Note 43 — Tales of the Mythical Period

Comparison of the Reconstructed Culture with Present Day Conditions.—Before passing to a consideration of the tales in the last two divisions of our material, it may be well to compare the life and beliefs of these “people of the first times” with those of the living Tinguian. Kadalayapan and Kaodanan appear, in a vague way, to have been located in Abra, for we learn that the Ilocano, Don Carlos, went up the river from Baygan (Vigan)43 to Kadalayapan; that the alzados44 lived near by; while the tattooed Igorot occupied the land to the south (pp. 77, 155). The villages were surrounded by defensive walls such as were to be found about all Tinguian villages until recent times, and which are still to be seen about Abang and other settlements. Within the walls were many houses, the descriptions of most of which would fit the dwellings of to day. The one thing which seems foreign to present conditions is the so-called “ninth room” which receives rather frequent mention. There is nothing in the tales referring to buildings or house construction which lends support to the contention of those who seek to class the Tinguian as a modified sub-group of Igorot.45 The Bontoc type of dwelling with its ground floor sleeping box and its elevated one room kitchen and storage room is nowhere mentioned, neither is there any indication that in past or present times the Tinguian had separate sleeping houses for the unmarried men and boys, and for the girls, as do their neighbors to the south.