Note 62 — The Ifugao Flood-myth60

The period was something like a Golden Age, when things were much better than they are now. The people were demigods whose life was a happy one and their country a sort of Garden of Eden. To obtain rice, all that they needed to do was to cut down a stalk of bamboo, which was plentiful, and split open the joints which were filled with hulled rice ready to cook. Stalks of sugar-cane were filled with baiyax,62 and needed only to be tapped to furnish a most refreshing drink. The river was full of fish, and the forests were filled with deer and wild hogs which were much easier to catch than those of the present day. The rice grains of that time were larger and more satisfying, and a handful of them was sufficient to feed a large family.