Front matter

Origin Myths among the Mountain Peoples of the Philippines1

By H. Otley Beyer

(From the Division of Ethnology, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.)

Four plates

Beliefs as to the origin of the earth, and of the men, animals, plants, and various topographical features found in it, seem to survive with greater persistence than any other trait of primitive culture. These beliefs lie at the base of nearly all religions, and the myths in which the beliefs are preserved are the foundation of literature. The preservation and study of origin myths is, therefore, of much importance in the reconstruction of the history of mankind which is the chief aim of anthropology.

The peoples of the Philippines have a rich and varied mythology as yet but little explored, but which will one day command much attention. Among the Christianized peoples of the plains the myths are preserved chiefly as folk tales, but in the mountains their recitation and preservation is a real and living part of the daily religious life of the people. Very few of these myths are written; the great majority of them are preserved by oral tradition only.

Until recent years, it has been believed that all ancient records written in the syllabic alphabets which the Filipinos possessed at the time of the Spanish conquest had been lost. It is now known, however, that two of these alphabets are still in use, to a limited extent, by the wild peoples of Palawan and Mindoro; and ancient manuscripts written in the old Bisaya alphabet have been lately discovered in a cave in the Island of Negros. Many of these Negros manuscripts are written myths, and translations of them are shortly to be published. The Bisaya peoples, in general, have preserved their old pagan beliefs to a greater extent than have the other Christian Filipinos, and it is to be hoped that the discovery of these manuscripts will stimulate further investigations.

Among the pagan mountain peoples, with which this paper will chiefly deal, there are no written myths except those which have been recorded by Europeans in modern times. Some of the myths are sung or chanted only, while others are repeated in the form of stories. In nearly every case, the repeating of the myths forms an important part of the religious ceremonies of the people. Many different grades of culture are represented among these mountain peoples, and we find a correspondingly unequal development of their mythologies. All classes are represented: primitive, such as the beliefs of the Man͠gyans of Mindoro, the Tagbanwas of Palawan, and the Ilongots of northern Luzon; mediocre, as the beliefs of the pagan tribes of Mindanao; and highly developed, such as the elaborate polytheisms of the Ifugaos, Igorots, Kalingas, and the other peoples of the Mountain Province in Luzon.

Most of the myths and legends recorded here were collected by men well acquainted with the dialect of the people from whom the myth or legend was obtained; they are, therefore, of much greater value than if they had been secured through interpreters.

I shall next discuss a few myths from each of the classes just mentioned.

Primitive Beliefs

I was especially interested in their views as to a future life. They scouted the idea of a home in the skies, urging that it would be inaccessible. Their notion was that when a Tagbanua died he entered a cave, from which a road led down into the bowels of the earth. After passing along this road for some time, he came suddenly into the presence of one Taliákood, a man of gigantic stature, who tended a fire which burned forever between two tree-trunks without consuming them. Taliákood inquired of the new arrival whether he had led a good or a bad life in the world above. The answer came, not from the individual himself, but from a louse on his body.

I asked what would happen should the man not chance to possess any of these interesting arthropoda, and was informed that such an occurrence was unprecedented! The louse was the witness, and would always be found, even on the body of a little dead child.

According to the answer of this singular arbiter, the fate of the deceased person was decided. If he was adjudged to have been a bad man, Taliákood pitched him into the fire, where he was promptly and completely burned up. If the verdict was in his favour, he was allowed to pass on, and soon found himself in a happy place, where the crops were always abundant and the hunting was good. A house awaited him. If he had died before his wife, he married again, selecting a partner from among the wives who had preceded their husbands; but if husband and wife chanced to die at the same time, they remarried in the world below. Every one was well off in this happy underground abode, but those who had been wealthy on earth were less comfortable than those who had been poor. In the course of time sickness and death again overtook one. In fact, one died seven times in all, going ever deeper into the earth and improving his surroundings with each successive inward migration, without running a second risk of getting into Taliákood’s fire.

I could not persuade the Tagbanuas to advance any theories as to the nature or origin of the sun, moon, and stars. Clouds they called “the breath of the wind.”

They accounted for the tide by saying that in a far-distant sea there lived a gigantic crab: when he went into his hole the water was forced out, and the tide rose; when he came out the water rushed in, and the tide fell. The thing was simplicity itself.

I asked them why the monkey looked so much like a man. They said because he was once a man, who was very lazy when he should have been planting rice. Vexed at his indolence, a companion threw a stick at him which stuck into him; whereupon he assumed his present form, the stick forming his tail.

From the foregoing, it is evident that the Tagbanwa beliefs are not highly developed. However, several items are of interest for comparison with the beliefs of the more cultured tribes to be later described. Of these items, those most to be kept in mind are the idea of a seven-storied underworld, and the name of the chief deity of that underworld, Taliákud. This name comes from the stem tákud, túkud, or tókod, which is common to many Philippine dialects and means “post” or “support.” It is generally applied to the four legs or posts of the common Philippine house. Now, the belief in an Atlas, or god who supports the earth world, is widespread in the Philippines, and the name applied to this god is nearly always derived from this same stem túkud. The Ifugao Atlas is Tinúkud of the underworld, and I suspect that the Tagbanwa Taliákud of the underworld is a deity of the same character.

Beliefs of the Pagan Tribes of Mindanao

The interior of Mindanao is occupied by some ten pagan tribes, the most important being the Manóbos, Mandayas, Atás, Bagóbos, Biláns, Tirurais, and Subánuns. These tribes are all remarkably alike in culture; much more so, in fact, than any other similar group of peoples in the Philippines; and this culture shows a close resemblance to that of the tribes in the interior of Borneo. In the development of their myths and of their religious beliefs, these peoples occupy a middle position between the more primitive and the highest developed types of the Philippines. John M. Garvan has recently completed a very extensive study of the Manóbo peoples of the Agúsan Valley, in eastern Mindanao, and the following beliefs and myths are quoted from his unpublished notes.