The Manóbos of Mindanáo / Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir

by John M. Garvan

CHAPTER XXVIII

MYTHOLOGICAL AND KINDRED BELIEFS

[a] ]

[a]The story of the creation of the world varies throughout the Agúsan Valley. In the district surrounding Talakógon creation is attributed to ]Makalídung, the first great Manóbo. The details of his work are very meager. He set the world up on posts, some say iron posts, with one in the center. At this central post he has his abode, in company with a python, according to the version of some, and whenever he feels displeasure toward men he shakes the post, thereby producing an earthquake and at the same time intimating to man his anger. It is believed that should the trembling continue the world would be destroyed.

In the same district it is believed that the sky is round and that its extremities are at the limits of the sea. Somewhere near these limits is an enormous hole called "the navel of the sea,"¹ through which the waters descend and ascend. This explains the rise and the fall of the tide.

¹Pó-sud to dá-gat.

It is said that in the early days of creation the sky was low, but that one day a woman, while pounding rice, hit it with her pestle, and it ascended to its present position.

Another version of the creation, prevalent among the Manóbos of the Argáwan and Híbung Rivers, gives the control of the world to Dágau, who lives at the four fundamental pillars in the company of a python. Being a woman, she dislikes the sight of human blood, and when it is spilled upon the face of the earth she incites the huge serpent to wreathe itself around the pillars and shake the world to its foundations. Should she become exceedingly angry she diminishes the supply of rice either by removing it from the granary or by making the soil unproductive.

According to another variation of the story, which is heard on the upper Agúsan, on the Simúlau, and on the Umaíam, the world is like a huge mushroom and it is supported upon an iron pillar in the center. This pillar is controlled by the higher and more powerful order of deities who, on becoming angered at the actions of men, manifest their feelings by shaking the pillar, thereby reminding mortals of their duties.