Kabigat, the Moon
Bontoc · deity · Bontoc traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kabigat is the personified Moon of Bontoc myth, named as a woman in Jenks's account of the origin of headhunting. Seated at her work shaping a copper pot, she is watched by a child of the Sun, Chal-chal; with the wooden paddle used in moulding she strikes the boy and severs his head. The Sun restores the child, but declares that men will henceforth take one another's heads, and Kabigat's blow is thus remembered as the first head ever taken. The name Kabigat attaches in Cordilleran myth to several distinct beings; in this Bontoc episode it denotes specifically the female Moon set over against the male Sun.
Domains
- moon and night
- pottery and metalwork
Powers
- to strike off a head with her molding-paddle, taking the first head
Relations
- rival: Chal-chal, the SunThe Moon beheads the child of the Sun, Chal-chal, who restores the boy; though the Sun bears her no lasting ill will, the deed sets the two luminaries in enduring mythic opposition and originates headhunting.Albert Ernest Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot (Manila: Bureau of Public Printing, 1905). (secondary)
- slayer of: Chal-chal, the SunKabigat slew, by beheading, the child of Chal-chal the Sun; the victim was restored, but the act is the prototype of all head-taking.Albert Ernest Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot (Manila: Bureau of Public Printing, 1905). (secondary)
Sources
- Kabigat is the Bontoc Moon, the female deity who, while making a copper pot, beheaded the Sun's child with her molding-paddle, taking the first head and originating the custom of headhunting.: Albert Ernest Jenks, The Bontoc Igorot (Manila: Bureau of Public Printing, 1905). (secondary); Joy Christine O. Bacwaden, "The Lumawig Bontoc Myths," Philippine Studies 45, no. 1 (1997): 3-49. (secondary)