Recently we went to a talk by the Tayal poet Walis Nokan / 瓦歷斯‧諾幹. One of the many noteworthy parts of the talk was that he mentioned that the Tayal tribe has also been called the Atayal. Walis stumbled on the pronunciation; it is obviously an unfamiliar word. The reason this is noteworthy is that, in my decades of experience with the Tayal, this is only the second time I have actually heard a member of the tribe say "Atayal," but this is the name by which outsiders call the tribe.

The only other time I have heard an aborigine use the name Atayal was about ten years ago, when I asked someone if she had ever heard the name, and she said yes, she recalled hearing someone say Atayal, but she forgot who. But she was a Sediq; in those days Sediq were still considered Tayal, but have since split away.

I have asked many Tayal about this other name, and many have never even heard of the name Atayal ~~ I guess they should pay more attention to what the learned authorities have to say!

Due to the mysterious workings of official orthography, "Tayal" is actually pronounced dah-YEN, so now some people prefer to use Dayan, so we don't sound like bathroom tiles or something. For that matter, I suggest 達彥 for 泰雅.

臺中市東勢的原名為Blrngiau，意為「山貓出沒的地方」。原屬達彥(泰雅)部落，但因為山貓，即石虎，很多，吃達彥養的雞，所以遷往它處落腳。

但瓦歷斯‧諾幹說，此說為諱言，其實是客家人強達彥的地，驍勇善戰的達彥不好意思說，他們人那麼多，沒辦法，我們只好讓開，把地方給他們住算了…

The town of Blrngiau in central Taiwan is now known by its Chinese name, Tungshih/Dongshi, but it was originally a Tayal village.

Blrngiau is a Tayal word meaning 'the place with a lot of leopards,' referring to the native leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis chinensis. In days gone by, there were so many leopard cats that the Tayal had trouble raising chickens, because the leopard cats would eat them all. The Tayal moved elsewhere, and left Blrngiau to the leopard cats.

With a hearty laugh, Walis Nokan says, this is just a face saving story. The Tayal left because of pressure from the Hakka Chinese, but Walis says, the Tayal are proud warriors. They didn’t want to have to tell their children, "There were so many of those Hakka, we couldn't deal with that, so we left." Thus the story about the chicken-devouring leopard cats.

原住民扗臺灣幾千年，非常了解環境。若土石流或水災及原住民家屋，通常不是因為政府遷居于斯，就是因為投資人扗上面種檳榔、高山茶，破壞山坡結構。

布農族世居高山；瓦歷斯‧諾幹問，如何選部落位置？布農人答，看落石滾到哪、停扗哪，扗過去的範圍就安全。

The Bunung are a tribe of Aborigines who live high in Taiwan's steep mountains. The Tayal poet Walis Nokan once asked how they find places to live that are safe from landslide. The Bunung examine how far stones roll from landslides, and figure out where they stop. Beyond that area is safe.