MEANWHILE, ALIW-IW’S IMAGINATION knew no rest: Since his adult age – iddi pan al-a may nemnem to, he always wished for and dreamt(!) of his own ricefields, and cattle, and money. [Of these things, he told his mother not just once.. back in homeland Shekdan..] N.o.w..
HERE IN BINGAAN, he often walked.. around his yard, in the night. He walked.. and paused, and thought – of deep things, silly things, serious things..
IN THE DAYTIME, you’d find him beyond the Danso’s premises – sometimes even further away than expected. What was he doing? These: lo and behold!
EYEING AT HIS grandfather Pucay’s lands – the grassy lands, the hilly ones, even the thickly-forested. Also, he was acting like ‘surveying’ (in Today’s terms) – and further, like assessing potentials of the lands now before him – the lands ‘not even asked about by the other ensues or grandchildren of Pucay, during this time of his. For who – in that time, in Shekdan, would be interested in lands – even if ‘first-tilled’, sinemaan, by one’s own grandfather or ancestor.. if such lands were too far away, and especially had no visible, easy, realizable water-supply?
NOW.. ALIW-W, THE ‘banished’ one – is left alone in thinking.. how can I proceed – without ample water for a few ricefields even.. there must be a way.. he asked the Winds, the forefathers’ spirits, the Sun above – the Emblem of the one-Supreme-God of the Nabalois.. One day,
HE GOT ‘LOST’ – in the thickness of the forest – North.. far North.. of the Danso. He ‘guessed’ (but right he was!) he was like going back to Shekdan/Daklan.. he saw some ‘traces’ of his Party (Boyot)’s footprints – months earlier, now being almost indistinct-in-mark, eg meseshak, because of the past rains.
[HE WAS RIGHT. He was ‘lost’ in Debcöw – northstrebmwards-passadongan, of Bingaan. After spending sometime looking at the land he got lost in, he decided:]
“I MUST FIND my way home before Dark. When we were going down or ‘South’ (said him by his mother yet before), we were on the left.. then right side; then, left again.. of this big river. I’ll use it as guide: I remember the Danso is located left-side of the river!”
[HE WAS RIGHT again! He arrived early night, Edabian, but he was unscratched or what. His wife and daughter were looking at him. He spoke first]:
“I GOT ‘LOST’. I was following a doe.. but I lost her when it was getting dark. Let’s eat now.. if you’ve finished cooking?”
THE NEXT DAY, Aliw-iw spent his time in the Danso perimeters – trying to recall and self-analyze – inushi ushito ngo shorog, how he got lost and how he found his way home.
AT SOME JUNCTURES, he imagined the female deer: “Ulsa, there must be more of them there? Ahuh.. but old folks in Shekdan sometimes conjecture that animals that show themselves in rare or special – manmano times, were {maybe} ‘just shadows of the guiding ancestors’ [or, deified culture heroes, n.b. others use the term ‘gods’, i.e. small letter g, like ‘gods’ Gatan, Obag, Obagobagan, et cetera].
THEN, SIMILARLY HE did in the days following, mostly these – repeatedly figuring out his routes into – and out of that sparsely forested but grassy hills and areas he got lost into, that unforgettable day. But
TRUE TO THE calling of a hunter he later realized, he was in those hills and grassy lands again – looking for wild game: the ulsa, the animolok, the sabag, and others. [The I-Baloy folks told him of these before.. Supra, earlier Series].
THE WILD CHICKEN or Sabag – he got some; the wild boar or animolok – he spotted a few but was never lucky to bring home any. The deers too or ulsa. Ah, the doe he first saw when he got lost there first time? He never saw it again. in later months,
ONE DAY, AS he reached further North, he discovered a big creek (now, the Bonecöw Creek). He curiously pursued sight of the creek purposely to see the source.. but later stopped to think. He sat atop one tall stone and exclaimed by himself:
THIS IS WHERE my water for the Danso fields shall come from. All I have to strive for next, sai ekal kalikhatan ko mah: Kolokol.. the farther cousins North call it Bagan (=int the ‘native’ irrigation-water ditch, usually 2-5 ft. in width).
April 26, 2024
