PHILIPPINE FOLK LITERATURE-The MYTHS
I. THE GODS: THEIR ACTIVITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS
14. THE SECOND CREATION* (Tiruray)
Tiruray also believe that should a religious leader have sufficient wit, power and goodness, he could lead all of his followers "beyond the sky" to live in the land of Tulus (or Sualla) . . . In the days of Lagey Lingkuwos (their greatest legendary hero), people had a difficult time with their farming. They wanted to please Tulus by farming well, but they were never sure when the winds would be right for burning; they had trouble predicting the arrival of the rainy season, and thus were unsure when they should plant; and they lacked a way of calling for the good or bad agricultural omens. Farming was, therefore, a matter of guess work regarding timing, and the swidden cycle for those unfortunate people was seldom properly keyed to the yearly seasons as it so clearly needed to be.
Lagey Lingkuwos was aware of this serious problem and was determined to do something about it.
Near his place was a settlement where six people lived. They were, like all people, farmers. And, like all human beings at that time, they were followers of Lagey Lingkuwos. Three were young unmarried men-all first cousins-whose names were Kufukufu, Baka, and Seretar. Each lived in his own house, near the houses of their uncles: the widower, Keluguy, who was the leader of the settlement, and Singkad, the group's only married man who lived with his wife, Kenogon. As a pet, these people had a variety of forest dove, which the Tiruray called lemugen.
When it came time for Lagey Lingkuwos to lead his followers to the place of Tulus, beyond the sky, he asked the special favors of the six people. Knowing that Tulus would not leave the world without human beings to make swiddens in the forests, and wanting the next creation to have an easier time than the last, he asked those six followers to leave their pet bird behind in the forest, where its call could become the needed giver of omens. He further asked them to live in the sky for as long as there should be a world and people to farm it. They agreed to both requests of their esteemed leader, and so it is today that the lemugen's call gives the farmers much needed agricultural omens, and the six constellations move across the night sky, assisting this new creation of people to properly anchor their swidden cycle in the annual round of seasons. Tiruray said that the six seem, like themselves, to be always proceeding to work in their swiddens-the three young cousins ahead, followed by their uncle and headman. Singkad comes next, prudently keeping himself between his attractive wife and the splendid Keluguy, whom Tiruray never refer to by name-that would be too disrespectful-but call by his nickname, Fegeferafad.
*Stuart At Schlegel "Tiruray Constellations: The Agricultural Astronomy of a Philippine Hill People," PJS, 96, 3 (September 1967), pp. 32S-26.