How the First Head Was Taken
Igorot
One day the Moon, who was a woman named Kabigat, sat out in the
yard making a large copper pot. The copper was still soft and pliable like
clay, and the woman squatted on the ground with the heavy pot against her
knees while she patted and shaped it.
Now while she was working a son of Cal-chal, the Sun, came by and
stopped to watch her mold the form. Against the inside of the jar she pressed
a stone, while on the outside with a wooden paddle dripping with water
she pounded and slapped until she had worked down the bulges and formed
a smooth surface.
The boy was greatly interested in seeing the jar grow larger, more
beautiful, and smoother with each stroke, and he stood still for some time.
Suddenly the Moon looked up and saw him watching her. Instantly she struck
him with her paddle, cutting off his head.
Now the Sun was not near, but he knew as soon as the Moon had cut
off his son's head. And hurrying to the spot, he put the boy's head back
on, and he was alive again.
Then the Sun said 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
other's heads.
NOTE: The term "Igorot" is applied, somewhat loosely, to
the indigenous peoples of the four mountain provinces of Luzon: Benguet,
Mountain Province, Ifugao, and Kalinga-Apayao.
Source:
Mabel Cook Cole, Philippine Folk Tales (Chicago: A. C. McClurg
and Company, 1916), pp.111-112.
courtesy of: Folktales from the Philippines [ pitt.edu
]