“Come, Ligi, and see what we have done, for we want to go home now.”
Ligi was amazed, for he saw five hundred bundles of rice cut. And he said:
“Oh, Tikgi, take all the rice you wish in payment, for I am very grateful to you.”
Then the tikgi each took one head of rice, saying it was all they could carry, and they flew away.
The next morning when Ligi reached the field, he found the birds already there and he said:
“Now, Tikgi, cut the rice as fast as you can, for when it is finished I will make a ceremony for the spirits, and you must come.”
“Yes,” replied the tikgi, “and now we shall begin the work, but you do not need to stay here.”
So Ligi went home and built a rice granary to hold his grain, and when he returned to the field the rice was all cut. Then the tikgi said: “We have cut all your rice, Ligi, so give us our pay, and when you go home the rice will all be in your granary.”
Ligi wondered at this, and when he reached home and saw that his granary was full of rice, he doubted if the tikgi could be real birds.
Not long after this Ligi invited all his relatives from the different towns to help him make the ceremony for the spirits.[66] As soon as the people arrived, the tikgi came also; and they flew over the people’s heads and made them drink basi until they were drunk. Then they said to Ligi: