1 86 Traditions of the Tinguian 



They had one baby. One day Sayen was making a plow under the 

 house. LaEy was in the house with her baby. She was singing in the 

 house to her baby. "Sayen thinks I am Danipan, but I am LaEy, 

 LaEy no aglagE-lE-gEy-lEy." Sayen heard the song and said to 

 himself that his wife was not Danipan. He went up into the house and 

 said, "Take off your upper arm beads, and in the morning you will go 

 to the fields with your baby, because I will go there to plow." She said, 

 1 ' Yes. ' ' In the morning he went there. He went to cut down the bam- 

 boo bridge. At noon his wife carried food to him. She took her baby 

 with her. When she reached the bamboo bridge it fell with her and 

 they fell into the water. Sayen went back to his house. When he got 

 there, he took his headaxe, spear, and shield, and he went to Kadalaya- 

 pan. When he got there, he began to kill the people of the town. When 

 he had killed many people the lakay 1 called Danipan, " Come out, Sayen 

 is killing many people of the town, because you did something bad to 

 him." She came out to Sayen and said to him, "Do not kill all the 

 people, leave some of them so I can go to borrow fire from them." 

 Sayen answered her, "Take the betel-nut in my bag and cut it in two 

 pieces for me to eat, for I am very tired." She took the betel-nut from 

 his bag and cut it in two pieces, and Sayen chewed the betel-nut. Sayen 

 spat on some of the dead people and made them alive again and he 

 married Danipan and took her to BEnbEn. 



When the people in Magisang 2 went to hunt deer and when they went 

 to divide it, the komau, a big spirit who looks like a man, and who kills 

 people, 8 went to them to ask them, "How many did you catch?" If 

 they had caught two they told him "Two," and the komau said, "I 

 caught two also." When they went to their town, there were two dead 

 people there in their town. Anytime they went to hunt the komau 

 asked them how many they had caught, and when they said how many, 

 the komau always said he had that many, and when they reached the 

 town that many were dead. The komau did that often and many people 

 were dead. The people in Magisang heard that Sayen was a very brave 

 man and they went to him to tell him about the komau. Sayen said to 

 them, "I come, but I must hide by the trees. When the komau comes 

 and asks you how many deer you have caught he will ask you where I 

 am. You will say to him that you do not know where I am, because 

 you did not hear of me yet. I am sure the komau will ask you where 

 I am, because he will smell me." The people said, "Yes." They went 



1 Head man. 



2 Near Namarabar in Ilocos Sur. 



3 The Ilocano consider the komau a fabulous, invisible bird which steals people 

 and their possessions. See Reyes, El Folklore Filipino, p. 40. Manila, 1899. 



