Hudhud ni Aliguyon

Once upon a time, in a village called Hannanga, a boy was born to the couple named Amtalao and Dumulao. He was called Aliguyon. He was an intelligent, eager young man who wanted to learn many things, and indeed, he learned many useful things, from the stories and teachings of his father. He learned how to fight well and chant a few magic spells. Even as a child, he was a leader, for the other children of his village looked up to him with awe. Upon leaving childhood, Aliguyon betook himself to gather forces to fight against his father’s enemy, who was Pangaiwan of the village of Daligdigan. But his challenge was not answered personally by Pangaiwan. Instead, he faced Pangaiwan’s fierce son,

Pumbakhayon. Pumbakhayon was just as skilled in the arts of war and magic as Aliguyon. The two of them battled each other for three years, and neither of them showed signs of defeat. Their battle was a tedious one, and it has been said that they both used only one spear! Aliguyon had thrown a spear to his opponent at the start of their match, but the fair Pumbakhayon had caught it deftly with one hand. And then Pumbakhayon threw the spear back to Aliguyon, who picked it just as neatly from the air.

At length Aliguyon and Pumbakhayon came to respect each other, and then eventually they came to admire each other’s talents. Their fighting stopped suddenly. Between the two of them they drafted a peace treaty between Hannanga and Daligdigan, which their peoples readily agreed to.

It was fine to behold two majestic warriors finally side by side. Aliguyon and Pumbakhayon became good friends, as peace between their villages flourished. When the time came for Aliguyon to choose a mate, he chose Pumbakhayon’s youngest sister, Bugan, who was little more than a baby. He took Bugan into his household and cared for her until she grew to be most beautiful. Pumbakhayon, in his turn, took for his wife Aliguyon’s younger sister, Aginaya. The two couples became wealthy and respected in all of Ifugao. 

Si Malakas at si Maganda (as retold by Teofilo del Castillo)

A long time ago, there was no land. There were only the sea and the sky. A bird was then flying in the sky. Soon it grew tired and wanted to rest. But it could not. As it was smart, it made the sea throw rocks up at the sky. And the sky turned very dark and poured down water. That was how the island came about. Now the waves break on the shore and can never rise as high as the sky again.

Horrified by the unusual downpour of rain, the bird flew away as fast as it could and it saw the land just created. And on that land, the bird could see tropical trees, throwing up their naked shoulders. These green things were merely bamboos.

As the bird was flying all the time, it became thirsty. But it could not quench its thirst with the salty sea water. Therefore, the bird looked for rivulets. Unfortunately, there was none. Realizing that some water was stored in the bamboo joints, the bird alighted, and started to peck on the bamboo clumps.

“Peck harder, peck harder,” a weak voice cried, the moment its bill struck the bamboo. The bird was extremely frightened, and was about to fly away. But like a curious woman, the bird restrained itself because it wanted to know if that was really voice that it heard inside. Gathering courage, the bird pecked, pecked, and pecked.

“Peck harder, peck harder,” the weak voice complained again. The bird became more curious. It pecked and pecked with all its might. But as its pecking was ineffectual, the bird snatched a piece of rock nearby and dropped it on the bamboo. The bamboo was broken and split in two. In the wink of an eye, a man and a woman stepped out of the bamboo joint, the man bowing politely to the woman. The woman gave recognition to the man; then they walked away hand in hand.

The appearance of the human beings frightened the bird. It forgot its thirst and flew away, hardly realizing that it saw the first human beings, and had a role in their creation.

The Legend of the First Rainbow

Legend 1

The Rainbow legend says that a long time ago, there was a farmer that had a small farm. One day he realizes that one of the walls he built a couple of days ago keeps getting knocked down by someone or something, tired of this happening he decided to wait and catch the responsible.

The farmer then got a hold of the star maiden and felt in love with her, afraid that she would run away from him, he thinks in a way to stop this from happening, which is hide her magical wings.One evening while he was in guard he heard something strange near that wall, then he ran and surprises three star maidens. When they saw the farmer they ran trying to escape, two were able to do it while one was left behind.

Time went by and the farmer and star maiden got married and were blessed with the birth of a beautiful baby boy. They were happy for a long time, until one day that in one of the star maiden's walk she found her magical wings near their house. She then thinks on her sisters and how much fun they use to have, and with this in mind she wears her wings back and with her son next to her, she flew back to her sisters leaving the farmer heart broken.

The gods saw this and felt pity for the tears of the farmer, so they decided to build a way for him to climb to the sky and see his son and wife, making a bridge of different colors.

Legend 2

One day Bathala planned a journey to Earth to visit his faithful people. He called his children to bid them farewell. All of them came but Bighari, the Goddess of Flowers.

Bathala, who valued promptness, became angry because this was not the first time that Bighari missed their gathering. Thus, he banished her from their heavenly kingdom.

Bighari, at that time, was at her garden on Earth. She wept bitterly when she was told of her banishment. But she sought to cope with her sorrow by causing her garden to bloom profusely.

The legend of the rainbow says that the people that used to live around her garden grew to love her more and more for bringing beauty to their lives. They resolved, after a time, to build her a bower so that they could see her garden even from a long distance.

And so they built it, and decked it all over with colorful blooms. Thereafter, whenever Bighari would travel, people would see her colorful bower against the sky.

Ref. http://www.read-legends-and-myths.com/rainbow-legend.html