Ritualistic and Explanatory Myths 193 



she went home and said to her mother, "It is better now that I become 

 a coconut tree, to stand close by our house." In the morning the 

 man and his wife missed the girl, and when they looked out doors, there 

 stood a fine coconut tree close to the house; so they knew that she had 

 changed to the tree. 



75 

 In the old times there were two flying snakes in the gap of the Abra 

 river. 1 Many men had been killed by them. So the head man of Abra 

 invited Malona and Biwag, two very brave men from Cagayan, to come 

 and help him kill the snakes. They came at once with big bolos, shields, 

 and the trunk of the banana tree, which they used to fight with. When 

 they arrived, they were taken to the gap, and the snakes attacked them. 

 The men fought with the trunk of the banana tree, and the wings of the 

 snakes stuck to the trunk; so they killed them easily. When they had 

 killed them, they came back to the leader and showed him, and he asked 

 what should be their pay. They did not ask any reward, but the leader 

 gave them gold in the form, bf deer and horses. Then they went home, 

 and after that the people of Abra could pass through the gap. 



76 



Hundreds of years ago there were two people who were husband 

 and wife. Their names were Tagapen and Giaben, and they had only 

 one son whose name was Soliben. Those people came from Ilocos 

 Norte; they came down to Vigan to pass a while, then came into the 

 Abra river. When they were in Banoang, they sailed on a raft in the 

 Abra river to come up to Langiden. When they reached that town, 

 they stopped there to stay a short time, because Tagapen went to the 

 town to give thoughts to the people there and to give a nice face to the 

 girls. When Tagapen was in the town, in Langiden, his son Soliben was 

 weeping on the raft by his mother. "Sleep, sleep, sleep, my dear son, 

 because your father is not here yet; it-to-tes, it-to-tes, so sleep my son, 

 do not weep," said his mother, whose name is Giaben. When Tagapen 

 came back from the town of Langiden, they began to sail again until 

 they came to Pidigan. When they reached the town of Pidigan, they 

 stopped there because Tagapen went to the town to give a nice face to 

 the ladies and girls. Then his son wept again, "Oh, dear son, sleep, 

 sleep, sleep; oh, dear son, sleep, sleep, sleep, for your father is not here 

 yet. When he comes back, he will get bananas for you to eat. It-to-tes, 

 it-to-tes, it-to-tes, sleep, Soliben, sleep, my son; do not weep; your 

 father will give you to eat," said the mother. In a short time Tagapen 



1 The river emerges from Abra through a narrow pass in the mountains. 



