[56] It is a common belief, widespread in the Philippines, that the appearance of a woman at a place where men are hunting will render the search for game fruitless. J. M. Garvan. [↑]
[57] It will be noted that most of the things created by Búgan from the corrupted half of Balitúk were pests and things of evil omen to torment the people of Kián͠gan as they had tormented her. [↑]
[58] Ído, or ídu, is the Ifugao name for the omen spirits. A certain small black and white bird called pîtpît is believed to be an omen spirit, and therefore it is also properly called ído. When an Ifugao is going on a journey and sees one of these birds, or hears its cry, he immediately stops and calls out to it. He tells it where he is going and why. If the bird flies away to one side or in a forward direction, it is a good sign; but if it flies backward along the path, uttering a sharp cry of fright, it is a very bad omen, and the man will probably return home and not continue on his journey until another day. [↑]
[59] I am informed by Dr. Dean S. Fansler that he obtained from an Igorot of Túblai, Benguet, in May, 1910, a myth very similar to this story of Búgan and Kin͠ggáuan. The details are different, but some of the more important incidents are the same and I will give a brief summary of the myth here: A god named Dumágid, whose home is in one of the lower regions of the sky, came down to the earth and lived among the people. He taught the people many things, and often went hunting with them in the forest. But one day, when he was out in the woods alone, he met a beautiful girl by the name of Dúgai with whom he fell in love, and they were married. A son was born to them, and they named him Ovug. Shortly after this Dumágid informed the people that he must return to the Sky World to make report to the chief deity, Kabigat, but that he would soon come down again to the Earth World. But the people demanded that he take his wife with him, and that they leave their son as security for their return. Dumágid told Dúgai that the path was so hot that she might die, but this the people would not believe. So Dumágid and Dúgai started out, but as they approached the sun it grew so hot that Dúgai died. Dumágid returned her body to the earth, and went on to his home in the sky. Later he came back to the earth, in company with the god Ban͠gan di Bai-án͠gan, and told the people that he must take his son Ovug to the Sky World. This the people refused to allow him to do, so Dumágid took a knife and divided his son Ovug into equal parts by cutting him straight down. When he had done this, he told the people to keep one half and make a new boy out of it. The other half Dumágid took with him to the Sky World and reanimated it. Then he looked down to the Earth World and saw that the half of his son there was becoming decayed because the people had not given it new life. So he came down with the boy he had made, and made another beautiful boy out of the decayed half. Then he made the two boys stand before the astonished people. For their greater astonishment, Dumágid asked the boy he had made in the Sky World to talk. He spoke very loud like sharp thunder, so that the people were frightened almost to death. Then Dumágid asked the other boy to talk, and he spoke low like the rolling thunder. Then the first boy went up to the Sky World whirling like fire, and thundered there. And it is believed that this is the origin of the lightning and the sharp thunder that comes after; and it is also believed that the low thunder is the voice of the second boy, or the one made on the earth. [↑]
[60] Collected by myself from various Ifugaos of Banáuol clan, in 1906. A similar but less complete version was collected at the same place by Levi E. Case, in May, 1905, and published in This Journal, Sec. A (1909), 4, 256–260. [↑]
[61] Or Alauítan in Sub-Ifugao. See [Plates I] and [II]. [↑]
[62] The Ifugao rice drink, usually known as búbûd. [↑]
[63] About six months. The duration of the flood varies greatly in the different versions of this myth. [↑]
[64] Incest is looked upon by the Ifugaos with horror, and is held to be one of the gravest of crimes. [↑]
[65] The number and names of the children of Wígan and Búgan are variable in the different Ifugao clans. [↑]