The Life of Lam-ang (an Iloko epic) - Page 4 of 16

He prepared to leave, the man
Lam-ang, and return,
To his mother Namungan.
And having reached the town of Nalbuan:

Mother Namungan, if I may ask,
What foulness he perpetrated,
The father I sprang from?

My son Lam-ang,
If it is your father your speak of,
We never quarrelled, not even once.

Mother Namungan, strike the longgan
That my younger sisters
May all come to my aid,

The maidens numbering twice nine,
Nine times nine.
That they may shampoo my curly locks

At the Amburayan River.
For it had become quite dusty,
During the day-long battle yesterday.

Mother Namungan,
Do let us pay a visit
To the old barn with molave posts,

Floored with derraan and polished bellaang.
And please ask them to sweep off the barn’s door,
The dead cockroaches, spiders, and their mess.

For nine years have passed
Since we last visited
Our palay called samusam,

Buan and laguingan,
Lumanus and lampadan,
Maratectec and macan, gaygaynet and balasang.

And having looked over the barn.
Young maidens, pull out the panicles
From each name (of rice variety).

And thresh these.
And what grains one accumulates thus
Is already hers to keep.

And this was done.
Young sisters, bind the straws.
Get also the coconut shell tong

And pick some embers with it.
And younger sisters, please,
Return the charcoal later,

For it is of paticalang wood.
At the Amburayan River we shall bathe.
At the riverbank,

He cast his eyes around and soon saw
The bubbles made by the crocodile.
My young sisters burn the rice straw.

Since the straw would not burn,
Lam-ang beckoned to the strongest wind—
And the straw burst into flames.

The people of San Juan were alarmed
By the sparks that reached them;
The people of Bacnotan ran

Thinking there was a conflagration.
And when they could not control the fire,
He beckoned to the torrential rain

And the cloud shaped like a precipice.
Lightning and thunder came in waves
And only then was the fire extinguished.