Among the Head-Hunters of Formosa

ed Representations of Glorified Ancestors and of Serpents; Moon Worship; Sacred Tree, Orchid, and Grass-The Kindling of the Sacred Fire by the Bunun and

chings of the Dutch missionaries given to their ancestors. When questioned at all closely as to their religious belief, they speak of several deities. These are usually in pairs-male and female-as for example Kakring and Kalapiat. These deities seem concerned[131] with the thunderstorms which are frequent on the east coast; these storms being due, according to Ami belief, to the quarrels between the god, Kakring, and his wife, Kalapiat; Kakring causing the thunder by stamping and by throwing about the pots (the latter being the most prized possessio

e of illness or danger they are asked to intercede with the various deities. Intercession takes the form of a sort of chanting prayer, growing louder and wilder as it continues, accompanied by the throwi

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by several priestesses. The latter dance and chant themselves into a state of frenzy, until they fall exhausted in a swoon, real or simulated. When they return to consciousness, which is sometimes not until next day, they say that the spirits which "sang back" at them from cliff or cave during

mountains in search of game, will put a red pebble into a freshly opened betel-nut, lay this in the palm of his hand and wave it before his face, palm upward, toward the sky.

presents a tribal recollection of their former home-perhaps of a massacre, which caused the emigration of those remaining; perhaps of hunger, thirst, and terror on the voyage between the "land to the south" and Formosa. At any rate, their tradition is that their ancestors drifted to the coast, which is now their home, in a "long boat." The very spot of their debarkation is pointed out-a place near Pinan.[65] Once a year a commemoration festival is held at this spot,

re, according to Piyuma tradition, was planted the staff of a god, which grew into a bamboo. From different joints of this bamboo sprang the first man and the first

fact, it is held by practically all the Formosan tribes; also by the Tagalog tribe of the Philippines. A similar

F THE AM

THE PAIWAN TRIBE CARVE

stands an upright block of slate on which is carved a figure supposed to be human, this figure often being surrounded by markings [135]representing serpents.[67] Both human and serpentine figures are carved in the slate by means of sharpened flint, or other stone harder than slate. As the Paiwa

ngerous of living creatures (in the tropical jungles of Formosa there are naturally many deadly species); but this veneration is more in the nature of theriolatry than totemism. They seem to think that by having constantly

-like the other aboriginal tribes-pay greater reverence to the spirits of ancestors than to any deity. Besides the ancestral spirits believed to inhabit the ancient swords or knives, previously referred to,[69] there are other spirits whose dwelling-place they believe to be the forest or jungle. All these are worshipped twice a year,

small people are kept two or three old baked-clay pots, or jars, believed by the tribes-people to be of lunar origin-a remnant of the original twelve brought down by their ancestors. These of course are never used, but are regarded by them as being most sacred, only the chief and the priestesses bei

eremony and bestow blessings upon the tribe. In other groups within the Tsarisen tribe, where there are no sacred jars or stones, the priestesses arrange the food-offerings in little piles close together, forming a circle: this to simulate the full moon. To step within the charmed circle would be sacrilege unspeakable;

mer a very small tribe, numbering now less than two thousand,

in tree which is regarded as holy; and once a year-at harvest-time-millet wine is sprinkled near the roots of the tree, and singing, dancing, and feasting carried on under its branches. I do not consider, however, that this constitutes true tree-worship, nor do I thin

the priestesses water it, and always they tend it with scrupulous care. This custom also is obviously connected with the reverence in which the tribes-people hold their ancestors, for the latter, they believe, wore this orchid when they went t

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of even greater sanctity than trees. Twice a year-at seed-time and at harvest-time-great bundles of this green grass are brought into the houses, mille

led. At other times, should the fire go out (though this is considered a thing of evil omen), or should hunters, away from home, wish to start a fire, flint-and-steel percussion is used-this method apparently having been learned f

nst this hot wood-dust bits of very dry grass or leaves, and blowing upon it. In order thus to produce fire, the chief of the tribal group-among the Bunun usually a man-shuts himself up alone in his hut, which for the time being it is tabu for his subjects to approach, twirling the fire-dr

quently the men of this tribe lose their heads-in a very literal sense-a disproportion of women, consequently a number of unmarried ones, might[141] be expected. But this does not seem to be the case, judging both from my own observation and also from the reply to questions put to the Japanese Aiyu (military police) stationed at various points among the Taiyal. It may be that those anthropologists[73] are right who hold that the so-called hardships of savage life-frequent insufficiency of food, necessity of hard physical toil on the part of the women, an

her edge is left blunt. This blunt edge is held in the hand of the officiating priestess. In a shallow groove cut in the other piece of bamboo the priestess inserts the sharp edge of the short, wedge-shaped, bamboo saw. To and fro she draws it, chanting as she does so. Usually she is seated in the open, before the door of her hut, her congregation of apparently awestruck subjects being seated in a semicircle, at a respectful distance from her. Gradually

nual occasions, the people hang balls of boiled millet, usually wrapped in banana leaves, from the branches of trees, in or near their respective villages. These are to feed the ancestral spirits, which are supposed to descend through the air that night, from the high mountain on which they usually resi

rrior, tattooed with the successful head-hunter's mark-with a mass of boiled millet carefully wrapped in a large banana leaf.

hose of Chinese or Japanese. Therefore, instead of prayers and offerings to propitiate the wrath or evil temper of the rain-devil, who is supposed to be responsible for the downpour, the chief priestess and assistant priestesses of the tribal group that is being inundated gather together, with long knives in their hands-these of the sort that are used by the men in head-hunting-and begin to dance and gesticulate. The dancing becomes wilder and more frenzied as it goes on, the gesticulations with the knives-thrusting and slashing at imaginary figures-more violent; the priestesses cry or chant in a threatening manner, while the people, both men and women, standing about, howl and wail. Often the priestesses fo

with dances and other religious rites of shamans and medicine-men of the North) is not peculiar to Hyperborean peoples, but is characteristic of all Mongol and Malay races, when under stress of religious fervour or other strong excitement. The same habit of almost hypnotic

hunting). The warriors or hunters will stop on the spot at which the bird is seen to alight, and there lie in wait for either enemy or game, according to the nature of the expedition. This bird cannot, I think, in spite of the reverence in which it is held, be regarded as the totem of the Taiyal people. Rather, the tribes-people seem to regard i

uch as Mana is used by other Oceanic peoples. Unless one understands really thoroughly the language of a primitive people (and I do not pretend so to understand Taiyal) it is difficult always to trace the association of

, separately and together, as Ottofu. The spirit of oneself is thought to separate itself from one's body during sleep; also it is liab

nge of the island. In order to reach it-or to attempt to reach it-each spirit, after death, must pass over a narrow bridge spanning a deep chasm. The men who have been successful as warriors and as huntsmen pass over in safety; also the wo

nd more regular feature than most of the Taiyal tribes-people-have a curious legend as to their origin. They believe that they are the descendants of a princess who was married to a dog "somewhere over the mountains." A similar legend is said to be current among some tribes

of the practices, religious and otherwise, of their powerful ne

s beliefs and observances of th

s in honour of the "Sea God," offerings of fruit, of food, and of flowers[149] being cast into the sea on these occasions. No offering of wine is made, as is the case with the other tribes at their religious festivals, for the reason that the Yami seem to know nothing of either the making or the drinking of wine-one of the few primitive peoples of whom this is t

land, when the Japanese boats stop at Botel Tobago, which they now do once a month. The beaten coins are pierced and strung together on grass fibres-or on wires, when these can be obtained from the Japanese. The stiff bands thus made are built up into e

generally accepted by students of comparative religion and folk-lore that "Easter" is a pre-Christian festival-common to many lands and races, only, at the present time in the Western world, given an Anno Domini interpretation, as is the case with Christmas and the ot

t spring festival. Most of the tribes on the main island of Formosa count

aborigines. They do not[151] mention which tribe, or tribes, had these temples, but the context would seem to imply the Paiwan, or perhaps the Ami. While these temples doubtless existed at the time that the Dutch Fathers wrote, they no longer do so.

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