The Story of the Tikgi

_Tinguian_

"Tikgi, tikgi, tikgi, we will come to work for you. Let us cut

your rice."

Ligi [65] had gone to the field to look at his growing rice, but when

he heard this sound he looked up and was surprised to see some birds

circling above and calling to him.

"Why, you cannot cut rice," said Ligi. "You are birds and know only

how to fly."

But the birds insisted that they knew how to cut rice; so finally he

told them to come again when the grain was ripe, and they flew away.

No sooner had the birds gone than Ligi was filled with a great desire

to see them again. As he went home he wished over and over that his

rice were ready to cut. As soon as Ligi left the field the tikgi birds

began using magic so that the rice grew rapidly, and five days later

when he returned he found the birds there ready to cut the ripened

grain. Ligi showed them where to begin cutting, and then he left them.

When he was out of sight, the tikgi said to the rice cutters:

"Rice cutters, you cut the rice alone." And to the bands which were

lying nearby they said: "Bands, you tie into bundles the rice which

the cutters cut"

And the rice cutters and the bands worked alone, doing as they

were told.

When Ligi went again to the field in the afternoon, the tikgi said:

"Come, Ligi, and see what we have done, for we want to go home now."

Ligi was amazed, for he saw five hundred bundles of rice cut. And

he said:

"Oh, Tikgi, take all the rice you wish in payment, for I am very

grateful to you."

Then the tikgi each took one head of rice, saying it was all they

could carry, and they flew away.

The next morning when Ligi reached the field, he found the birds

already there and he said:

"Now, Tikgi, cut the rice as fast as you can, for when it is finished

I will make a ceremony for the spirits, and you must come."

"Yes," replied the tikgi, "and now we shall begin the work, but you

do not need to stay here."

So Ligi went home and built a rice granary to hold his grain, and when

he returned to the field the rice was all cut. Then the tikgi said:

"We have cut all your rice, Ligi, so give us our pay, and when you

go home the rice will all be in your granary."

Ligi wondered at this, and when he reached home and saw that his

granary was full of rice, he doubted if the tikgi could be real birds.

Not long after this Ligi invited all his relatives from the different

towns to help him make the ceremony for the spirits. [66] As soon

as the people arrived, the tikgi came also; and they flew over the

people's heads and made them drink basi until they were drunk. Then

they said to Ligi:

"We are going home now; it is not good for us to stay here, for we

cannot sit among the people."

When they started home Ligi followed them until they came to the

bana-asi tree, and here he saw them take off their feathers and put

them in the rice granary. Then suddenly they became one beautiful

maiden.

"Are you not the tikgi who came to cut my rice?" asked Ligi. "You

look to me like a beautiful maiden."

"Yes," she replied; "I became tikgi and cut rice for you, for otherwise

you would not have found me." Ligi took her back to his house where

the people were making the ceremony, and as soon as they saw her they

began chewing the magic betel-nuts to find who she might be.

The quid [67] of Ebang and her husband and that of the tikgi went

together, so they knew that she was their daughter who had disappeared

from their house one day long ago while they were in the fields. In

answer to their many questions, she told them that she had been in the

bana-asi tree, where Kaboniyan [68] had carried her, until the day that

she changed herself into the tikgi birds and went to the field of Ligi.

Ligi was very fond of the beautiful girl and he asked her parents if

he might marry her. They were very willing and decided on a price he

should pay. After the wedding all the people remained at his house,

feasting and dancing for three months.