108 ^^6 Philippine Journal of Science wis 



whence dost thou come?" The maiden replied that her name was Biigan, 

 that she was the daughter of Hinumbian and Dakaue, and that she be- 

 longed to the sky region of Luktag. But the reason of her descent to 

 that terraqueous region, and of accompanying her son, was her having 

 seen him so poor and deserted * * * "for which reason I took pity 

 on him and came down to visit him and to furnish him with an abundance 

 of game" * * * ^jj^j g}^g added that on the follo^ving day the mother 

 should send many people to collect the dead game which they had left 

 in the lonely hut of her son. By a coincidence, the mother of the young 

 man was also called Biigan, with the addition of na kantaldo. 



During all this, the young couple had already been united in the bond 

 of matrimony — ^without any of the prescribed formalities — at the place 

 called Pangagauan, and Biigan gave birth to a vigorous son to whom she 

 gave the name Balitiik. The little pigs, also, which they had brought, 

 gave forth their fruit. The child grew a little, but he did not yet know 

 how to walk. His mother, Biigan, as a being from the Sky World, did not 

 eat like the rest of the people of Kiangan, but desired only boiled rice, 

 birds, and meat of game. Those of that region bore her much envy 

 because of her being a stranger; and, because they knew she did not^ 

 like certain vegetables of theirs, they strove to make her depart from 

 their town and to betake herself to her birthplace of Luktag in the sky. 

 Their envy toward her increased upon their seeing the abundance of 

 her fowls and pigs. With the object, then, of disgusting her, and of 

 driving her away, they attempted to surround her house with certain 

 garden stuffs, greens, and fish. With these they succeeded effectively 

 in making Biigan fall sick with an intense itch and fever; for which 

 reason she abandoned that house and went to another place, while her 

 husband moved to a rice gi'anary. But they persecuted her again in 

 her new place of lodging, surrounding it with the vegetables and other 

 things spoken of above, and causing her nausea in a stomach accustomed 

 to other food. In view of such wearisome tricks, Biigan proposed to 

 KiiTggauan her desire to return to her land with the new blossom of 

 spring, their child. Her husband answered her: "I should well like 

 to accompany thee, but I am afraid of ascending to so high a place." 

 "There is no reason to be afraid," replied Biigan, "I myself shall take 

 thee up in the dyud (a kind of hammock)." She accordingly strove 

 to persuade him, but KifTggauan did not lay aside his fear; then she 

 attempted to take him up bound to a rope, but neither did she effect 

 this. During these labors, she soared aloft with the child to the heights 

 of Luktag, but upon perceiving that her husband had not followed her 

 she went down again, with her son in the band which the Ifugaos use 

 for that purpose. (Plate III, fig. 2.) After conferring with Kiiiggauan, 

 she said to him: "Thou seest the situation. I cannot continue among thy 

 countrymen, because they hate me unto death. Neither dost thou dare to 

 ascend unto Luktag. What we can do is to divide our son," * * * 

 and, seizing a knife, Biigan divided her son Balitiik in the middle, or 

 just above the waist, and made the following division: The head and the 

 rest of the upper trunk she left to KifTggauan — that it might be easier 

 for him to give a new living being to those upper parts — and she retained 

 for herself the lower part of the trunk unto the feet; and as for the 

 entrails, intestines, heart, liver, and even the very excrement, she divided 



