watch her.  This is what he saw:  The Moon dipped her paddle, called “pip-i’,” in the water, and rubbed it dripping over a smooth, rounded stone, an agate with ribbons of colors wound about in it.  Then she stretched one long arm inside the pot as far as she could.  “Tub, tub, tub,” said the ribbons of colors as Ka-bi-gat’ pounded up against the molten copper with the stone in her extended hand.  “Slip, slip, slip, slip,” quickly answered pip-i’, because the Moon was spanking back the many little rounded domes which the stone bulged forth on the outer surface of the vessel.  Thus the huge bowl grew larger, more symmetrical, and smooth.

Suddenly the Moon looked up and saw the boy intently watching the swelling pot and the rapid playing of the paddle.  Instantly the Moon struck him, cutting off his head.

Chal-chal’ was not there.  He did not see it, but he knew Ka-bi-gat’ cut off his son’s head by striking with her pip-i’.

He hastened to the spot, picked the lad up, and put his head where it belonged —­ and the boy was alive.

Then the Sun said to the Moon: 

“See, because you cut off my son’s head, the people of the Earth are cutting off each other’s heads, and will do so hereafter.”

“And it is so,” the story-tellers continue; “they do cut off each other’s heads.”

Origin of coling, the serpent eagle[36]

A man and woman had two boys.  Every day the mother sent them into the mountains for wood to cook her food.  Each morning as she sent them out she complained about the last wood they brought home.

One day they brought tree limbs; the mother complained, saying: 

“This wood is bad.  It smokes so much that I can not see, and soon I shall be blind.”  And then she added, as was her custom: 

“If you do not work well, you can have only food for dogs and pigs.”

That day, as usual, the boys had in their topil for dinner only boiled camote vines, such as the hogs eat, and a small allowance of rice, just as much as a dog is fed.  At night the boys brought some very good wood —­ wood of the pitch-pine tree.  In the morning the mother complained that such wood blackened the house.  She gave them pig food in their topil, saying: 

“Pig food is good enough for you because you do not work well.”

That night each boy brought in a large bundle of runo.  The mother was angry, and scolded, saying: 

“This is not good wood; it leaves too many ashes and it dirties the house.”

In the morning she gave them dog food for dinner, and the boys again went away to the mountains.  They were now very thin and poor because they had no meat to eat.  By and by the older one said: 

“You wait here while I climb up this tree and cut off some branches.”  So he climbed the tree, and presently called down: 

“Here is some wood” —­ and the bones of an arm dropped to the ground.