Mabel Cook Cole was an anthropologist and author. Her collection Philippine Folk Tales, published in 1916, was Cole’s attempt to make a thorough compilation of folk tales from the nation. Prior to the book’s publication, tales from the Philippines have been printed in scientific publications, but these volumes weren’t for general public consumption. The author’s husband was an ethnologist for the Field Museum of Natural History, and the couple spent four years with the “wild tribes of the Philippines.” They were privy to hearing these tales while sitting around a campfire or visiting with people, and put them down in print for posterity.
Cole’s tales shares the wonder, magic and superstition of the Philippines, and gives American readers a new appreciation for their culture. The stories for children and folk tales are divided into five originating groups. Tinguian, Ingorot, the Wild Tribes of Mindanao, Moro and Christian; Christian here referred to the culture of people who had accepted the Christian faith, and it was this personal choice that informed their tales.
In the very early days before there were any people on the earth, the limokon (a kind of dove) were very powerful and could talk like men though they looked like birds. One limokon laid two eggs, one at the mouth of the Mayo River and one farther up its course. After some time these…
In the beginning there were four beings, and they lived on an island no larger than a hat. On this island there were no trees or grass or any other living thing besides these four people and one bird. One day they sent this bird out across the waters to see what he could find,…
In the very beginning there lived a being so large that he can not be compared with any known thing. His name was Melu, and when he sat on the clouds, which were his home, he occupied all the space above. His teeth were pure gold, and because he was very cleanly and continually rubbed…
Soon after people were created on the earth, there was born a child named Lumabet, who lived to be a very, very old man. He could talk when he was but one day old, and all his life he did wonderful things until the people came to believe that he had been sent by Manama,…
In the beginning there lived one man and one woman, Toglai and Toglibon. Their first children were a boy and a girl. When they were old enough, the boy and the girl went far away across the waters seeking a good place to live in. Nothing more was heard of them until their children, the…
Langgona and his wife had twin boys named Bulanawan and Aguio. One day, when they were about two years old, the mother took Bulanawan to the field with her when she went to pick cotton. She spread the fiber she had gathered the day before on the ground to dry near the child, and while…
One day a mother took her two children with her when she went to color cloth. Not far from her home was a mud hole where the carabao liked to wallow, and to this hole she carried her cloth, some dye pots, and two shell spoons. After she had put the cloth into the mud…
Magbangal was a good hunter, and he often went to a certain hill where he killed wild pigs for food. One night as it was nearing the planting season, he sat in his house thinking, and after a long time he called to his wife. She came to him, and he said: “Tomorrow I shall…
A long time ago there was a very big crab which crawled into the sea. And when he went in he crowded the water out so that it ran all over the earth and covered all the land. Now about one moon before this happened, a wise man had told the people that they must…
One day in the times when the sky was close to the ground a spinster went out to pound rice. Before she began her work, she took off the beads from around her neck and the comb from her hair, and hung them on the sky, which at that time looked like coral rock. Then…