THE LEGEND OF THE FIRST PEOPLE

        Bathala decided to make more people. "This time" he said, " I  will make them smaller than the first one I made".

        He took some clay and fashioned two figures: a man and a woman.  He put these inside a Great Oven. When he took them out sometime later, he found that they were not yet baked very well. Their skins were pale. Nevertheless, he gave them the breath of life and he let them go into what is now  the Eurasian continent. They were the ancestors of the fair-skinned people. Next he made another set of clay figures. "This time I am going to let them stay inside the oven much longer," he said. Then he went away.

      Upon his return,  he took out the couple from the Great Oven. Their skins were dark. Nevertheless, he gave them the breath of life and set them out into the African continent. They are the forerunners of the  dark-skinned people.

      Bathala thought, "If at first you don't succeed..." and he went  through the same routine. "This time, I know the right amount of time needed to make a good skin color," he said to himself. True, when he took them out of the oven, the third pair were not too dark and not too light. They are the brown people, our ancestors, as the legend goes. So Bathala was pleased with  his latest creations. He thought that because of their size, they would make less trouble, even if he gave them the freedom to do whatever they wanted.

      "Is this true?" my grandaughter asked.

       "Well darling, " I answered with a smile, "It is just a legend,  handed down to me by my mother, who heard it from her mother, and so on, and so on.."

       "Can you tell me some more?" pleaded my grandchild.

       "Sure,  darling. But first we must get ready for bed." 

                                  -OOOO-

THE  CHILDREN  OF THE BROWN PEOPLE

  The children of the brown man and woman, like the children of the others, were fond of adventure. Some of them loved the sea. They built  fast ships called  BARANGAYS which could carry a number of people. These ships sailed swiftly across unknown waters, and eventually  reached what is now known as the Philippines Islands. They found the land green,
with plenty of food and space to build houses. They settled here to become the ancestors of present day Filipinos.

 During their voyages in the Barangays, the passengers developed such a strong friendship with one another. When they landed, they built their houses close to each other, to form one community. They named this community a Barangay to commemorate the ship that brought them in.

To this day, the word Barangay  still  means a unit of Filipino society. A group of Barangays make up a whole town or a city.

 Life during the early days was extremely difficult. They lived near rivers bordered by thick jungles. The rivers provided fish to eat, but it was also the home of gigantic crocodiles. The jungles provided food and wood for building their houses. But it was also the home of wild animals: wild pigs,  venomous snakes, and giant pythons. According to one story, one python was so big that it could coil itself around a
small house.

 Speaking of snakes, the name of Baltog, an early Filipino strong man comes to mind. A legend said that  Baltog was once sent by his father Handiong, to seek for new lands since their kingdom was always  frequented by destructive typhoons. In  his travels, Baltog met and killed many wild animals and strange monsters, except one called  Oriole. Oriole was a giant snake with the head of a beautiful woman.
After its capture, Baltog never had the heart to kill it. So he just set  it free. The monster went into hiding in the jungles of Mount Asug  where they say its children and grandchildren still live up until today.

*******

(MORE LEGENDS COMING)