viu, D. 2 Beyer: Myths Among Mountain Peoples 95 



After the water had subsided, the man of the cave came out from his 

 hiding place one clear and calm moonlight night, and as he glanced 

 around that immense solitude, his eyes were struck by the brightness of 

 a big bonfire burning there on the summit of the mountain. Surprised 

 and terrified, he did not venture to go up on the summit where the fire 

 was, but returned to his cave. At the dawn of day he quickly climbed 

 toward the place where he had seen the brightness the preceding night, 

 and there he found huddled up on the highest peak his sister, who 

 received him with open arms. They say that from this brother and 

 sister so providentially saved, all the Igorots that are scattered through 

 the mountains originated. They are absolutely ignorant of the names 

 of those privileged beings, but the memory of them lives freshly among 

 the Igorots, and in their feasts, or whenever they celebrate their mar- 

 riages, the aged people repeat to the younger ones this wonderful history, 

 so that they can tell it to their sons, and in that way pass from 

 generation to generation the memory of their first progenitors." 



This myth of the great flood, and of the brother and sister who 

 survived it, is common throughout northern Luzon. It is most 

 highly developed by the Ifugaos, as we shall later see. 



THE BONTOKS 



The Bontoks are sometimes wrongly called Igorots, but have 

 no more right to that name than have the Ifugaos. They are a 

 distinct people, occupying a part of the subprovince of Bontok. 

 They are in some respects unique, and possess certain social 

 institutions and traits which have not been found elsewhere in 

 the Philippines. Most of our information concerning them is 

 contained in the monograph by Jenks;-* in the bulky volume on 

 the language by Seidenadel ;-= and in my own observations 

 on the general culture and ethnology of the Bontoks. Jenks' 

 monograph is excellent as an economic paper, but the few myths 

 given are mostly children's stories. Seidenadel ^^ gives several 

 myths in the form of texts, and some of these I have freely 

 translated as follows: 



" Translated by Roberto Laperal from "Igorrotes," by Angel Perez. 

 Manila (1902), 819-320. 



" Jenks, Albert Ernest, The Bontoc Igorot, Puh. P. I. Ethnol. Surv. 

 (1905), 1. 



" Seidenadel, Carl Wilhelm, The First Grammar of the Language 

 Spoken by the Bontoc Igorot, with a Vocabulary and Texts. The Open 

 Court Publishing Co., Chicago (1909). 



"° Opus, cit., 485-510. Seidenadel gives an interlinear literal translation, 

 which is, in some places, slightly inaccurate. I have made a new free 

 translation directly from the Bontok. The text was told in the form of 

 a story rather than that of a myth, and contains much extraneous matter 

 which I have omitted. 



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