Mount Danglay: The Legend Continues
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(DSC09720) That night, lit by the fullness of the moon, they were able to capture the huge crab and they towed the big basket with all their might to the shore. They were so triumphant of their catch that they forgot one thing, a cover for the basket so that the creature could not climb out. Exhausted with the towing, Dang and Mulay settled into a tired sleep beside the enormous taklub. The big sea crab with its huge legs and claws, climbed out of the taklub thru its uncovered opening on top. This woke the couple and Dang, attempting to kill it, threw his spear into the heart of the crab. Yet its shell was too hard that the spear broke. With its huge claws, the crab pinned the couple and dashed them against the rocks on the shore. The last sound that was heard was the scream of Mulay in her terror: “TAKLUBAAAAAAA!!!” (cover it). The next day, the people in the nearby town of Basey who heard the screams ventured out with their bangkas to the site of Kabatok where the screams emanated. It was to their shock and horror that they beheld the mangled bodies of Dang and Mulay, an enormous broken down taklub and markings in the sand that told of a big creature that had gone down to the sea. Whispers among them ensued that the couple had angered the Bay God Kabatok by trying to capture one of its Children. The townspeople carried the bodies of Dang and Mulay and buried them in the outskirts of their town in a ritual ceremony. They did not resort to sending the bodies off to the sea in a bangka and burning them there as is the normal tradition, for they were children that angered a sea God. Instead, they believed that burial in the earth to expiate them would be proper, and perhaps the God of the mountains, Ibabao, would pardon them consequently. Years passed, the site where the bodies were buried grew into a mound, then a hill, then a mountain, a sign that Dang and Mulay were forgiven by the God Ibabao. The people started calling the mountain “Danglay” in honor of the tragic couple. The swampy “sitio” (village) where the couple lived was called “Takluban”, or “covered” as that was the last scream of the tragic Mulay. No one knows to this day where the creature of Kabatok has gone. It is believed that it still lives deep in the fathoms of the Bay ready to pounce on fishermen and fishing boats that go beyond forbidden territories to scrounge on its hidden treasures, navigated and known only to Kabatok. (This tale has been passed down to Dulce Cuna Anacion by her late mother, Dr. Rosa Ester T. Cuna, an English and Literature professor of UP Tacloban College. Her mother said this is an oral tradition she gathered from Basey, Samar, where her father’s relatives come from.)
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1 comment
What a great story.
said success2020
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