"Pitpitungnge"

(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.

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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