Note 74 — The Cycle of Life

Beliefs Concerning the Spirit of the Dead.—Direct questioning brings out some differences of opinion, in the various districts, concerning the spirit of the dead. In Manabo, a town influenced both by the Igorot of the Upit River valley and the Christianized Ilocano of San Jose, the spirit is said to go at once to the great spirit Kadaklan, Page 290and then to continue on “to the town where it lives.” “It is like a person, but is so light that it can be carried along by the wind when it blows.”74 The people of Ba-ay, a mountain village partially made up of immigrants from the eastern side of the Cordillera Central, claim that the spirits of the dead go to a mountain called Singet, where they have a great town. Here, it is also stated, the good are rewarded with fine houses, while the bad have to be content with hovels. The general belief, however, is that the spirit (kalading) has a body like that of the living person, but is usually invisible, although spirits have appeared, and have even sought to injure living beings. Immediately following death, the spirit stays near to its old home, ready to take vengeance on any relative, who fails to show his body proper respect. After the blood and oil ceremony, he goes to his future home, Maglawa, carrying with him gifts for the ancestors, which the people have placed about his corpse. In Maglawa he finds conditions much the same as on earth; people are rich and poor; they need houses; they plant and reap; and they conduct ceremonies for the superior beings, just as they had done during their life on earth. Beyond this, the people do not pretend to be posted, “for Kabonīyan did not tell.” With the exception of the people of Ba-ay and a few individuals influenced by Christianity, the Tinguian has no idea of reward or punishment in the future life, but he does believe that the position of the spirit in its new home can be affected by the acts of the living (cf. p. 289). No trace of a belief in re-incarnation was found in any district inhabited by this tribe.