Tatana mythology on Pangolin
The Tatana people ( of Kuala Penyu, Sabah Malaysia) has a very interesting mythology on Pangolin.
When i was small, i used to go back to the village to stay with my grandmother particularly during school holidays. Her house was located between her rubber estate and the dense forest. During the night we something awaken by a strong hissing sounds of a Pangolin coming near to her house.
The house which was made of bamboo, hard wood and nimbung (palm?) was under attack by termites. As a medicine woman (specialized in traditional paediatrics medicine) she tried all the necessary rituals to appease the spirits of the termites but failed. Later she decided to remove the termite mounts underneath her house. I try to be helpful; when she was away I took some acid (use for processing rubber latex) and poured it on the exposed termite colonies. After that for a week my grandma had dreams and nightmares, she told me the spirits was very angry. Soon after that she developed a high fever and a strange skin disease (itchy and painful rashes) appears on her forehead. I confessed to her, she then asked my uncle to arrange Momodu and Mongidu ceremonies.
During Momodu (to bath) the priestess (Bobolian) invokes Minamangun to descent and help to lift the curse or evil from the patient body and to protect the patient from evil spirits. During Mongidu, the Bobolian command her Diwato (assistant spirits) who reside inside her Komburongo (?) to diagnose the cause of the illness or some strange happenings. She diagnosed my grandmother illness as revenge from the termites and spirits. My grandmother and I were asked to sprinkle water (prepared by Bobolian) on termites mounts and apologize for harming them. While recovering (termites moved elsewhere), she explained why Tatana people have high regard for the termites. She told me if we destroy termite mounts or ants we are indirectly killing our totem animal- the Pangolin.
Long before their conversion into roman catholic , the Tatana people believes that supreme being or spirits resides within nature and all wildlife must be respected. Pangolin was one of their totem animals. My best friend Rolando C. Esteban then a Professor of History at University of the Philippines Los Banos wrote a poem summarizing the Tatana mythology on Pangolin. It was writing based on the narrative told by two respected Tatana elders - Binsoh @ Dorothy Sinten and her mother Manai Erip, (she passed away few years ago at the age of 104). This mythology resemble the Japanese version of Oba Sutte Yama (the mountain where people throw or abandon their grandmother?
The Pangolin’s Paws
Once was a woman,
who survived her husband,
children, and grandchildren.
She grew so old, shrunken into the size of a child.
Bent and curled up into a ball,
she neither could stand nor sit nor feed herself.
For such was her misery that she wept night and day,
calling on the gods to give her rest.
One day, her great grandson,
unable to withstand her misery,
took her to an abandoned hut in a clearing left to fallow.
Leaving her with a bowl of rice,
he locked her up in the hut.
Days after, he went back to the hut,
only to discover that she was gone.
On the spot where he left her was an animal with
paws like human hands and feet.
Back to the village, he told his kinsmen that
she had turned into a pangolin.
So it was that
The Tatana Dusun did not eat pangolin meat until
Recent times.
Mythology has it that anyone who harms (what more to say to consume) their sacred totem animal and disturb its habitats will be cursed (Ogulian). Transgressor will suffer terrible things in his life (Ohusian) including contracting a skin disease on the palm, feet or forehead. It can only be cured if that offensive person seeks help from medicine women (Bobolian) who can perform ritual to ask forgiveness from the spirit of their ancestors and the totem animal. This ritual is called Momodu and Mongidu, it is performed to heal illnesses through restoration of balance in the spirit world .