III
The bringing of fire to the Earth World.—On the third day, Kabigát requested leave to return, but Muntálog answered: “Wait one day more, until I in my turn go to my father Mumbónan͠g.” Muntálog found his father and mother seated facing each other; and, upon his arrival, his mother, Mumboniag, came forward and asked him: “What news do you bring from those lower regions, and why do you come?” The father also became aware of the presence of his son, through the questioning of the mother, and inquired likewise as to the reason of his coming. Muntálog answered: “I have come, father, to ask thee for fire for some Ifugaos who remain in the house of Ambúmabbákal.” “My son,” the father replied, “those Ifugaos of yours could not arrive at (or, come to) Mumbónan͠g without danger of being burned to cinders.” Then he continued: “It is well! Approach me!”[41] Muntálog accordingly approached Mumbónan͠g, who said to him: “Seize hold of one of those bristles that stand out from my hair,” and so Muntálog did, noticing that the said point faced the north, and he placed it in his hand. Then Mumbónan͠g said to him again: “Come nigh! Take this white part, or extremity, of the eye that looks toward the northeast, toward the place called Gonhádan.” And he took it and placed it in his hand. And Mumbónan͠g said to him once more: “Come near again, and take the part black as coal, the dirt of my ear which is as the foulness of my ear.” And so he did. Then Mumbónan͠g said to Muntálog: “Take these things and bring them to thy son Ambúmabbákal and to N͠gílîn, in order that the latter may give them to the Ifugaos.” And he said again to Muntálog: “Take this white of my eye (flint), this wax from my ear (tinder), and this bristle or point like steel for striking fire, in order that thou mayst have the wherewith to attain what thou seekest (that is, fire), and to give gradually from hand to hand to the Ifugao; and tell him not to return to live in Kai-án͠g, but to live in Otbóbon, and cut down the trees and make a clearing there, and then to get together dry grass; and that they make use of the steel for striking fire, holding it together in this manner, and burying it in the grass. And on making the clearing if they see that snakes, owls, or other things of evil omen approach, it is a sign that they are going to die or to have misfortunes. But if they do not approach them, it is a sign that it will go well with them in that place; that the soil will be productive, and that they will be happy.”