Fig. 1. Carved cover of wooden box for gold ornament of the same shape.
(after a rubbing, de Beauclair)
¡@¡@¶Àª÷¦b¶®¬üªºªÀ·|ùØ¡A§Å®v¥Î¨Ó§@¬°ªkª«´À¯f¤Hªv¯f¡A¦b¹A·~²½»ö¤W²½¥q¥Î¨Ó
¨DÂסA¦Ó¦bªÀ·|¨Æ¥óªº³B²z¤W¥i§@¬°Å«¸oªº½ßÀv«~¡C
¡@¡@¦b©M¿é¤J¶Àª÷ªº¦P¤@®É´Á¤º¡A¤j¬ù¦b¤Q¤»¥@¬ö¨ì¤Q¤C¥@¬ö¤§¶¡¡A¥Õ»È¤]¶Ç¤J¤F¡C
¥Õ»Èªº¨Ó·½¤jÅ馳¤T¡G¤@¡A¦b¾¥¦èôű³yªº¦è¯Z¤ú»È¤¸¡C¥Ñ°Ó²î±q°¨¥§©Ô¸ü©¹¤¤°ê
ªu®ü¡A³o¨Ç²î°¦±`¥Ñ¤_»ä·©Î¨ä¥Lì¦]¦ÓIJÁG¨I¨S©óÄõÀ¬¤Î¨äªþªñ¡A³o¬O¥L̦´ÁÀò
¨ú»È¤l¨Ó·½¤§¤@¡C§Ṳ́]¥i¥H¦b¥L̪º¶Ç»¡¤¤Àò±o¦õÃÒ¡C¤G¡A¤¤°ê°Ó¤H¨Ï¥Î»È¤¸¦V
¶®¬ü¤HÁʶR¨ä©Ò¹}¤§½Þ°¦¡A³o¬O¶®¬ü¤H»È¤¸¨Ó·½ªº²Ä¤GºØ¤è¦¡¡C¤T¡A¨ì¤F¤é¾Ú®É´Á¡A
¬y¤J¤F¸û¦hªº¤é¥»»È¤¸¡C³o¨Ç»È¤¸ªº¶Ç¤J¡A«P¨Ï¥LÌ»s§@¦UºØŒ¡¦¡ªº¸Ë¹¢«~©M»È²¯¡A
¦Ó¨ä»s§@»È²¯¼Æ¥ØÀH»È¤¸¬y¤J¼Æ¶q¼W¥[¦Ó¼W¦h¡C
¡@¡@»È²¯¬O¥Ñ¥´Á¡ªº»È¤ù±Ä¥Î°é¶ªk¡A°é¶¡¥H»Éµ·©T©w¦Ó¦¨¶êÀ@§Îªº»È´U¡C»s§@®É
°È¶·¿í¦u³\¦h¸T§Ò¡A¥H§K´cÆFanito«I¥Ç§«®`¤u§@¶i¦æ¡C¤@³»·s²¯§¹¤u¤§®É¡AnÁ|
¦æ»ö¦¡©M¼y®b¡A±þ½Þ¤@°¦¡A¨Ã¼·¨ä¦å©ó²¯¤W¡A¦Û¦¹¤§«á¡A»È²¯´N¦¨¬°¦³ÆF®ð¡A¨ã¦³
ÆF»îpaad¡C¥±`±N»È²¯¸Ë¦b¤@Ó¯S»sªºÄ𵨤¤¡A¥u¦³¦b¯S®íªº³õ¦X¡A¤~¥Ñ¨k¤l¨ØÀ¹
»È²¯¡C½Ñ¦p·s²î¤J¤ô©M·s«Î¸¨¦¨¤§®É¡C¦Ó¦b¸³½©u¶}©lªº®ÉÔ¡A¨k¤l®³µÛ»È²¯¦b®ü
Ãä¤W¦V®ü©Û´§¡A¦³Áܽг½¸s¬è¨DÂצ¬¤§·N¡C¦P®É¡A¶®¬ü¤H¥çÄa±¾»È²¯©ó°®³½¬[¤Wªº
³½°®¤¤¶¡¡C¦³´L·q³½Ãþ¦Ó»¤¶°³½Ãþªº§Å³N©v±Ð¤W¤§·N¸q¡C
They themselves manufactured these helmets, as well as breast ornaments of
silver and gold foil. The silver foil breast ornaments were also worn by women.
For their skill in working the precious metals¡Ðif only with primitive but nevertheless
singular results¡Ðthe Yami of Botel Tobago are unique among the Formosan aborigines,
whose metal working is generally limited to the simple forging of iron. When silver
coins come into the possession of most Formosan groups they are used as such for
decoration and ornament.(1)
Though Botel Tobago is situated less than fifty miles off the coast of Formosa,
which is in sight on clear days, there has been practically no contact between the
two islands. The Yami were oriented to the south, toward their homeland. Tradi-
tions tell of the frequent intercourse with the Batan Islands, the northernmost group
of the island chain that links Formosa with Luzon in the Philippines. Mutual visits
and barter of goods with the northern islands of the Batan archipelago, Itbayat and
Batan, lasted until the 17th century, ending in hostility (de Beauclair 1959: 123).
Up to the present day the Yami preserve the memory of their voyages to the south,
and the names of the islands Batan (Ivatan) and Itbayat (Ikbalat) are not forgotten.
The tragic events of the last encounter live on in songs and legends, while on the
Batan Islands only the faint memory has survived of the hostile inhabitants of a
small island to the north, Dihami (de Beauclair 1959a: 116-124).
Their ties with the Batan Islands brought to the Yami the knowledge of gold,
the technique of heating the grains and beating them out into thin foil. These foil
ornaments the men still today wear as breast ornaments.
At the same time, the tiny scale for weighing the percious metal found its way
from the Batan Islands to Botel Tobago, as well as the goat horn-shaped wooden
containers for the raw material. Both are preserved by the people as cherished
possessions and reminders of the past.
The gold foil ornaments, as were the women's nautilus shell ear pendants, were
shaped like the figure¡§8¡¨and called ovai. This term was transferred to the identically-
shaped gold foil plate and became synonymous with the other designations for gold,
such as tamu-tamuk (¡§treasure¡¨), piaskulit (¡§fine skin¡¨) and vulawan. The latter
term is the word for gold in many Philippine languages, including Batan.
On Botel Tobago, vulawan (gold) is kept in flat wooden boxes with a carved
cover in the shape of ovai (see Figure 1). It is said that in the past an ovai-shaped
design figured among those carved on the Yami's boats. As such it was recently
revived by the carvers of the village of Iraralai, who gave the altar of the Catholic
church the shape of ovai. The possession of gold, the number, size and thickness
of his ovai pieces, determined a man's wealth. This he could display by wearing
them on his breast on festive occasions or by matching them with those of others
Botel Tobago's goldworking technique did not go beyond heating the raw material
and striking it into thin sheets. It never reached the skill of the Batanese goldsmiths
who produced artistic ear hooks and other ornaments. Nevertheless, from the limited
material at their disposal, the Yami produced a singular and effective ornament, the
ovai. It is always worn together with the short coat, which is open in front, and
thus fittingly completes the festive attire.
It must be assumed that it was at the period when communication with the
Batanese flourished and the people of Botel Tobago acquired gold by barter, along
with the knowledge of working it, that silver was also introduced. About the middle
of the 16th century the Spaniards had begun to exploit the rich silver resources of
Mexico and to coin silver dollars. Spanish galleons, plying between Mexico and the
Philippines, exported the silver coin to Manila, which had become an entrepot for
Chinese trade. Here Spanish silver dollars were exchanged for silk and tea. Silver
flowed into China in such quantities that it replaced paper money as standard
currency. Soon the British and Dutch East-Indian Companies also used the Mexican
dollar for their transactions.
Ships returning through the South China Sea from Manila to the China coast
avoided the treacherous Bashi Channel to the west. But it sometimes happened
that typhoons drove them off their course and, forced to seek shelter, they had to
land on an unknown island, often enough only to lose the ship's load and their lives.
The history of the Pacific proves that the inhabitants of isolated islands do not
welcome strangers to their shores. Fearing an atack and greedy for foreign goods,
they kill the intruders.
The Yami's oral traditions are strangely silent about such events, though their
occurrence is proved by documentation. Thus Chinese sources report an expedition
to the island in the first half of the 18th century to search for gold. A rumor had
spread that the barbarians used golden spear heads and arrow tips. The Chinese
were unable to make themselves understood by the Yami and, after killing a large
number of the natives, returned to Formosa. Having secured the help of cooperative
tribespeople, the ¡¥Lung Chiao¡¦of southern Formosa, they returned to Botel Tobago.
But the chronicle reports that this time the Yami took revenge and killed the entire
party.
O. Scheerer (1926) published a verbal account of a Batanese captain whose ship
was caught by a storm and driven toward Formosa. As it was passing Botel Tobago,
the Yami came out in their boats, offering coconuts to the starved crew and inviting
them to land. But the captain gave strict orders not to let these people come near
or board the ship, as they were known to have killed those who had earlier come
to their shores.
Only one and a half centuries later did the Chinese dare to revisit the island.
Of these dramatic events nothing is preserved among the traditions which, on the
other hand, tell so vividly in word and song of the people's own sailings and the
bitter and of the Batan adventures. There is only the story of a shipwreck on
Djitewan, a small, rocky, uninhabited island five miles to the south of Botel Tobago.
The Yami, arriving in their boats, took possession of the ship's cargo, rich in silver
and gold. The crew was left to starve to death. In this account emphasis is laid
on the happenings during the return to the main island and the fate of the crew
leader, a hero whose name occurs also in ther narratives. No word mentions the
unhappy foreigners left behind, cheated by the Yami's promise to return, after the
precious cargo had been brought into safety.
It is of interest, as especially Lessa (1962: 345) has noted, that historically
documented events though dramatic and of importance often fail to enter into the
folkloristic repertoire of archaic peoples. These happenings more often than not
concern acts of brutality, murder and killings. Lessa himself quotes the instance of
the murder of a Spanish missionary, Father Cantova, and his group on Ulithi atoll
in the western Carolines in 1719. The memory of this incident, as Lessa convinced
himself during his stay on the atoll, had completely vanished. It had not become
the object of a narrative that, told and retold, continues to live. It had died with
the salyer and the witnesses of the scene.
The phenomenon of omittance puzzles the folklorist and has not yet been explained.
However, referring to the Yami, they, as most archaic peoples, live in fear of the
spirits of the dead, the anito. A deceased person's name may not be mentioned, the
circumstances of his death are never discussed. It may conjure up the presence of
his spirit. Not all anito are malevolent, but the spirit of those who died an unnatural
death were certainly to be feared. Murder and killing, even for the righteous cause
of defence or blood revenge, therefore could not become the subject of a narrative.
The sea washed away all traces, and the memory of the incidents faded within a
few generations.
Among the foreign goods that fell into the hands of the Yami was iron, from
which they forged spear heads, daggers and knives, and metals of lesser value as
lead and tin. With the latter the men's wooden breast ornaments were covered, and
it was applied to the women's ceremonial hat, the rangat.
Quantities of beads must have reached the island, especially carnelian beads of
various shapes and cut. They are worn by the women in multiple strands that reach
the knee. But above all, the foreign vessels' most cherished cargo was silver, which
the Yami call perak in conformity with other people speaking Austronesian languages.
Being acquainted, by way of the Batanes, with working gold, silver was processed
along the same principles. However, the different qualities of the metal required
technical adaptations. There must have been repeated experimenting and failure.
The larger crucibles for heating the coins presented no difficulty for the skilled
Yami potter. But they had to learn how to overcome the brittleness of the silver
due to a small amount of impurities. The silver was shaped not only into the
familiar ovai but also into discs, plates of trapezoidal form and simple armlets. But
the amount of silver coins in the possession of one or another of the men was not
exhausted by manufacturing these trinkets.
No tradition speaks of the origin of the silver helmet. But considering the Yami's
predilection for headgear, it is not difficult to imagine that the idea sprang up to
join the coils into a conical hat. This gave prestige to its wearer, displaying his
wealth in public. As the writer was told by old people on the island, only a few
medium-sized hats were in existence prior to the time of the Japanese. no doubt
these had been manufactured from Spanish dollars.(2)
In the manufacture of the silver helmet, with the help of a chisel the silver coins
are chopped into small pieces and these fragments placed in the oblong grooves of
the crucible. The latter is then put into the open fire, which is constantly fanned.
Special hard wood, well dried, is used for firing. By means of a stone or a piece
of iron the silver is then pounded into strips, being heated and cooled off in water
at intervals. This annealing serves to avoid brittleness caused by the small amount
of impurities in the silver which could lead to holes and blisters in the thin strips,
while a smooth, even surface is the desired aim. It requires high skil to beat the
silver into strips of even thickness. Holes may be caused by an attempt to stretch
the supply of silver by beating the strips too thin. Striking them with a piece of
wood causes the strips to curl, and they are now wound around a wooden model.
Small holes are punched in the rim of the coils, through which a thin seenet cord
or fine copper wire is threaded to keep the coils together. The top of the hat is
formed by a circular plate bearing a ring to facilitate the handling of the percious
object. Sometimes a small upright ornament adorned with feathers is fastened to
the ring.
As the hat covers the face, a slit at eye-level permits the wearer to see. The
size of the hat varies with the age of the owner. Elderly men, with helmets reaching
over their shoulders, may have added coils made from their own silver during their
lifetime, or inherited from their father, whose hat is divided among his sons. Young
men not yet having attained a certain social status, which on Botel Tobago is deter-
mined by age, wealth, the possession of a house and descendants, would ridicule
themselves by parading with a large silver hat and have to be content with a
headgear of modest size.
The completion of a new helmet is celebrated by a feast. A pig is killed and
some of its blood, with which a coconut shell has been filled, is sprinkled on the
hat. The helmet is exposed to the rising sun, together with all the valuables of
the family including the wife's beads, while the family pray for long life and pros-
perity. Guests arrive to appraise the workmanship and by word and song express
felicitations and wishes for a long duration of the maker's life, and that of his work.
The helmet is now considered an animate object and is treated with reverence. It
is stored in a special covered basket at the back part of the house. At social gath-
erings, such as a boat launching ceremony or the celebration for the completion
of a new house, the guests wear their silver headgear, which gives them prestige.
At the competitions of wealth mentioned above, the competing villages formerly
displayed their helmets which were mutually scrutinized to compare size, thickness
of the coils and the exactness with which they were fitted together.
When the men descended to the seashore to invite the fish, marking the beginn-
ing of the flying fish season, they waved their helmets toward the sea as a sign of
welcome. After an abundant catch, when the fish are hung up on the dring racks
in front of the house and usually facing the sea, the helmet, often together with the
wife's long strands of beads, is suspended among them. This, the Yami say, is to
give honor to the flying fish and to demonstrate to those still flying across the waves
how they are treated. On special days during the flying fish season, the men perform
symbolic actions individually or in groups at the seashore or in their boats, such as
dipping the fishing line into the water, waving torches or the dipnet, and a number
of other acts. On these occasions the men descend from their villages wearing their
silver helmets. During this time of the year the helmet does not rest in the covered
basket, but is suspended in the house. At mealtime the father may take it down
and, moving it slowly over the flat basket on which the tubers are served, utter a
blessing for the growth of the plants.
The silver hat of Botel Tobago has been ridiculed as a monstrosity and for its
bizarre shape, ironically likened to the helmets of a fire brigade. However, it is
evident that this singular example of primitive workmanship plays an important
role in the social and religious life of the people. It adds to the wearer's prestige
and social status, and functions for its magic capacity on occasions at which super-
natural help and protection are invoked, such as for the long duration of a house
and the prosperity of its owner, the safety of a boat, the fertility of fields and,
above all, an abundance of fish.