1. Four Samples

All the collected versions of the Talanganay myth are syncretisms of what is here assumed to have been the original Talanganay myth and one or more other myths that have independent existence in neighboring areas. In these syncretic myths, the roles of the main figures are either ascribed to Talanganay or shared with him. It was a certain Bidolong, the most influential leader in Buaya, who died a few years before my arrival in 1964, who thought he did a good thing by introducing syncretism.

Four representative complete texts of the myth, by four different narrators, are now presented. For the sake of economy, the Kalinga text of only the first of these versions is given, with its hesitations and repetitions, together with an almost literal translation. In the three other texts, those Kalinga terms that seem more relevant are given in parentheses. The first version is by an old man, and the other three by old women. It will be noted that the latter’s versions are more fluent. The first version also suffers from the old man’s use (and occasional misuse) of Ilocano words, the lingua franca of Northern Luzon.[…]