Creation Myths

By DJ Workz - November 27, 2017








CREATION MYTHS

A CREATION STORY FROM LUZON

1    In the beginning nothing else existed but the sea and the sky.  For years, these two were very close friends.  Then one day a bird suddenly appeared.  Where it came from no one knew.  Having no place on which to alight, the bird decided to make the two friends quarrel.  It flew close to the sea and told her that the sky said the same thing, that her friend, the sea, thought she was quiet ugly.

2    Accordingly, the sea declared war against the sky.  She threw water upward.  The sky retaliated by showering big boulders upon the sea.  These became the islands of the archipelago.  Surprised, the sea ran to and fro in order to cover the stain on her face.  Soon enough she grew very tired and begged the sky to stop throwing down islands, but she refused to remove the stains from the sea’s face to remind those who would see it that evil deeds, particularly treachery, do not pay at all.  This explains why, even now, the sea keeps dashing water against the sides of the islands.


A VISAYAN CREATION MYTH

1    In the beginning there were two gods, Captan and Maguayan.  They created the earth and all living things.  Once Captan planted a bamboo in a garden.  The plant grew into a tall tree that swayed gracefully in the breeze.  Then, one day it broke into two sections, and out stepped a man and a woman.  To the man the gods gave the name Sicalac, and that is why men have been called Lalaki; the woman they called Sicavay, and thenceforth women have been called babaye.

2    After some time, the man asked the woman to marry him for there were no people in the world.  Sicavay was reluctant in accepting his proposal, however saying that they were brother and sister born of the same reed, with only one node between them.  Eventually they agreed to seek the advice of tunas of the sea and doves of the air.  They also consulted the earthquake, who told them that it was necessary for them be filled with people. And so they became husband and wife.

3    Soon after, they had a son whim they called Sibu.  A daughter who was born to them next was named Samar.  Sibu and Samar married and had a daughter.  Luplupan.  She married Pandaguan, the second son of the first couple, Sicalac and Sicavay.  They had a son whom they named Anoranor.

4    Pandaguan was the first to invent the fishing net.  The first he used it, he caught a shark and brought it ashore, thinking that it would not die.  But the shark did not survive for long out of water.  Great was Pandaguan’s grief.  He cried out loudly to the gods, blaming them for letting his plaything die when no one had ever died before.  It is said the god Captan, weary after his day’s work, sent the flies to find out why Pandagaun was making such a loud lamentation. But the flies refused to obey him, saying that they were busy storing honey.  For this disobedience, they were condemned to scavenge among filthy and rotten things from then on.


5    Captan then sent the weavil, who brought back the news of the shark’s death.  Pandaguan’s behavior greatly displeased Captan.  He and Maguayan made a thunderbolt with which they struck Pandaguan dead.  The young man stayed in the infernal regions for thirty days, at the end of which time the gods took pity on him, brought him back to life, and returned to the world.

6    While Pandaguan was away, his wife Luplupan became the concubine of Maracoyrun.  People say that the practice of concubinage then started with Luplupan.

7    When Pandaguan returned home, he did not find his wife there.  She had been invited by Maracoyrun to feast upon a pig which he had stolen.  People say that this was the first theft committed in the world.

8    Pandaguan then sent Anoranor to fetch his mother,  but she only laughed at her son and refused to go home, saying that the dead never to return to the world.  At this answer, Pandaguan became angry and went back to the infernal regions, vowing never to return to the world.  The old folks say that had Luplupan obeyed Pandaguan’s summons, and had he not gone back to the infernal regions, all the dead would come back to life.

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