Sogsogot

A hunter of a Tinguian legend. He and a group of men went to the mountains to hunt deer and wild pigs. While he was waiting for the deer to come out he was carried off by a banog, a huge bird, and taken to its nest. Unable to escape from the tree, he looked around the nest and found two young birds and three little pigs.

Being hungry, he killed the pigs and ate them. The mother bird brought more pigs, and Sogsogot fed some of meat to the young birds. They grew very fast and were soon able to fly. He grabbed the leg of one bird and it carried him safely to the ground. Sogsogot hurried back to his village and told them of his wonderful trip, and the people prepared a ceremony for the spirits and rejoiced the return of one they had thought lost.

Some time later he went to fight a hostile village and during his absence his wife died. On his way back he met her spirit and desired to go with her. She told him to first go home and get a white chicken. She then brought him to the spirit town and hid him in a rice-bin. Since the inhabitants of the spirit town would try to eat him, she told that if they came to the rice-bin he had to throw some of feathers of the chicken at them. This would frighten the spirits away. After two weeks the feathers were nearly gone and he had no choice but to leave, and returned to his own village.

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