Traditions of the Tinguian: a Study in Philippine Folk-Lore eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 393 pages of information about Traditions of the Tinguian.

Traditions of the Tinguian: a Study in Philippine Folk-Lore eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 393 pages of information about Traditions of the Tinguian.

They sent messengers to go and get betel-nuts which were covered with gold, and when they had secured the betel-nuts they oiled them and sent them to the different towns where their relatives lived, and they sent one into the air to go and get their daughter Agten-ngaeyan.  So all the betel-nuts went and invited the people to the balaua.  As soon as the betel-nut went up into the air it arrived where Agten-ngaeyan was making dawak.  When she saw the betel-nut beside her she was startled, for it was covered with gold.  She tried to cut it up, for she wished to chew it, and the betel-nut said, “Do not cut me, for your brother and father in Kadalayapan sent me to summon you to their balaua, for they are anxious to see you.”  So Agten-ngaeyan told the anitos that a betel-nut which was covered with gold had come to take her to Aponitolau who was making Sayang, and they wished to see her.  The anitos let her go, but they advised her to return.  So she went.

When they arrived in Kadalayapan the people from the other towns were dancing and she went below the talagan, [228] and Kanag went to see what it was that looked like a flame beneath the talagan.  When he reached her he saw it was his sister and he tried to take her away from the talagan, and she said to him, “I cannot get off from here, for the anitos who care for me told me to stay here until someone comes to make dawak with me.”  So they sent the old woman Alokotan to make dawak with her.  All the people were surprised, for she made a pleasanter sound when she rang and they thought she was a bananayo [229].  The young men who went to attend the balaua loved her, for she was pretty and knew very well how to sing the dawak.  As soon as they finished the dawak she was free to leave the talagan, so her brother Kanag took her and put her in his belt [230] and he put her in the high house [231] so the young men could not reach her.

As soon as the balaua was over the people went home, but the young men still remained below the house watching her, and the ground below became muddy, for they always remained there.

When Kanag saw the young men below the house fighting about her, he took her again into the air so that the young men could not see her.  As soon as they arrived in the air they met the anitos, and Kanag said to them, “I intended to keep my sister in Sudipan, for I had made a little golden house for her to live in, but I have brought her back, for all the young men are fighting about her.”  The anitos were glad that she was back with them and they gave Kanag more power, so that when he should go to war he would always destroy his opponents.  Agten-ngaeyan used to go and teach the women how to make dawak when anyone made balaua, so that she taught them very well how to make dawak.  This is all.

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Traditions of the Tinguian: a Study in Philippine Folk-Lore from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.