According to vernacular language, Saisiyat can be divided into Daai group (North-Saisiyat) and Dungho group (South-Saisiyat). Because Saisiyat is influenced by neighbor Atayal and Hakka culture, its language disappeared gradually which affected jointly the inheritance of the ritual songs of "Elfin Spirits ritual".

Elfin Spirits ritual (Pastaai) is a particular ritual of Saisiyat. Its origin was related to an ancient elfin group─Taai. According to legend, "Taai" lived in "mailaara" (a cave in nowadays Wufeng township, Shinju County). They were short but strong, alacritous and agile.

Taai often communicated with Saisiyat to teach them farming, medical treatment, weaving, rituals and calendar of Dou family. For expressing gratitude, Saisiyat often prepared wine, meat, glutinous rice cake to feast elfins after autumn harvest. Elfins were lewd and often harassed Saisiyat women. Saisiyat was afraid of elfins' power so swallowed the insult over a long period of time. One year in harvest banquet, a Saisiyat young man saw that elfin molested his sister. He was very angry, so he slipped into elfins' cave to chop a tree which elfins always larked there. This tree almost cracked. When elfins returned cave after the banquet, they climbed the tree collectively and the tree broke off. All elfins fell down to the valley and died.

An old couple walked very slowly so escaped this disaster. They ran away to the east resentfully and cursed that Saisiyat will have crop failure and all tribal people will die. Ever after, Saisiyat experienced many disasters. They believed that elfins' curse came true. For atonement, praying for abundant harvest and blessing, Saisiyat holds "Elfin Spirits ritual" (Pas-taai) regularly.

Traditionally, Pas-taai is held every year, but during the Japanese-ruled period, Saisiyat held the small ritual every two years, the grand ritual every ten years. The ritual lasted one month. Ju family serves as officiant. This ritual can be divided into three parts: ceremony before the ritual, formal ritual, ceremony after the ritual. The ceremony before the ritual began one month ago. The tribal people practiced ritual songs and recorded days by knotting Japanese silvergrass. The formal ritual includes greeting spirits, continuation, entertaining spirits, expelling spirits, sending spirits. The solemn and grand ritual is held at night. The tribal people sing ritual songs overnight which have 15 chapters. The ceremony after the ritual emphasizes sharing and being merry together.

Nowadays, South-Saisiyat and North-Saisiyat hold Pas-taai regularly according to the dates established during the Japanese period. Two sub-groups stagger the date to let each other visit the ritual.



The content and characteristics of Music

Saisiyat's music is mainly vocal music. In the past, they had musical bow, Jew's harp etc. After Taiwan's recovery, these musical instruments disappeared completely. Besides monophonic folksongs, they also sang folksongs in responsorial style. (a leading voice and chorus in unison) During the Japanese-ruled period, Saisiyat still had "organum" singing style (The intervals between two parts are parallel fourth and parallel fifth, please consult Takatomo Kurosawa's book, "The music of Takasogo tribe in Taiwan"), but nowadays this singing style also disappeared completely.

Because of Pas-taai only held in fixed time and its restrained taboo, only complement of the ritual songs are still preserved in Saisiyat, other traditional folksongs almost disappeared.

The typical Saisiyat folksongs are slow. Most of songs are solemn and intoning. Additionally, its lyrics are often repeated regularly or skillfully. For example, the lyric patterns of nursery songs often used reduplication, "ABBCCDDE……..". The end words of one sentence are also the initial words of latter sentence. At the same time, the melodic structures are identical with the lyric structures. This kind of form is common no matter in nursery game songs or in ritual songs.

The scale of Saisiyat music is similar with that of neighbor Atayal . It is the tetrachord composed by relative pitches─Mi, Sol, La. The intervals between these tones are perfect fourth. This tetrachord is the skeleton which can be varied slightly above or below it. The ritual songs have 15 chapters which collocate the proceeding of the ritual. In formal ritual, singing must affiliate with dances. Basically, there are five kinds of dance steps which respond to the lyrics of different chapters. Different chapters also collocate different stages of the ritual.

The titles of ritual songs are ditinct from that of general folksongs. All titles of the ritual songs are named by vegetation which represents different family names (Sinlaho) in Saisiyat. These titles include maple (Lara), the plum tree (Arim), rattan (owai), arrow bamboo (Bowo), Chinaberrytree (Bayans) etc. which have profound meanings.

The lyrics of the ritual songs can be divided into content words and function words. The syllables and sentence patterns of the lyrics are the foundation of the music. The amount and the length of musical sentences are mainly based on lyrics. For example, first and thirteenth ritual songs are composed by former four musical sentences and latter three sentences. Fourteenth and fifteenth songs are basically composed by the repetition of two musical sentences.



Reference sources :

Rung-shun, Wu
2000 The Music of Indigenous People in Taiwan, The study and appreciation of Traditional Taiwanese Music, National Traditional Arts Research Center, pp.213-215.

Listen to Rukai's Music (mp3)

Title	Genre	Resource	Listen on line
The Grateful Song	Saisiyat	The Digitalization of the Music of the Indigenous People-The First Period
The Elfin Spirits ritual song --- Greeting Divinities	Saisiyat	The Digitalization of the Music of the Indigenous People-The First Period
The Elfin Spirits ritual song --- The Head-hunting	Saisiyat	The Digitalization of the Music of the Indigenous People-The First Period
The Elfin Spirits ritual song --- The Hunting Song	Saisiyat	The Digitalization of the Music of the Indigenous People-The First Period
The Elfin Spirits ritual song --- The Harvest	Saisiyat	The Digitalization of the Music of the Indigenous People-The First Period
Love Song	Saisiyat	The Digitalization of the Music of the Indigenous People-The First Period
Song for Taking Tails	Saisiyat	The Digitalization of the Music of the Indigenous People-The First Period