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In the first times men went to the mountains to hunt deer and hogs. One man kept his dog in the open land outside of the forest, to wait for the game. While he waited there with his dog, the big bird Banog came to take him away; and it flew with him over the mountains near to Licuan.[56] The bird took him to her nest in the tree. There were two young birds in the nest. When the bird laid him in the nest he was on a branch of the tree. Three young pigs were in the nest. The bird went away to get animals. After it went away, the man cut the meat in small pieces for the young birds, and the man ate also because the tree was big and he could not go away. The bird brought deer and pigs all the time, and the man always cut the meat in small pieces. After a while the two young birds could fly near to the nest. When they were standing outside of the nest he held on to their wings and the birds flew Page 184down under the tree. Then the man took his bolo and cut off their heads and took them to his town and made layog[57] for the heads. After the man's layog, he wanted to go to alzados[58] town to fight them. He had been near to the alzados town about one month.
While he was away, his wife died. He came back to the town and in the way he met his wife (her spirit) with a cow and two pigs. The man asked his wife where she was going. She said to him, “I am not a person any more, I am dead.” Her husband wanted to touch her hand and his wife gave only her shortest finger. Her husband said, “Wait a while for me, I will go with you.” His wife said, “If you go to our house, take the white chicken and you will see the footmarks of the cow and pigs.” He followed the footmarks, and while he was walking he saw his wife washing in the river, under the tree. She said, “You come and I go with you to own town (i.e., spirit town), and I will put you in the rice bin, because the people in the town will want to eat you in the nighttime; but if they come in the nighttime, you must take some of the feathers of the chicken and throw at them, and I will bring you something to eat.”
They went to the spirit town, and she put him in the rice bin, and gave him something to eat. In the evening, the spirits came to eat the man. The man took some of the feathers and threw at them. The spirits were afraid of the feathers. They did this every night, and his wife brought him something to eat every day. The spirits said to the man's wife, “We smell Īpogau.”[59] His wife said, “No Īpogau in here.” In about two weeks the feathers were nearly gone. Then his wife told him, “It is better for you to go home, because there are no more feathers. I will give you some rice for you to eat in the way. I will show you the road.” The man agreed, and they went in the way. She showed him the road. While the man was walking in the way he saw his town and he asked for his wife. They said his wife was dead and they had buried her under his house; then he made layog for his wife.