the base." They are of less
value than the pu-u.^Then follow units consisting, each, of four irons
(spear-heads, axes, knives). These units are called natauwinan.
Then come units of three irons each, called natuku ; then units of two
irons each, called nunbadi; then units of one iron each, called na-oha.
In the case of fines composed of six units, there is usually no haynub.
The Malay does nothing without first thoroughly talking it over.
After a payment has been tentatively consented to by the offender
and his family, there yet remain many conferences with the go-between
before everything is arranged. An uninitiated white man on seeing a
group of these people, squatted in a circle, moving little sticks about,
and in heated discussion, might think they were playing some primi-
tive but absorbing native game. And, I am not sure that the attitude
of their minds is very different !
The following tables of fines assessed for the four degrees of
adultery illustrate the manner of reckoning fines, their amounts, the
value of the units, as well as the fines proper to the three classes of
society in the Kiangan district.
62
University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
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1919] Barton: Ifugao Law
CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH A.FEECT PENALTY
Certain circumstances, namely, criminal responsibility, alienship,
kinship, confession, and the relative rank of offender and offended,
affect penalty, either as to its severity or as to the likelihood of its
In bag inflicted at all.
76. Moral turpitud( not a factor. — Moral turpitude, which plays
no small part in our own law in determining- punishment, seems not
to enter into the consideration of Ifugao law. Thus, such crimes as
incest between brother and sister, parricide, matricide, fratieide, and
treason against one's family, all go unpunished. Even the betrayal
of a co-villager into the hands of the enemy subjects the offender to
only a third degree of likelihood of being punished (see sec. 80).
These crimes probably go unpunished in accordance with the follow-
ing correlated fundaments of Ifugao society : Legal procedure is eon-
ducted by and between families; the family unit is the most precious
thing in Ifugao social life; family unity must, at all hazards, b< pre-
served. In the case of a murder accomprished by treachery, as for
example, the killing of a guest, the moral turpitude involved might
perhaps hasten punishment — it might even increase its severity in
that the kin of the murdered person might retaliate on a greater
number of those concerned in the murder. But such an abuse of
hospitality appears never to have occurred.
Another reason why what we consider moral turpitude does not
enter into punishment is that treachery, ambush, and accomplishment
by superior force are the rule, not only in commission of crime, but
also in perfectly legal capital executions and seizures of property.
PENAL RESPONSIBILITY
As between principals and their accomplices and accessories,
Ifugao law recognizes only gradations in likelihood of punishment.
The penalty is the same for all of them; but very frequently the
offense is considered as having been expiated by the punishment of
those whose responsibility for it is greatest, and the rest go free.
77. The nungolat, <>r principal. — The nungolat (he who A\as
strong) is the conceiver, planner, and director of an offense, lb- may
or may not take an active part in its commission. Whether or not
he does so, he is considered to be responsible for it in the highest
degree. He is, of all who take part in the offense, the most likely to
be punished.
64 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
The following example, continued through several succeeding
sections, shows the various degrees of criminal responsibility, and the
corresponding degrees of likelihood of punishment :
A decides to avenge the death of a kinsman. He consequently calls a
number of his kinsmen and proposes a war expedition to take the head of Z,
an enemy concerned in the death of the murdered kinsman, in another village.
They agree. A calls the family priests to his house to perform the necessary
religious preliminaries to setting out on a head-hunting expedition. The cere-
monies are performed, and the omen of the bile sac promises well. But, just
before starting, some accident happens to A, which the priests attribute to the
sorcery of the enemy. A consequently does not accompany the expedition.
He is, notwithstanding, the nungolat, and is more likely to be the object of
vengeance than any other, should the crime be accomplished.
78. The tombok, or "thrower." — In offenses in which a spear is
thrown, he who throws the effective spear is called the tombok. His
responsibility for the crime is second to that of the nungolat, as is
also his likelihood of being punished.
79. Iba'n di nungolat, the "companions of the one who was
strong." — Those who assist in the commission of "a crime by reinforc-
ing, accompanying, assisting, backing, giving aid* and comfort to the
committer thereof, or furnishing ..anything needful to the consum-
mation of the crime incur the next lesser degree of criminal responsi-
bility and of likelihood of being punished to those of the conceiver and
committer of the crime.
80. The montuelol, "shower," or informer. — One who gives a per-
son in the act of committing a crime information necessary to the
successful carrying out of his intent, is guilty in the same degree
as are persons of the preceding paragraph.
Thus, continuing the illustration started above, suppose that B, C, ~D, E, F.
G, H, and I go to take the head of A's enemy and theirs. They meet O, a co-
villager of Z, the man whose head they want to take, and ask him regarding
Z's whereabouts. The fact could not be otherwise than patent to O, that a
head-hunting party was addressing him. He answers truthfully that Z is in
his sweet-potato field, and that the party may reach the field by such and such
by-path without their being seen by Z 's kin or co-villagers. The party follows
O's directions. B spears Z.
B is the tombok; C, D, E, F, G, H, and I are the "companions of the one
who was strong," and O is the montudol.
81. Servants trim commit crimes at the bidding of their masters.
— Eetainers incur a lesser degree of criminal responsibility than does
the master. They will be punished if the master cannot be punished.
Sometimes both are punished.
L919 j Barton : Ifugao Law 65
82. Likelihood of punishment. —
(Continuation of illustration given above.) Z 's kinsmen of course decide
to avenge his death. It is a general rule that all debts must be paid with liberal
interest, the interest being at least equal to the debt. The debl of life is no
exception to this rule. The kinsmen, whom we will call Q, E, S, T, and U,
decide that, at least, they will kill A, the nungolat, and B, the tombdk, and that
it' opportunity offers they will kill one or two of the others. They go to the
vicinity of the village of A and B and lie in wait for them. They may do this
a uumber of times. Finally we will suppose that they lull A. Their thirst for
blood is somewhat appeased, and they may not pursue their first intention. But
it would be the part of wisdom for B to be extremely cautious. Z 's kinsmen
are likely to make an expedition or two to take his head.
On the other hand, suppose that A dies a natural death or falls in some other
feud. The full likelihood of punishment now falls on B.
Suppose that B, II, and 0 walk past the place of ambush of the avengers.
The latter will try to make sure of B, but will also try to kill the other two.
Suppose that B, like A, meets death in some other way than at the hands of
Z"s avengers. C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and O are now equally likely to be punished.
In case several unsuccessful expeditions are made to secure the head of A
and P.. the avengers are likely to take a head or heads from some of the others
rather than continually to place themselves in jeopardy by their expeditions
into an enemy region. Especially is this true if the enemy's village lie distant.
If the villages be near, it is probable that C, D, E, F, G, H, I, or O might walk
past the ambush of the avengers at first with impunity, since the avengers are
desirous of taking the heads of the principals, and do not want to put the
principals on their guard by slaying those whose guilt is less.
83. Drunkenness and insanity in relation to criminal responsibil-
ity.— Except in the case of murder, drunkenness mitigates the severity
of punishment, provided there be no evidence to show that the cul-
prit became intoxicated with the intent to commit the crime, and
provided he sincerely repents on becoming sober. Even insanity is
not an alleviating circumstance in the ease of murder; but it is our in
all other crimes.
84. Tin relation of intent to criminal responsibility. — Gulad or
intent, is probably the greatest single factor in determining penal
responsibility. Thus:
A deed committed without intent, and without carelessness, is
excused. One has not, usually, even to make restitution for the
injury done. Thus, in the case of a bolo flying out of a man's hand,
and putting out the eye of another, no damages were assessed. An
enormous number of men, every year, are injured in the free-for-all
scrambles over sacrificed earabaos. Many of these injuries result in
stiff joints: some of them in deaths. In no case. no1 even in the case
of death, is a payment demanded. Suppose thai in the chase a num-
ber of hunters have surrounded ;i wild boar. The boar charges one
66 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
of them. This man leaps backward, and, at the same time, draws
back his spear to throw it at the boar. In so doing, he stabs a com-
panion behind him with the shod end of the spear handle. This is
not an uncommon accident. The others of the party are witnesses
that the killing was purely accidental (naloktat). No fine is assessed ;
but the killer, to show that he is sorry, usually assists in the funeral
feast. Of course, if there were no witnesses, and if there were a
possible motive to complicate matters, the ending of the case might
not be so happy.
Suppose that a number of men are throwing at a target with their
spears. A child runs in the way, and is killed. One-half the usual
fine for manslaughter is assessed on the ground that the thrower was
careless in that he did not make sure before he threw the spear that
such an accident could not occur. In this case there was an absence
of intent ; but carelessness was present.
A man kills a neighbor at night, acting under the impression that
he is killing an enemy seeking his life. He is subjected to a much
heavier fine than if he had killed him through carelessness, since there
is present both the intent to kill, although not criminal, and careless-
ness in that he did not make sure at whom he was casting his spear.13
OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING LIABILITY
85. Alienship. — If the culprit be of a foreign village, the fact that
he is a foreigner is a strong aggravating circumstance. If found in
delicto, he is almost sure to be killed, in cases of theft or the more
serious crimes. In such crimes as insult, the same fine might be
demanded of the foreigner as of a co-villager, but not so much effort
would be made to arrange matters peaceably. If the fine demanded
be not paid and paid quickly, a kidnapping would ensue, or the cul-
prit would be killed. A man committing a minor crime in a foreign
village if not killed would be caught, tied, and held prisoner until
redeemed.
86. Confession. — Confession before steps have been taken to inflict
punishment alleviates to a considerable degree except in murder and
adultery. In the latter case, if the adulterer made a voluntary con-
fession of guilt to the offended spouse, without having been confronted
with the evidence, it would be taken as brazen boasting, and of the
nature of an insult.
is In one ease, to be hereafter considered, the absence of both intent and
carelessness do not excuse (see sec. 105).
l!Mi>| Barton: Ifugao Law 67
87. Kinship— Kinship is so strong a mitigating circumstance as
often to excuse crime altogether. It has already been stated thai
crimes of one brother or sister against another are not punished.
Inasmuch as all procedure is conducted by and between families, and
since the family of the two brothers is identical, procedure in such
cases is impossible. In the ease of relatives of remoter degree, kin-
ship is a strong extenuating circumstance in the event of the more
serious crimes. In minor crimes, while the usual amount of the fine
might be demanded, it would very frequently not be collected; espe-
cially, it' the offender were very poor.
It has previously been said that the family is the only organization,
political or social, that the Ifugao has, and that, in proportion as it is
precious and necessary to him, he cherishes it ; that Ifugao law, conse-
quently looks with the greatest disfavor upon anything that would
divide a family or destroy its unity.
In case a man steals from his cousin, who is married, restitution
is usually demanded, together with half the usual fine, which half
goes to the cousin's spouse — not to himself. Insults on the part of
one cousin to another are rare and are more rarely prosecuted.
88. Rank and standing in the community. — This is probably the
greatest single factor in determining the severity of punishment in
cases where a crime is punishable by fine. But the aggressiveness and
the war footing of the two parties to the controversy enter even here
to an astounding degree.
In the Kiangan-Maggok area, there are three grades of fines — the
highest for the punishment of crimes of one kadangyang or rich man,
against another ; a medium grade for crimes of persons of the tumok,
or middle class, against each other ; and a third and lowest grade for
the nawatwat, the poverty stricken.14 Each lower grade of fine is a
little more than half the next higher one.
In the Kababuyan area, there are five grades of fines — one for the
very rich, one for the fairly rich, one for the middle class, one for
the poor, one for the poverty stricken. In Sapao and in Asin, there
are four grades.
So long as both offender and offended are of the same class, there
is no trouble about determining the fine proper in a given case. But
when they are of different classes, the case is not so simple, and the
factors of fighting strength and personality enter.
i* Kadangyang : an upper-class person. In most parts of [fugao persons must
give expensive feasts to attain this rank. Tumok: persons who have enough
rice to last them throughout the year, but who do not soil rice. Nawatwat:
persons who are poverty stricken.
68 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
Suppose that E, a rich man, commits adultery against P, a poor man. P
sends a go-between to demand the highest grade of fine for this crime — that is,
the grade which kadangyang pay. R does not deny the crime, but states that
he considers the payment of the fine that is due one rich man from another
preposterous. He states that he is willing to pay the fine proper to the poorer
class. To this P replies that he did not begin this action for the purpose of
getting money, but for the purpose of so punishing R as to make a repetition
of the crime improbable. There are three possible endings in such a case:
(a) P's kin represent to him that they cannot afford to have war with R;
that R's people hold a lot of debts over their heads; that should R prove
obdurate, and should the affair end in a lance throwing, R's people would wipe
them off the earth. They advise P to be satisfied with the lowest grade of fine.
He agrees.
(b) P and R compromise on the grade of fine that is midway between their
stations; that is, the fine of the middle class. In Kiangan this is the usual
settlement.
(c) P shows such bun got (wrath and ferocity) that R's kin advise him to
pay the larger fine. They point out that the fine is a small matter as compared
with the loss of life, and state that there is no telling what this poverty-stricken
but rampant dog will do. This settlement is not uncommon in the Kiangan
area, where the poor people have a great deal of pride and bravery, but rare
in other parts of Ifugao.
Aside from other matters, the diplomacy and tact of the go-between would
have a great deal to do toward determining which of these contingencies would
result.
It is extremely hard to make a general statement as to fines when
offender and offended are of different classes. It may safely be said
that the fines assessed average the amount midway between the fines
proper to the two classes concerned. Thus, when a poor man offends
a rich man, and when a rich man offends a poor man, the average of
the fines assessed equals approximately the fine assessed for injuries
within the middle class. In questions in which rich and middle class
persons are involved, the fines approximate an amount half way
between the fines of the rich and of the middle classes.
89. Importance of influential position and personality. — The fact
has already been mentioned (see sec. 4) that Ifugao administration of
justice is remarkably personal in nature. We have just seen, in the
example given in section 88, to what an extent personality and war-
footing enter into the infliction of fines when offender and offended
are of different classes. Nowhere can a man of magnetism and force
reap greater benefit from these qualities, relatively speaking, than in
an Ifugao controversy. The fact stares us in the face in every phase
of Ifugao lawr, especially in procedure.
89a. Cripples and unfortunates. — Cripples and those afflicted by
disfigurements or disfiguring diseases are often in a desperate mood
for the reason that life is not at all precious to them. They are likely
L919] Barton: Ifngao Laiv (59
to be erratic and to constitute exceptions in punishmenl of crimes and
procedure. I remember a rase thai happened in Baay District a few
years ago which illustrates to what extenl determination and absolute
abandon to a single purpose are valuable in carrying a point in Ifugao
procedure. I did not make note of the names but shall designate
the rich man as R and the poor man as P. P was afflicted with the
disease hiphip — probably ichthyosis — a skin disease in which the skin
becomes white, rough, and scaly. R met P one day and sneered at
ldm. saying, "Although yon have neither fields, gongs, nor jewelry, I
see that you have become a Jcadcmgyang, for you are wearing a white
coat" (referring to the skin disease). P became violently angry hut
restrained himself from assaulting R. He calmly informed R that
for this insult he fined him a large and valuable field, R's property in
Dayukong; that life meant little to himself, and that if R resisted and
interfered with his taking possession of the field, he would certainly
kill him. P further stated that he knew that R's kin would retaliate
and that he would lose his own life but that he did not care since he
was miserable anyway. None of the women would deign him their
favors and being poor — well, what was the use of living! P carried
his point and maintains possession of the field to this day. Having the
field, he managed to get a wife, who, although homely, has borne him
two or three children who are not afflicted with his disease.
Another case in point is the following: Piklud, a fairly wealthy
man of Kurug, was paralyzed from the knees down and in his locomo-
tion he had to crawl on all fours. He loaned a neighbor a chicken.
There was a quarrel over the repayment of this which left ill feeling
between the two. A little while after the quarrel, the neighbor met
Piklud crawling along the path through the village, and called to him
as to a dog, 4iDoa! doa ! de-cle-de!" Piklud pretended not to notice
and even feigned amiability. He gossiped a little about the drought
which was parching the rice fields. Finally he said, "Let me see your
spear." He felt the edge and then with the words, "It is pretty
sharp, isn't it?" he thrust it upward into the other's abdomen.
THE PETXCIPAL CRIMES AND THEIR FEEQUENCY
90. List of offenses. — In the Kiangan-Nagakaran-Maggok area, the
principal crimes, in order of their probable frequency, are : sorcery ;
adultery; theft ; murder (or in the case of women and children, kid-
napping) ; the putting of an innocent person in the position of being
considered an accessory to crime ; manslaughter ; rape of a married
woman; arson: incest. Minor crimes are: insult ; slander: false accu-
sation ; rape of a girl.
70 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Etlxn. [Vol. 15
SOECEEY
91. The ctyak (soul-stealing) is a series of religious ceremonies in
which the sorcerer calls to a feast the ancestral spirits of some man
whose death he desires to encompass, together with many maleficent
spirits and deities, and bribes them to bring to him, incarnated as
a blue-bottle fly, a dragon fly, or a bee, the soul of the man whose
death he desires. When one of the insects mentioned comes to drink
of the rice wine in front of the sorcerer, it is imprisoned and put into
a bamboo joint tightly corked. The enemy, being thus deprived of
his soul, will die.
This form of sorcery cannot be practiced unless the sorcerer knows
the names of the ancestral spirits of his victim-to-be. For this reason,
when the Lamot people, who are famous sorcerers, come to Kiangan
and approach a religious feast, the Kiangan people do not invoke their
ancestral spirits until after the visitors have gone. Needless to say,
sorcery is always practiced in secret. It sometimes happens that it
is practiced by a man against his kin. In such a case, kinship does
not extenuate his punishment, since the preservation of the family
necessitates the extirpation of the sorcerer within its gates. This
is the only exception I know of to the general rule that a family may
not proceed against one of its members.
92. Other forms of sorcery. — Certain persons have an evil "cut"
of the eye, which, whether they wish it or not, brings misfortune or
sickness on whomsoever or whatsoever they see. Injury by means of
the "evil eye" may be effected intentionally or entirely uninten-
tionally.
The words of certain persons even though innocent and uncon-
nected with evil, and though spoken as they usually are without
malicious intent, have the quality of bringing whatever is spoken
to an evil end.
Thus A, afflicted with the "blasting word," goes to the house of B, and,
seeing a sow with a litter of handsome pigs, remarks, "That's a fine litter of
pigs you have ! " If A be truly afflicted with the blasting word, the pigs will
die, even though A was without intent to do injury, and was even ignorant of
his affliction.
The evil eye and the blasting word are frequent afflictions — afflic-
tions that their possessor is the last to learn about. They may be
cured by the possessor's offering sacrifices of the proper sort. In the
event of injury unintentionally being done by evil eye or blasting
word, no punishment is meted out, although in some cases restitution
is demanded.
Barton : Ifugao haw
Curses are of two kinds: directly by word, and indirectly by
curses Laid on food, drink, or betels. Kiangan people are afraid to
purchase rice from the Lamot people to the south of them through
fear of being affected by curses that may have been laid on the rice.
93. Punishment of swcen/.— Sorcerers are not punished hyster-
ically. To Ids credit, it must be said that the Ifugao proceeds slowly
in condemning a person for this crime. Before he takes action, he
demands not merely strong grounds foe suspicion, but proof beyond a
reasonable doubt that the suspected person is a sorcerer. Proof that
one lias performed the ayak ceremony against a person is sufficient
ground for the infliction of the death penalty. But in the ease of
the evil eye and the blasting word, it must be proved that the death
of the pigs, the betel vine, or whatever it be that dies, was due to the
glance or words of the bewitched, and that both glance and words
were used with evil intent. This would obviously be hard to do; but
for the purpose of justifying an injured person in killing such a
sorcerer or bewitched one, a record of previous misdeeds of the kind,
and a general conviction, in which a portion, at least, of the man's
kin concurred, that the suspect was a malicious sorcerer, would 'be
sufficient. . •
A curse, by one who has no reputation for supernatural powers, is
punishable by the following fine :
Kadaxgyang
Middle Class
Nawatwat
Hin-baMd (One
ten )
Hin-bakid (One
ten)
Na-otiom (Six)
Pu-u (2 death
Pu-u (death
Vii-ii (ilili) 1*8.00
blankets)
1*16.00
blanket)
1*8.00
Natauwinan 1-00
Haynub palyulc
5.00
TTaynub palyulc
5.00
X mil ii Lit .50
Hay nub palyulc
2.00
II ininah palyulc
2.00
Natuku -50
Natauwinan
1.00
Natauwinan
1.00
Na-oha -20
Natawvinan
1.00
Natauwinan
1 .00
I.iirn comes out of
Natauwinan
1.00
Natauwinan
.50
the No-onom
Natauwinan
.50
Nuntuku
.50
Nuntuku (3 each
) .50
X a nl ill, a
.40
Nuntuku
.50
Nunbadi
Na-oha
.40
.20
1*2 7.50
Liwa conies out o
f
I.iirn or foe of
the Hin-baMd
go-between ( 1
death blanket)
f*8.00
Total,
1*35.50
Total,
1*19.00
Total, 1*1 0.20
A curse by one who had a reputation of being a sorcerer might
possibly lead to the death of the sorcerer on the spot. In case he were
not killed, and the person or tiling cursed died, the death penalty
would be inflicted later.
The following instances will be of value as illustrations. Some are
recent, others historical:
72 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
Before the coming of the Spaniards, Atiwan of Longa acquired a reputation
as a sorcerer. He killed several of his kinsmen in Baay. Even his relatives in
Longa admitted that he was a sorcerer, and said that he ought to be killed.
Ginnid of Baay and several companions went to Longa one night, and called to
Atiwan that they had come to see him. He opened the house and put down
the ladder. The party ascended, and set upon Atiwan with their war knives-
and killed him. In trying to protect him, his wife, Dinaon, was wounded. The
killing was universally approved.
Kimudwe (alias Dulnuan) of Tupplak is a famous, or rather an infamous,
sorcerer. Owing to a quarrel with one of his nephews, Butlong, over a debt,
he performed an aydk to cause the latter 's death. Butlong was informed of
the fact by one who, eavesdroppingbelow Kimudwe 's house, heard the prayers
and incantations. On a certain day on which there was a feast in Ambabag,
to which Kimudwe was nearly certain to come, Butlong waylaid him, firing a
rifle at him from cover near Ambabag. His marksmanship was atrocious.
Before he could reload women rushed out from the village and covered
Kimudwe with their bodies, interceding, and stating that there was not sufficient
certainty that Kimudwe was guilty to justify his nephew in killing him. (This
occurred in the interval between Spanish and American rule.)
Kimudwe is reputed to have killed by means of sorcery several of his kins-
men. Becently a child died in Tupplak whose death was attributed to him.
He killed, it is said, the son of Bahni, another of his nephews. Bahni sent
Dulinayan of Ambabag as a go-between to Kimudwe to challenge him to an
ordeal, saying that he had no intention of killing him, even if guilty, owing to
the peculiar prejudice of the Americans against such doings, but for his own
satisfaction he wanted to know if Kimudwe were the sorcerer. He stated that in
case Kimudwe won in the ordeal, he (Bahni) would pay a fine of a gold bead for
having accused him falsely. This was an unusually large fine. Kimudwe
refused, or rather evaded, saying: "If I am a sorcerer, it is a case of the entire
family, including Bahni, being guilty." In other words, he took refuge behind
the Ifugao doctrine of collective responsibility (see sec. 4).
In cases of strong suspicion, a supposed sorcerer was often openly
accused and challenged to an ordeal. The ordeal was usually more
in the nature of a duel, the two exchanging spears at twenty steps"
(20 meters) distance. If the ordeal showed the suspect guilty, he
was killed if he stayed in the region. He was not, however, killed
on the field of duel — unless killed in the duel or ordeal itself — because
such an execution might precipitate a battle with this kin.
ADULTERY
94. Forms of adultery. — In its unaggravated form, adultery is
called luktap. Luktap signifies sexual intercourse between a spouse
and some person pthpy than tbp miP tn whmn hp (or she) be married,
uncomplicated by insults and scandalous behavior flaunted in thp fane
of the injured spouse. The intention to abandon the spouse is either
not present, or is concealed.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 73
The aggravated form of adultery is called Jmkwil. It consi s t s
of openly and scandalously bestowing one's love and body upon some
other person than the spouse: of insulting the injured spouse: or of
repeatedly, while living under the same roof with the spouse, meeting
the third person and having sexual intercourse. The intention is
present of separating (or effecting a separation) from the injured
spouse. The following is an illustration :
Maxima, a girl of Umbul, was married to Ananayo of Pindungan. But
Ananayo had not yet reached the age of puberty, while Maxima herself had
reached that aye. Sergeant Doniinong, of the constabulary company at Kinngan,
began paying attentions to Maxima, while Maxima was living in the house of
Ananayo 's father. During the season of watching the rice fields against theft
of water these two continually cohabited, the sergeant going to where Maxima
was watching the fields at night. Ananayo attaining the age of puberty in
the meantime, Maxima refused to have anything to do with him. Both Maxima
and Doniinong were guilty of hokwit in this case. Maxima's conduct was con-
Bidered especially reprehensible, since she was a binawit in the house of Ananayo 's
father (see sec 14).
95. Punishment of adultery. — In both luktap and hoi- wit, the
offending spouse and the lover (or mistress) are equally guilty. Each
is equally liable to punishment. However, the offended spouse may,
if he chooses, forgive the offending spouse without forgiving""1he
partner in crime. This frequently happens. A wife is more likely
to forgive than is a husband.
The adulterer when taken in delicto is sometimes punished by
death. The offended spouse is justified by public opinion in adminis-
tering this punishment to a considerably greater degree than our laws
in the United States would justify him. Several stories are told of
persons caught in the commission of this crime who were impaled by
a single spear thrust, fit should be stated that the kin of those killed
for this crime rarely look upon the killing as justified, and often avenge
it. They take the stand that the offended spouse ought to have
demanded the usual fine: that if this had not been immediately forth-
coming, no one would have questioned the propriety of the killing.
On the other hand, the kin of the offended spouse taKo tne ground,
and it may be said that in general public opinion backs them in it,
that a self-respecting man could not well do otherwise than kill "the
offender, «"'] that +^ ^"l'^»g "& '""1 ilmn^ing money would savor
too much of the mercenary.
It is to be noted that a sexual offense committed after the mommon
ceremony is punished by a small fine; that an offense committed after
74 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Etlin. [Vol.15
the imbango or Jiingot ceremonies is punished by a larger fine, and
that an offense committed after the bubun ceremony is punished by
what to the Ifugao is a very large fine. These fines are diagramed
Ifugao fashion in sec. 75. Hokivit, aggravated adultery, is punished
by twice the greatest fine demanded in the case of simple adultery,
luktap.
Adultery being a very hard crime to prove, the Ifugao takes as
proof: (1) the confession of either party; (2) evidence that the
accused wilfully and intentionally placed themselves in such a posi-
tion or circumstances that the crime would be presumed by any
reasonable person to have been consummated. Thus, the sleeping of
the accused together at night in the absence of the spouse would be
sufficient evidence.
Both offenders must pay the fine demanded by the circumstances
to the offended party or parties. Thus, if both the offenders be mar-
ried, each must pay a fine to (a) his own offended spouse, and (b)
to the offended spouse of the partner in the crime. The pu-u of the
fine goes to the offended spouse — the rest to the kin of the offended
spouse. In addition to paying the fine, should the offender desire
to continue the marriage relation with his offended spouse, he must"
provide animals and other perquisites for a honga (general welfare
feast) in which the kin of both parties take part, and which is sup-
posed to start the spouses anew m domestic ha'1'iuuii.y and felicity,
and in all that the Ifugao considers prosperity, namely, abundance
of pigs, chickens, rice, and children.
96. Sex in relation to punishment for adultery. — Although the
punishment for adultery is the same for either sex, the likelihood of
the adulterer's being punished is much greater if the offender be a
woman than if he be a man. This is for the reason that men are more
jealous than women and less attached to their spouses, usually. A
great deal of adultery on the part of men goes unpunished. Most
women would rather not hear about the peccadillos of their husbands.
They do not want to take action unless it be forced upon them. But
once the matter is brought to their "official attention," they have to
take action in order to "save face." Women sometimes tell their
husbands "It would be all right for you to have a mistress if you
could only do so without my hearing of it." And when they learn
of some such offense on the part of their husbands, they sometimes
upbraid them, saying: "Oh, why didn't you do this thing in such a
way that I would not hear of it ? "
L919 | Barton : Ifugao Law 75
The husband, on the other hand, usually punishes, and often
divorces his offending wife.
Once an offense is known, it must be acted on. Otherwise, the
offended spouse is considered to be lacking in self respect. And
indeed I believe that the insult involved in adultery is more serious
than any other phase of the crime. The Malay's "face" is exceed-
ingly deal- to him.
THE TAKING OF LIFE
97. General considerations. — It is extremely difficult to unravel
the law, if there be a law, with respect to murder, executions, and
war. The Ifugao has no tribunals to sentence, and no government to
execute. He makes no declarations of war. Doubtless no two nations
or tribes of the world ever engaged in a warfare in which each did
not consider the other the aggressor, or at least, the offender. The same
is true with respect to feuds between families, which were almost as
numerous as the families themselves. In spite of the years of
American occupation during which comparative peace has prevailed,
these feuds still exist. We must substitute, however, for patriotism,
fraternal and filial love ; the sense of duty to the unavenged dead, love
of vengeance, and intense hatred engendered and justified by a well
learned catalogue of wrongs and assassinations inflicted on the family
by the enemy family. Once started, a blood feud was well nigh
eternal (unless ended by a fusion of the families by means of mar-
riage), for the reason that what was a righteous execution to one
family was a murder (usually treacherous) to the other.
Outside of manslaughter, to be treated of later, it may be stated as
a general tenet of Ifugao practice that the taking of a life must be
paid by a life. Considering, too, that a member of an Ifugao family
rarely if ever effected or accomplished any except the most ordinary
and elemental acts without previous consultation with his family, and
that nearly all killings were effected pursuant to a decision of a family
council, it was not without a fair show of reason that Ifugao law held
that a murder might be punished almost as well by the execution of
some member of the murderer's family as by the execution of the
murderer himself. For, if not principals in the commission of the
crime, other members of the family were at least accomplices or
accessories. Indeed Tfugao law held the whole family guilty, looking
upon the crime, quite correctly, as an offense for which the whole
family was responsible.
76 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
War, murder, and the death penalty exacted in execution of jus-
tice, in the Ifugao's society are so near each other as to be almost
synonymous terms. We have already seen that a capital execution
for crime is nearly always looked upon by the kin of the executed as
being a murder; it is retaliated by them, by what to them is a jus-
tifiable execution; but by what, to the killers, is considered as a
murder to be punished by another execution, and so on ad infinitum.
The Ifugao has one general law, which with a few notable excep-
tions he applies to killings, be they killings in war, murders, or execu-
tions, which public opinion would pronounce justifiable and legal.
\That law is : Alife must be paid by a life. Let us pass now to a con-
sideration of various classes of the takings of human life.
98. Executions justifiable by Ifugao law. — Public opinion or cus-
tom, or both, justify the taking of a life in punishment for the follow-
ing crimes: sorcery; murder; persistent and wilful refusal to pay
a debt when there is the ability to pay; adultery discovered in
flagrante; theft by one of a foreign district; refusal to pay a fine
assessed for crime or for injury suffered. But even though custom
and public opinion justify the administration of the extreme penalty
in these cases, the kin of the murdered man do not, in most cases, con-
sider the killing justified. There are innumerable circumstances that
complicate a given case. Was the sorcery proven or only suspected?
Was it a murder that the man committed ; or was he justified in the
killing? Would not the debtor have come to his right mind had
his creditor waited a little longer ; and did the creditor approach him
in the right way with reference to the debt? Did not the woman
make advances in the adultery case that no ^ejjzrespecting male couki
turn down.' Was not the indemnity assessed too large or otherwise
improper ; or did the injured party wait long enough for the payment ?
These and a thousand other questions may arise with respect to the
various cases.
If the death penalty be inflicted by persons of a foreign district,
it is sure to be looked upon as a murder.
/ At feasts and gatherings about the "bowl that cheers" and espe-
cially in drunken brawls, an unavenged killing, no matter what the
circumstances, is likely to be brought up as a reflection upon the
bravery or manhood of the living kin, and so urge them to the aveng-
ing of what was really a justified execution.
Murder, sorcery, and a refusal to pay the fine for adultery justify
/ the infliction of the death penalty even on a kinsman if he is not too
1919 j Barton : Tfugao Law 77
close a relative. An execution of one kinsman by another is not so
likely to be avenged as is justifiable execution by one outside the
family. This is in accordance with the principle of [fugao law:
Tin family must at all hazards l>< preserved.
99. Ft uds. — A feud is a series of takings of human life as venge-
ance, in which the heads may or may no1 be taken. There are some
hundreds of ways in which feuds may start. As a rule they begin with
a taking of life that is not justified in the eyes of the kin of him whose
life was taken. They may begin from a retaliation for a kidnapping
or even from an accidental killing. Feuds exist between neighboring
districts, or districts not far distant between which to a certain extent
ties of blood and marriage exist. It is exceedingly rare — if it ever
occurs — that entire villages or districts are involved. The feud is an
affair between families only. It consists of a series of vengeances
and ''returning of vengeances." Feuds may even start within the
district: but as a rule, they are short lived, being stopped by the
counsel of the influential. Feuds between districts are well nigh
interminable usually, but may come to an end by means of intermar-
riage or when one or two of the leaders of each family are afflicted by
certain diseases15 thought to be inflicted by certain deities that desire
the peace ceremony. As has been hitherto stated, each killing in a
feud is considered by the killers to be an entirely justifiable execution
in punishment of crime. The deities ^of war and justice are called to
witness that the debt is not yet paid. Contemporaneously, the kin of
the slain are calling on the same deities to witness that their family is
sorely afflicted; that no debt was owed the others; that no chickens
or pigs, or rice had been borrowed; that no theft or other crime had
been committed, and so on; yet, that innocent, they are being
slaughtered.
100. 117//-. — Before the American occupation, districts that were
far distant might be said to be continually at war with each other.
Tie' war was carried on as a series of head-takings. There was no
formal declaration of war. As a rule there were no large expeditions
to the enemy country, and heads were taken from ambush, on the out-
skirts of an enemy village or along much traveled paths. Women's
heads were taken in these exploits; hut not as a rule, in feuds. To
e lives taken in war, while no doubt the life of the actual head
taker was preferable, the life of any person of the enemy village mighl
be taken; just as in feuds, the life of any member of the enemy family
might be taken.
is Tuberculosis and persistenl cough (see sec. 141).
78 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
101. Head-taking. — Heads were not taken in the case of executions
for injury. In feuds within a district, heads were not taken. In feuds
between families of different districts, heads might or might not be
taken. Usually they were taken if there were no ties of kinship
between the districts. It should be emphasized, however, that there
was no definite boundary between districts, and consequently, no well-
defined line beyond which heads might be taken. Families from the
southern part of a district would take heads in territory from which
those in the northern part of the district would not take them. Heads
were always taken in the case of those killed in war, if circumstances
permitted.
102. Hibul or homicide. — The Ifugao law clearly recognizes several
grades of homicide.
(a) The taking of life when there is an entire absence of both intent and
carelessness. As for example, in the case already cited (see sec. 84), when a
party of hunters have a wild boar at bay. The boar, as there stated, charges
the most advanced of the hunters, and in retreating backwards, the latter jabs
one of his companions with the shod point of his spear handle. There is no
penalty for such a taking of life.
(6) The taking of life when there is clearly an absence of intent, but a
degree of carelessness. For example, a number of men are throwing spears
at a mark. A child runs in the way, and is killed. The penalty is a fine vary-
ing from one-third to two-thirds the amount of the full fine for homicide
according to the degree of carelessness.
(c) Intentional taking of the life of another, under the impression that he
is an enemy when in reality he is a co-villager or a companion. In case the
killer can make the family of the slain understand the circumstances, only a
fine is assessed. This fine is called labod. (See sec. 106.) If the killer be
unrelated to the slain, the full amount of the labod is demanded; if related,
the amount is usually lessened.
Example: Dumauwat of Baay was irrigating his fields at night. Some of
his companions told him that there were some head-hunters from an enemy
village near. In the darkness, Dumauwat encountered another man, Likyayu,
the betrothed of his daughter. He asked him who was there. On account of
the noise of water falling from the rice fields, Likyayu did not hear the inquiry,
and said nothing. Dumauwat speared him. Likyayu cried out. Dumauwat
recognized his voice, and carried him home. He furnished animals for sacrifice
to secure Likyayu 's recovery. Likyayu recovered. Had he died, Dumauwat
would have been called on for the full amount of the fine; but had Likyayu
been firmly engaged to Dumauwat 's daughter, that is, had the bango ceremony
been performed the full amount of the labod fine would not have been demanded,
since the relationship would have been an extenuating circumstance.
'(d) The taking of life by persons in a brawl or by an intoxicated or insane
person. In case the slain died before his slayer could agree to provide animals
for sacrifice, the latter would probably be killed by the kin of the slain if he
were of a foreign district. He might be killed if a non-related co-villager. He
would be fined the labod if a kinsman. He would probably go scot free if a
brother or uncle.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 79
Example: A of Longa became insanely drunk at a feast at the house of his
brother Gimbungan. Ee attempted to embrace the comely daughter of Gim-
bungan, his niece. Gimbungan tried to quiet him, and in so doing aroused his
ire. He drew back his spear menacingly, and in so doing pierced the girl —
who was at his back — with the shod point at the end. She died. A was
properly penitent when he sobered, and furnished animals for sacrifice. The
fine labod was not, however, demanded of him. This was about thirty-five or
forty years ago. Considerable feeling exists between the two branches of the
family to this day, owing to this occurrence.
The burden rests upon the slayer in the above cases to show that
the killing was accidental or that he was so drunk as to have utterly
lost his reason. The absence of a motive is a great help to him in this.
If he has ever had a serious altercation with the slain, in the absence of
controverting evidence, the presumption is likely to be that the killing
was intentional, and that he has been "feigning friendship in order to
kill by ugd (treachery)."
103. Attt nipt* to msmlt r. — An attempt on the part of an enemy of
another district on the life of a person is punishable by death. An
attempt by one of the same district may or may not be punished by
death ; in most cases peace would be arranged by mutual friends and
kinsmen. In such a case, he who made the attempt would be required
to furnish animals for a peace feast.
101. Wounding. — Wounds inflicted accidentally and without intent
or carelessness are not punished. In case the element of intent or care-
lessness be present, he who inflicts the wounds must furnish animals
for sacrifice, pay the wounded man and his kin a fine, and stand the
expense of a feast to make peace. The following is a typical list, for
the kadangyang (wealthy) class, of the expenses of animals for sac-
rifice and fine :
(a) First feast for the recovery of the wounded man, sacrifices to the war
deities: :i pigs at 15 pesos; 10 chickens at 1 peso; total 55 pesos.
(b) Second feast for recovery, the pinochla, or feast to cure wounds and
infections: 1 pig at 10 pesos; 2 chickens at 1 peso; 8 spear heads as fees of
priests at 25c; total 14 pesos.
In case the wounded man lives, the following fine is paid him and
his kin :
(c) Fine of two bdkid (two tens) amounting to 72 pesos; fee of thi
Jcalun, 10 pesos; total 82 pesos.
(f/) Peace-making ceremony: 1 pig at 15 pesos; other appurtenances of feast,
2 pesos; total 17 pesos.
10."). Special liability of thi givers of c<vtain feasts.— The givers of
uyauwe or hagabi feasts (glorified general welfare basts to which
80 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
great numbers of people come) are responsible for wounds or deaths
that occur at these feasts. When a man decides to initiate himself and
his wife into the ranks of the kadangyang by giving one of these feasts,
he appoints one of the old priests of his family to perform the tikman
ceremonies. These ceremonies are sacrifices to the various classes of
deities whose special function is the "tying up" of men's stomachs
and passions. Prayers are addressed to these deities that a little food
satisfy the guest that attends the feast, to the end that the giver be
not eaten out of house and home; that a little rice wine suffice to
intoxicate the people ; that the passions of men be tied up to the end
that no quarrels or frays occur ; that no rice-wine jars or gongs be
broken; that no accidents occur — in short, that the whole feast pass
off smoothly. The duties of the manikam (the priest who performs
these ceremonies) are rather arduous. To say nothing of the cere-
monies he conducts, he must fast for a number of days and must ob-
serve a number of taboos. He receives rather a large fee for these
services. And, indeed, their importance, in the eyes of the Ifugaos,
and the legal responsibility he incurs, certainly justify a large fee.
The manikam priests are jointly responsible with the giver of the
feast for accidents or violence that may occur. This liability of the
giver of the feast for wounds or loss of life is based on the supposition
that if he had not given the feast the wound would not have occurred ;
and possibly that he gave the feast with the motive of bringing about
such an occurrence. The liability of the manikam is based on the
supposition that there must have been a remissness on his part in his
religious duties, else the accident or loss would never have occurred.
The following is an actual instance that would indicate that this
provision of the law is an incipient employer's liability provision.
Malingan of Pindungan, many years ago, gathered together his kin and
friends, performed the preliminary feasts, and went to Payauan to make a
hagabi (lounging bench, the insignium of the kadangyang class). They made a
very large hagabi that weighed nearly a ton. In helping to carry it across the
river two men were carried downstream by the current and drowned. Demand
was made on Malingan and the manikam of the feast for the labod fine (see
sec. 106). It was paid, and that is the reason Malingan 's descendants are not
wealthier today, for formerly Malingan was one of the wealthiest men of the
district.
It should be stated that brawls and accidents are much more
common in feasts of this character given in parts of Ifugao other than
the Kiangan-Nagakaran-Maggok area. This is due to the fact that
in the area named above only relatives and persons invited by relatives
1919]
Barton : Ifiu/ao Law
si
attend, while in other regions the event is not so exclusive. There
is the further consideration that in tins area, on the night before the
general drink-fest begins, an old man makes a speech in which he
tries to put the crowd assembled in a good humor, and in which he
warns each and every one to seize and hold any person who begins
to disgrace hospitality by unseemly brawling.
106. The labod. fine assessed for homicide. — This tine is paid to
the family of the slain. For the kadangyang, or wealthy class, the
full fine consists of ten portions or divisions, totaling 975 pesos in the
case tabulated below. These divisions may be briefly described as
follows :
The Labod Fine
1. Outlay for a famfira (general wel- The Jwnga .g performed by the
laie least). ^on nn man's kin as a means of preventing
(1) carabao 1*80.00 fhe recim.ence of sueh misfortunes in
W 6 P1^8 ou"uu the family. The animals are sacri-
Total 1*140.00 fictd t0 ail the deities-
H. Dangale (sacrifices at funeral
,, J e*st) : , &1 an nA The animals of this part of the fine
1 2 carabaos W2n2S are killed at the funeral feast of the
(2) 5 pigs 80.00 s]aiu_
Total 1*240.00
3. Gagaom (funeral shrouds): The clouts are to tie the (lend man
(1)' 8 death blankets 1*64.00 in the death chair: one about the
(2) 4 clouts 4.00 chest; one about the head; one about
(3) 1 ceremonial clout ... . 1.00 the shoulders; and one to tie on the
head and beak of the hornbill worn
Total 1*69.00 as a mark of rank. The ceremonial
clout is worn on the breech of the
corpse.
The corpse is wrapped and entombed
in the eight death blankets.
4. Habalap (hangings at funeral
feast) :
(1) 2 death blankets as
fee of the monkalun 1*16.00 The nine cheap blankets are dis-
(2) 9 maginlotan (cheap tributed among the man's kin.
death blankets) 36.00
Total 1*52.00
5. Mata-nti (his eyes):
(1) 1 gold neck-ornament
for left eye 1*80.00
(2) 1 gold neck-ornament
for right eye 80.00
Total 1*160.00
82 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
6. Putu-na (his belly): Articles listed under numbers 5 to 9
(1) 1 pango (string of inclusive, go to the dead man's heirs
beads) 1*120.00 and kin.
7. Puhu-na (his heart) :
(1) 1 guling (rice-wine
jar, small) 1*80.00
8. TJbuna-na (his seat) :
(1) 1 gong 1*80.00
9. Nunlidludagan (his place to lie):
(1) 2 death blankets P16.00
10. Hidit (peace-making) :
(1) 1 pig and other essen- For making peace with the family
tials of feast 1*18.00 of the slain.
Total 1*314.00
The rank of the slain has something to do with the amount of the
labod. The amounts given above are those that would be collected in
the case of the killing of a Kiangan man of the kadangijang class. If
the slain were a middle class or poor man the amounts would not be
so great.16 If the slayer were a middle class, or poor man, the amounts
above might be lessened somewhat, but not very much. If the slayer
be unable to pay, he is saddled with the rest as a debt. If he cannot
pay the debt during his lifetime, his children must pay it.
107. Accidental killing of animals. — The accidental killing of an
animal is not a crime. Sometimes even the value of the animal is not
demanded or accepted if tendered.
If a dog runs out threatening to bite a passer-by, and the latter
kills it, he is required to pay the value of the dog. If a dog bites a
passer-by, the latter may kill the dog and need not pay a fine. If
the dog bites him, and he does not kill it, he may demand a payment
from the owner. It was a provision of primitive Roman law that
"If an injury were done by a slave, the person injured had the right
to exact vengeance against the slave personally, thus injuring the
master 's property ; and the master or owner was consequently allowed
to prevent this vengeance by making compensation for the injury
done."17
Should a pig, at that period of the year when rice is stacked below
the granary to dry out, enter through the fence and eat of the rice, it
may be killed by the owner of the granary ; but he must give the
owner another pig in place of it. Such a killing is not considered
io Compare the practice of our Saxon forefathers among whom the ' ' life of
a king 's thane was worth 1200 shillings, while that of a common free man was
valued only a sixth as high, ' ' and that of a slave at only his property valuation.
17 E. E. Cherry, The Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities (London,
1890). Dr. Cherry shows how masters' liability for injuries done by their
employees has arisen from this principle (pp. 4 ff.).
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law v;
malicious, for the pig was spoiling the "miraculous increase" of the
year's harvest.
A pig that enters a rice field and eats of the unharvested rice is
usually returned to the owner with the request that he tie the pig up.
Should it again enter the held, the damage it does must he paid for.
Should the owner refuse to pay this indemnity, and should the pig
again enter the held, the owner of the field would he likely to kill the
animal. The owner of the pig might consider such a killing malicious
and improper. Public opinion would sustain the owner of the held.
108. Malicious killing of animals. — This is a serious crime. Its
seriousness is due partly to the fact that domestic animals are to a
great extent considered members of the household and as such loved
and protected, and further to the fact that the intentional and mali-
cious killing of such a member of a household would have a tendency
to bring a like fate on the human members thereof, owing to the
mystic power and force of analogy.
A labod fine is demanded for the malicious killing of a pig. The
fine, in case a wealthy family is concerned, is as follows:
Labod Fixe for Malicious Killing of a Pig
1. The corpse of the dead pig is surrounded by living pigs, one on each side,
i.e., four pigs are exacted in return.
2. Dangale (see sec. 106) : 1 carabao. This animal is simply handed over, not
killed for a funeral as is the case when a human being is concerned.
:;. Gagaom (see sec. 106): 6 death blankets; 1 bai/ao (fancy blanket); 1 tin-
miir, (ceremonial clout); 4 clouts.
4. Habalag (see sec. 106) : precisely as in the case of a homicide.
5. Liica, fee of the morikalun, or go-between: 1 death blanket,
PUTTING ANOTHER IN THE POSITION OF AN ACCOMPLICE
109. Tin tokom, or fine for compromising another. — He who. vol-
untarily or involuntarily, puts another in the position of an accom-
plice, or in such a light that he might be regarded as being an accom-
plice in the commission of a crime, and so be liable to punishment as
such, must pay the person so injured a tine, called tokom. It may
almost he said that he who causes another person's name to be promi-
nently mentioned or bandied in connection with a crime must pay
this hue.
The following are instances in which a tokom would be demanded :
\ of another district comes to the house of B, and is received by B as a
guest While he is going home and while he is in the outskirts of the district
he is speared by C, a neighbor of B's or a resident of the same district. B
must force C to pay a toTcom.
84 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
B steals or illegally confiscates property belonging to A. C sees B in the
act. He demands a tokom — in this case it may be the bolo or spear that B is
carrying — and so puts himself "on record" as not having been an accomplice.
But he says nothing about the crime unless it come to light that he was a
witness of it. In this case he proves by the tokom that he received that he
had no connection with it. As a matter of practice it would seem that a gift
received from the thief would tend to lead the witness to conceal the crime.
A gives an uyauive feast. At the attendant drink feast B in a drunken brawl
kills C. A and the manikam D must demand a tokom from B in order to clear
their reputations.
The following is the amount of the tokom usually demanded in
the case of murder, head-hunting, or slaughter :
In case of the death of In case of the death of ±n case of the death of
a kadangyang a middle-class man a poor man
Honga Honga Honga
1 carabao 1*80.00 8 pigs ¥80.00 4 pigs 1*40.00
2 pigs 30.00 1 bakid 25.00 1 bakid 15.00
1 bakid 44.00
Total 1*105.00 Total ¥=55.00
Total ¥154.00
One who is put in a position in which a tokom is due him must
collect the tokom. It is not sufficient that he demand the payment
of it — he must enforce the payment. Otherwise he will be considered
by the kin of the injured as having been an accomplice, and liable to
punishment accordingly.
Should the culprit refuse to pay the tokom, the obligation rests
on those to whom the tokom is due to take the leading part in the
punishment of the crime. Thus, in the first example given above, if
C does not pay the tokom to B, the obligation rests on B more heavily
even than it rests on A's relatives to kill C, and so avenge A's death.
Should he not do this, he would be held liable to punishment by A's
relatives along with C.
Visitors came to the house of Timbuluy of Ambabag from the district of
Maggok. It was suggested that a contract of friendship and alliance be accom-
plished between Timbuluy and his Maggok visitors by means of the feast called
monbiyao. A day was appointed for this feast, and Binwag of Bolog was named
as the go-between in matters pertaining to the feast. These preliminaries
having been finished, the Maggok people started home. On the road they were
killed by some people from Wingian.
The following persons were under obligation to demand a tokom: Timbuluy,
whose guests they had been, and Binwag, the go-between. But the murderers
were poor people, while the murdered were wealthy. It would have been im-
possible for the murderers to have paid the tokom proper for having killed a
kadangyang. Consequently without any ado, Binwag killed one of the murderers,
and Timbuluy kidnapped one of the women folk of another.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 85
Timbuluy sold this woman to slavery in Nueva Vizcaya, receiving four
carahaos. He gave one carabao to each of the four villages Pindungan, Amba-
bag, Bango, and Baay — all in Kiangan valley — on the consideration that if the
people of Wingian retaliated by capturing a Kiangan woman in the open terri-
tory surrounding or adjacent to one of these villages, the people of that village
would collect the necessary sum and redeem the woman.
THEFT
110. Of theft iii general. — There is a considerable degree of dif-
ference in the severity with which theft is punished in different parts
of Ifugao. The following is the general law with respect to the thefi
of articles of medium or slight value :
Kadangyang chits: It is a general principle that true kadangyang do not
steal. However, it sometimes occurs, especially in the Kiangan-Maggok area,
that persons who have the right to claim this rank become needy. The rule for
the punishment of members of this class is: The kadangyang must return the
stolen thing, or, if it shall have been consumed, its equivalent in value, and must
entirely surround it with like things of equivalent value. This rule merely
amounts to the paying of five times the value of the stolen thing. He must
also pay a fee to the go-between.
Middle class: A thief of this class must return the stolen thing and ulpitan
it, i.e., place a like thing, or an equivalent value, on either side of it. He must
also pay a liwa fee to the go-between of the case.
Very poor: A thief of this class must repay the stolen article or its equivalent
value, tolcopna, and pay a fee to the go-between in the case.
In the case of the theft of heirlooms of great value, such as rice-
wine jars, or gansas, the thief must repay, besides the stolen articles,
their tokop, or equal, and in addition must furnish a certain number
of pigs or other articles of medium value. The following shows how
the Ifugao visualizes a payment of this sort.
The stolen article.
Its equal or equivalent.
Eonga, a full-grown pig.
Yubyub, a full-grown chicken.
Theft should not be confused with improper or illegal confiscation.
This latter is commonly effected by members of the kadangyang class.
It is punished in much the same way as theft, but is not so disgraceful.
A thief discovered in delicto is likely to be punished by death if
the thief be of a different district. If not punished by death, tin'
culprit is caught and tied and kept prisoner until his kin in the other
district pay the fine demanded. This fine, needless to say, is some-
what larger than would ordinarily be assessed for the crime. If a
86 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
member of the home district be caught in an unaccomplished theft,
the case is not altered in any way from an ordinary, consummated
theft.
111. Tit eft of rice from a granary. — The theft of rice is consider-
ably more serious than would be theft of any other article of equal
value, because it ruins the miraculous increase of the rice that the
Ifugao as well as all other Malay tribes in these islands so thoroughly
believe in. If the thief confesses and shows himself docile, he may
wipe out his guilt with the following payment :
Hulul-na, 1 large pig, payment of the stolen rice.
Eonga, 1 large pig and 1 large chicken, for granary feast to secure return
of the miraculous increase.
If, however, the accused persistently deny his guilt, he is chal-
lenged to an ordeal. If by this he is proven guilty, he is fined one bakid
or one ' ' ten ' ' — in Kiangan about thirty pesos — in addition to the pay-
ment above. If he refuse to submit to the ordeal, he is adjudged guilty,
and has to make the same payments as if he had submitted to the ordeal
and had been adjudged guilty. The fee of the monhalun is included
in, and is not additional to, the bakid in this case.
112. Theft of unharvested rice. — In a case of this sort, the amount
of rice stolen can be determined by estimating it from the number of
headless stalks. The punishment is:
The return of the stolen rice or its equivalent value.
A full-grown pig for the owner's harvest feast.
The fee for the monlcalun.
113. Illegal confiscation. — What the Ifugao recognizes as legal
confiscation is treated below under Procedure, sections 134 to 138.
The following is a case of illegal confiscation in the district of Banaue.
A owes B a debt, which he persistently refuses to pay. Both men are of the
Tcadangyang class. B is somewhat afraid of A, or for some reason cannot or
does not dare collect the debt according to the ordinary mode of procedure.
He accordingly runs away with a valuable rice-wine jar belonging to A, leaving
nothing behind to show who tool' it.
B finds out who ran away with his jar. He pays the debt he owes B. if it
be truly owed, and demands the following from him for his improper procedure:
The return of the stolen jar.
Another one like it, or an equivalent of some sort.
A gong as a dalag (fine for illegal confiscation).
A large pig for a honga (general welfare feast).
A kettle worth five pesos called habale (pegs on which house charms are
hung) .
1919] Barton : Ifugao Law 87
4 yards of brass wire. This paymenl is called nundopa, referring to the
jumping down of the culprit when he carried oft' the jar.
Death blanket with which to carry jar home.
If B, when he ran away with the jar, had left behind his scabbard or bolo
or some other of his belongings to show his identity, the above would have been
a case of legal confiscation, and not punishable.
[llegal confiscation lacks the elements of disgrace that theft carries
with it, and, in the mind of the confiscator and his relatives at least,
is justifiable. It may be that it is for this very reason that this crime
is punished more severely than ordinary theft.
ARSON
114. Fines assessed for goba or arson. — One caught in the act of
setting fire to a house or granary would be likely to be killed on the
spot. Should he consummate the act and escape, demand would
probably be made upon him and his kin for two granaries full of rice
and for the animals necessary to consecrate them by the usual feasts.
This would be the probable punishment. The crime of arson is rare,
and consequently there is no penalty or restitution well defined by
law. The punishment might be death, or the kidnapping and selling
into slavery of a member of the culprit's family, or a fine as above.
Which of these it would be would depend very much on the personality
of the injured party.
KIDNAPPING
115. Circumstances under which kidnapping may occur. — If per-
formed to cover a debt for which payment had been repeatedly de-
manded, or to cover an injury for which a proper fine had been
repeatedly demanded in due form, kidnapping was a legal seizure,
although the victim and his kindred might not consider it so.
But there were a good many cases in which the kidnapper's motive
was utterly different. He might wish, for example, to display his
valor, or to profit financially by the sale of his captives. Sometimes,
too, a head-hunting party, failing to get a head, would capture a
woman and carry her back with them to their village. In some parts
of Ifugao the woman was ravished for a period of five days by the
party of head-hunters. She was then sold into slavery.
The penalty inflicted by the kin of the kidnapper was cither death
or retaliation by kidnapping.
88 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
INCEST
116. Rarity of such offenses. — Incest is a very rare crime in Ifugao.
It seems to be becoming more frequent, for there has undoubtedly
been a growing laxity in morality ever since the establishment of
foreign government. A case recently occurred in Mongayan, in which
a father, on humane grounds as he put the matter to her, deflowered
his own daughter. This case was not punished.
EAPE
117. Both parties being unmarried. — The unmarried Ifugaos, from
earliest childhood, are accustomed to collect in certain houses, using
them as dormitories. Usually both sexes sleep together in these dor-
mitories. Naturally, too, there is a great deal of sexual intercourse
each night, for sexual intercourse takes the same place among the
Ifugaos that embraces and kisses do in the courtship of some other
peoples. The nature of the female human being, says the Ifugao, is
to resist the advances of the male. He naively points out that the
hens, the cows, and, in fact, the females of any species resist the male
in this respect, notwithstanding they may be quite as anxious for the
sexual act as the male himself. It is so with women, he says. It is con-
sidered shocking in some sections of Ifugao for a girl to yield herself to
her lover the first time without resistance. This idiosyncracy of fem-
inine nature being a fact, it is sometimes difficult to be certain as to
whether the resistance offered by a girl is bona fide or not — as to
whether she is willing for the sexual act to occur, half willing, or en-
tirely opposed to it. There may or may not be doubt in the mind of the
male— usually there is none— but friends of the girl, by distorting or
by putting a slightly different interpretation on what occurred, could
make a case of rape in the white man's courts out of almost any of
these common events. Furthermore, a girl on the advice of her
parents, were such a rape punishable by fine, might and frequently
would, entice some youth into forcing her, in order that her family
might benefit financially.
Consequently if a girl be "caught" in a sleeping house by a youth
who habitually sleeps there, the Ifugaos do not look upon it as a case
of rape, even though force be used. By following this principle a
great many questions and "put-up-jobs" are avoided. If a girl be
seized and raped by one who does not habitually sleep in or frequent
1919] Barton : Ifugao Law 89
the girl's dormitory, and the evidence establishes a case of bona fide
resistance on the part of the girl, a fine of "six" is assessed against
the raptor as follows:
Very poor
Kddangyang
class
Middle da
ss
Death blanket
1*8.00
Cooking pot
1*2.00
Cooking pot
2.00
Natauwinan
1.00
Natauwinan
1.00
Natauwinan
1.00
Natauwinan
1.00
X it a hail i
.40
NatuJcu
.50
Nunbadi
.40
Natuku
.50
Na-oha
Total
.25
Total,
1*13.00
, 1*5.05
Cooking pot
1*2.00
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Na-oha
.25
Total
, 1*3.25
It will be noted that the above are very light fines. In some parts
of Ifugao they would be considerably higher — notably in the Silipan
country.
The committing of the crime of rape in broad daylight, as, for
example, the "catching" of a woman in a camote field, constitutes an
aggravating circumstance. Such a rape as that punishable by a fine
of "six" above would be punishable by a fine of "ten" of a value for
the three classes respectively of about thirty-two pesos, sixteen pesos,
and eight pesos, if committed in broad daylight. This is owing to the
greater "shame" which the woman feels on account of the unwonted
hour.
118. Rape of a married woman by an unmarried man. — This is a
serious offense. It is punishable by a fine equivalent to twice the fine
assessed for luktap, or unaggravated adultery. One-half of this fine
goes to the husband of the outraged woman and his kin and one-half
to the woman and her kin.
119. Rape of a married woman by a married man. — This is a case
still more serious for the offender, since in addition to paying the
afore-mentioned fine, he must pay to his own wife an additional fine
as penalty for luktap.
MA-HAILYU OR MINOR OFFENSES
Minor tines are punishable by fines called hailyu. The rape of
an unmarried woman by an unmarried man, considered in the pre-
ceding section in connection with the more serious forms of rape, is a
minor crime.
120. False accusation. — He who accuses another falsely or he who,
accusing another of crime, challenges him to an ordeal which ordeal
proves the accused to be innocent, must pay the following fine :
90
University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
H
Kadangyang
One bakid
2 death blan-
kets
Cooking pot
Cooking pot
Natauwinan
Natauwinan
Natauwinan
ailyu Paid b
class
(ten)
1*16.00
5.00
2.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
.60
.40
y the Accuser to the F^
Middle class
One bakid (ten)
1 death blanket 1*8.00
1 cooking pot 5.00
1 cooking pot 2.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan .60
Nuntuku .60
Nunbadi .40
Na-oha .25
llsely Accused
Very poor
One onom (six)
1 death blanket 1*8.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natauwinan 1.00
Natuku .60
Natuku .60
Na-oha .40
Natauwinan
Nuntuku
Nunbadi
Total, 1*11.60
Total, 1*18.85
Fee of go-between:
iron pot of value of
1*5 included above.
1*28.00
Fee of go-between:
1 death blanket 8.00
Fee of go-between:
one natauwinan in-
cluded above.
Total, 1*36.00
The amount of the fine depends to a great extent on the seriousness
of the offense of which one is accused.
/ 121. Baag or slander. — This offense is punishable by a somewhat
smaller fine than that above. The following is an instance to illustrate
what trivial statements may be considered as slanders. At an uyauwe
feast Bahni of Tupplak made remarks derogatory to Bumidang of
Palao, the principal of which was to the effect that Bumidang would
never have been a kadangyang had it not been for the fees that he
received from the Palao people for acting as go-between in buying
back the heads of their slain from their Silepan enemies. Bumidang
considered this as slander, and seized a carabao belonging to Bahni,
holding it until payment of the fine assessed for insult was made.
122. Threats of violence. — Ongot, or threat, is punished by about
the same fine as slander.
123. Insult. — The saying to another person of anything reflecting
on his honor, prestige, or rank ; the use of abusive language to an
equal or superior ; insinuations as to improper relations with kins-
women ; improper language and behavior in the presence of people of
opposite sexes who are related to each other within the forbidden
degrees; breaking of various taboos — all of these constitute insults,
and are punishable by a fine varying in size from the fine for slander
to that for false accusation.
There exist a considerable number of taboos, for breaking of which
a penalty is exacted.
First. There are taboos relating to exogamy. In the presence of
male and female kin that are of the degrees within which marriage is
forbidden it is taboo: (a) to look fixedly at the woman's breasts or
19 ];t] Barton: Ifugao Load 91
hips; (6) to speak of the dormitory of the unmarried; (c) to mention
the love affairs of an unmarried couple except most guardedly • (d) to
breakjvinjJU (e) to blackguard; (/') to play the bikong, lover's harp.
Matters connected with sex must not be referred to unnecessarily;
whenever it is necessary to refer to them, the most delicately veiled
euphemisms must be used. Thus an unborn babe must be called "the
friend"; the placenta must be termed a "blanket"; the short plank
that constitutes the Ifugao 's bed must be designated as a "level";
even an egg must be referred to as a "soft stone" or "stone of the
chickens." It is a very grave insult, knowing two people to be of
the forbidden degrees of kinship, to ask them if they are married.
Even if asked in ignorance of the kinship, such a question is considered
to show exceeding ill breeding. On my first arrival among the Ifugaos
I was several times made to feel like a boorish lout by having asked
the question of the wrong people. I then hit upon the scheme of
asking two people if they were brother and sister before asking if
they were married. This, however, was equally a faux pas in case the
two were husband and wife, since to the Ifugao it amounted to asking
a man if he had married his sister. I then learned to do as a well-
bred Ifugao does in such eases : to observe and deduce from the con-
duet of the two what their relationship might be. This was never a
difficult matter.
Second. Acts which savor of adultery are tabooed. Among such
are the intentional touching of the body of a married woman. If a
man meets a married woman on a rice-field dike, the proper thing for
him to do is to step off into the mud and water and let her pass. He
may not grasp her body in order to squeeze past her and thus avoid
stepping into the water. It is forbidden, too, to enter a house in which
a married woman is alone.
Third. It is taboo, knowing a person to be dead, to ask his sons
or near kin if he is dead.
Fourth. Certain acts are believed to be injurious to others because
they are bad in their magic influence. Thus trying to collect a debt
when a member of the debtor's household is ill is taboo. The penalty
for this act is the loss of the debt, be it large or small. It is believed
that any subtraction from the sick person's or his family's possessions
is bound to react injuriously on his health.
Passing near or through a field of rice in a foreign district during
harvest is taboo, because it is a disturbing factor and interferes with
the miraculous increase.
92 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
PROCEDURE
THE FAMILY IN EELATION TO PEOCEDUEE
124. Family unity and cooperation. — The mutual duty of kinsfolk
and relatives, each individual to every other of the same family,
regardless of sex, is to aid, advise, assist, and support in all contro-
versies and altercations with members of other groups or families.
The degree of obligation of the various members of a family group
to assist and back any particular individual of that group is in direct
proportion: first, to the kinship or the relationship by marriage;
second, to the loyalty the individual in question has himself mani-
fested toward the family group, that is, the extent to which he dis-
charges his obligations to that group.
The family is without any political organization whatever. It is
a little democracy in which each member is measured for what he is
worth, and has a voice accordingly in the family policy. It is a
different body for every married individual of the whole Ifugao tribe.18
There are a great many relationships that complicate matters. An
Ifugao 's family is his nation. The family is an executive and a
judicial body. Its councils are informal, but its decisions are none
the less effective. The following rules and principles apply to the
family and to individuals in the matter of procedure.
Brothers of the blood can never be arrayed against each other.
They may fall out and quarrel, but they can never proceed against
each other. This is for the reason that their family is identical (before
marriage at least), and a family cannot proceed against itself.
Cousins and brothers of the half-blood ought never to be arrayed
against each other in legal procedure. In case they should be so
arrayed, the mutual kin try to arrange peace. Only in the event of
serious injuries may a cousin with good grace and with the approval
of public opinion collect a fine from another cousin, and even then
he should not demand as much as from a non-related person. In the
case of minor injuries he should forego punishing his kindred. The
following is an example:
is Thus A and B, two brothers, are members of the same family until they
marry. After marriage A 's family consists of his blood kin and of his relatives
by marriage, and the same holds of B's family. Thus after marriage only half
the individuals of the families of the two brothers are identical. The families
of two cousins are identical as to one-half the component individuals before
their marriage and as to one-fourth of the component individuals after their
marriage.
1919] Barton: If ugao Law 93
A steals some rice from his cousin B. Theft and thief become known. A
takes no steps against the thief; hut A 's wife cannot overlook it — ami the
injury was an injury to her as much as to r\. Her kin take the matter up.
They' collect half the usual indemnity for their kinswoman. A foregoes his half
of the indemnity.
Ill eases of minor injury, procedure against more distant kin is
frowned on, but sometimes occurs.
It is the duty of mutual, equally related relatives and kin to try
to arrange peace between opposing kin or relatives.
In the event of procedure on the part of one kinsman against
another, those who are related to both take sides with him to whom
they are more closely related. Besides blood relationship, there is
marriage relationship oftentimes to make it a very complex and diffi-
cult problem for a man to decide to which opponent his obligation
binds him. This is most frequently the case among the remoter kin.
A man Avho finds himself in such a position, and who knows that on
whichever side he may array himself he will be severely criticized by
the other, becomes a strong advocate of compromise and peaceful
settlement.
In case a kinsman to whom one owes loyalty in an altercation is
in the wrong and has a poor case, one may secretly advise him to
compromise ; one must never openly advise such a measure. One may
secretly refuse him assistance and backing — one must never oppose
him.
One owes no obligation in the matter of procedure to another
merely because he is a co-villager or inhabitant of the same district.
The obligation to aid and assist kinsmen beyond the third or fourth
degree is problematic, and a question into which elements of personal
interest enter to a great extent. One of the greatest sources of the
power of the principal hadangyang lies in their ability to command
the aid of their remote kin on account of their prestige and wealth and
ability to dispense aid and favor.
There is also a class, small in number, corresponding somewhat to
the "clients" of the chiefs of the ancient Gauls. This body is com-
posed of servants who have grown up in the service and household of
a master, and who have been well treated, and in times of need sus-
tained and furnished with the things needful to Ifugao welfare;
another division consists of those who habitually borrow or habitually
rent from one who stands in the nature of an overlord to them. This
class is most numerous in districts where most of the lands are in the
hands of a few men. The duty of the clients to their lord and of their
94 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
lord to them seems to be about the same as those duties have always
been in a feudal society ; that is to say, the duty of rendering mutual
aid and assistance.
The first Step in anv legal proserin re is to n.onsnlt. with one's kin
and relatives. In initiating steps to assess a fine or collect an in-
demnity, the next step is the selection of a monkalun.
THE MONKALUN OR GO-BETWEEN
125. Nature of his duties. — The office of the monkalun is the most
important one to be found in Ifugao society. The monkalun is a
whole court, completely equipped,, in embryo. He is indge. prose-
cuting and defending counsel, and the court record.19 His duty and
his interest are for a peaceful settlement. He receives a fee, called
lukoa or liwa. To the end of peaceful settlement he exhausts every
art of Ifugao diplomacy He wIippHIps """vw flo+fru^ |i,vPri|»Tr f
drives, scolds,. insinuates. He beats down the demands of the plain-
tiffs or prosecution, and bolsters up the proposals of the defendants
until a point be reached at which the two parties may compromise.
If the culprit or accused be not, disposed to listen T6 l'easmi ancT runs
away or "shows fight" when approached, the monkalun waits till f.ne
former ascends into his house, follows him, and, war-knife in hand,
sits in front of him and compels him to listen.
The monkalun should not be closely related to either party in a
controversy. He may be a distant relative of either one of them.
The monkalun has no authority. All that he can do is to act as a
peace making go-between. His only power is in his art of persuasion,
his tact and ins skiiiiiu playing on human emotions and motives.
"Were he closely related to the plaintiff, he would have no influence
with the defendant, and mutatis mutandis the opposite would be true.
Ultimately in any state the last appeal is to a death-dealing weapon.
For example, in our own society a man owes a debt which he does
not pay. Action is brought to sell his property to pay the debt. If
he resists, he is in danger of death at the hands of an agent of the
law. Much more is he in danger if he resists punishment for crime.
The same is true in the Ifugao society. The lance is back of every
demand of importance, and sometimes it seems hungry.
lf) The word monkalun conies from the root Tcalun, meaning advise. The Ifugao
word has the double sense, too, of our word advise, as used in the following
sentences, ' ' I have the honor to advise you of your appointment ' ' and ' ' I
advise you not to do that."
1919 | Barton : Ifugao Law 95
An [fugao's pride as well as his self-interest— one mighl almosl
say his self-preservation — demands thai he shall roll. -el debts that are
owed him, and that he shall punish injuries or crimes against himself.
Did he not do so he would become the prey of his fellows. No one
would respect him. Let there be but one debt owed him which he
makes no effort to collect; let there be but one insult offered him that
goes unpunished, and in the drunken babbling attendant on every feast
or soeial occasion, he will hear himself accused of cowardice and called
a woman.
On the other hand, self-interest and self-respect demand that the
accused shall not accept punishment too tamely or with undue haste,
and that he shall not pay an exorbitant fine. If he can manage to
beat the demands of the complainant down below those usually met
in like cases, he even gains in prestige. But the monkalun never lets
him forget that the lance has been scoured and sharpened for him, and
that he walks and lives in daily danger of it.
The accuser is usually not over anxious to kill the accused. Should
he do so, the probabilities are that the kin of the accused would avenge
the death, in which case he, the slayer, would be also slain. The kin
of each party are anxious for a peaceable settlement, if such can be
honorably brought about. They have feuds a-plenty on their hands
already. Neighbors and co-villagers do not want to see their neighbor-
hood torn by internal dissension and thus weakened as to the conduct of
warfare against enemies. All these forces make for a peaceful settle-
I ment.
It is the part of the accused to dally with danger for a time, how-
ever, and at last to accede to the best terms he can get, if they be
within reason.
TESTIMONY
126. Litigants do not confront < ach other. — From the time at which
a controversy is formally entered into, the principals and their kin
are on a basis of theoretical— perhaps I ought to say religious— enmity.
A great number of taboos keep them apart. Diplomatic relations
between the two parties have been broken off and all business per-
taining to the case is transacted through the third party, the monkalun.
He hears the testimony that each side brings forward to support its
contention. Through him each controversant is confronted with the
testimony of the other. It is greatly to the interest of the monkalun
to arrange a peaceful settlement, not only because he usually receives
96 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
a somewhat larger fee in such case, but because the peaceful settlement
of cases in which he is mediator builds up a reputation for him, so
that he is frequently called and so can earn many fees. To the end
of arranging this peaceful settlement, the monkalun reports to each
party to the controversy the strong points of the testimony in favor
of the other party, and oftentimes neglects the weaknesses.
There are no oaths or formalities in the giving of testimony.
OKDEALS
/
127. Cases in which employed. — In criminal cases in which the
accused persistently denies his guilt, and sometimes in ease of disputes
over property the ownership of which is doubtful, and in cases of
disputes over the division line between fields, ordeals or trials are
resorted to. The challenge to an ordeal may come from either the
accuser or the accused. Refusal to accept a challenge means a loss
of the case, and the challenger proceeds as if he had won the case.
If the accused comes unscathed from the ordeal, he has the right
to collect from his accuser the fine for false accusation.
If two people mutually accuse each other, panuyu, they are both
tried by ordeal. If both be scathed, they are mutually responsible
for the indemnity to the injured person. If only one be scathed, he
is responsible for the indemnity to the injured person and for a pay-
ment of the fine for false accusation to the one whom he accused.20
128. The hot water ordeal. — A pot, a foot or more in depth, is filled
with water and heated to a furious boiling. A pebble is dropped
into it. The accused must reach his hand into the water without
undue haste, extract the pebble, and then replace it. Undue haste is
interpreted as a confession of guilt. This ordeal is used in certain
sections of Ifugao, while in others the hot bolo test is used. It is
interesting to note that neither of them is efficacious in determining
accusations of adultery. This is for the reason that the gods of animal
fertility and growth do not permit an accused to receive an injury
20 When a crime such as theft has been committed, and it cannot be deter-
mined from any evidence at hand who was the culprit, the injured person
frequently resorts to the hapud. One form of this ceremony consists in placing
an egg or areca nut on the edge of a knife or the bevel of a spear and repeating
the prayers necessary to make the egg or areca nut balance and stand on end
at the mention of the guilty person. Another form consists in spanning an
agba stick. At the mention of the guilty person the stick grows longer, as
revealed by its length in relation to the span of the priest. These sticks are
kept for generations. Many of them are over a hundred years old. These
ceremonies are not of virtue as evidence and are entirely without the pale of
Ifugao procedure. They are of value only to the injured person in assisting
him to determine who has committed the crime.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 97
for that act which is so eminently useful in their particular sphere of
activity. Thus, [fugao religion looks with the greatest disfavor upon
things which tend to restrict population, just as our law frowns upon
statutes in restriction of marriage.
129. The hot bolo ordeal. — In this, if two persons mutually accuse
each other, their hands are placed side by side. The monkalun lowers
a hot knife on their hands. The knife burns the guilty person much
more seriously than the guiltless one. If only one person be put to
the test, it is said that the knife bends away from the hands of an
innocent person. The monkalun, with all his might, it is said, cannot
put the knife down on the hand: the gods of war and justice will
not permit it. But if the person be guilty, the knife grips the hand
in its eagerness. If the accused show fear and try to withdraw, the
kin of the accuser may catch him and burn him well. I know a man
whose fingers were burned off in this way, the thumb adhering to and
coalescing with the palm.
130. The alao or duel.— Eggs, runo stalks, or spears are used in
trials, the accused facing each other and, at the word of the monkalun,
hurling their missiles. The duel is not without its dangers. Even
though eggs or runos be used, the one struck is likely to return a
stone ; and from throwing stones to throwing spears is an easy step.
The two parties of kin are likely to take a hand. How much more
likely are they to take a hand and avenge their kinsman if spears be
the missiles and he be wounded !
The duel is used in cases of adultery, sorcery, and in some disputes
over rice fields, everywhere in Ifugao. In adultery cases, only eggs
are used in the duel.
131. Trial by bultong or wrestling. — This ordeal is used throughout
Ifugao, preeminently to settle cases of disputed rice-field boundaries.
The Ifugao clearly recognizes that the processes of nature — land-
slides, the erosion of rainfall in wet weather, and caking and crumb-
ling in dry weather— tend to wear away a terrace not maintained
by a stone wall. A terrace maintained by a stone wall is a rarity in
the Kiangan district. Should the boundary not be well marked by
paghok (see sec. 43) a dispute is nearly sure to result sooner or later.
These disputes are usually settled by wrestling matches. The wrest-
ling matches are usually friendly. The Ifugao believes that the an-
cestral spirits of the controversants know which party is in the right,
that they know just where the true boundary is, and that they see
to it that he who is right shall win, provided always that they be
98 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
invoked with the proper sacrifices ; and that they ' ' hold up ' ' even the
weaker of the wrestlers, and cause him to win, provided his cause he
just. Notwithstanding this belief, the people are sufficiently practical
to demand that the wrestlers be approximately evenly matched. The
owners of the adjacent fields may themselves wrestle, or they may
choose champions to represent them. Between kinsmen these matches
are presumably friendly ; and only sacrifices of dried meat are offered
the ancestral spirits. But between those not related, there is often a
great deal of unfriendly feeling. In this latter case numerous chickens
and two or three pigs are sacrificed, and ceremonies like those against
enemies are performed.
On the appointed day the two parties meet at the disputed boun-
dary and occupy opposite ends of the disputed land. A party of
mutual kin follows along and occupies a position midway between the
adversaries. With each party is one of the family priests. Taking
betels and dried meat (presuming the contest to be a friendly one)
from a head-basket, the priest prays very much as follows : ' ' Come,
Grandfather Eagle, Grandfather Red Ant, Grandfather Strong Wind,
Grandfather Pangalina; come, Grandmother Cicada, Grandmother
Made Happy, Grandmother Ortagon; come, Grandfather Gold, etc.
[throughout a list of perhaps a hundred ancestors]. Here are betels
and meat ; they are trying to take our field away from us. And was
it here, Grandmother Grasshopper, that the boundary of the field was ?
No, you know that it was a double arm's length to the right. Hold
us up, you ancestors, in order that we may be the wearers of gold
neck-ornaments ; in order that we may be the ones who give expensive
feasts. Exhort [here the priest names over the gods of war and
justice] to hold us up. Was it here, Grandfather Brave, that the
boundary was when you bought the field ? Do not let them take our
land away from us, for we are to be pitied. We are sorely tried ! ' '
After the prayers of the priests, each champion is led by one of
his kinsman to the place where the first wrestling is to occur. This
leading is very ceremoniously done, and suggests the heralding of the
champions in feudal days. The dike of the upper terrace has been
cleaned off at intervals of fifteen to twenty-five feet in order that the
owner of the upper field may have no advantage. The champions
frequently work themselves down half-thigh deep in rice-field mud,
water, and slime. Catching fair and even holds, they begin to wrestle,
encouraged each by the shouts and cries of his kinsmen and by the
calling of the old men and old women on the spirits of the ancestors.
1919] Barton : Tfugao Law 99
Each wrestler tries to push his opponent into the territory thai thai
opponent is defending and to down him there. It' A throws B in
P>'s field, ten feet from the line on which they wrestle, A wins ten
feet of the rice field at that point. Finally, there is a fall that more
than likely capsizes one or both of them in the black mud. One point
in the boundary is determined. Frequently the lower terrace is eight
or ten feet lower than the upper one, hut there are no injuries for
the reason that the mud is at least two feet deep and is a soft place
in which to fall.
At every fifteen or twenty feet along the disputed boundary there
is another wrestling match. Sometimes the champions are changed.
The new boundary runs through every point at which there has been
a fall.
/ 132. The umpire <tn<l the decision. — The morikalun is the umpire
in trials by ordeal. He interprets undue haste or a faulty perform-
ance as a confession of guilt. On the day following the trial by fire
or hot water he goes to the house of the accused and examines the
hand and forearm. If he finds white inflamed blisters, he pronounces
him guilty. In the case of a duel, he pronounces the one struck by
the missile guilty. The Ifugaos believe that the gods of war and justice
turn missiles aside from the innocent in these duels. For the umpire
to be manifestly unfair, would be for him seriously to imperil his
own life.
As a matter of fact, a person whose skin is rough, dry, and horny
has a great advantage in these ordeals. Since sword climbing and
the walking on hot stones and live coals have occurred in other parts
of the world, it would seem that a question might be raised whether
state of mind, or other factors as yet unexplained, may not enter these
affairs.
EXECUTION OF JUSTICE
133. Retaliation. — In the case of lives lost in feuds, sorcery, mur-
ders, and head-hunting, capital punishment inevitably follows, pro-
vided the kin of the slain be sufficiently daring to execute it.
Capital punishment is the rule, and is almost invariably inflicted
in cases of the refusal to pay proper fines, for which demand has been
made in correct form, and after a reasonable length of time has been
given in winch to raise the sum demanded, in punishment of adultery,
manslaughter, the putting of another in the position of an accomplice
in case of murder or death in feud, or for wounds, provided the culprit
be not a kinsman or person closely related by niarriage. Rarely would
100 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
there be much trifling in the infliction of this penalty. Seizure of
something of sufficient value to cover the fine assessed might some-
times be made, except in the cases of adultery and manslaughter. To
practice seizure in the case of adultery — except when a kinsman were
the offender — would have the aspect of anxiety to profit by the pol-
lution of the wife 's body and might give rise to suspicion of conspiracy
on the part of husband and wife to bring about the crime in order to
profit financially. In the same way, a self-respecting family would
disdain to accept payment for the life of a kinsman except as a matter
of forbearance and mercy to the taker thereof. We have seen before
that unless the tokom be collected the injured person is in danger of
losing his own life should he not slay him from whom the tomok is due.
The crime of arson undoubtedly justifies the death penalty; but
it is so rare a crime that it is impossible to say what is the usual Ifugao
practice in punishing it.
The non-payment of a debt when there is the ability to pay it, and
after many and repeated demands have been made in the proper
manner for it, justifies the infliction of the death penalty.
Capital punishment is administered by the injured person and his
kin. In all cases it is fraught with the greatest danger to the inflicters.
Usually it is inflicted from ambush, although it may be a sudden
slaying in the heat of passion. The culprit is never notified that he
has been sentenced to death. The withdrawal of a go-between from
a serious case is, however, a pretty good warning. It has about the
same significance as the withdrawal of an embassy in an international
complication.
The infliction of a death penalty has been the starting point of
many an interminable feud between families. For this reason the
injured person exhausts every effort to effect a punishment in some
other way if any other punishment be consistent with his dignity and
respectability.
134. Seizure of chattels.— If a kinsman of remoter kinship than
I that existing between brothers commit a crime punishable by death,
1 except sorcery or murder, and obstinately refuse to pay the fine as-
sessed, seizure of his property or part of it is made.
Seizures are made from unrelated persons to cover fines due in
punishment of theft, malicious killing of animals, arson, and the minor
crimes, also to secure payment of a debt.
The following is a list of the things usually seized: gongs, rice-
Avine jars, carabaos, gold beads, rice fields, children, wives.
1919] Barton: If ugao Law 101
A seizure may be made by fraud or deceit, or it may be made in
the absence of the owner of his household, or it may be made by
superior force. Considering only the manner of the seizure, there is
but one law to be followed : the seizure must be made in such a manner
as to leave no doubt as to the identity of him who seizes. Thus if
B persistently refuses to pay a fine owed to A, A may go to B 's house
when there is nobody at home and may run away with a gong. If
he leaves his bolo, his scabbard, his blanket or some other personal
effect in the house as a sort of a visiting card, his seizure is legal.
Or A may go to B's house and, pretending friendship, borrow the
gong, representing that he wants to play it at a feast and, having
secured possession of it, refuse to return it till the fine be paid. Or
suppose that an agent of B's is bringing a carabao up from Nueva
Vizcaya, and that the agent has to travel through A's village. A
and his friends stop the agent and take the carabao away from him,
telling him to inform B that the carabao will be delivered to him when
the fine is paid. ,
There is a second kind of seizure, a seizure of the property of
some relative or kinsman of the culprit. The property of a wealthy
kinsman may be seized to cover a fine due from a poor kinsman who
has no property. This kind of seizure is more likely to lead to a
lance throwing than a seizure from the culprit himself. The danger
of such an ending increases with the remoteness of the kinship be-
tween the culprit and the person from whom the seizure is made.
A third kind of seizure is practiced against neighbors of delin-
quents who live in another district. Suppose a man B in one of the
districts to the west of Kiangan to have gone to Nueva Vizcaya (east
of Kiangan) and there to have purchased a carabao. He owes no
debts, nor have any fines been levied against him. He returns through
Kiangan, however, and his carabao is seized by A, a Kianganite. B
is informed that C, a resident of the same district as he, stole a pig
a year or two ago from A. The evidence against C is placed before
him in the minutest details. He is given thirty pesos as patang (inter-
es1 in advance I and told to collect from C the payment proper to the
case, and in addition the thirty pesos advanced as patang. When lie
makes these collections, and delivers them to A, he gets back his
carabao. If C is innocent of the crime charged, lie may kill A for
this, or he may do so even if guilty. More likely he kidnaps A's
wife or child and sells them for a ransom sufficiently great to repay B,
and leave a substantial surplus for himself. A may or may not
retaliate with the lance.
102 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
Iii quarrels between kadangyang (for their dignity is very dear
to them) and between persons of different districts or contrary parties,
it is more frequently than not the case that the thing seized is not
returned. Powerful individuals in a district are rather glad to have
a seizure made of their property, since they can nearly always manage
to come out winner in the finish. Thus in the case above, B, if a
powerful individual, probably collects two or even three carabaos or
their equivalent value from C, and besides he receives thirty pesos
patang. It would seem that the obligation rests on every Ifugao — not-
withstanding there is no political government — so to conduct himself
as not to involve his neighbors in trouble with individuals of inimical
or semi-inimical districts; and that should he so involve them, he is
liable to whatever punishment circumstance metes out to him.
In the case of altercations between individuals of different dis-
tricts, seizure of animals was generally practiced by persons of those
districts through which the road led to the region from which the
animals were imported. Of all districts, Kiangan was most advan-
tageously situated in respect to this matter ; since, for the greater part
of Ifugao-land, the road to Nueva Vizcaya (whence most of the
animals imported into Ifugao came) led through it.
.135. Seizure of rice fields. — The seizure of rice fields is practicable
only in case the fields are near the village of him who seizes them.
For if located in a distant district, the working of the field would be
extremely hazardous, and its protection and continuous holding
impossible.
Fields may properly be seized for collection of debt or for refusal
to pay fines or indemnities. Portions of fields are seized sometimes
in disputes as to ownership or boundaries.
Disputes over ownership and boundary come to a head during
spading time. One party begins to spade for the next year's crop
the land claimed by the other. The other party sticks up runos, tied
"ethics lock" fashion (alpud), along the line which he claims to be the
true boundary. The first party then pulls up these runos, and sticks
down others along the line claimed by it as the true boundary. The
issue is joined. The defendant has made his "rejoinder." A mon-
kalun is now selected by the plaintiff party, and tries to arrange —
and in case of disputed boundaries nearly always does arrange — a
means of peaceful settlement, either by compromise or through trial
by wrestling. Sometimes the ownership of a field itself is in question.
Usually the question is one of inheritance ; although there are a num-
L919] Barton : Ifugao Law L03
ber of other causes thai may give rise to dispute.21 Ownership is
usually peaceably settled by means of a wrestling match.
"We come now to those eases in which a field is seized for debt
as payment of a fine or indemnity. The plaint iff or prosecutor seizes
the field at spading time by planting runo stalks, alpud, in it. The
defendant probably pulls up these stalks and throws them away.22
An attempt may be made by mutual friends and relatives to recure a
peaceful settlement of the trouble. A rice field is a thing so dear to
the Ifugao, and so necessary and useful t£ him, that such attei lpts are
extremely likely, however, to come to naught.
If the matter be not arranged otherwise, the seizer of the field
sends a body of men to spade it, holding in reserve an armed force of
kinsmen and relatives to protect and maintain the spaders if they be
attacked. The other party emerges with an armed force to drive
the spaders away. The two parties meet. If one be greatly superior
in strength, the other usually retires, and surrenders the field. If they
be fairly evenly matched, a battle is likely to ensue. If the first wound
be a slight one, the party receiving it is likely to withdraw ; but if it
be serious, or if one of their number be killed, they fight to avenge
him. Sometimes four or five men are killed in one of these frays.
But in the meantime, and often before actual fighting begins, a
body of mutual relatives, friends, and neighbors emerges and tries to
make peace and secure an amicable settlement.
136. Enforced hospitality. — Sometimes a creditor and a numerous
and powerful following of kinsmen descend upon a debtor's house as
unwelcome guests, consume his stores of food, and force his hospitality
until appeased by the payment of the debt.
This form of collection can only be used in the case of debts, for
in all other controversies, taboos forbid the eating of the adversary's
food, drinking his water, chewing his betels, etc. Even in the ease of
debt, if a go-between has been sent to the debtor, this means may not
be used. It can only be used in a case where "diplomatic relations"
have not been ruptured.
21 The very day that I wrote this, the ownership of a field was settled by
a wrestling match. An Ifugao some time before pawned a field to a christianized
[fugao. This worthy had the temerity to sell the field. Although the pawner
would have surely been sustained in his right had lie appealed to the lieutenant
governor, nevertheless, he was so confident, being in the right, that lie would
not lose, that he consented to settle the ownership by a wrestling match. He
won. The christianized Ifugao may possibly now have more faith in the tenet
of his former religion that the ancestral spirits uphold him who is in the right.
22 He may gratuitously add an insult by implanting a few of them in a pile
of fecal matter.
J
104 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
137. Kidnapping or seizure of persons. — Interior districts had no
opportunity to seize animals from those districts nearer than they to
the region whence animals were imported. Of necessity, then, they
kidnapped and sold or held for ransom women and children from those
districts.
138. Cases illustrating seizure and kidnapping. — The following
instances actually occurred in times past. They are excellent and
veritable illustrations of this phase of Ifugao administration of justice :
Bahni of Tupplak spoke scornfully of Bumidang of Palao. Some time sub-
sequently he sent a man to buy carabaos in Nueva Vizeaya. The man bought
two, and returned on the homeward journey, travelling through Palao. Bumi-
dang took one of the carabaos away from him there, and with his kin, killed it
and ate it. Bahni with his kin shortly afterward went to the house of Dulau-
wan of Bangauwan, a neighboring village, and stole away with Dulauwan's
carabao. Dulauwan followed after them, hotfoot, and was given as patang
three pigs, and told to collect his carabao from Bumidang. Dulauwan gathered
together a great host of kinsmen and neighbors, descended on Bumidang 's
house, and camped there demanding three carabaos. To show that they meant
to get them, they helped themselves to rice needed for their daily food from
Bumidang 's granary. Bumidang was unable to get together a sufficient force
to frighten away his guests, and accordingly he paid the three carabaos.
Ginnid of Umbul presented a demand to Guade for the payment of a long-
outstanding debt. Guade denied that the debt was owed. Ginnid seized Guade 's
field. Each party led a force of kinsmen to the field. There they fought with
spears and shields. The first man wounded was Tului of Pingungan, a kins-
man of Guade. He received a slight wound. Guade 's party then withdrew.
Guade paid the debt, and got his field back.
Gumangan of Ambabag when a youth, sent an advocate to ask for the hand
of the daughter of M of Umbul. He was accepted. But he changed his mind about
the girl, and went to Baininan, where he engaged himself to a girl of that
village without assuaging the mental agony of his jilted fiancee by paying the
hudhud indemnity. M seized a carabao belonging to Gumangan. Gumangan
gathered together his kin and went to Umbul — only a quarter of a mile distant
— to prevent the slaughter of his animal. But M's party was so much more
powerful that Gumangan 's kin ran away. M's party then killed and ate the
carabao.
Gumangan married in Baininan, and bearing in mind his former humiliation,
decided to do something that would restore his prestige and at the same time
assure him a sufficiently large body of followers to make him strong to demand
and to resist demands. He consequently gave a great uyauwe feast at which
the unheard of number of six carabaos was slaughtered, to say nothing of
innumerable pigs. And later, he gave the hagabi feast — an even more expensive
operation.
Dumalilon of Tupplak borrowed a carabao of Gumangan. Five years elapsed,
yet he made no move to repay the debt, notwithstanding repeated demands of
Gumangan. Gumangan seized Dumalilon 's field, which had already been
1919] Barton: If ugao Law 105
spaded, and threw his Beed-bed away. Both men led armed parties to the field,
but this time Gumangan was careful to have a sufficient number of backers
on hand. Dumalilon's party took to flight.
In Burnai, a fight occurred over the seizure of a rice field that resulted in
the killing of four men.
Kodamon of Pindungan and Katiling of Ambabag" had a dispute over the
boundary of a field. There were paghok to mark the boundary, but Kodamon
contended that all memory of the planting of the -paghok was absent, and that
tluy were, consequently, without significance in the matter of dispute. They
wrestle. 1. and Kodamon lost a little ground, but Katiling tried to take more
than was due him according to the verdict of the wrestling matches. Katiling
sent men to spade the disputed territory, and led an armed force out to sup-
port them. Kodamon led an armed force to the field. At the same time and
at a safe distance, the mutual kin of the two parties and a goodly number of
neighbors gathered. Kodamon was armed with a Remington rifle whose trigger
was broken; Dulinayan, a kinsman of Katiling, with a revolver for which he
had no ammunition. The other members of each force however were sub-
stantially, if less spectacularly, armed with spears which they well knew how
to use. Women rushed in between the two parties, and catching the warriors
by the waist tried to lead them away. One can well believe that the air was
riven by curses, threats, accusations, upbraidings, imprecations, invocations.
The male neutral kin shouted from their safe distance that if Kodamon killed
Katiling, they would kill Kodamon (as a vengeance for the death of their
kinsman) while if Katiling killed Kodamon, they would avenge their kinsman's
death by killing Katiling. "What kind of a way is this for co-villagers to
settle a dispute," they shouted. "Go back home and beget some children,
and marry them to each other, giving them the two fields, and then it will make
no difference where the division line is!" There was an exchange of spears
in which Buaya, a kinsman of Kodamon 's, was wounded slightly. The matter
was then left in abeyance with the understanding that as soon as possible, the
two families be united by a marriage, and the two fields given the married
couple.
It happened, however, that on account, of the sexes of the unmarried children
of the families, a union between them was impossible. Accordingly, Kodamon
gave his field to his son Dulnuan, and Katiling traded his field to Pingkihan, his
brother. Both of these young men had pregnant wives. Pingkihan 's wife gave
birth first, the child being a girl. Shortly afterward, Dulnuan 's wife gave
birth. I met Dulnuan, and not knowing of the event, and noticing that he
seemed downcast, asked- him why he was so sad. "My wife has given birth to
a girl baby," he said. The quarrel over the boundary is as yet unsettled.
Kuyapi of Nagakaran, before the Spanish occupation, sent a slave child to
Guminigin of Baay, to be sold in Baliwan (Nueva Vizcaya), stipulating that the
child must bring at least five carabaos. Guminigin sold the child for seven
carabaos, delivering five to Kuyapi, and kept two.
The Spaniards came. They were exceedingly partial to the people of
Kiangan district in which the village of Baay is located. They paid little or
no attention to complaints of people of other districts against people of Kiangan
district. Many debts owed by Kiangan people were unpaid, for the Kian-
23 The villages of Pindungan and Ambabag are less than a mile distant from
each other.
106 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Etlin. [Vol. 15
ganites took advantage of the protection given them by the Spaniards. And
yet the Nagakaranites and Kianganites were very closely united by marriage
and by blood. Indeed Kuyapi and Guminigin were second or third cousins.
Owing to the difficulty the Nagakaran people had in collecting debts owed
them by the Kianganites, they conceived for the latter and for the Spaniards
a most violent hatred, and began to make reprisals. The Spaniards punished
these reprisals by making an expedition to Nagakaran in which they came off
second best.24 They sent another and stronger expedition, which killed a
number of people and which burned all the houses in the district. To this day
the Nagakaran people have not been able to rebuild their houses — the large
trees having long since been cut from nearby forests — and live in wretched
shacks built on the ground. They blame the Kiangan people, saying that the
latter invited the Spaniards into Ifugao.
Kuyapi claimed that the terms on which he sent the slave to Guminigin
were that Guminigin was to receive only one carabao for having effected a
sale, and that all the rest were to be delivered to him, and that there was
consequently a carabao still due him. It seems likely that the claim was
false, and that it was advanced merely as an excuse for making a reprisal.
Pagadut, the son of Guminigin, to whom demand was presented for the
payment of the carabao claimed to be yet due, refused to pay this debt. The
Nagakaran people made an expedition into Kiangan district (about two miles
distant) and captured Ormaya, the daughter of Pagadut, a very comely girl
of sixteen or seventeen. In order to make her walk, and in order that she
should not continually offer resistance, they took her skirt off so that she would
•have to cover her shame with her hands and would also hurry to arrive at the
journey's end. 24a But the Baay people managed to cut off Lubbut the son of
Kuyapi, and imprison him. They took him to a granary in Baay, intending
to keep him as a hostage for the return of Ormaya. But word was carried to
the ears of the Spanish commandante of this capture. He had Lubbut brought
before him. He struck Lubbut, tied although he was, twice in the face, and
would have continued, had not Alangwauwi the husband of Ormaya seized and
held his arm and beseeched him not to use Lubbut harshly. The commandante
promised not to take his life. But a soldier called attention to the fact that
a gun had been captured with Lubbut, which gun, it was claimed, was that of
a Spanish corporal whom the Nagakaran people had killed. Alangwauwi and
his companions started back to their homes in Baay. But on the road, they
saw, across the valley, Lubbut with his back turned to a firing squad, saw a
puff of white smoke, and saw Lubbut fall into a rice field. Alangwauwi says
he burst into tears for he realized that this meant serious trouble for him and
his relatives, and placed Ormaya 's life in the greatest peril.
When the Nagakaranites heard of Lubbut 's death, they at first blamed
the people of Baay for it. Inasmuch as it is against the ethics of people of
the Kiangan-Nagakaran-Maggok area to kill women, or at least to kill any but
Silipan women, they considered walling Ormaya up in a sepulchre and leaving
her to die for want of food and drink. The women relatives of Lubbut wanted
very much to kill Ormaya, and pointed out that while it would not be per-
missible for the men to kill her, there would be no disgrace in their doing
24 The Nagakaran people claim that only five out of forty of the first
expedition returned.
24a This was the usual method of treating kidnapped persons. It is interest-
ing to note an almost parallel practice on the part of the Allies in the present
war. When prisoners are taken, the buttons are cut off their clothing, in order
to keep their hands engaged during the march to the rear.
L919 1 Barton : Ifugao Law L07
so. But Kuyapi would have none of it. He himself guarded his prisoner two
or throe nights to see thai her Life was nol taken.
Soon a monkalun was senl to ascertain the true details of Lubbut's death.
His report exonerated the Baay people. The Nagakaran people held Ormaya's
ransom considerably higher, however, because of that death. They received
five carabaos, twenty pigs, two gold beads, and a greal number of spears and
bolos, and death blankets. M was five months before the Baay | pie could
raise the amount of this ransom. During this time, Ormaya was well treated —
for was she nol a kinswoman.' — but she was carefully guarded.
THE PAOWA OR TRUCE
139. Tin usual sens< of the term "paowa". — The word paowa
moans lit. Tally prohibition. As most commonly used, it denotes a
period of truce imposed by the monkalun in cases that cannot be peace-
ably arranged. It is a period that gives both sides to a controversy a
chance to cool off. It avoids that rash and ill-considered action that
would be likely to follow the breaking off of diplomatic relations be-
tween the two parties.
I say the paowa serves these purposes. However, it is imposed by
the monkalun in order to allow him to withdraw with dignity f rom •"
the ease, and without loss of reputation. A lance throwing or a seizure
made while he is acting as monkalun or occurring soon after he has
severed his connection with the case is an insult to him. People say
to him: Dinalan-da tolban-mo, "they went over your head." Such
an occurrence is exceedingly hurtful to his reputation. People will not
employ him as monkalun for the reason that his cases do not end in
peaceable settlements. He thus loses many fat fees.
Assuming that the Ifugao 7s culture would some day, if left alone,
develop courts somewhat after the fashion of the courts of civilized
nations, have we not here the embryo of "contempt of court"?
The period usually set by the monkalun, as truce, is fourteen days.
During this time, should one of the parties to the controversy commit
any act hostile to the other, the monkalun must avenge or punish it.
At the conclusion of this period of truce, the two parties may fight out
the dispute to suit themselves, kidnapping, seizing property, or hurl-
ing lances, without injuring the dignity of the monkalun: or the
aggressive party may employ another monkalun.
140. Another senst of thi term "paowa". — Should a wife have
committed a crime against the marital relation, and should her hus-
band be unable for any reason to collect the gibu due him in the case,
he may put a prohibition on her marrying any other man until the gibu
be paid.
108 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
TERMINATION OF CONTROVERSIES: PEACE-MAKING
141. The hidit or religious aspects of peace-making. — The word
hidit has three senses : It refers to a class of deities, the offspring of
one of the principal deities of war ; it refers to sacrifices to these deities ;
it refers to peace-making. Deities, sacrifice, and peace may seem
widely distinct, but a glance into the Ifugao's religion will show the
connection.
The hidit (deities) desire peace: but the peace must be made in
the proper manner, and accompanied by sacrifice to themselves. The
hidit have established the taboo that those who are involved in a
controversy or enmity must not chew betels with an adversary, nor
be in the same house or gathering or feast with him, nor drink with
him, nor receive gifts or hospitality from him. The penalty for break-
ing this taboo is the affliction by the hidit with diseases of the lungs,
throat, voice; the condition known as "big belly," leukaemia, short
wind, swelling of the feet, dropsy, etc. . This may be said to be the
punishment for making peace without ceremonies. But sometimes the
hidit punish the prolongation of a feud, enmity or controversy, by
afflicting one or both of the parties as set forth above. Those who
are involved in long enmities sacrifice continually to the hidit in order
to offstand such affliction.
The hidit or peace-making ceremony is performed in the following
cases :
(a) At the termination of the funeral of a married person. It is
performed between the kin of the dead spouse and between those of
the living spouse.
(&) Between adversaries in case of adultery, rape of married
woman, sorcery, murder, manslaughter, malicious killing of animals,
false accusation, disputes over rice fields, theft (sometimes), or other
serious controversy, provided the controversy terminate peaceably.
(c) At the peaceful termination of all ordeals and trials.
(d) Between the kin of a dead spouse and the widow or widower on
occasion of remarriage of the latter.
(e) Between parties to a controversy ending in payment of the
tokom fine.
(/) At the termination of a feud, between the families involved in
the feud. A feud was rarely — my belief is that it was never — termi-
nated except by a marriage or on request of one of the members of the
family afflicted by the hidit deities. In the latter case, peace might or
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 109
might not be purchased. At any rate, the family suing for peace
furnished the animals for sacrifice.
In mosl parts — I believe all — of Ifugao, peace was never made
between districts or villages. Peace was always made between families;
but peace between the principal families of two villages or districts
was sometimes in effect a peace between the districts or villages
involved — I say sometimes because such a peace was uncertain and
independable.
When peace was made between families of different districts, or
between families of the same district in cases of serious controversy,
two men were chosen, one by each party to the peace, and with appro-
priate prayers and ceremonies, were given good spears. It was under-
stood always that these spears were for the purpose of killing the first
one of either party who reopened the feud, war, or controversy. After
this ceremony, other spears were broken and tied together as a symbol
of the breaking and tying up of all enmity; as a symbol, too, that
spears were no longer needed.
AN INTER-VILLAGE LAW
142. Neutrality. — When a war expedition or party passed through
a village en route against another village, the intermediate village
might signify its neutrality by casting a spear at the party. The spear
never struck a member of the party, of course, uor was its casting
taken as an unfriendly act. It was merely a declaration of neutrality.
Should a village fail to cast a spear in these circumstances at such a
party, the people of it would be held as enemies and accomplices of
the members of the war party.
110 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: IFUGAO RECKONING OF RELATIONSHIP
All Ifugao words denoting relationships except the words for
father and mother are common in gender.
To any individual of any generation :
1. All his kin of his own generation are tulang (brothers, sisters).
2. All children of his kin of his own generation are anak (sons,
daughters).
3. All grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., of his kin of his
own generation are apo (grandsons, granddaughters).
4. All kin of the same generation as his father and mother are ama
or ina (father or mother).
5. All kin of the same generation as his grandparents, great-grand-
parents, etc., are apo (grandparents).
6. All relatives by marriage who are the husbands and wives of
the kin of the same generation are aidu (brother-in-law, sister-in-law).
7. All relatives by marriage, the husbands and wives of the kin of
the generation of his father and mother, are amaon or inaon.
8. The father or mother of his wife are ama or ina (father or
mother), by courtesy.
9. The kin of the father or mother of his wife are tulang di ama
(or ina) 'n di inay-ak (kin of the father, or mother, of my wife).
In the Benaue district, the kin of one's father or mother, in addi-
tion to being called father or mother, are also called ulitao (uncle or
aunt), and the husbands or wives of the ulitao are called ulitaon
(uncles-in-law, aunts-in-law). The son or daughter of a kinsman or a
kinswoman of the same generation in addition to being called son or
daughter of one's self is called amanaon.
APPENDIX 2: CONNECTION OF RELIGION WITH PROCEDURE
An Ifugao myth. — Partly because of its connection with the Ifugao
marriage ceremony, partly because it illustrates so well the use to
which the Ifugao puts his myths — rarely telling them for amusement,
but reciting them in religious ceremonies as a means to magic — and
partly because it is so characteristically Ifugao, I have decided to
append the following myth, despite the fact that it might more
properly appear in a work on religion.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 111
Most of the Ifugao's myths have either been invented or if not
invented, changed, for the purpose of affording an analogy to the solu-
tion of the difficulties or misfortunes that confront men today. The
Ifugaos have a myth telling of a great flood, whose only survivors
were a brother and sister — Balitok and Bugan. In chagrin and shame
because her brother has gotten her with child. Bugan flees into the
East Region to seek destruction from the terrors there. They refuse
to destroy her, but teach her how to take the curse off marriages
between kindred by the sacrifice of two pigs, a male and female of the
same litter. Notice how a flood myth — an element in the mythology of
nearly every people under the sun — has been modified and made to
serve a magic purpose.
The myth given below is a further and utterly inconsistent modi-
iication of this flood myth. In the myth above, Balitok and Bugan
are represented as having a child and not wanting it — in the myth
below, they have no child but want one.
The ceremony of using a myth to serve a religious end consists of
two parts. The first is the recitation of the myth by the priest. This
is called bukad. In affords an analogy to the condition of sickness,
war, famine, harvest, union in marriage, or what not, in which the
performers of the ceremony find themselves, and the happy solution
of the problem. It is terminated by what I term the fiat. This is an
expression of the priest's will that the happy solution related in the
myth shall be existent in the present situation. It is not. I think, the
fact of the priest's will that is thought to bring about the solution so
much as the compelling and magic power of his spoken word to that
end.
Up to this stage, the ceremony is sympathetic magic. In the second
stage it becomes witchcraft, and is called tulud, "pushing." In it
the priest "pushes" the deities of the myth over the route from their
habitations in the Skyworld, the Underworld, the East Region, the
West Region, or wheresoever they may abide, step by step to the village
of the Ifugaos performing the ceremony. He may recite their passage
through as many as thirty or forty localities, and as the priest drones :
"They climb the steep at Nunbalabog; they descend at Baat. they
wade at Monkilkalney, " etc., the compelling power of his spoken
word "pushes" the deities along. Finally the deities arrive and
declare through the priest that they will confer the benefits requested.
This myth is employed in all of the final ceremonies of marriage,
and in all ceremonies of married persons that have the obtaining of
112 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
children as their object. The translation is absolutely literal and .
without embellishment.
How Balitok and Bugan obtained children. — And it is said that Bugan and
Balitok of Kiangan were childless. ' ' What is the use [of living] ? ' ' said Bugan.
' ' Stay here, Balitok. I am going to go to the East Country. I will see Ngilin,
Umbumabakal, Dauwak, Pinyuhan, Bolang, and the Gods of Animal Fertility
of the East. ' ' She got betels together and packed them. Bugan and Balitok ate.
After finishing, they chewed betels.
Bugan put her pack on her head and started. She came to Baladong [Ligaue
Gap]. She went on to Kituman. Went eastward to Ulu. Forded at Agwatan.
Encountered the Fire at Bayukan. He [the Fire] asked, "Where are you
going, Bugan?"
"I am going into the East Eegion," said Bugan, "because we are childless,
Balitok and I. I am going to find some one to devour me, because we are very
lonely." Fire laughed. "Do not feel so, Bugan," he said, " keep going east-
ward until you come to Ngilin, Umbumabakal, and the deities of the East
Eegion."
Bugan put her pack on her head and continued to Balahiang. She came to
the lake [or ocean (?)] at Balahiang. She aroused the Crocodile.
"Who are you, human?" said the Crocodile.
"I am Bugan of Kiangan."
"And why is it," said the Crocodile, "although the Flood of the East Region
and the Flood of the West Eegion came upon me and fear to arouse me, that
you, Bugan, a [mere] human, [presume to] molest me?"
' < Yes, ' ' said Bugan, ' ' that was my intention ; for I am searching for some-
one to devour me. ' '
"Why?" said the Crocodile.
"Yes, for I have become very lonely; for Balitok and I have no children."
The Crocodile chuckled. "Oh, I will not devour you, Bugan," he said.
"I would shame to devour one so beautiful. Continue on eastward, and arrive
at the dwelling of the Shark. Wake him up, in order that he shall be the one
to devour you. ' '
Bugan thought well of it. She put her pack on her head. She went on
eastward and came to the waters where dwells the Shark. It was fear-inspiring,
and caused her to exclaim " Inay ! " She was terrified, but she conquered her
fear. She reached for betels, and threw them between her teeth. She crushed
them. They became like blood. Bugan spat into the waters. She beheld a
great wave circle. The Shark came into sight. He grunted.
"Who are you, human?" he said.
"I am Bugan, the wife of Balitok at Kiangan," she said.
"And why is it that you arouse me, human? And there come the Strong
Wind of the East and the Strong Wind of the West, and they arouse me not;
for I am ferocious here in the East Region. Yet you, Bugan, the wife of Balitok
at Kiangan, you arouse me?"
"Yes, that is what I purpose," said Bugan, "for I am looking for someone
to devour me."
The Shark chuckled. "Why?" he said.
"Yes, for I want to be devoured because Balitok and I have no children."
"I would shame to do so, for you are a beautiful woman. Come into my
house in the Waters in order that we may eat."
Bugan entered . They ate.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 113
"Continue," said the Shark, "into the East Begion. Go unto the dwellings
of tJmbumabaka] and the Gods of Animal Fertility."
Bugan rose to the surface of the waters, and on the beach again put her
pack on her head. She continued the journey. She came to Lumbut, to the
house of Umbumabakal. The house was covered with enormous ferns. It
terrified her. She threw betels between her teeth, and put down her Pear.
She passed through the gate of the enclosure about the house, and sat down on
the rice mortar. In the evening of the day Umbumabakal came down, lie was
looking for something to eat. He passed through the gate. Bugan hid herself
in a large wooden bucket. Umbumabakal kept sniffing the air.
••Why is it that there is something human here now," he said, "yet noth-
ing of the kind has ever happened before?"
He sought for Bugan. He found her in the bucket.
'• Why, human, are you here?" he said.
"I am Bugan, the wife of Balitok. "
"Why do you come here, Bugan, wife of Balitok?" he said.
"Because I want to be devoured."
' ' Why I ' '
"Yes, for we are childless at Kiangan. "
"Umbumabakal laughed. "Well," said he, "tomorrow we will go to the
dwelling of Ngilin and the other Gods of Animal Fertility."
On the morrow they visited the various Gods of Animal Fertility. They
gathered pigs and chickens as gifts to Balitok and Bugan. "Beturn to
Kiangan," they said. "We will go with you."
[At this point, some priests change the myth into a tulud, while some con-
tinue it as a myth. We will here insert the method of this change.]
[Fiat by the priest, i.e., a statement of the priest's will:] It is not formerly,
but now; not to Kiangan that they come but here to our village of X, in order
that they relieve A and B of childlessness; in order that they increase the
life here in our village of X. They bring children and pigs and chickens and
miraculous increase of rice to A and B here in our village of X.
They return to Lumbut. They come west to Agab. They continue to X.
[Here follows a detailed "pushing" of the party from the East Begion to
the village in which the priest is performing the invocation, and to the house
of the childless couple.] They look up. "Why, it is our children in X," they
say.
"Yes," [says the priest,] "for they are childless. Give them children. Let
some be male and some be female. Let there be a myriad of shields [figura-
tively: men] and a myriad of tudong [women's sweet potato baskets; figura-
tively: women] here in our village of X. Let the pigs and the chickens become
many. May the rice be miraculously increased. Bring us much life here in our
village of X.
[If the priest does not change the myth to a tulud at the point above, he
continues it as follows: ]
They continued with Bugan to Kiangan. They gathered together the
"sitters" [priests] at Kiangan. They sacrificed the pigs and the chickens.
The Gods of Animal Fertility taught them how to perform the bubun ceremony.
They divided [as a tribute] the meat with Ambahing [wdio takes semen from the
womb of women and carries it off in his hip bag] and with Komiwa [who stirs
up semen in the womb so that conception is prevented].
Bugan and Balitok multipied at Kiangan. There came to be a myriad of
shields [men] and a myriad of sweet-potato baskets [women] in Kiangan. The
114 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
pigs and the chickens became many. Their children scattered throughout the
hills of Pugao [the Ifugao's earth]. The rice dikes climbed up the mountains.
The hills smoked day by day [from the burning off of clearings for sweet-
potatoes]. Life was miraculously increased.
[Fiat by the priests:] It is not then but now; not in Kiangan, but here in
our village of X. It shall be the same with these children, A and B. Their
children will be many. Let some be male and some female. Let their pigs and
the chickens, etc., etc.
[Tulud.] "We will go now," said Umbumabakal. "All right," said
Bugan. "There is a calling above," said Ngilin.
"Have you kin yonder?" said Umbumabakal.
' ' Yes, ' ' said Bugan, ' ' we have kin in the village of X. "
' ' Let us thither, ' ' say the Gods of Animal Fertility. They come westward
to Tulbung. They continue to X. [The priest "pushes" the deities step by
step on the way to the village in which he is performing the invocation. When
they arrive, the same occurs as shown in the tulud inserted above.]
The halupe feast. — The halupe are a class of deities that keep
an idea constantly before the mind of one whom they are sent to
harass. They are most frequently used against debtors ; but they may
be sent to soften the wrath of an enemy or the stubbornness of a pretty
girl, or for other purposes. They are induced to serve the end of him
who invokes them by the sacrifice of a pig or chicken and by offerings
of betels and rice wine. There are about a hundred of these deities.
After the ancestral spirits have been invoked, and beseeehed to
intercede with the halupe for the purpose desired, the halupe them-
selves are invoked, in some such words as the following :
"Ye halupe of the Skyworld, of the Underworld, of the West Region, and
of the East Region, are beseeehed to attend. It is prayed ye that ye go and
harass (name) so that he will not sleep for thinking of his debt to me. If
he goes to get water, go with him; if he goes to get wood, go with him; if he
goes on a trading trip; go with him. Harass him to the extent that he will
give me his pigs, his rice, his chickens, his death blankets, his money, his rice
fields, his "irons," his house furnishings: [There is no danger of asking
too much of a deity or a white man ! ] May the speech of the go-between make
him ashamed to refuse ! Do not let him sleep till he pays the debt. ' '
A subclass of the halupe deities have, for their especial function,
the soothing of obstinate debtors so that they may not get angry at the
words of the go-between, nor run away from him when they see him
coming. These are also invoked.
The priest then is possessed by the halupe one by one, and through
him, each of the halupe takes a sip of rice wine, and states that he will
harass the debtor and that he will not allow him to sleep till he pays.
After this ceremony, a fowl or pig is sacrificed and given the
halupe. The meat is cooked and spread out on some cooked rice.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 115
Myths relating how some ancestor successfully invoked the halupe, are
then recited for the magic power that lies in the recital, and are
followed by tulud, ceremonies of witchcraft in which the deities are
"pushed along" by the compelling power of the word of the priest
to do his bidding. More frequently than not, the myth changes
abruptly into the tulud. The following instance is taken verbatim
from a series of ceremonies that I had a priest perforin against a
delinquent debtor who owed me a sum of money. I regret to say that
the ceremonies were not efficacious.
Bukad ( Myth) .— Oadda kano da Tumayaban ud Kakunian ke da Panubok ke da
Binantawan ke da Banaban ke da Dimpuyu. Kon-da takon da monnigi, dola-da 'd
Kabunian. Panganun-da aniaiyu da. Ahi-da peman padapadan. Tnliungal di
amaiyu. Bohwagon-da hagiit. Punayaman 'd Kabunian, ya nunudnud-da ud
Pangagauwan. Unudun di halupe ya dimatong ud Pangagauwan. Agan-da
va domatong-da amaiyo. Mondaiyo-da ud Baladong ya hidi peman kano
balobgon-da. Buyangon-da ta dauutan-da. Oadda Halupe Binantawan ya
ibaga-na banting. "Maid banting-ko," konan Tumayaban. Oadda kano
Bugan da nak Tadona ud Kiangan ya monbuliwong, te "Eak," kano, "monbaga
di mangigamal ke haoy ta kaliwak di gimauwat an haoy, an adi-da umidet di
guwat-da." ' Pitaowan-na paiyo ud Kiangan. Oadda, kano, Binantawan ya
inanang-na Bugan, an " Eka, Tumayaban," konana, "ta tumutung-ka 'n
Bugan! line Tumayaban hi kadwan Bugan ya Konana Tutung-ok nihbo!
Bugan" Kimali Bugan, ya konana " Kon manahauliu-ka? "Antipi?" konan
Tumayaban. "Ya te monbuliwong te eak manila mangigamal ke haoy,"
" Antipi?" konan Tumayaban. "Om te maato-ak an mangibaga di gimauwat
an haoy." "Antipi, tuali adi-da mitugun?" konan Tumayaban. "Ibangad
mo hi balei-yo, ta itugun-mo dakami 'n halupe."
Bimangad Bugan, ya patayon-na manok ya ayago-na halupe. " Uinetako, ' |
konan Banaban, "te intugan ditako di nak Tadona 'd Kiangan. Higupan-mi
dola-da ud Kiangan. Ibaga-da punbagaan da. Badangan-mi tulang-mi ud
Kiangan." Ime-da halupe, ya halupaiyan-da punbagaan an gimauwat di
babui 'n di tulang-da ud Kiangan, ya ununud Bugan, ya monbaga, ya inala-na
babui-da ya peho-da ya gumok-da ya manok-da ya page-da ya paiyo-da. [Then
he waves his hand.]
[The priest blows, in the direction of his debtor.]
Bokun ud Kiangan, te hitu, ta ume-ak hi bigat ta alak di babui Kodamon ya
gamong-na ya paiyo-na peho-na ya manok-na. Balinan di hapihapito-ko.
Kai-ak halupe, kai-ak Banaban, ta idet-na ta magibu ta maid di pangidoh-
dohana.
[Here the myth changes into a tulud, "pushing."]
Oadda, kano, halupe, ya monbaga-da ya " Monbangad,-tako " konana dola-
tako ud Kakunian. "Oadda tugun, " konan Tumayaban. "Tipi oadda tugun
ud tapa? Dehidi Lba-yo?" "Om," konan Bugan. "Dehidi iba-mi 'd tapa."
Oadda halupe, ya tikidan da ad Tataowang. Agan ud Kulab. Ladangon
ud Gitigit. Ladangon ud I'angibauutan. Tikidan ud Nunbalabog. Itanglig-da
tungun ud Baay ya Pindungan ya maid. "Aha! ud Ablatan di montugun"
kalion-da. Mondotal ud Panaangan. Mondayu ud Iwakal. Paadan ud Upupan.
Agan-da ya ladangan ud Tobal. Buduan-da ud TJhat. Agwatan ud Nungimil.
Abatan ud Boko. Agan-da ud Pugu. Montikid ud Takadang. Humabiat ud
116 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
Domok. Mondotal ud Palatog. Dongolon-da tugun. Mihidol ud .Palatog.
Monbanong ud Kabonwang. Agwatan ud Tudunwe. Ladangon ud Umbul.
Domatong ya belibelion-da, ya "Kon da Barton ya Patikwal" konan
Tumayaban. "Daan di punbagaan-yo?" konana. Dehidi hi Kodamon an adi-
na idet di gauwat-mi. Ume-kayo ta mipong alitaangan-na ta halhalupayan-yo
ta nemnemon-na gauwat-na; ta takon di adi mahuyop hi tonga 'n di labi.
Balinan-yo. Banabanan-yo. Halupayan-yo ta maid di udum an nemenemon-na,
ta gibuan-na gauwat-na, ta igatang-na paiyo-na, ta idetan-na peho-na ya manok-
na ya babui-na ya page-na ya gumok-na.
[The priest blows and waves his hand in the direction of Kodamon 's house].
Ooo-of ! Hadon-yo, ta umeak hi bigat!
Translation. — And it is said that Tumayaban and Panubok and Binantawan and
Banaban and Dimpuyu of the Skyworld decided to go hunting there in their region
of the Skyworld. They fed their dogs. And then, indeed, they sent them on the
chase. The dogs found a trail. They started up a wild boar. They chased it
about the Skyworld, and followed down to Pangagauwan [the mountain that
towers over Kiangan]. The halupe [the deities above named] followed after.
They came up with their dogs, and there, it is said, they speared the quarry.
They spread grass on the earth and cut it up. And Halupe Binantawan asked
for fire.
"I have no flint and steel," said Tumayaban.
And it is said that Bugan, the daughter of Tadona of Kiangan, was sick of
life; for she said, "I will beg some one to eat me up in order that I may forget
my debtors who will not pay the debt they owe me." She set out across the
rice fields at Kiangan. Binantawan saw her and said: "Go, Tumayaban; get
fire from Bugan." Tumayaban got up and went to where Bugan was.
"Let me have fire, Bugan."
"Are you in a hurry?" said Bugan.
"Why?" said Tumayaban.
' ' For I am tired of life, and am hunting for somebody to eat me up, ' ' said
Bugan.
"Why?" said Tumayaban.
' ' Yes, *or I am tired of beseeching my debtors to pay their debts. ' '
"Why, indeed, will they not listen to reason?" said Tumayaban. "Go back
to your house and call upon us halupe."
Bugan returned, and sacrificed chickens, and called upon the halupe. "Let
us go, for the daughter of Tadona has called upon us at Kiangan," said
Banaban. [The old Kiangan about four miles below the village now called
Kiangan by American official*.] "They have gathered together in Kiangan.
Let us assist our kinsfolk there." The halupe went and they harassed those
of whom it was asked [the debtors], those who had borrowed pigs of the kin
in Kiangan. And Bugan followed aftei and took their pigs and their ' ' irons ' '
and their money and their chickens and their rice and their rice fields and their
death blankets.
[The priest blows and waves his hand in the direction of his debtor's house.]
Let it be so, not at Kiangan, but here, so that I may go in the morning and
take Kodamon 's pigs, death blankets, rice fields, money, chickens. May my
words carry shame to him. May I be like a harasser and like a soother, in
order that he pay, in order that it may be finished, in order th?t there come no
serious result of the controversy.
[Here the myth changes into a tulud, "pushing".]
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 117
The halupi speak, savin-, "Lei us return to our village in the Skyworld."
"There is a calling," said Tumayaban. "Whence comes this call from
above? Have you kin there?"
"Yes," said Bugan, "we have kindred above."
And the halupe ascend at Tataowang. They coin.' on to Kulab. They
continue to Gitigit. They continue to Pangibautan. They elimb up to Nunba-
labog. They listen for a calling at Baay and Pindungan. [These are villages
in the vicinity of Umbul, the village where the priest was performing the cere-
mony.] "Alia! the calling is at Umbul!" they say. They walk on the level
at Panaangan. They descend at Iwakal. They come to Upupan. They continue
to Tobal. They come out at Uhat. They wade at Nungimel. They go around
the hill to Boko. They continue to Pugu. They climb at Takadang. They
ascend to Domok. They walk on the level at Palatog. They listen for the
calling. They hear it there. They travel on the rice dikes at Kabonwang.
They wade at Tudunwe. They come round the hill at Umbul. They arrive and,
"Why, it is Barton and Patikwal," says Tumayaban. "Where are your refrac-
tory debtors .' - '
"There is Kodamon. He does not pay his debts to us. Go and disperse
yourselves in the vicinity of his house, and harass him continually with the
remembrance of his debt, so that he may not sleep, even in the middle of the
night. Make him ashamed. Soothe him (so that he will not be angry). Harass
him so that he may think of nothing else than his debt; so that he will finish
with it; so that he will sell his rice fields (in order to pay); so that he will give
us his pigs, his money, his irons, his rice, and his rice fields. ' '
[The priest blows and waves his hand in the direction of Kodamon 's house.]
"Ooo-of! Wait there till I come in the morning."
The collector of a large fine performs an unpretentious series of
ceremonies directed to the gods of animal fertility and growth. The
fact that he has won out in collecting the fine shows that his star is in
the ascendancy and that a more pretentious feast is not needed.
Peace-making ceremonies. — A full account of these ceremonies
would be too extended to give here. The following are two of the
myths that are recited in the course of these ceremonies:
(1) And it is said that the father of Amtalao of the Skyworld spoke to his son,
Baying: "Go down and cause the enemies of earth to make peace, in order
that there be no longer coughing3, and shortness of breath, and bleedings from
the nose, and quick fatigue among them."
Amtalao packed his betels, put on his hip-bag, and took his spear in hand.
He descended to Habiatan. [Here the myth goes into a detailed account of
the places passed in the journey.] He arrived in Kiangan. He went to the
house of Balitok [the hero ancestor of the people of Kiangan culture area].
He thrust the shod point of his spear handle into the flat stone used as a seat
in front of the house. It crackled like a dry leaf.
"You have spoiled the flat stone," said Balitok. Amtalao kicked the pieces
of stone with his foot. They all joined together as if never broken apart.
" I did not spoil it," said Amtalao.
" Why is it, Balitok, that you do not make peace with your enemies? Is it
that vera wish to be afflicted bv the liirfit."
118 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
"I do not know how," said Balitok. Amtalao went to the sons of Imbali-
tayan. "Make peace with Balitok, in order that ye be not afflicted with
coughings and snorings and bleedings from the nose and shortness of the
breath, ' ' said he.
And they caught their pigs and chickens, the sons of Imbalitayan, and the
people of Kiangan, and Amtalao taught them to make peace. And when they
had finished, Amtalao ascended into the Skyworld.
"How many did you cause to make peace?" said his father.
"There are no more enemies on earth," said Amtalao. Even though the
Ifugao travel far, they are safe. Even though spears be thrown, they do not
scathe. No longer is there shortness of the breath, and labored breathing,
bleeding from the nose, and coughings and quick fatigue. The people are like
unto gold, which tarnishes not, like unto the waters of the river, which never
become small, and like unto the dancing plumes of the cogon and runo grass.
They talk and talk, and talk straight. They ask for what they want and
get it. ' '
Let it be so, not at Kiangan, but here; not then, but now; in order that
there be no more shortness of breath and coughing and labored breathing [the
priest's will being that the benefits mentioned by Amtalao in the paragraph
immediately preceding become existent].
(2) The Thunderer of the Skyworld was sitting on his lounging bench in the
Skyworld. "Alas! why do the people keep fighting all the time?" he said. He
took his spear in hand. 'He descended unto Kiangan. He went to the house
of Balitok. "Why do you not make peace with the sons of Imbaluog?" said he.
"I desire to make peace, but they will not," said Balitok.
"Come with me," said the Thunderer. They went to the village of the
sons of Imbaluog. The Thunderer shouted to them. They came down out of
their houses, spears in hand, and carrying their shields. They advanced toward
Balitok. The Thunderer was angry.
"Why did the people of Kiangan offer to make peace, and ye would not?"
shouted he. The Thunderer snorted. The branches fell from the trees. The
sons of Imbaluog were blown to pieces. Their limbs were torn from their
trunks and went hurtling hither and thither.
And below every house was heard the wailing of the old women. And every
woman 's head was encircled by mourning bands.
Let it be so, not then, but now, with those that do not keep the peace! Let
them be blown to pieces and scattered hither and thither, and may there be
none to avenge them.
The chewing of betels together by the reconciled enemies is the
essential part of the peace-making ceremony. Three constituents are
used in betel chewing : the betel leaf, the areca nut, and the lime. The
priest takes position between the two (as yet) enemies. One of the
enemies then gives the other an areca nut, and his courtesy is returned
by his enemy giving him a betel leaf. Both are then supplied by the
priest with lime. They proceed to chew betels then, and the priest
prays as follows :
"Ye are chewed, Betel Leaf, Areca Nut, and Lime. Let not them who were
enemies be afflicted with coughings, shortness of breath, quick-coming fatigue,
1919] Barton: If ugao Law lli)
bleeding from the nose, nor labored breathing. Let them, instead, be like gold,
which tarnishes not: like the tail feathers of the full grown cork, which never
touch the earth; like the waters of the river, which never cease coining; like
Talal of Ambuaya, who ate his own children, yet was not afflicted by the hidit.
Let them be as active as the waters of I nude (a cataract) or the fearheiy
plumes of the cogon and runo grass. Let them be like the rising sun, like the
Cobra of the White Mountain, like the Full-grown Cock of Dotal, like the Hard
Stone of Huduan.25 May their enemies stand aside from them in fear. May
their valor be heard of in all the hills. "
Ceremonies connected with the payment of ltir</< fines. — At the
termination of a controversy in which a large fine is paid, the two
parties perform the hidit, peace-making ceremonies, as a matter of
self-interest. To leave them unperformed would be to subject them-
selves to the wrath of the hidit deities who would afflict them with
tuberculosis, shortness of breath, etc. The peace so made is theoretical,
oftentimes, rather than actual. Usually there is a great deal of ill
feeling smoldering in the breasts of the controversants.
He who pays any large fine invariably performs a general welfare
feast soon afterward. To this feast he invites all the deities of the
Sky world, the Underworld, the Fabulous Region of the East and the
Fabulous Region of the West. In addition, if he feels great resentment
against the fine collector, he secretly performs the following ceremony :
Tulud (Pushing).— "The Ender of the East Eegion sits on his lounging bench
there. He hears a call. He arises and puts betels in his hip bag and takes his spear
in hand. He nesitates, and then starts westward. He comes on to Payya. [The
priest "pushes" him, as in the preceding tulud, stage by stage through the follow-
ing places: Ulikon, Hapid, Ulalahi, Lana, Kudug, Lingay, Balahiang, Lau,
Bayukan, Ula, Tuktukbayahan, Kituman, Kiangan. From Kiangan onward the
route is variable, depending on the village of the priest.]
He arrives at [village]. He receives the chicken. He chops off its head.
[The priest at this stage chops off the chicken's head.] Even so [he says] I
chop off the life of the fine collector. [The priest blows and swings his arm
in the direction of the fine-collector's house.] Travel thither, Ender, to the
house of him who took from us the death blankets. Stay with him. If he goes
to get wood, turn the axe into his body. If he travels, push him off the steep.
If he sleeps, sleep with him. In the middle of the night stab him, and we will
hear about it with the rising sun. For we are poverty stricken. We owed
them no debt, yet they have taken our pigs and our chickens and our death
blankets and our rice [etc.]. We are to be pitied, alas! "
Other deities that may be sent against the fine collector are the
Spider-webbed One. the Smotherer, Dysentery, the Short-winded One,
the Trapper, the Twister.
26 Myths relate how the Full-Grown Cock overcame the Half -Grown Cock,
how the Cobra overcame the Python, how the Hard Stone overcame the Soft
Stone.
120 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.15
APPENDIX 3: PAEEICIDE
A rather startling case was called before the Court of First
Instance in Kiangan in December, 1913. Limitit of Ayangan was
charged with having murdered his father. The phrase "Are you
guilty or not guilty?" translated into Ifugao changes significance
slightly, and stands "Are you at fault or not at fault1?" With a
candor almost pitiable, Limitit admitted the facts in the case, but
pleaded "not at fault." "He was my father," he said. "I had a
right to kill him. I am blameless, for I provided a generous funeral
feast for him."
Interrogation developed that Dilagan, the father, was a spend-
thrift. He had raised a sum of money — possibly for the purpose of
gambling — by pawning, balal, his son's rice field. The son was angry,
but Dilagan promised faithfully to redeem the field by planting time.
But planting time came round, and Dilagan was unable to keep his
promise and redeem the field. In a quarrel over this matter, the son
lost patience and killed his father. So far as I am able to ascertain,
his act is justified, or at the very least, condoned by his co-villagers.
They excuse him on two grounds :
First, the old man was worthless, and deserved killing for having
wronged his son. Even though the damage done was not irremediable,
it was probable that it would be repeated, and that he would impoverish
his son for life.
Second, the old man was Limitit 's father, and Limitit had the
right on that account to kill him if he wanted to ; at least it was the
business of nobody else.
The American court, if I remember aright, sentenced Limitit to
life imprisonment. He died shortly after being incarcerated.
Another case of parricide was that of Bayungubung of Kurug.
He killed his father for the same reason that Limitit killed Dilagan :
that is, for the wrongful pawning of a field.
The essence of the attitude of the people in both these cases seemed
to be that the son had the right to kill his father if the latter imperiled
the family livelihood or position in society. It seems to us an inhuman
doctrine. But remember that the be-all and the end-all of Ifugao
existence is the family, and not the individual. With us, the opposite
is true: the rights of the individual supersede those of the family.
The fields in question had been handed down from past generations.
The son in each case was responsible at the time of the parricide for
the welfare of future generations of the family. The old man in each
1919] Barton: If ugao Law 121
ease was a traitor to the welfare of the family. He had had his day,
and was worse than useless. Remember that in a country where a
Living must be eked from a tough, stony mountain-side with a wooden
spade, the means to life handed down from the sweat of former genera-
tions is a thing as sacred, as it is precious.
Besides these considerations, there is the principle on which Ifugao
society is based: The family exists principally for the youthful and
future generations of it.
APPENDIX 4: CONCUBINAGE AMONG THE KALINGAS
The Kalingas are a tribe having a culture remarkably similar to
the Ifugao. In respect of warfare, head-hunting, and social organiza-
tion, it is an even more dazzling example of a barbarian culture, I
believe. Concubinage is universally practiced by the wealthy. The
concubine has a legal status. A m^nlHusTsecure his wife 's consent to
take a concubine, but the consent is universally forthcoming.
During a six months' residence in Kalinga I became quite well
acquainted with the unusually intelligent wife of a Kalinga headman.
I asked her one day why the women permitted their men to take unto
themselves additional wives.
' ' Oh, that 's the custom of us Kalingas. ' '
"I know it's the custom. But I think it's a poor one for you
women who are so unfortunate as to be married to men who practice
it."
"Why are we unfortunate ? Their children can inherit none of his
wealth. Our children get it all."
"Yes, but doesn't it hurt you to see your husband running after
other women?"
"I never see it. The other women never come here. Or if they
do come to the house it is as if they were perfect strangers. They
have their own house."
"But you must know that your husband does leave you to go to
these other women."
"Oh yes! But I don't see it. Besides their children are subject
to my children. If my children suffer injury, they fight to avenge
them. If my children demand, they stand back of them. It is good
to have a large family."
The logic of concubinage is embraced in this last reply, I think.
It is an institution to render the family "strong to demand, and
strong to resist demands.
122 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
A strong healthy Kalinga chief has usually two, often more con-
cubines. He gives them rather limited material support : now and
then a suckling pig to rear, a little rice to help out the year, work at
good wages, yarn to keep them busy at the loom, a little capital for
trading trips, and the like. He may help them a great deal, but they
rarely cost him much. As indicated above, their children have no
inheritance rights.
GLOSSARY*
adi, term of negation.
agamang, dormitory of the unmarried. In some sections of northern Ifugao a
special building is constructed for this purpose. Among the Ifugaos gener-
ally a vacant house or the house of a widow is used.
agba, a magic stick used for the purpose of determining the cause of illness, or
the answering of other difficult questions. The stick is believed to grow
longer when it desires to make an affirmation.
aiyag, call, name. A ceremony to recall the soul of a sick or dead person.
alaag, a cooking pot of Chinese origin.
alao, duel with lances.
alauwin, a gourd carried as a water jug by women working in the rice fields.
alpud, runo stalks with blades tied in a loop. It is an "ethics lock," and de-
notes private property. Used by placing near or on whatever it is desired
shall remain unmolested; as, for example, a sugar-cane thicket, cord of wood,
house in the absence of owners, rice field in dispute, and so forth.
ama, father (see Appendix 1).
amana-on, father-in-law (see Appendix 1).
amaon, aunt's husband, etc. (see Appendix 1).
analc, son or daughter (see Appendix 1).
apo, grandparent (see Appendix 1).
*areca, a slender graceful palm which produces the areca nut, erroneously called
the betel-nut, which, with the leaf of the betel pepper and lime, are univer-
sally chewed by the Ifugaos. The physiologic effect is similar to that of
coffee.
ayah, sorcery.
baag, facetious or uncalled-for remarks.
baal, a hand servant; a household servant.
bakid, a "ten"; a half -score.
balal, a form of pawning of family property, in which a sum is loaned, the
property passing into the hands of the lender, and remaining so until the
sum is repaid. The use of the property constitutes the interest on the loan.
baloblad, interest paid in advance at the time a loan is made.
banga, a pot or tobacco pipe.
bango, a back-basket used for carrying necessities on a journey. It affords a
considerable protection against rain.
banting, flint and steel for fire making. Even applied sometimes, though im-
properly, to modern methods of fire drawing by means of matches. Never
applied to fire making by means of sticks or fire syringe.
Starred words are not Ifugao.
L919] Barton: If ugao Law 123
bay ad, a kind of fancy blanket.
binangtva, anything thai has been cut in two; halved. Sometimes used to denote
1 he half of anything.
binawit, a child spouse that lives in the homo of his or her parents-in-law.
binoJcbok, a ceremony performed three days after a burial. The soul of the
deceased is brought back to the village and interviewed.
bobod, a tie, a knot.
*bolo, a heavy knife about 14 to 1(5 inches long, whose shape varies among the
different tribes. It serves a multitude of purposes, answering now for an
axe, now for a spade or hoe, now for a weapon, now for the ordinary uses of
knives.
bubiat, the final ceremony of marriage. Its main purpose is to secure offspring
for the couple.
budut. one of the principal payments in the Benaue district in the purchase of
a rice field.
bukad, a religious ceremony in which a myth is recited for its magic effect.
bultong, a wrestling match; trial by wrestling.
bungol, jewel, specifically, ancient agate beads.
bungot, ferocity; the nearest approach in the Ifugao language perhaps to
"bravery". The Ifugao 's ideal of bravery seems to be an aggressive and
relentless, boastful, angry assertiveness. Mahui, a synonym, has the sense
of relentless boldness.
*camote, a tropical sweet potato, of which there are numerous varieties.
dalag, offering to the soul of a deceased person.
dangale, funeral feast.
datoJc, offering to the soul of a deceased person.
di, the article, "of the."
dotag, flesh; meat.
(hiiin. a wooden dish.
*fiat, a term which I use to denote those phrases in religious ceremonies in which
the priest clinches or compels the magic effect of an analogy by means of the
spoken word.
gagaom, funeral shrouds.
*gansa, or ganglia, a gong made of copper alloyed with zinc, tin, or silver. Main-
are very old. Some have been made in Tgorotdand, others imported from
China.
gatang, purchase price; business transaction, the main payment.
gibu, fine for marital or postmarital delinquency.
goba, arson, burn.
gogod, cut, bisect.
gulad, intent.
guling, a small but valuable, and usually artistic, rice-wine jar.
habalag, a peg on which articles are hung up. One of the payments in the fine
for illegal confiscation.
habale, peg or bracket upon which articles are hung.
hablal, flood; flooding of fields with water.
hagabi, a lounge cut out of a lare tree trunk. It is tin' insignia of the upper
(dass Ifugao. Tts carving out of the trunk, and its bringing in from the
forest, is an affair in which many villages participate, and is accompanied
by pretentious ceremonies and feasts.
hagaphap, cleaning of terrace wall; chopping off grass and weeds.
hailiyu, a lesser fine.
124 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
hakba, gifts to kindred of bride from kindred of bridegroom.
hakit, hurt, anguish.
halat, payment due persons of a foreign village who find the body of one dead
by violence.
halupe, a class of deities somewhat corresponding to the Greek Furies; sug-
gesting and harassing deities.
hapud, blowing, or breathing on.
hay nub, follower; succeeding units of a series.
hibul, treachery.
hidit, peace ceremony; peace deities; sickness inflicted by peace deities because
of delayed peace ceremony.
hin, a form of the word oha, meaning ' ' one ' '.
hingot, the third of the marriage ceremonies.
hog op, damages due the injured party in case of breach of contract.
hokwit, scandalous adultery, accompanied by insults to the offended spouse.
honga, a general welfare ceremony.
hudhud, fine for offense against engagement or for breaking off engagement.
hukup, lid.
hulul, exchange.
iba, companions; sometimes, kindred.
ibuy, ceremony at transfer of ownership of rice field.
iho, evil, bad.
imbango, sacrifice at second ceremony of marriage.
ina, mother (see Appendix 1).
inagagong, a kind of Ifugao blanket.
inagamid, adopted; taken to oneself.
inaon, uncle's wife, etc. (see Appendix 1).
inay, exclamation of pain or awe.
inhida, eaten; one of the payments at the ibuy ceremony.
inipit, something held with pincers or pliers; also something grasped between
the toes. In eating meat the Ifugao holds his knife between the toes and,
grasping the meat with his hands, cuts it by sawing it back and forth on
the knife.
inlaglaga, bastard.
iyao, form of iho.
iyu, a form of iho.
kadangyang, a wealthy person; person of the upper class. Some observers have
interpreted kadangyang as "noble"; others as "chieftain". Correctly
speaking, there are neither chieftains nor nobles among the Ifugaos. The
more powerful Icadangyang rise to the dignity of headmen — no further.
kalakal, an edible water beetle found in the rice fields.
Tcalun, advice.
kindut, carried under the arm.
Tcinta, surplus; portion of food left after appetite has been satisfied.
kolating, harvest feast.
kulpe, feast at time rice fields are planted.
kumadangyang, to become wealthy.
labod, blood payment; indemnity for homicide or severe wounds.
lanad, commission of go-between. Also called liica.
linutu, cooked.
liiva, fee of go-between. See lanad.
lukbu, commission; fee paid an agent.
1919] Barton: Ifugao Law 125
lulctap, unaggravated adultery; adultery unaccompanied by great scandal and
by insults to offended spouse.
lupe, interest; increase.
maginlotan, death blanket, usually imported. Of less value than the dili.
ma-ibuy, property for whose transfer the ibuy ceremony is necessary.
mangdad, pig or chicken, given by kindred of bride to kindred of groom as a
return for pig given the former by the latter in the hango and Mngot cere-
monies.
manikam, priest who performs certain ceremonies preliminary to the uyauwe
feast (see Woman),
mata-na, his eyes.
mommon, preliminary marriage ceremony.
moribaga, asker, requester.
monbiyao, an alliance between families of different districts. Celebrated by
very pretentious ceremonies.
mongatang, seller.
morikalun, advocate, adviser. Specifically, in law, the go-between in a penal or
civil ease.
montudol, a ••shower"; specifically, a traitor to his village; a betrayer.
nabungol, jeweled.
nadulpig, in addition to; accompanying.
na-imbalbalayen (lit., "made one's child"), adopted child.
na-oha, single; one only; one alone.
na-onom, six at a time; a unit consisting of six subunits, or parts.
natauwinan, four at a time.
nut i . dead.
not nk n, consisting of three subunits, or parts.
nawatwat, poverty-stricken; term applied to the lowest class of Ifugao society.
nemnem, mind, feeling, thought, emotion, worry, intention. The term is of very
broad meaning and applies to the mind or any act thereof.
nilekop (lit., "taken to one's self"), adopted child, or a servant that is treated
as one of the family.
nunbadi, a pair; consisting of two subunits or parts; two together.
nundopa, the "jumping down from."
nungolat (lit., "he who was strong"), the conceiver, or originator, of a plot;
he who assembles others to himself, and leads them in committing an injury
or offense.
nunlidludagan, place where it was laid, or had fallen.
ntmokop, a payment of two units of a series by means of a single article. The
Ifugao prefers to divide all sales into ten subpayments. If the sale be
comparatively small, two subpayments may be paid by one article, as by a
death blanket.
oban, a blanket, about eight feet long and two feet wide, with which a baby is
carried on the back of an elder. It is of great religious and poetic significance.
ohol:, sticks or trellis for climbing vines.
om, yes; affirmative.
ongot, menace; threat.
otak, a large knife, universally carried by the Ifugaos. It is used in war or in
work; commonly called throughout the Philippines "bolo" in both English
and Spanish.
paduldul, comfort; causing consolation.
pagholc, landmark; usually chunks of wood or stone buried at a boundary line.
126 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 15
palimdan, "causing to chew betels together."
pango, jewels, usually agate beads.
paniyu, taboo.
panuyu, mutual accusation, false accusation.
paowa, prohibition, truce.
patang, interest paid in advance on something borrowed.
piduan, repetition.
pinokla, a ceremony to cure wounds.
pinohat, carried under the arm.
ponga, ceremony to remove the prohibition on marriage of cousins. Full cousins
may not marry.
pugug, finish; termination.
puhu-na, his heart.
putu-na, his belly.
pu-u, base.
*runo, a tall reed that covers the mountain sides. House walls, mats, floors,
and fences are made of it. It also makes an effective missile.
tandong, one of the principal payments made on family property. It corresponds
to the initial payment made when an article is bought on installments among
our people.
tanig, term applied to the principal marriage ceremony in the Benaue district.
Corresponds to bubun in the Kiangan district.
tayap, wing.
te, because.
tilcman, ceremony of tying up the bellies, appetites, passions, and desires of the
guests at a feast.
tobong, spit on which edible water beetles are grilled.
toTcop, the placing beside an article its equivalent.
toTcom, fine assessed for putting another in the position of being an accomplice.
tombolc, gossip.
tomolc, fine for manslaughter, wounds.
tudong, woman's sweet-potato basket. It is used as a raincoat when at work in
the fields.
tulang, brother (see Appendix 1).
tuldag, series of ceremonies at the time rice is put in the granaries.
tulud, a ceremony of witchcraft, in which, following the recitation of a myth
for magic purposes, the characters of the myth recited are made to perform,
or declare their will to perform, the desire of the priest.
tumuk, persons of the middle class. Persons are accounted of this class who
have rice sufficient for the use of their family throughout the year, and
those who, having surplus rice, have not been initiated into the ranks of the
Jcadangyang by means of the uyauwe feast.
tun gill, ceremony at the time of placing rice in granaries. One of the three
greater ceremonials of rice culture.
itb nit ana, his seat.
ugd. treachery.
ulitao, uncle (see Appendix 1).
ulitaon, spouse of uncle or aunt (see Appendix 1).
ulpitan, the placing on each side of an article its equivalent.
tt milium, burning off the grass preparatory to spading fields.
1919 | Barton : Ifugao Law 1-7
mud, follow, a term applied to a second payment of Lnteresl in advance. Thus,
a man borrows a carabao, paying P30 as the Lnteresl in advance for one
war, and if at the end of the year he cannot repay the carabao be makes a
second payment, or unud, as interest in advance on the following year.
uyauwe, a series of pretentious and ostentatious ceremonies by which a person
attains the rank of kadangyang. Sometimes it is combined with the last
ceremony of marriage.
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 1
i
■
6UADE, [FUGAO GO BETWEEN AND PRIES']
PLATE 2
Often a Negrito's dwelling is the merest mockery of a house. This is an
unusually good one, since it has a thatched roof. Often the roof is no more
than a few curled banana leaves and the dwelling without walls of any kind.
At the side of the door are seen two or three bows. The Negrito puts into
making his bow and arrows all the pains that he neglects to put into the con-
struction of his house.
[130]
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PLATE 3
The height of the American is 5 feet 9% inches. Many of the Negritos are
of mixed blood and consequently the average height of the tribe is above what
one would expect to find in a tribe of dwarf blacks. These wiry little men are
at home in the tropical jungle. Slipping through it noiselessly and speedily on
their quest for game or on missions of vengeance, they inspire no little fear in
their neighbors. The Ifugaos have quite poignant traditions of the time when
the Negritos lived in the surrounding forests. To this day in the general
welfare ceremonials, they call a deity that is a Negrito spirit, and address him
as follows: "We also are Negritos. Do not shoot us with your bow and arrow.
Shoot our enemies instead because we are all Negritos together. ' '
[132]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON) PLATE 3
PURE-BLOOD NEGRITO AND AMERICAN
PLATE 4
The Benguet Igorots live to the south of the Ifugao. Notice that the hair
is banged over the forehead.
[ 134 ]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. &. ETHN. VOL. 15 [ BARTON | PLATE 4
I
/
V,
1
J
I'.KM.I K'l' ICOKOT WOMAN
PLATE 5
The Benguet and Lepanto women are the only women of the mountain tribes
that habitually wear a garment above the waist.
[136]
PLATE 6
Among the Lepanto the upper garment is frequently padded with rags and
patched and repatched until it becomes ' ' a coat of many colors. ' ' The women
are stocky and hardy. They do a greater portion of the work than do the
women of other tribes.
[138]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON | PLATE 6
.EPANTO WOMEN
PLATE 7
The Bontoc tattoo is exceedingly elaborate. Neither a man nor a woman
may be tattooed except when a successful head-hunting expedition has returned
to the village or ward.
[140]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 7
A BONTOC MAX
PLATE
The saucy, uudomesticated expression of the face is characteristic of the
Bontoc Igorot. To describe with a single word the dispositions of the three
upper mountain tribes of northern Luzon, it could be said that the Kalinga is
a rake, the Bontoc a dare-devil, and the Ifugao a mystic.
[142]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 8
A BONTOC (JIKT,
PLATE 9
The room proper of the Bontoc house is above the level of the eaves. It
rests on piles. It is used only as a granary and storeroom. Beneath this room
and protected from the inclemency of the weather by two or three planks on
each side the family cooks and eats. At one corner of this space beneath the
house proper is a tight box in which husband, wife, and baby, if there be one,
sleep. The other children sleep in the dormitories of the unmarried.
Note the sweet-potato patches all about the house. Sharpened reeds are
stuck up in these to impale the serpent eagle should he swoop down upon the
chickens.
[144]
v. f r f If £§y
PLATE 10
Note the red flowers above the man's ears, the feathers in his hair, and the
gong which is held by a jawbone taken from an enemy's head. The woman's
ear-ornaments and the spangles on her skirt are mother-of-pearl. Around her
wrists are wrapped strand upon strand of beads. The Kalingas are the wealthiest
of the mountain tribes and the fondest of ornaments.
[146]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [ BARTON | PLATE 10
.
nnrrrmTi-rrtttlH
A KALINGA MAN AND WOMAN
PLATE 11
This village is on the border line between Bontoc and Lepanto. Igorots of
both these tribes live in large compact villages and have a rudimentary political
organization. The Ifugaos, on the other hand, live in very small villages or in
isolated groups of two or three houses and have not even a vestige of political
organization.
[148]
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UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 12
Jr. ,'Sttt'f
• \y '.'. ?y
[FUGAO OF PINDUANGAN VILLAGE
PLATE 13
Patikwal, a strong character, famous in the whole region as a go-between
1 as a priest.
[150]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [ BARTON | PLATE 13
rPTJGAO OF CTMBUL VILLAGE
PLATE 14
According to Ifugao custom, Kuyapi must wear his hair long because he
has not avenged the death of his father. The coming of the Americans pre-
vented this vengeance.
[152]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 14
[FUGAO OF PIXDL'AXGAX VILLACE
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15
BARTON | PLATE 15
v ;?
1'HKKK IFICAO BF.LLE:
PLATE 16
The following conventional tattoo patterns may be distinguished. The dog,
eagle, centipede (running up from each breast), scorpion, lightning (zigzag),
shield.
154]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. <&, ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 16
A TATTOOKD IKUC.AO OK KABABUYAX DISTRICT
PLATE 17
This is one of the best houses built by a Philippine population. Note the
fenders on the piles to prevent ingress of rats. The house is so constructed
that its very weight holds the frame together.
[156]
PLATE 18
This valley is not hemmed in by such steep mountains as most other districts
of Ifugao. The view is surpassingly beautiful, combining as it does the rugged
mountain ranges, the fields and huts— the work of man — and the palms and
feathery bamboos in the foreground. The picture illustrates a feature that
bears out the statement made in the text as to the Ifugao 's skill as a mountain
agriculturist. Note the fields in the right foreground. The hive-shaped hum-
mocks comprise the superior six inches of the field's soil. This soil has been
heaped up by the women working with their bare hands in order that it may
be aerated and the decomposition of partially decayed vegetable matter completed.
[158]
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PLATE 20
This is a terraced mountain side that has excited the admiration and
astonishment of every traveler who has had the hardihood to venture to its
remote location in the interior. The area of rice fields pictured here is about
12 kilometers long without a break in its continuity. Some of the terrace
walls are 60 feet high. A little to the right of the middle of the picture and
on the fourth or fifth tier of walls above the river are three human figures
which may be used by the reader to seize some idea of the scale of the picture.
Small groups of houses may also be distinguished on jutting ledges of the
mountain side.
[160]
PLATE 21
Although this valley does not make so striking a panorama as does the
Benaue valley, the view is really even more magnificent. From the river to
the top of the terraced area one may count 110 rows of terraces.
162]
[ BARTON ] PLATE 21
■'££ A- «
CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & E
I BARTON ] PLATE 21
ASIN VALLEY, IPVO.
PLATE 22
Note that the height of the terrace walls usually exceeds the width of the
fields. This is very frequently the case throughout Ifugao land.
[164]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON | PLATE 22
A PICTUBESQTJE NOOK IX HUNDUAN, IFUG
PLATE 23
Young rice plants are taken from the seed beds and transplanted in the
field. Women do most of this work, since their hands are nimbler than men's.
The men do most of the work of preparing the fields.
[166]
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PLATE 24
The hagabi, or lounging bench, is the rich man 's insignia of rank. The rice
is thrown into the air for the poor to scramble for.
[168]
PLATE 25
This picture shows how the Ifugaos carry their babies. The oban blanket
with which the child is held on the back is of great importance in cases of
illegitimate birth, since its gift by the father to the mother constitutes a recog-
nition of the child.
[ 170 ]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 25
IKI-(iAo MOTHER AND I III
PLATE 26
The man on the left has recently killed an enemy. About his neck he wears
a string of crocodile teeth. In his costume may be discerned suggestions of
the cock's comb, his wings, and his tail. The two men are about to perform
a mimic dance, in which one, representing a full-grown cock, overcomes the
other, representing a half -grown cock. Priests near by pray that the warriors
of their village may be like unto the full-grown cock.
[ 172 ]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON | PLATE 26
^
* V
two ifi'i.ahs ih;kssi.i> Kin; tiik cock-hhht dawk
PLATE 27
Priests are reciting myths and invocations against the enemy dur
progress of the cock-fight dance.
[174]
PLATE 28
This is one of the most stupendous spectacles that the life of a barbarian
people has to offer. The front of the shields is striped with zigzag white lines.
The processions are often a mile long and 1000 or even 2000 people frequently
take part in them. The men wear gaudy head-dresses, women's beads, and
strips of white fiber about the legs and arms. The participants dance along
their way, turning from one side to the other. Viewed from a distance, one
of these processions as it dances slowly along on a rice-field dike looks like
nothing so much as a gigantic, squirming centipede.
[176]
PLATE 29
In one hand she holds a knife, in the other a spear. Corpses of the murdered
are always propped up against a house pile — never put in a death chair, as are
corpses of those dead from natural causes. The corpse, too, is neglected in order
to make the soul angry and incline it to vengeance.
[178]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [BARTON] PLATE 29
BoI>Y of MURDERED [FUGAO girl
PLATE 30
One of the participants is dipping his hand into the pot of boiling water.
His party stands beside hirn, spears pointed toward the earth. The other
member and his party are on the other side of the pot. The go-between squats
directly back of the pot.
[180]
PLATE 31
Note the 8 rice-wine jars, the knives ami spears, the 2 pigs, the 6 rude cages
containing chickens, the 8 copper pots, the 2 coats (formerly part of the uniform
of American soldiers), the baskets and dishes.
[182]
PLATE 32
The boy and girl in the center have been recently married and are being
elevated to the rank of kadangyang, or wealthy. The boy carries a cock hanging
from his belt, the girl a hen in her hand. The men and women are kindred of
the boy and girl.
[184]
' '
v^
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1 :
PLATE 33
When a person of Tcadangyang rank is placed in the death chair he is dressed
in the costume of that rank. These bodies are sometimes kept in the chair for
as many as 13 or 15 days. At the right of the picture may be seen the monwahhca
(primitive undertaker), whose business it is to care for the body and finally to
carry it on his shoulders to the sepulchre on the mountain side. For these
services he receives a very trifling compensation. Note that the treatment of
the bodies of those dead from natural causes is very different from the treatment
of the bodies of the murdered or those dead by violence. The former are shown
great care and respect; the latter are neglected and bereft of the usual dignities
of death. '
[186]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 15 [ BARTON | PLATE 33
ll- I'd ah CORPSE IX THE DEATH I HAIB
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