I
The Golden Age.—Ifugao knowledge of the prediluvian period is very vague. It is known, however, that the Earth World was entirely flat except for two great mountains, one in the east called Amúyao and one in the west called Kalauítan.[61] This level country was heavily forested, and all of the people lived along a large river that ran through the central plain between the two great mountains.
The period was something like a Golden Age, when things were much better than they are now. The people were demigods whose life was a happy one and their country a sort of Garden of Eden. To obtain rice, all that they needed to do was to cut down a stalk of bamboo, which was plentiful, and split open the joints which were filled with hulled rice ready to cook. Stalks of sugar-cane were filled with baiyax,[62] and needed only to be tapped to furnish a most refreshing drink. The river was full of fish, and the forests were filled with deer and wild hogs which were much easier to catch than those of the present day. The rice grains of that time were larger and more satisfying, and a handful of them was sufficient to feed a large family.
But this Golden Age, like others, was not destined to last.