(This is a result of an attempt to write an Ifugao short story for children in English).
There he is, Pitpitungnge.1
He lives with his grandfather at a hut
near the forest. His grandfather does not like him that he was plotting
to kill him.
One day grandfather called Pitpitungnge to gather firewood from
the forest. He intentionally hung his
butung2 at a spot where the tree he is to cut down will fall. Then he started axing the tree. When the tree was falling, he ordered
Pitpitungnge, “Pitpitungnge! Pitpitungnge! Go and get my butung so it won’t be swooped!”
Pitpitungnge, being an obedient boy, followed his grandfather’s
order even as the tree is to fall on him.
He never knew his grandfather planned to kill him.
After the swishing sound of the fallen tree, there was
silence. The tree has covered the spot where
the butung was hanged. There was no
Pitpitungnge emerging from the fallen branches.
“He must be dead,” the grandfather thought. And he went home.
Moments later, he saw Pitpitungnge coming, the butung on one hand
and the tree trunk on his shoulder. He
immediately got a bolo and cut off the branches. He got an ax, divided the tree into portions,
and split them into firewood.
Pitpitungnge told his grandpa, “I know you were tired cutting down the
tree so I finished the job for you.”
The next day, grandfather invited Pitpitungnge to go with him
fishing. “This must be a reward for a
good job done,” the boy thought.
They went to a waterfall where the strong water plunges down into
a deep pool. The boy was thinking that
this is not the best spot to fish.
Besides the pool being dangerously deep, the place is not frequented by
people and far from the houses in case they need help. But he trusted his grandfather.
The grandfather chose a spot on top of a rock overlooking the
deepest part of the pool. Grandfather
lowered the bunwit3 and in a split of a second he ordered Pitpitungnge to plunge
into the water. “A big fish must have
been caught because I can not lift this bamboo pole,” he told his
grandson. Pitpitungnge saw that the
bamboo pole wasn’t bending so it is not likely that a fish was caught. But being an obedient boy, he followed his
grandfather’s order and plunged into the water.
Grandfather pushed a boulder to where the boy dived. And after the splashing sound of the big
boulder settled down, there was only the rustling of waters and the flow of
water has returned to normal. There was
no Pitpitungnge emerging from the water. “He must have been killed by the boulder,” grandfather thought and
went home.
Moments later, he saw Pitpitungnge coming with a bunch of uggadiw4
on one hand and the boulder on his shoulder.
“You’re right, grandfather. There’re
a lot of fishes in the pool. Here’re
some for our lunch and I also got this boulder where you could sit sun bathing
in the morning.”
The next morning, grandfather sat on the boulder that was brought
home yesterday enjoying the young sun.
Pitpitungnge thought that grandfather must have loved what he brought
for him.
At noon, grandfather asked Pitpitungnge to go with him at the
alun5. They spread some salt among the
grasses and blew the horn. The herd of
cows came. They counted one to twenty
and grandfather said, “We must look for the missing cow. It must have fallen on the cliff.”
Pitpitungnge counted again and had twenty. He was sure none of the cows was
missing. The count was twenty the last
time they came and that was not a long time ago. It was unlikely that one gave birth. But he believed his grandfather, a cow was
missing. Grandfather has money and must
have purchased an additional cow that he did not know.
He followed grandfather to the cliff. The wooden railings protecting a fall into
the cliff are still in place except that the pole6 tree serving as one of the
post has been chopped that only a thin fraction is holding the tree up. “Pitpitungnge, climb the tree and look over
the cliff to check if a cow has fallen off.”
Pitpitungnge reckoned that if he will climb the tree, it will fall
off. The grandfather assured him that it
will not. Being an obedient boy, he
climbed the pole. While he was midway the
trunk, looking down the cliff, the tree was breaking down to the direction of
the cliff. In seconds, the whole trunk
with Pitpitungnge fell. After the tree
fell into the bottom, there was silence.
“He must already be dead,” grandfather thought but was afraid to
look down the cliff. He again went home.
Moments later, he saw Pitpitungnge coming. The boy had a bunch of guava fruit on one
hand and the trunk of pole on his shoulder.
“I grabbed the branch of a guava tree that grew on the cliff and
gathered this fruits,” he told his grandfather how he survived. “And I thought that we needed this trunk to
make a kalloong7 and so I decided to get it rather than leave it rotting at the
bottom of the cliff.”
The next day, grandfather told him that they will be going to the
rice field. Maybe, they are going to
guard it from the buding that sips the newly budded rice grains, Pitpitungnge
thought. But when they were there, grandfather
said that they will now gather from the luhu’8.
Pitpitungnge thinks that the fingerlings they have seeded there hasn’t
yet matured but being an obedient boy, he followed his grandfather’s
order. He fixed the dike surrounding the
luhu’ so that water won’t rush in and started scooping out the water. Soon the bottom of the luhu’, more than twice
a man’s height, is visible. There were a
lot of tilapia at the pond’s floor but are not still mature for
harvesting. From the bottom, he shouted
to his grandfather who was outside that the fishes are really still too young. The grandfather shouted back, “Then give them
some place to hide in while swimming.
Here, am dropping two boulders.”
Grandfather pushed two big rocks into the luhu’. The dike already gave way that water rushed
into the hole. Soon, the water level was
now the level of the rice field floor.
There was no Pitpitungnge emerging from luhu’.
“He must have been crushed by the boulders,” grandfather thought
and left for home.
Moments later, he saw Pitpitungnge coming, fishes linked together
on one hand and a boulder on his shoulder.
He said, “I am glad to see you safe grandfather. I thought you slipped with the boulders. I reckoned that one boulder is enough for the
fish to play around under water. So I
brought home this other one. We’ll carve
into a luhung9 to pair with the kalloong.”
The spent the next days carving the kalloong and the luhung,
except the finishing that Pitpitungnge did it alone. Grandfather left the hut.
The next day, grandfather asked that he accompany him into the
mountains to check his bitu. As usual,
Pitpitungnge obliged.
While on the mountains, grandfather told Pitpitungnge that he
follow another route. He explained that
in order He pointed to the route where
he set up a bitu10, a very deep one, yesterday but did not tell his grandson
about. He wanted him to fall into the
bitu instead of wild animals.
“We will meet at the top of the mountain,” he told
Pitpitunge. Pitpitungnge immediately
went his way and when he was already out of sight, grandfather turned back from
his route and went home.
Days passed and there was no Pitpitungnge coming home. He must have fallen into the bitu which he
concealed with grasses along the route he pointed, grandfather thought. More days passed and there was no
Pitpitungnge. He was happy at the
thought of disposing off his grandson.
Then one day, while sitting by the boulder his grandson once
brought home, he saw a familiar figure coming.
It was Pitpitungnge carrying a laman11 on his shoulder. When grandson got near, he said to his
grandfather, “You’re bitu was brilliant that it took only days for a wild pig
to get trapped. Some hunters says, it
will take months.”
Pitpitungnge prepared lunch for them as grandfather plotted his
next move. Pitpitunnge though exists up
to this day.
__________
1 Pitpitungnge. The Ifugao short story for children, known in the local language as a'apo, is often identified thru the main character. Thus, in this write up of an a'apo I heard from an old folk when I was child, I took the liberty of entitling it Pitpitungnge, the name of the main character of the story.
2 A butung is a man's handbag which would contain betel nut, leaf, lime, tobaco which is essential in the social life of the Ifugao folk.
3 A bunwit is a fishing rod improvised from bamboo, thread, and metal string. This would tell that the story may have developed at a time when thread and metal is introduced in Ifugao land.
4 Uggadiw - small river fishes.
5 alun - ranch
6 pole - an Ifugao indigenous tree
7 kalloong - a tool that looks like a trough used for threshing rice pannicles
8 luhu' - it is an excavated part of the rice pond field that shall serve as the 'home' of fishes raised in the pond field.
9 luhung - mortar pair of a pestle used for pounding rice
10 bitu - an excavated portion set with sharp objects used to trap wild animals
11 laman - wild pig
