The Story of Sayen[69]
Tinguian
In the depths of a dark forest where people seldom went, lived a wizened old Alan.[70] The skin on her wrinkled face was as tough as a carabao hide, and her long arms with fingers pointing back from the wrist were horrible to look at. Now this frightful creature had a son whose name was Sayen, and he was as handsome as his mother was ugly. He was a brave man, also, and often went far away alone to fight.
On these journeys Sayen sometimes met beautiful girls, and though he wanted to marry, he could not decide upon one. Hearing that one Danepan was more beautiful than any other, he determined to go and ask her to be his wife.
Now Danepan was very shy, and when she heard that Sayen was coming to her house she hid behind the door and sent her servant, Laey, out to meet him. And so it happened that Sayen, not seeing Danepan, married Laey, thinking that she was her beautiful mistress. He took her away to a house he had built at the edge of the forest, for though he wished to be near his old home, he dared not allow his bride to set eyes on his ugly mother.
For some time they lived happily together here, and then one day when Sayen was making a plow under his house, he heard Laey singing softly to their baby in the room above, and this is what she sang:
“Sayen thinks I am Danepan, but Laey I am. Sayen thinks I am Danepan, but Laey I am.”
When Sayen heard this he knew that he had been deceived, and he pondered long what he should do.
The next morning he went to the field to plow, for it was near the rice-planting time. Before he left the house he called to his wife:
“When the sun is straight above, you and the baby bring food to me, for I shall be busy in the field.”