A Bird’s Nest

I found a bird’s nest—with two eggs in it! Now this isn’t really news in a mountainous area that still has considerably lush vegetation. If you set out here to look for a bird’s nest, your quest will end in less than thirty minutes. What’s special about the nest I discovered is that it’s cuplike, which is getting rarer to find nowadays. The nests here are commonly that of a sparrow’s—ball-like and has a small circular opening at the side.

I found the nest in the school across our house. I was taking a late-afternoon walk, pretending I’m Charles Dickens exploring the streets of London, when I noticed a sparrow’s nest nestled in the newly trimmed hedges. I happened to have my camera with me that time, so I decided to take a photo of the nest. The mouth was clearly exposed to passers-by, but the whole nest was intact because whoever spruced up the plant either had a good heart or had the artistic sense to include the nest in the design. After I took just one shot, a tiny bird flew away in fright from inside the plant. I brushed aside the tiny leaves and branches, and found the beautiful cuplike nest. I peered closer into the nest, and to my delight, I found two unhatched eggs.

The eggs were maroon or purplish. I could not tell for sure because it was getting dark. I took a photo of them, and I hope my camera processed the color right. I also did not see the color of the bird that fled from the nest; it just appeared to my eyes as a brownish blur. As I know from experience, though, cuplike nests are built by yellow hummingbirds (yes, the kind of bird that can fly backward).

I checked the sparrow’s nest, and as I had assumed, it had already served its purpose. The eggs had hatched and only shells were left there. I got worried that, just like what happened to me, the sparrow’s nest would attract passers-by and inadvertently lead them to the other nest. So I took the used nest and threw it away. I wished that the eggs would hatch soon because June was coming and regular classes would start again. The eggs or the hatchlings would surely not survive in the hands of mischievous students.

I wondered if the person who trimmed the hedges had seen the second nest. Maybe he didn’t, for the nest was well-hidden inside the plant and he must have been working fast. Maybe he did and he was really good-hearted so he left it there untouched. In any case, I was glad that it was safe. Soon, two lives would be born in it, and then fly around and liven up the air with their music.

Book: Children of Tulus

In last week’s post, I made mention of Stuart Schlegel’s Children of Tulus, the book that inspired me to write a short story about the Tiruray people. It occurred to me that some readers of this blog might want to get a copy of the interesting and well-written book, so I’m posting here more details about it.

The book, subtitled Essays on the Tiruray People, was published by Giraffe Books in 1994, and I bought my copy in Cebu sometime in 2013, as indicated in the note that I wrote at the back page of the front cover. I’m sure that I bought my copy at Book Sale, but I can no longer remember if it was in the SM branch or in the Robinsons branch. I believe both outlets—indeed, all Book Sale outlets—have copies of the book until now. Here in Cotabato Region, there’s a Book Sale stall in KCC Mall in Koronadal City and one or two in the malls in General Santos City.

Though the book is twenty years old now, my copy was brand-new when I bought it. The cover and the inside pages didn't have any crease. That’s because Giraffe, apparently, has been keeping tons of its books in a warehouse. As far as I know, the publishing company has stopped operating for about a decade now, and it decided for some reason to clean its warehouse just a couple of years ago. Book Sale, which sells pre-perused books, has been there for a while, but Giraffe books appeared on the shelves of the store just recently. I wonder if Giraffe authors still get royalty from the sale of their books; though the books are sold for the first time, their prices are for second-hand items. I got my copy of Children of Tulus for just sixty pesos, if I remember it right. Some titles, especially by Filipino authors who are no longer active in the literary scene, sell for as low as twenty pesos.

Below are the contents of the book. I hope the table will guide you if you are you are doing a research or entice you if you are simply looking for a good read. Whatever your intention may be, you must get a copy of the book. It’s worth your time.

Chapter 1
Introduction: The Tiruray and I

Chapter 2
Tiruray-Maguindanaon Ethnic Relations: An Ethnohistorical Puzzle

Chapter 3
Tiruray Morality

Chapter 4
The Traditional Tiruray Zodiac: The Celestial Calendar of a Swidden and Foraging People

Chapter 5
Tiruray Gardens: From Use-Right to Private Ownership

Chapter 6
From Tribal to Peasant: Two Tiruray Communities

Chapter 7
Tiruray Traditional and Peasant Subsistence: A Comparison

Chapter 8
Diet and the Tiruray Shift from Swidden to Plow Farming

Chapter 9
Repercussions of Naive Scholarship: The Background of Local Furor

Chapter 10
The Many Social Worlds of Southeast Asia

Chapter 11
The Anthropologist as Outsider

Chapter 12
The Customs of the Tiruray People
Written by Jose Tenorio (Sigayan) in 1863 and translated and annotated by Schlegel in 1969
I. Concerning Tiruray Houses and Food
II. Concerning Their Beliefs, Their Religions, and Beliyan
III. Concerning Their Divinities and Supernatural Beings
IV. Concerning a Variety of Superstitions and Charms
V. Concerning Their Clothes, Weapons, and Adornment
VI. Concerning Killings and the Causes That Motivate Them
VII. Concerning Their Marriages
VIII. Concerning Anniversaries of Weddings and Births
IX. Concerning Other Ways of Seeking a Spouse
X. Continuing about Marriages
XI. Concerning Births
XII. Concerning What They Do with the Sick and the Dead
XIII. Concerning the Clearing of Land and Cultivations
XIV. Concerning Songs and Dreams
XV. Concerning Their Leaders and Their Mode of Government

Author’s photo and profile on the back cover of the book. I owe a lot to the efforts of people like Stuart Schlegel. I hope my writings will be the same to future writers and researchers.