that have appeared in the _Journal of American Folk-Lore_ and in
scientific publications, here retold with some additions made by
native story-tellers.

I have endeavored to select typical tales from tribes widely separated
and varying in culture from savagery to a rather high degree of
development. The stories are therefore divided into five groups,
as follows: Tinguian, Igorot, the Wild Tribes of Mindanao, Moro,
and Christian,

The first two groups, Tinguian and Igorot, are from natives who
inhabit the rugged mountain region of northwestern Luzon. From time
immemorial they have been zealous head-hunters, and the stories teem
with references to customs and superstitions connected with their
savage practices. By far the largest number belong to the Tinguian
group. In order to appreciate these tales to the fullest extent,
we must understand the point of view of the Tinguian. To him they
embody all the known traditions of "the first times"--of the people
who inhabited the earth before the present race appeared, of the
ancient heroes and their powers and achievements. In them he finds
an explanation of and reason for many of his present laws and customs.

A careful study of the whole body of Tinguian mythology points to
the conclusion that the chief characters of these tales are not
celestial beings but typical, generalized heroes of former ages,
whose deeds have been magnified in the telling by many generations
of their descendants. These people of "the first times" practiced
magic. They talked with jars, created human beings out of betel-nuts,
raised the dead, and had the power of changing themselves into other
forms. This, however, does not seem strange or impossible to the