Next he reached the sharp-edged rocks called the "Terraces of Needles"
(Tarasuban ka Simat), that had also eight million steps. Again he
considered for eight days how he could mount them. Then on the
ninth day he sprang from terrace to terrace, as before, chewing
betel-nut on each terrace, and left the Tarasuban ka Simat, riding
on his shield. Then he arrived at the Terraces of Sheet-Lightning
(Tarasuban ka Dilam-dilam); and he took his kabir off his back, and
prepared a betel-nut, chewed it, and meditated for eight days. On the
ninth day he jumped from step to step of the eight million terraces,
and went riding off on his war-shield. When he reached the Terraces
of Forked-Lightning (Tarasuban ka Kirum), he surmounted them on the
ninth day, like the others.
But now he came to a series of cuestas named "Dulama Bolo Kampilan,"
[88] because one side of each was an abrupt cliff with the sharp edge
of a kampilan; and the other side sloped gradually downward, like a
blunt-working bolo. How to cross these rocks, of which there were eight
million, the Malaki did not know; so he stopped and took off his kabir,
cut up his betel-nut, and thought for eight days. Then on the ninth day
he began to leap over the rocks, and he kept on leaping for eight days,
each day jumping over one million of the cuestas. On the sixteenth
day he was off, riding on his shield. Then he reached the Terraces
of the Thunder (Tarasuban ka Kilat), which he mounted, springing
from one terrace to the next, as before, after he had meditated for
eight days. Leaving these behind him on the ninth day, he travelled
on to the Mountains of Bamboo (Pabungan Kawayanan), covered with
bamboo whose leaves were all sharp steel. These mountains he could
cross without the eight days' thought, because their sides sloped
gently. From the uplands he could see a broad sweep of meadow beyond,
where the grass glistened like gold. And when he had descended, and
walked across the meadow, he had to pass through eight million groves
of cocoanut-trees, where the fruit grew at the height of a man's waist,
and every cocoanut had the shape of a bell (korung-korung). Then he
reached a forest of betel-nut, where again the nuts could be plucked
without the trouble of climbing, for the clusters grew at the height
of a man's waist. Beyond, came the meadows with white grass, and
plants whose leaves were all of the rare old embroidered cloth called
tambayang. [89] He then found himself at the foot-hills of a range of
eight million mountains, rising from the heart of the meadows, and,
when he had climbed to their summit, he stood before a fine big house.
From the ground he called out, "If anybody lives in this house, let
him come look at me, for I want to find the way to the Shrine in the
Sky, or to the Little Heaven, where my Moglung lives."
But nobody answered.