Part 3 (2/2)
Lazada rose ”Dinner is ready Let us continue our discussion at the table”
They went out to a balcony which overlooked a garden at the rear of the house A table set with the finest Chinese linen and delicate Sia for theiant prawns, meat-stuffed rolls called _lu called _lechon_, they continued their talk of the expedition
”What is the significance of the golden skull?” Lazada asked
”I did not know until today,” Tony answered ”I found out fro some very hard work on it
Will you answer, Dr Okola?”
The Filipino archaeologist looked pleased, but he hastened to say, ”The credit is not raduate students, who is hia celebration at his ho an assistant professor at the university”
”I'm sorry I didn't meet hiolat However, Mr Lazada asked about the significance of the golden skull We were able to uncover a story about it aao myths, a story of which I had not been aware until Dr Briotti's letters put ion is rich in ion with over a thousand Gods”
Scotty whistled ”Theythey say or do”
”Just about,” Dr Okola agreed ”Even their universe is divided into five regions There is the known earth, _pugao_; the sky world, _kabunian_; the region downriver, _laGod_; the region upriver, _daiya_; and the underworld, _dalun_”
”What river?” Rick asked
”Any river on which they happen to live,” Okola answered ”No one knows exactly what the original river of the Ifugaos rants They came from the Chinese mainland, but we don't know exactly when, or whether their original home was China Perhaps ill find out that it was Cambodia We do know that their miraculous rice terraces were started at least two thousand years ago”
”That makes them almost as old as the pyraht The whole culture is quite astonishi+ng We think of them as primitive people, but their history isof heads Heads have always been of the greatest religious iaos They have been head-hunters for religious and economic reasons for centuries First America, and then the Republic of the Philippines tried to staeneral, we have succeeded There is little or no head-hunting now--so far as we know”
Lazada grunted ”The mountains are difficult to police I doubt that we know all that goes on I wouldn't be surprised if a head wasn't taken now and then After all, the Ifugaos got the heads of two Ao”
”The ious reasons,” Okola explained ”Sacrifices were needed for the rice crop The unfortunate professors were on a hiking trip, and they happened along at just the wrong moment”
Rick remembered newspaper reports of the incident It had attracted world-wide attention The Ifugao natives responsible had been captured by the Philippine constabulary, tried, and punished
Okola continued, ”We have traced back a thread through the coendary hero--the leader-God who led the Ifugaos to the Philippines The golden skull was originally his own, turned to gold by the very power of the hero's ic After his death, of course At first it was an ordinary skull, then it turned to gold”
”Then the skull has so?” Rick asked
”Indeed it does It is apparently the chief object to which heads are sacrificed--or was, before it was lost The golden skull is _alaos”
”Hoas it lost?” Scotty inquired
”In a war,” Okola said, quite seriously, ”between the _kabunian_, the Gods of the sky world, and the _dalun_, the Gods of the underworld The _dalun_ won They took the head and disappeared into the ground soreat taboo If an Ifugao tries to follow thereat misfortune will come An earthquake will destroy the terraces The people will starve They will be haunted by the _dodingerot_--ghouls ell in toaos will take a diuessed