A Study in Tinguian Folk-Lore

This paper is based on a collection of Philippine folk-tales recently published by the Field Museum of Natural History. The material appearing in that publication was gathered by the writer during a stay of sixteen months with the Tinguian, a powerful pagan tribe inhabiting the mountain districts of Abra, Ilocos Sur, and Norte, of Northern Luzon. In social organization, government, manner of house building, and many other details of material culture this tribe differs radically from the neighboring Igorot.

Observation has also led me to the conclusion that the religious organization and ceremonies of this people have reached a higher development than is found among the near-by tribes, and that this complexity decreases as we penetrate toward the interior or to the south. In the main the folk-tales are closely associated with the religious beliefs of the present day, and hence it seems unlikely that they will be found, in anything approaching their present form, far outside the districts dominated by this tribe. Nevertheless, isolated incidents corresponding to those of neighboring peoples, or even of distant lands, occur several times.