Note 67 — The Ifugao Flood-myth60

One more type of Ifugao origin myth merits our attention before we come to the conclusion. This type consists of the myths invented to explain the origin of the ancient Chinese jars, bronze gongs, amber-agate beads, and other rare articles of foreign manufacture on which the Ifugaos place a high value, and the origin of which they do not know. Many of these objects have been in the possession of the people for at least several hundred years. They were probably brought into the Islands by Chinese traders centuries before the coming of the Spaniards, and gradually found their way to the Ifugaos through the medium of their cursory commerce with the surrounding peoples.67