Ambahan: Food and work

Obtaining food keeps the Mangyans busy for most of the year: selecting and preparing the field; sowing the carefully kept seed; weeding and cleaning the plants; harvesting the most precious food, cotton-white mountain rice. Unfortunately, an ideal harvest depends on an exact amount of sun, wind and rain. Often though, an extensive drought, a nasty typhoon or prolonged monsoon rains effect the opposite result, hardship and scarcity of food. It is therefore, no wonder that the Mangyans worry about their crops a great deal.

Rice is a food the Mangyans enjoy. After they have harvested their rice, it seems that there will never come an end to their supplies. But, before they realize it, gone is all their hope and happiness.

Hanunuo-Mangyan	English	Filipino
	This kind of rice, Kabasag,When I saw for the first time,The stalks were heavy with grain.When I returned and looked again,Empty and flat were the heads!	Ang palay kong KabasagNang minsan kong namatyagUhay ay sangkatutakNang balikan ko't tingnanUhay ay mangahungkag!

Hanunuo-Mangyan	English	Filipino
	The little black bird Sawi,So hereabouts its was told,Had a tail long and pretty.But the bird when it grew big,Tail, alas, shorter it grew,Struck by lightning as storm blew.	Ibong si Sawi-sawiNoon pa man ang huniBuntot, mahabang diliSubalit nang lumakiBuntot ko ay umiksiKinidlat, binuhawi!

Whether one likes it or not, it is necessary to work hard in order to keep his stomach filled. He has to work hard even if he has the help of the spirits.

Hanunuo-Mangyan	English	Filipino
	Our good and precious soil:Would it be as beautifulif we did not work and toil?Very soon it would be waste.	Ating lupang payapaPaano pa gagandaKung di tayo gumawaDagli 'yang mawawala!