Legal Basis of Creation by: Pedro D. Indunan A long time ago, a sitio called Duit was just a Higib, or a resting place of rice terraces builders at the sloping foothill of Mt. DUMALING- a rocky mountain within the vicinity. The early people rested ans lived in a temporary shack of cogon roofs until later when they built better houses of hard lumber from a nearby forest. The site is near a creek of flowing water,wich was and is used for irrigating the rice terraces and other purposes. Nearby is a spring of sweet water for dringking. There are abundant rocks apparently fallen from Mount Dumaling, which were used for stone walling the place against predators and to prevent domestic pigs from entering the rice fields and destroying dikes and plants. Almost all the families in the are are the descendants of ancestors who were proud, economically self-sufficient, industrious and at times boastful when intoxicated. How the early villagers were known as I-Duit is lost in the annals of history. But legends recount that the ancient ancestors prided themselves as from the Land or Habbitat of a Legendary Little Bird called DUKLAWIT. This little bird, which is now rarely seen, has a curbed beak for reasons it waw used to crack the mighty rocks of Mt. DUMALING and allow the people of the area to recover their stolen precious gems and garments from a thief who esccaped from persuers and hid himself among the many caves of the mount. It appeared to the early inhabitants that being small is not a weakness. And like the legendary and magical Duklawit, the early ancestors prided themselves as mighty capable of supporting themselves even in adverse and rocky places. Although they were a small group, they were closely knit, self-sufficient in rice, domestic animals and year round supply of rice wine. They could feed multitude of people in their prestige feast of uya-uy and hagabi. And also it was that the early ancestors and their expanded fqmilies were identified as from the Land of Duklawit, in short, an i-Duit. In the course of time, the name was Hispanized, later Americanized and mqde official. It was shortened even erroneously pronounced and spelled like other names in the country which up to the present have not been corrected officially. The small but compared village become oficially known and recorded as Sitio Duit later, as barrio Duit to include other nearby villages. During the Marcos Era to the present, it became Barqngay Duit, a political unit of Kiangan, Ifugao, Philippines. Duit, in brief signifies the We Can character of people, small as a unit and few in numbers.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 00:37:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015