He hastened home as fast as he could go and told the people of his wonderful trip.  They made a ceremony for the spirits, and all the people rejoiced that the lost man had returned.

Some time after this Sogsogot went to a hostile town to fight, and while he was gone his wife died.  On the way back to his town he met the spirit of his wife driving a cow and two pigs, and not knowing that she was a spirit he asked her where she was going.

“I am not a person any more,” she answered him; “I am dead.”  And when he wanted to touch her hand, she gave him only her shortest finger.  He begged to go with her so she said, “Go first to our home and get a white chicken; then follow the footmarks of the cow and pigs.”

He did as she commanded him, and after a while he came to a place where she was bathing in the river.  She said to him: 

“Now you may come with me to our spirit town. [86] I shall hide you in the rice-bin and shall bring food to you every day.  But at night the people in the town will want to eat you, and when they come to the bin you must take some of the feathers of the white chicken and throw at them.”

The man went with her, and when they arrived at the spirit town she hid him in the rice-bin.  At night the people came to eat him, as she had said they would; but when he threw the chicken feathers at them they were frightened away.

For two weeks Sogsogot lived in this place, but when the feathers were nearly gone he was afraid to stay any longer, for every night the spirits came to eat him.  He begged his wife to allow him to go, and finally she showed him the way home, giving him rice to eat on his journey.

As soon as the man arrived home and inquired for his wife, the people told him that she had died and they had buried her under the house.  Then he knew that it was her spirit that had taken him to the strange town.

The Mistaken Gifts

Tinguian

When Siagon was about eight years old his parents began looking for a girl who would make a suitable wife.  At last when they had decided on a beautiful maiden, who lived some distance from them, they sent a man to her parents to ask if they would like Siagon for a son-in-law.

Now when the man arrived at the girl’s house the people were all sitting on the floor eating periwinkle, and as they sucked the meat out of the shell, they nodded their heads.  The man, looking in at the door, saw them nod, and he thought they were nodding at him.  So he did not tell them his errand, but returned quickly to the boy’s parents and told them that all the people at the girl’s house were favorable to the union.

Siagon’s parents were very much pleased that their proposal had been so kindly received, and immediately prepared to go to the girl’s house to arrange for the wedding.

Finally all was ready and they started for her house, carrying with them as presents for her parents two carabao, two horses, two cows, four iron kettles, sixteen jars of basi, two blankets, and two little pigs.