The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 217 pages of information about The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao.

The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 217 pages of information about The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao.

“He went to the place Binaton, across the ocean, the place where the earth and sky meet.  When he got there he saw that the sky kept going up and down the same as a man opening and closing his jaws.  LumabEt said to the sky ‘You must go up,’ but the sky replied ‘No.’  At last LumabEt promised the sky that if he let the others go he might catch the last one who tried to pass; so the sky opened and the people went through; but when near to the last the sky shut down and caught the bolo of next to the last man.  The last one he caught and ate.

“That day LumabEt’s son Tagalion was hunting and caught many animals which he hung up.  Then he said he must go to his father’s place; so he leaned an arrow against a baliti tree and sat on it.  It began to grow down and carried him down to his father’s place, but when he arrived there were no people there.  He saw a gun, made out of gold, and some white bees in the house.  The bees said ’You must not cry; we can take you to the sky,’ So he rode on the gun, and the bees took him to the sky and he arrived there in three days.

“One of the men was looking down on the land below, and all of the spirits made fun of him and said they would take out his intestines so that he would be like one of them and never die.  The man refused to let them, and he wanted to go back home because he was afraid; so Manama said to let him go.

“The spirits took leaves of the karan grass and tied to his legs, and made a chain of the grass and let him down to the earth.  When he reached the earth he was no longer a man but was an owl.”

(2) The second tale, which was recorded by P. Juan Doyle, S. J., is as follows: 

“In one of the torrents which has its origin at the foot of Apo, there were two eels which, having acquired extraordinary magnitude, had no room in so little water, on account of which they determined to separate, each one taking a different direction in search of the sea or the great lakes.  One arrived, happily, at the sea by the Padada river, and from it came eels in the sea.  The other descending a torrent, swimming and confining himself as well as he might, enclosed in these narrow places, said to himself ’I haven’t the slightest idea of what the sea is, but it appears to me that when I see before me an extraordinary clearness on a limpid surface, that must be the sea, and with one spring I will jump into it.’  So saying, he arrived at a point where the torrent formed a cascade.  He noticed that it cut off the horizon and to his view it appeared of an extraordinary clearness; he thought he could swim there without limit, and at his pleasure, and that this, in fine, must be the sea.  He darted into it, but the unhappy one was dashed against the rocks, and too fatigued to swim through the rough waters, he lost his life.  His body lay there inert and formed undulations which are now the folds which the earth forms to the left of Mt.  Apo.”

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The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.