wan of Nagtinawan said, "You people who live
in the same town in which I live, let us go to fight Aponigawani of
Kadalayapan." "No, we do not wish to go, because the people who live
in Kadalayapan are powerful like Kaboniyan. We do not know whether
she has a brother or not though someone has said that Aponigawani
has no brother." "No we go," said Ginawan. "If that is what you
say, we will go," said the people. So they went and they walked and
walked until they reached the spring at Kadalayapan. Ginawan said,
"You women who are dipping water from the spring, to whom does it
belong?" "To Aponigawani," they said. Ginawan said, "Ala, you go and
tell your bravest that we fight with steel weapons." The women who
dipped water from the well said, "We do not know who is the bravest,
whom we should tell, for Aponigawani has no brother." They went up to
the town, and said, "Uncle Pagbokasan the place about the spring is
filled with enemies." Then Aponigawani was in a hurry to go. "Do not
go you will kill somebody," said her father. "No, father, the spring
will be lost and then what can we do? Father, I am a woman and since I
have no brother, perhaps it is my fortune to fight, for you are weak."
She took her skirt, headaxe, and spear and she went to the edge of
the hill above the spring. She looked and looked at the place where
the spring was for truly the enemies were thick like locusts about
the well. "What did you come for?" she asked. "We come to fight the
people who live in Kadalayapan, because we have heard that the woman
who is always in the house [166] has no brother, so we have come to
carry her away," they said. "Ala, if you wish to prove her bravery
you take this betel-nut." She cut it in two pieces and gave it to
them. "We asked you to excuse us from going Ginawan," they said. "Ala,
you begin and see what you can do," said Aponigawani who stood on
a high stone and she stood with her hands on her hips while they
threw their weapons. "Now, I am next," she said. "You, my spear,
when I throw you, kill at once seven and six; and you, my headaxe,
cut off their heads from the left and right sides, from in back and in
front." When Aponigawani had killed all of them except Ginawan and she
had all their weapons, Ginawan said, "Please, my friend, let me live
so that someone may go back to the town we came from." "Ala, yes, if
that is what you ask, my friend, but I will come next to your town,"
she said, and Ginawan went home alon
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