Note 5 — Personal Adornment, Dances, and Musical Instruments

Musical Instruments, Songs, and Dances.—The Tinguian is naturally musical. He sings at his work, he beats time with his head-axe against his shield as he tramps the mountain trails, he chants the stories of long ago as the workers gather about the fires each evening of the dry season, he sings the praises of his host at feasts and festivals,5 Page 439joins with others in the dirge which follows a burial, and he and many others will sing together as they dance the da-eng. But his music does not stop with his vocal accomplishments. In the folk-tales the pan pipe (dew-dew-as) occupies a most important place, and to-day the maidens still play them in the evening hours. It is a simple device made of reeds of various lengths lashed together (Fig. 26, No. 1). The player holds the instrument just in front of her lips, and blows into the reeds, meanwhile moving them to and fro, producing a series of low notes without tune.