Janicka Burgess: Day Eighteen

WARNING: This blog is extremely long... So Enjoy reading IT ALL :)
I'm rewriting my story in the Philippines culture, which means that I had to find three other folktales written in that culture as well. It seems easy enough to do that, and it turns out that I was right. I think the only problem I would have is to find relative morals, and messages between the three. As I do this assignment I must mention that the folktales have weird names, and are pretty different than the usual ones you hear about.

How the First Head Was Taken

Author: No known author, but there are ties the Igorot, which consists of six ethno-linguistic tribes in the Philippines.

"How the First Head Was Taken" is about the Moon cutting off the Sun's son's head, if that makes sense. Let me explain... In the story the Moon (who was a woman named Kabigat) was making a large copper pot, and took great pride in it. She also put a beautiful stone on the side of the pot, and she molded it together beautifully. Cal-Chal was the Sun's son in the story, and he became very interested in watching the Moon make this pot; the son watched for a very long time. Kabigat noticed that Cal-Chal watching, and she cut his head off with her paddle because she didn't want anyone watching her. The Sun soon came, and put its son's head on; which saved his life. In the end... The Sun ending up saying this to the Moon: "You cut off my son's head, and because you did this, ever after on the earth people will cut off each others head."

The Boy Who Became a Stone

Author: The Tinguian (which are indigenous people from the mountainous province of Abra in Luzon, Philippines.

"The Boy Who Became a Stone" is actually a pretty sad story, the boy is building some type of snare for a bird. The bird is almost taunting him by telling him to come, and catch it (tik-tik-lo-den.) The boy's name is Elonen, and plays throws the snare over the bird, and then finally catches it; he puts it in a jar in his room. He left to go play, and came home to see that his grandmother had eaten it; it made him pretty sad. Elonen traveled to the forest to the big stone, and wishes to be eaten by it; his wish comes true. He's turned into stone for the rest of his life, but his grandmother comes to look for him anyway because he never returned home. She tried everything to break the stone; she used horses, carabaos, chickens, but nothing was successful. In the end, she had to return home without her grandson... Pretty sad right?

The Carabao and the Shell

Author: The Tinguian (which are indigenous people from the mountainous province of Abra in Luzon, Philippines.

"The Carabao and the Shell" is like the hare, and the tortoise race. Except in this story nobody really wins ultimately, and the story goes like this... The Carabao went for a drink, and began chatting with a shell; he called the shell slow as well as other things I'm sure. The Shell answered back by saying that it could beat the Carabao in a race, and indeed they raced. The Carabao believed that it was winning the race the entire time, but in fact the shell never moved AT ALL. As the Carabao progressed up the road; he was always call out "Shell", and another shell would answer him. It almost surprised the Carabao that the shell could keep up, but it was all him the entire time. Eventually this kept going on until the Carabao itself to death literally!

These three stories all have meanings all on their own, and they all possess good messages; which could be difficult to determine. I'm not sure that the first folktale had a real message, but it makes a direct reference to the world of today; it refers to cutting off people's head. That's what we do today right? In all the wars; we are killing, and decimating each other over pointless reasons. I think the first folktale goes back to the days of Confucius, or even back to the Bible for that matter... Remember the "eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth rule." Those rules apply to that first story..

I'm not really sure what the second folktale's message is because it just talks about a grandmother that eats her grandson's bird. Then, he goes to make a wish to be eaten by the big stone. I would say the message is don't take advantage of people because you'll miss them when they're gone. I'm not sure how that really goes with the story, but it seems like a great message right? I don't think there's a clear message in this folktale...

As I've mentioned previously, the third folktale is similar to Hare and the Tortoise. Except this story results in death, and it's quite ridiculous to begin with. I would say that the message here would have to be "Don't be too cocky, or arrogant." I found a quote that says "Self-confidence is the memory of success", which I think this could apply to the story because somehow the Carabao thought it was just that great that it could beat the Shell in a race.

I also found another great quote would be "Swallow you pride occasionally, it's non-fattening!" That's a great quote as well too because the shell had the silent confidence, while the Carabao was being arrogant for no reason. I don't think my stories focus on one aspect, but they all focus on various aspects that people need in life. Each of these stories has their own purpose as it was mentioned before, and they all serve that purpose to the fullest.