[59] I am informed by Dr. Dean S. Fansler that he obtained from an
Igorot of Túblai, Benguet, in May, 1910, a myth very similar to this
story of Búgan and Kinggáuan. The details are different, but some
of the more important incidents are the same and I will give a brief
summary of the myth here: A god named Dumágid, whose home is in one of
the lower regions of the sky, came down to the earth and lived among
the people. He taught the people many things, and often went hunting
with them in the forest. But one day, when he was out in the woods
alone, he met a beautiful girl by the name of Dúgai with whom he fell
in love, and they were married. A son was born to them, and they named
him Ovug. Shortly after this Dumágid informed the people that he must
return to the Sky World to make report to the chief deity, Kabigat,
but that he would soon come down again to the Earth World. But the
people demanded that he take his wife with him, and that they leave
their son as security for their return. Dumágid told Dúgai that the
path was so hot that she might die, but this the people would not
believe. So Dumágid and Dúgai started out, but as they approached
the sun it grew so hot that Dúgai died. Dumágid returned her body
to the earth, and went on to his home in the sky. Later he came back
to the earth, in company with the god Bangan di Bai-ángan, and told
the people that he must take his son Ovug to the Sky World. This the
people refused to allow him to do, so Dumágid took a knife and divided
his son Ovug into equal parts by cutting him straight down. When he
had done this, he told the people to keep one half and make a new boy
out of it. The other half Dumágid took with him to the Sky World and
reanimated it. Then he looked down to the Earth World and saw that
the half of his son there was becoming decayed because the people
had not given it new life. So he came down with the boy he had made,
and made another beautiful boy out of the decayed half. Then he made
the two boys stand before the astonished people. For their greater
astonishment, Dumágid asked the boy he had made in the Sky World to
talk. He spoke very loud like sharp thunder, so that the people were
frightened almost to death. Then Dumágid asked the other boy to talk,
and he spoke low like the rolling thunder. Then the first boy went
up to the Sky World whirling like fire, and thundered there. And it
is believed that this is the origin of the lightning and the sharp
thunder that comes after; and it is also believed that the low thunder
is the voice of the second boy, or the one made on the earth.
[60] Collected by myself from various Ifugaos of Banáuol clan, in
1906. A similar but less complete version was collected at the same
place by Levi E. Case, in May, 1905, and published in This Journal,
Sec. A (1909), 4, 256-260.
[61] Or Alauítan in Sub-Ifugao. See Plates I and II.
[62] The Ifugao rice drink, usually known as búbûd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account