The Serpent Eagle

_Igorot_

Once there lived two boys whose mother sent them every day to the

forest to get wood [108] for her fires. Each morning, as they started

out, she gave them some food for their trip, but it was always poor

and there was little of it, and she would say:

"The wood that you brought yesterday was so poor that I cannot give

you much to eat today."

The boys tried very hard to please her, but if they brought nice pine

wood she scolded them, and if they brought large dry reeds she said:

"These are no good for my fire, for they leave too much ashes in

the house."

Try as they would, they failed to satisfy her; and their bodies grew

very thin from working hard all day and from want of enough to eat.

One morning when they left for the mountains the mother gave them a

bit of dog meat to eat, and the boys were very sad. When they reached

the forest one of them said:

"You wait here while I climb the tree and cut off some branches."

He went up the tree and soon called down, "Here is some wood," and

the bones of his arm dropped to the ground.

"Oh," cried his brother, "it is your arm!"

"Here is some more wood," cried the other, and the bones of the other

arm dropped to the ground.

Then he called again, and the bones of his leg fell, then those of his

other leg, and so on till all the bones of his body lay on the ground.

"Take these home," he said, "and tell the woman that here is her wood;

she only wanted my bones."

The younger boy was very sad, for he was alone, and there was no one

to go down the mountain with him. He gathered up the bundle of wood,

wondering meanwhile what he should do, but just as he finished a

serpent eagle called down from the tree tops:

"I will go with you, Brother."

So the boy put the bundle of wood on his shoulder, and as he was

going down the mountain, his brother, who was now a serpent eagle,

flew over his head. When he reached the house, he put down the bundle

and said to his mother:

"Here is your wood."

When she looked at it she was very much frightened and ran out of

the house.

Then the serpent eagle circled round and round above her head and

called:

"Quiukok! quiukok! quiukok! I do not need your food any more."

The Flood Story

_Igorot_

Once upon a time, when the world was flat and there were no mountains,

there lived two brothers, sons of Lumawig, the Great Spirit. The

brothers were fond of hunting, and since no mountains had formed

there was no good place to catch wild pig and deer, and the older

brother said:

"Let us cause water to flow over all the world and cover it, and then

mountains will rise up." [97]

So they caused water to flow over all the earth, and when it was

covered they took the head-basket [98] of the town and set it for a

trap. The brothers were very much pleased when they went to look at

their trap, for they had caught not only many wild pigs and deer but

also many people.

Now Lumawig looked down from his place in the sky and saw that his

sons had flooded the earth and that in all the world there was just one

spot which was not covered. And he saw that all the people in the world

had been drowned except one brother and sister who lived in Pokis.

Then Lumawig descended, and he called to the boy

and girl, saying:

"Oh, you are still alive."

"Yes," answered the boy, "we are still alive, but we are very cold."

So Lumawig commanded his dog and deer to get fire [99] for the boy

and girl. The dog and the deer swam quickly away, but though Lumawig

waited a long time they did not return, and all the time the boy and

girl were growing colder.

Finally Lumawig himself went after the dog and the deer, and when he

reached them he said:

"Why are you so long in bringing the fire to Pokis? Get ready and

come quickly while I watch you, for the boy and girl are very cold."

Then the dog and the deer took the fire and started to swim through the

flood, but when they had gone only a little way the fire was put out.

Lumawig commanded them to get more fire and they did so, but they

swam only a little way again when that of the deer went out, and

that of the dog would have been extinguished also had not Lumawig

gone quickly to him and taken it.

As soon as Lumawig reached Pokis he built a big fire which warmed the

brother and sister; and the water evaporated so that the world was

as it was before, except that now there were mountains. The brother

and sister married and had children, and thus there came to be many

people on the earth.