General Results

Our study has brought out certain general results. We have seen that Tinguian folklore has much in common with that of other tribes and lands. While a part of this similarity is doubtless due to borrowing—a process which can still be seen at work—a considerable portion of the tales is probably of local and fairly recent origin, while the balance appears to be very old. These older tales are so intimately interwoven with the ceremonies, beliefs, and culture of this people that they may safely be considered as having been developed by them. They are doubtless much influenced by present day conditions, for each story teller must, even unconsciously, read into them some of his own experiences and the current beliefs of the tribe. At the same time these traditional accounts doubtless exercise a potent influence on the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the people. In Tinguian society, where custom still Page 31holds undisputed sway, these well-known tales of past times must tend to cast into the same mould any new facts or experiences which come to them.

We have seen that, for the most part, the life, customs, and beliefs which appear in our reconstruction of “the first times” agrees closely with present conditions; certain things which seem formerly to have been of prime importance—such as the sending of a betel-nut covered with gold to invite guests to a festival or ceremony—appear to have their echo in present conditions. The betel-nut which played such a momentous part in the old times still holds its place in the rituals of the many ceremonies, although it is not now much used in daily life. The magic of to-day is less powerful than formerly, but is still a tremendous force. The communication of the ancient people with other members of the animate world, as well as with the inanimate and spiritual, and their metamorphosis into animals and the like, offers nothing strange or inconsistent to the people of to-day. They even now talk to jars, they converse with spirits who come to them through the bodies of their mediums, Page 32and people only recently deceased are known to have had the power of changing themselves, at will, into other forms.

In short, there is no sharp break between the mode of thought of to-day and that exhibited in the folklore. It is true that the tales give sanction to some things not in agreement with Tinguian usage—such, for instance, as the marriage of relatives, or the method of disposing of the dead—and it may be that we have here a remembrance of customs which long ago fell into disuse.

It is not impossible that those customs of “the first times,” which are at variance with those of to-day, may represent older ideas which have been swamped, or, on the other hand, the memory of the strange customs once practiced by the emigrants may have caused them to be attributed to the people of the tales.

Finally, we believe that a study of Tinguian mythology has shown us that we can gain a real knowledge of the past of a people through their folklore; that we can secure an insight into their mental life; and can learn something of the valuation they attach to certain of their activities and beliefs, which to us may seem at the surface trite and trivial. Page 33