A brief survey of Iloko literature from the beginnings to its present development, with a bibliography of works pertaining to the Iloko people and their language, by Leopoldo Y. Yabes.

ORIGINS

9

den the gods as the whole village feasted. The rice-wine and basi flowed
freely around the fires where the warriors danced and chanted their exploits.
"Kalatong danced over the head of the Comandante. He leaped into
the center of the firelight and chanted his bravery, intoxicated with his
triumph.
"'I am Kalatong of Barlig!
I am brave! Brave!
I went to Mount Polis.
I struck a white warrior in the eye!
He will go blind!
I sent my spear through the white chief!
I swung the battle-axe!
I cut off his head!
Agi-yu-whoo!'
"A nd all those around shouted in reply.
" 'Agi-yu-whoo!'
"The cry rang out over the valley and echoed from the mountains.
"HIe chanted one of the old mythical boasts, crying out and swinging
his arm.
"The warriors danced in the dancing place. The youths were drunk
with the rice-wine. The old men sat by the jars and smoked and told of
their own deeds of valor in the days long past when they too had sprun?
on to the war trail. They beat their hands, skinny and shaking, on wrinkled
knees to the drumming of the gongs, laughing and chuckling, happy and
joyous old men."
Perhaps centuries before the coming of the Spaniards, when
they were still in the primitive stages of their culture, the
Ilokos had similar feasts, in which they gave expression to
their literary abilities in the chant and the dance.
Epifanio de los Santos says that before the conquest, the
Filipinos had a literature written in characters of their own,
and that its manifestation in verse constituted of maxims, proverbs, boat-songs, nuptial-songs, war-songs, love-songs, and the
like.4 Although written down, most of these songs, proverbs,
and riddles had a popular or communal origin, were not the
product of individual authors, and therefore were the property
of the people, not of any one man. They were handed down
from generation to generation by word of mouth before they
were committed to writing, and so here we shall treat Iloko
proverbs, riddles, and the various types of songs as belonging to
floating or oral literature rather than as a part of written
literature. We shall group these primitive literary forms under
three general headings, namely: (a) folk-songs; (b) folk-tales;
(c) folk-philosophy.
A. FOLK-SONGS
"Compared with the folk-songs of Visayans and Tagalogs",5
4-Santos, Epifanio de los, "A Short History of Tagalog Literature",
in Thinking for Ourselves, by E. Quirino and V. M. Hilario. Manila,
Oriental Commercial Co., 1924, pp, 56-57.
5-"Ilocandia Folksongs are very Expressive of Joy, Optimism, says
Dr. Lippay", in Ilocos Times, 3rd week of July 1934.