One morning when they left for the mountains the mother gave them a bit of dog meat to eat, and the boys were very sad.  When they reached the forest one of them said: 

“You wait here while I climb the tree and cut off some branches.”

He went up the tree and soon called down, “Here is some wood,” and the bones of his arm dropped to the ground.

“Oh,” cried his brother, “it is your arm!”

“Here is some more wood,” cried the other, and the bones of the other arm dropped to the ground.

Then he called again, and the bones of his leg fell, then those of his other leg, and so on till all the bones of his body lay on the ground.

“Take these home,” he said, “and tell the woman that here is her wood; she only wanted my bones.”

The younger boy was very sad, for he was alone, and there was no one to go down the mountain with him.  He gathered up the bundle of wood, wondering meanwhile what he should do, but just as he finished a serpent eagle called down from the tree tops: 

“I will go with you, Brother.”

So the boy put the bundle of wood on his shoulder, and as he was going down the mountain, his brother, who was now a serpent eagle, flew over his head.  When he reached the house, he put down the bundle and said to his mother: 

“Here is your wood.”

When she looked at it she was very much frightened and ran out of the house.

Then the serpent eagle circled round and round above her head and called: 

“Quiukok! quiukok! quiukok!  I do not need your food any more.”

The Tattooed Men [109]

Igorot

Once there were two young men, very good friends, who were unhappy because neither of them had been tattooed. [110] They felt that they were not as beautiful as their friends.

One day they agreed to tattoo each other.  One marked the breast and back of the other, his arms and legs, and even his face.  And when he had finished, he took soot off the bottom of a cooking-pot and rubbed it into all the marks; and he was tattooed beautifully.

The one who had done the work said to the other: 

“Now, my friend, you are very beautiful, and you must tattoo me.”

Then the tattooed one scraped a great pile of black soot off the cooking-pots, and before the other knew what he was about, he had rubbed it all over him from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet; and he was very black and greasy.  The one who was covered with soot became very angry and cried: 

“Why do you treat me so when I tattooed you so carefully?”

They began to fight, but suddenly the beautifully tattooed one became a great lizard which ran away and hid in the tall grass, while the sooty one became a crow and flew away over the village. [111]

Tilin, The Rice Bird [112]

Igorot

One day when a mother was pounding out rice to cook for supper, her little girl ran up to her and cried: