Part 5
42. "Homesteading."--That land which is not rice fields or forest land and which is not owned by some individual by reason of its having been one or the other formerly, becomes the property of whomsoever makes it into rice fields. The tenure so acquired is perpetual.
43. Paghok, or landmarks.--Whenever a rice-field terrace is walled, the terrace wall is an unfailing and unimpeachable landmark. But in many districts, the terraces are not walled. In such cases, the division lines between fields are marked by large chunks of wood or by large stones, buried three or four feet deep along the division line. A boulder is of course a most excellent landmark.
Weather and the elements are continually wearing back an unwalled terrace. The amount each year is very small. But when in the course of years the displacement is sufficient to justify it, the owner may take that part of the field in the terrace below that belongs to him.
The moving of a landmark is said never to occur, since it would take two or three men to lift the heavy stones, and would require a long time. Moreover it could not be done without leaving plain and indisputable evidence of the crime.
44. Right of way through property owned by others.--In order to get rid of insect pests, clay is sometimes conveyed to a field to form a layer over it about two inches thick. The clay is shovelled into a stream of water above, and carried as silt to the field and there allowed to settle. Sometimes leaf mold and other fertilizers are conveyed to a field in this manner.
It makes no difference how many fields there may be above that on which it is desired to deposit the sediment, the owner of the last has a right to cut a ditch through the upper fields as a conduit for the stream of water. He must, however, repair all the upper terraces so as to leave them as they were before.
TRANSIENT TENURE
45. Tenure of sweet potato fields.--Sweet potato, or camote, fields are clearings on the mountain sides about the village. They are nearly always steep slopes, and quickly lose their fertility. For that reason, they are abandoned after a period that varies in different districts of Ifugao according as camotes are a more or less important factor in the subsistence of the people. Thus in Banaue, where camotes form a very large part of the subsistence of the people, the fields are cultivated for five or even six years, if located near the village; if more distant, they are abandoned after about two years. In Kiangan, where camotes do not play such an important part in subsistence, the fields are in any case abandoned after one or two years. The reason for abandoning the fields is that the soil wears out soon, so that the camotes grow small, and the yield does not repay the labor spent in cultivation. But in case a large area about the village be cultivated, rather than face the necessity of going far from the village to make clearings, the old fields are tended to a point at which the yield becomes almost nil. After abandoning a field, the owner still has a claim on it, but only until such time as the field grows up in weeds, in which case the labor spent by him in making the clearing may be fairly presumed to have been undone. After abandonment, the field regains its fertility slowly. The first person who begins clearing the field again becomes its possessor for a new term of years. It is exceedingly rare that quarrels arise over camote fields. Camote fields are sometimes sold, but it is not the land that is sold, but the crop with temporary possession of the land.
TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY FOR A CONSIDERATION
There are two kinds of transfer of family property for "consideration": the balal (pawn), and outright sale.
46. The balal.--In case a man finds himself under the necessity of raising a considerable sum of money--usually in order to provide funds for a funeral feast or a sacrifice--he frequently borrows the sum, giving a rice field into the hands of his creditor as a security and as a means of paying the interest on debt. The creditor holds, plants, and harvests the field until the debt be repaid. The field is to all purposes his, except that he cannot sell it. He can, however, transfer it as a balal into the hands of another. But he must transfer it for the same or a less amount of money; that is, if he has loaned fifty pesos on the field, he must not borrow more than that sum, unless, of course, he be able to secure the owner's consent. This is a very wise provision of Ifugao law that insures the prompt return of the field to the owner as soon as he be able to get together the amount needed to redeem the field. An example will make this clear. A borrows fifty pesos of B, giving his field as a balal into B's charge; B gives it as a balal to C for the same or a less amount, who gives it as a balal to D and so on. When A is able to repay the debt, he goes to B and delivers him the sum plus the fee of the agent through whom the deal was effected. With this amount, including the fee, B goes to C, C goes to D, and so on. Were B to have borrowed without A's consent more than fifty pesos, say seventy pesos, and were he not financially able to obtain the difference (twenty pesos) between his debt to C and the debt that A had just paid him, there would be an excellent beginning for a quarrel that might end in lance throwing.
Real estate of this kind continues in the hands of the creditor until the debt be paid. Transfers of the same piece of land may go on indefinitely. The transfers are witnessed each time by the agent who obtains the loan for the person in whose charge the field is. This agent receives as his fee about five to twelve per cent of the value of the loan obtained. He is the only witness necessary. His fee is paid him in the first place by the creditor. But the fee is added to the amount loaned, and must be returned by the debtor when the debt is paid. As soon as the agent has received his fee, it is his duty to inform his oldest son, in case he be of sufficient age, otherwise his wife or a brother, of the terms of the transaction. This is a precautionary measure against his death and the consequent leaving of the transaction without a witness.
Each creditor is liable to his debtor for the return of the field upon the payment of the sum due, the case being precisely parallel to the liability of the indorsers of a check or a note, one to another.
Suppose, however, that the field be planted in rice. In such an event, the owner must leave the creditor in possession of the field until the crop shall have been harvested. In case the field be newly planted, it is sometimes returned to the owner on the agreement that he care for the growing crop, harvest it, and give the creditor half. If the field be spaded, but not planted, the owner may pay his creditor for the cost of the labor expended in spading the field, together with a bonus as interest.
The amount loaned on a field never equals the value of the field. Usually it is about half the value. It makes no difference how long a field remain in the status known as balal, the field, subject to the conditions of the preceding paragraph, must be returned to the owner or his heirs whenever the amount loaned be returned. Sometimes a field remains a balal for two or three generations.
47. Sales of family property.--The Ifugao has a very peculiar system of buying and selling in connection with family property, by which, paradoxical as it may sound, a man has to pay for an article almost twice its price. In order to complete the purchase of a rice field, there are "extras" almost without number, to be paid, each extra bearing as its metaphorical name, the name of some act of rice-field cultivation or of a feature of the trade itself. So far as has yet been ascertained, there is no myth or story to explain how this peculiar idiosyncracy originated.
The price is divided into ten parts, each part being represented by a runo stick or a notch cut in a stick, or by knots in a string. In the Banaue district, these sticks are kept for generations as records of the sale. The first two sticks are called budut, and represent the payment down. They are the heaviest payments, not necessarily made on the day of the transfer, but at a set time. The eight others represent some standard in the Ifugao's system of barter, and are called gatang, or price. They are paid at some indefinite time in the future. Possession of the field is given after the first payment. In order to make the sticks conform to the standards of barter, it is sometimes necessary to represent one payment by two sticks.
Fee of witnesses and agent. This fee is called lukbu, or lagbu (in Benaue dialect). The principal witnesses are preferably the distant kin of the seller, and the agent or agents who effected the sale. The names of the different sticks, knots, or notches are translated literally in the tables diagraming the transactions in purchasing fields.
These fees are paid and the presents made to the kin of the seller at a feast called ibuy. This feast is performed whenever the purchase price of the field has been paid. The kin of buyer and seller meet in the purchaser's house.
A. Transactions in the Purchase of a Field in the Kiangan Area
I. Payments on the property
Paid down at time purchase is consummated, or soon after:
Name of transaction and Article Value meaning transferred
Budut, or tandong 1 pig P20.00 Budut, or tandong 1 pig 15.00
Additional instalments (gatang) paid irregularly:
Gatang 1 death blanket 8.00 Nunokóp (two at a time) 1 death blanket 8.00 Nunokóp (two at a time) 1 pig 20.00 Gatang 1 pig 8.00 Gatang 1 pig 8.00 ====== Total P87.00
II. Fees (lukbu) of the principal witnesses
Name of transaction and Article Value meaning transferred
Bobod (the tying) 1 pig P10.00 Page (rice) 1 small pig 6.00 Lanad (commission of the go-between) 5.00 Pugug (finished) 4.00 Gogod (cut) 3.00 Kinta (left over) 1.00 ====== Total P29.00
III. Advance interest paid to the seller
Baloblad P6.50
(If the seller is a kinsman, he may not take this amount. If taken, the seller and the purchaser may not eat together for five days, since they are on a basis of "theoretical enmity." This "theoretical enmity" exists in several other instances in Ifugao life. See section 15 and appendix 2.)
IV. Gifts to the seller's kin
Piduan di gogod (repetition of the cut) Natauwin P1.00 Piduan di kinta (repetition of the surplus) [14] Natauwin 1.00 Hablal (flooding of field) Na-oha .25 Hagaphap (chopping of grass from terrace wall) Na-oha .25 Ohok (sticks for beans to climb up) Na-oha .25 Umuhun (burning off grass) Na-oha .25 Aiyag (dinner call) Na-oha .25 Banting (flint and steel) Na-oha .25 Pakimáan (chewing betels together) Na-oha .25 Alauwin (woman's rice-field jug) Na-oha .25 Kalakal (edible water beetle living in rice-field) Na-oha .25 Tobong (spit on which kalakal are strung) Na-oha .25 Inipit di otak (holding bolo between toes to cut meat with) Na-oha .25 Banga (cooking pot) Na-oha .25 Hukup (lid for the same) Na-oha .25 Duyu (dish) Na-oha .25 Tayap di gatang (wings of the sale) Natauwin 1.00 Tayap di mongatang (wings of the seller) Natauwin 1.00 Kindut (carried under the arm) Natauwin 1.00 Inhida (eaten chicken) Natauwin 1.00 ===== Total P9.50 ======= Grand total P132.00
B. Transactions in the Purchase of a Field in Benaue
I. Payments on the property
Budut nabungol (the jeweled budut) P60.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 Budut nadulpig (additional budut) 10.00 ======= Total (value of field, 15 pigs) P150.00
II. Additional payments made to the seller, his kindred, and the witnesses after payments of purchase price but before the ibuy feast
Tayap di gatang (wings of the sale) P30.00 Bobod (tie) 20.00 Binangwa de bobod (half of the tie) 10.00 Pinohat (carried under the arm) 8.00 Dotag (meat) 5.00 Gogod (cut) 2.00 ====== Total P75.00
III. Payments at ibuy ceremony
To the witnesses:
1 death blanket P8.00 1 death blanket 8.00 Inagagong (kind of blanket) 5.00
For distribution to seller's kin:
10 chickens, Nunpatngan (?) 8.00 Alaag (cooking pot of Chinese origin) 2.00 Gogod, 1 bolo (the cutting off) 1.00 Puguy (finish) 2.50 Linuta (cooked) 2.50 ====== Total P37.00 ======= Grand total P262.00
One of the fine points in buying consists of an insidious hospitality on the part of the purchaser, which gets the seller and his kin drunk so that they forget some of their perquisites. At the psychological moment, that is, when a few, but not all, of the presents or lukbu have been made the seller and his kin, and when the latter are at the proper stage of drunkenness, one of the purchaser's kinsmen says: "Let us proceed with the praying." If he is successful in getting the religious part of the ceremonies started, and can keep the minds of the seller and his kin from the unpaid gifts or fees until they eat, then the fees never have to be paid. For when they have started eating, everything is over. They may demand the unpaid fees only if they want to make themselves laughing stocks in the eyes of their fellows. For according to Ifugao law, when the seller and the purchaser eat together at the ibuy feast, the transfer of ownership is complete, and irrevocable.
Although possession of the property is given before the purchase price is paid, ownership of it is not, however, complete until after the performance of the ibuy. If one were to buy a field without performing the ibuy ceremony, the presumption would be held that the field had passed into his hands as a balal. It has been noted already that but one or two of the unit payments are made at the time possession is given, and that no particular time is set for making the rest of the various partial payments. At any time before the ibuy ceremonial which forever transfers the field, the seller may demand a payment or all the payments, except the fees to the witnesses and his kin. He may do this as a matter of malice, or he may do it as a matter of necessity. He sends a monkalun, or go-between, to demand payment. The go-between and the buyer arrange a reasonable time--usually not less than ten days--within which the payment is to be raised. If it be not then forthcoming, the field may revert to the former owner, should the latter so desire, and be sold by him. He must, however, return immediately the entire amount of the partial payments made to date by the first purchaser.
In case of such a transfer of a field as that described in the preceding paragraph, the same rules apply to the ownership of standing crops as apply in transfers of possession arising from the balal.
But should the seller of a field, after having sold it to a second person, and after having received a part of the purchase price of the field from him, without consultation or notification, and without giving this second person a chance to make the final payments on the field, sell it to another, he must repay to the first purchaser double the amount of the partial payments made by the first purchaser to the date of the sale.
Personal property is transferred without formality.
48. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands.--In both Ifugao and Kalinga, if a rice field after passing into the hands of a purchaser, is subject to an unusual number of slides in the terrace wall, or is wholly, or in part washed away by a freshet, the purchaser may, at any time within the year following the purchase, relinquish the field and demand the return of his purchase price. This is on the ground that the seller may have put a curse on the field when it left his hands, or that, at least, he did not relinquish his hold on its welfare and fertility.
In Kalinga, if a water buffalo, horse, or ox, die within the year following its sale, the purchaser may demand the return of the purchase price.
TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY ARISING FROM FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
49. Methods of transfer.--Property is transferred within a family by two methods: by assignment and transferal during the life of the owner; and by inheritance.
50. Assignment and transfer of property during the lifetime of the owner.--At some undefined time all the family property that one possesses is assigned to his children. By "assigned," I mean "provisionally allotted," subject to any legitimate charge or obligation against it. A family property is always subject to sale or pawn for the purpose of providing funeral feasts, sacrifices in time of sickness or other grave necessity, payments of fines, and indemnities, made on behalf of lineal ascendants and descendants and near collateral kin. The property is usually assigned when the children are quite small.
Property is transferred (that is to say, possession is given) to the children when they marry and separate from the household of the parents. By the time the youngest child has so separated, or even before, the parents have become a charge on their children. It is only sometimes, in the case of the very rich, that a portion of the property is reserved. Childless widowed aunts or uncles usually transfer their property to those who would otherwise inherit it, and so become a charge upon those persons.
51. Inheritance.--It is only in case of the death of the parents when the children are very small, or of the death of a more distant relative from whom it is inherited, that the Ifugao receives property by inheritance.
52. The passing of property between relatives because of relationship.--The same laws govern both the assignment and transfer of property while the possessor is yet living, and the inheritance of property. Of all Ifugao laws, they are the most definite and the most invariably followed.
53. The law of primogeniture.--By this law, the elder children inherit a greater portion of the property than the younger ones, the proportion being governed by the ordinal rank of the children as to birth. If there be but one rice field, the eldest takes it. Because of his greater wealth, the eldest is frequently the family leader, counselor, and advocate. He has no actual authority over his brothers and sisters, however--indeed no person in Ifugao society has authority over another.
54. The passing of property to legitimate sons and daughters by assignment or inheritance.
(a) No distinction is made because of sex.
(b) The greatest proportion of an estate goes to the eldest child.
(c) If the number of children be greater than the number of rice fields, the elder children take the fields. If there be but one field, the eldest takes it.
(d) If all the children inherit rice fields, the heirlooms and personal property are divided in accordance with the laws of primogeniture that apply to real estate.
(e) If there be children that inherit no rice fields, a slight compensation is made them by giving them a larger share of the heirlooms and personal property than would fall to their lot otherwise. This compensation by no means equals the value of the real estate they would inherit under our laws.
(f) In the event of the death of either spouse before the property of the spouses has been allotted to the children, the living spouse allots the property to the children at the proper time. In this allotment, the brothers of the dead spouse are usually called in consultation. The living spouse may not deviate from custom in allotting the property of the deceased. All the property of both the spouses must be allotted at this time. None may be held back.
55. The passing of property to other relatives.--In the apportionment or inheritance of property in which blood relatives other than sons and daughters benefit, two general principles hold:
(a) Property received from the father goes to the father's family; property received from the mother goes to the mother's family. The families of the two parents coalesce in, and are identical in, their children and their childrens' descendants.
(b) So near as may be, those persons inherit who would have inherited the property had the deceased never lived. It is only in the case of the childless that others than sons and daughters have rights in the property left.
If the deceased were unmarried, his property goes to his relatives in the following order:
(1) To his brothers and sisters, if living. To the brothers and sisters descended from one parent, passes that portion of the property received from that parent; to the brothers and sisters descended from the other parent, that portion of the property received from that parent.
(2) To the nephews and nieces, the offspring of the brothers and sisters, or to their descendants.
(3) To the cousins in order, first of degree, and second of primogeniture.
If the deceased were married, in the the inheritance of his property there are the following rules:
(1) The living spouse inherits the sole right in, and possession of, half the property jointly acquired by the spouses subsequent to their marriage. It is not, properly speaking, the property that is inherited: it is the sole right in what was a joint possession before.
(2) That half of the property jointly acquired by the spouses which is the share of the deceased, goes to his heirs, being divided (if his heirs be not his brothers and sisters or their descendants) equally between the heirs on the father's side, and those on the mother's side.
(3) The property that the deceased brought to the marriage and that which he acquired subsequently owing to and by virtue of his relationship to his family, goes to the deceased's family.
Personal property acquired by the deceased and his spouse is not, however, taken from the surviving spouse. The above applies only to family property.
56. Property rights of bastards.--Bastards usually inherit approximately half the property of a father who dies without legitimate children, the other half going to those who would be the sole heirs had the father died childless. But if there be only one field, the bastard takes it.
Should a parent have only one legitimate child, the bastard inherits usually as if he were a younger legitimate child.
A bastard is entitled to a rice field from his father if the father has a rice field that is unassigned to a legitimate child. He is not entitled to any special value of fields, and as a rule, receives less than his legitimate brothers and sisters if there be such.