Paiwan Hundred Pacer Snake Belief

In the Paiwan creation legend, the sun laid eggs on the sacred mountain of Dawu, placed them in a clay pot, and set a hundred-pacer to guard them; from those eggs hatched the ancestors of the Paiwan. So the hundred-pacer is the guardian of the ancestors, bound especially closely to the people. Another legend, shared by the Paiwan and the Rukai, tells of a chief's daughter who married a hundred-pacer that had taken human form, and from them descended the chiefly lineage — which explains why only chiefly families have the right to use the hundred-pacer motif. In the strict Paiwan class system, the hundred-pacer motif marks noble status, and commoners may not use it freely.

For the Paiwan, the hundred-pacer pattern is not decoration anyone can use: it belongs to the chiefly class, a symbol of status and lineage, and commoners may not use it freely. That is why the hundred-pacer always appears in the most important places — carrying a family's memory, and carrying the protection of the ancestral spirits.

The Five-Year Ceremony (Maljeveq, also called the Covenant Between Humans and Spirits) is held once every five years, and only in some communities, such as Gulou in Laiyi Township, Lili in Chunri Township, and Tuban in Daren Township. At its heart is welcoming the ancestral spirits back to the community to be reunited with the living. The climax is the "ball-piercing" rite: warriors thrust long bamboo poles at rattan balls tossed into the air, and whoever pierces one is believed to have received the ancestors' blessing.