Tales of the Mythical Period 93 



him to marry GintEban." 1 Then he was seized by Balau and was 

 carried to Baboyan. "Now Aponltolau, you must marry GintEban 

 who lived in Baygan, for this place is surrounded with water blue as 

 indigo and many crocodiles lie in that water." 



In a little while, as the story goes, Aponlbolinayen gave birth to a 

 child. 



"Ala! grandmother, prick my little finger, for it itches." She truly 

 opened it and the baby popped out like popped rice.* After that they 

 bathed it and called him Balokanag, for that is a name of the people of 

 Kadalayapan. Soon the child was large and asked for a clout, then he 

 asked the name of his father, but they told him falsely that it was 

 Dumanagan. "Ala! get me a top so that I can play with the others," 

 he said. Then his mother gave him the top which was his father's when 

 he was a little boy. After that he went to play with it. When it was 

 late afternoon, the old woman Alokotan went to feed the pigs, but 

 Kanag threw his top and it broke her jar. "Pa-ya," said the old 

 woman, "the son is brave; when you go to rescue your father who Balau 

 captured, it will not be my pot toward which you act brave." Kanag 

 cried, "You said, mother, that Dumanagan is my father, but there is 

 another who is my father — Aponltolau whom Balau stole." Then 

 Aponlbolinayen cried, "How bad you are, old woman! We should have 

 exchanged for your jar if you had not told him of his father." 



"You must make me sweets, for I go to get my father," he said. 

 "If he was seized, you who are little will be also," said his mother, but 

 he insisted. Then she used magic and secured for him the headaxe 

 used by his father when he was a little boy, and she made him sweets. 

 He started and went, and his mother planted a lowed vine by their 

 hearth. 3 "Your power betel-nut, so that I go as quickly as pointing to 

 Baboyan," said Kanag. Soon he arrived there, and he saw the croco- 

 diles lying in the water. " You power betel-nut that I may walk on the 

 crocodiles. Make them all sleep so that they do not feel me." He 

 reached the home of Balau, where he saw great snakes hanging in the 

 trees. He climbed the trees, he cut them so that they fell down, he 

 cast them down — those big snakes — then he cut off the head of Balau, 

 and the earth trembled. After that he went to find his father who was 

 in the place of many betel-nuts. 



"I am Balokanag whom Aponlbolinayen desired, whom you left," 

 he said. "Now I take you home to Kadalayapan." After that he 



1 GintEban was a woman from Baygan (Vigan) who had been captured by the 

 bird. 



1 See p. 18. 



* See p. 96, note 3. 



