Note 44 — The Cycle of Life

The similarity of the Tinguian rice ceremony to that of many other Philippine tribes is so great that it cannot be due to mere chance. Customs of a like nature were observed by the writer among the Bukidnon, Bagobo, Bila-an, Kulaman, and Mandaya of Mindanao, and the Batak of Palawan; they are also described by Reed and Worcester for the Negrito of Zambales and Bataan; while Loarca, writing late in the sixteenth century, records a very like ceremony practised by a coast group, probably the Pintados. At the same time it is worthy of note that Jenks found among the Bontoc Igorot a great divergence both in courtship and marriage. Among the Dusun of British North Borneo the marriage of children of the well-to-do is consummated Page 279nby the eating of rice from the same plate. Other instances of eating together, as a part of the marriage ceremony in Malaysia, are given by Crawley. See Cole, The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao (Field Museum of Natural History. Vol. XII, No. 2, pp. 102, 144, 157, 192); Reed, Negritos of Zambales (Pub. Ethnological Survey, Vol. II, pt. 1, p. 58 (Manila, 1904)); Worcester, Philippine Journal of Science, Vol. I, p. 811 (Manila, 1906); Loarca, Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas, Chap. X (Arevalo, 1580), translated in Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands, Vol. V, pp. 157, et seq.; Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot (Pub. Ethnological Survey, Vol. I, pp. 68, et seq., Manila, 1905); Evans, Journ. Royal Anth. Inst., Vol. XLVII, p. 159; Crawley, The Mystic Rose (London, 1902), pp. 379, et seq.