1. The Ethnographic Background

The myth and nearly all the contextual data were obtained from Kaluwan, the inhabited area along the Mabaca River and its tributaries in northern Kalinga, and more specifically from two regions, Buaya and Aciga, located on the middle section of the same river.

The Kalinga form a single ethnoliguistic group with the Tinguian, who are the aboriginal population of Abra Province to the west. The Kalinga and the Tinguian inhabit the eastern and western flanks respectively of that section of the Cordillera, which itself runs from south to north. They were given two names because the area was penetrated by the Spaniards in the 19th century in separate efforts from the western and eastern lowland fringes where they had obtained rather firm control. By 1880 they had succeeded in cutting a horse trail that crossed the Cordillera through the Tinguian-Kalinga territory, connecting their garrisons, but too distant from the Aciga-Buaya area to be affected by it.[…]