Title: The Great Flood: Humitau Restores the World
Author: Monina A. Mercado
Characters: Aponi-tolau - lord of the mountains and hero of the Tinguian
Humitau - youngest and most beautiful of the maiden guards; favorite of Tau-mariu
Tau-mariu - lord of the sea
Langgaan - mother of Aponi-tolau and the mistress of the wind and rain
Settings: Cordillera Mountains
Tower Rock
Plot: One day Aponi-tolau ran away from the mountain peak because he was bored of his home. He
followed the course of a river until it brought him to the sea. There on the horizon, stood Tower Rock,
home of Tau-mariu, Lord of the Sea. Nine beautiful maidens danced on the shallows at the base of Tower
Rock. Aponi-tolau asked the maidens where he was and who was the Lord of the rock. He was then
ignored by the maidens. Aponi-tolau was furious; he took a charmed hook from his belt and hit the
youngest and the most beautiful among the maidens. Her name was Humitau, the favorite of Tau-mariu.
The cry of the other maidens has been heard by Tau-mariu but he was too late. Tau-mariu called the
waves of and the armies of tuna fish to throw Aponi-tolau in the deep and to push the raft back to Tower
Rock. The waves and the armies of tuna fish did what they are told. Aponi-tolau called his mother for
help. Laangan sent down the strongest wind in her domain to sail Aponi-tulao’s raft safely ashore, away
from the lashing of the waves and the surging strength of the armies of tuna fish.
Aponi-tolau carried Humitao home with him. He asked her to be his wife. Humitau soon learned to love
Aponi-tulao and was happy to make her home with him on the mountain peak.
At Tower Rock, Tau-mariu grew even more furious when he learned that Aponi-tulao had escaped with
Humitau. He called the deities of the sea and the ocean and all the waters on the earth to call their
mightiest force: the flood.
From the sky, Langaan learned of the plot of revenge. Swiftly she sent the North Wind to tell her son to
hurry with his wife and household to the highest peak of the Cordillera Mountains. The flood came not
long after Aponi-tulao and his household reached the peak. At dawn, Aponi-tulao rose and saw that the
waters had reached the peak of the Cordillera, leaving dry only the place where he stood. As the waters
touched Humitau, she screamed with fear. She had lost all her sea powers because she ate mountain
herbs. She could no longer swim or live in the water.
From the peak she cried out to Tau-mariu, and the winds of Langaan carried her voice to Tower Rock.
Tau-marui heard her and was moved. He ordered the waves to stop rising. He did it all for Humitau.
When the waters had at last left all the land and the sun had dried the fields, Aponi-tulao and Humitau
descended from the Cordillera and replaced everything that had perished from Tau-mariu’s rage.
Theme: The unending love and care of a parent to his/her child
Title: The Monkey and the Turtle
Author: Jose Rizal (retold by Gaudencio V. Aquino)
Characters: Monkey - friend of Turtle who tricked him of his bananas
Turtle - friend of Monkey who tricked him to jump into the river and drowned
Setting: Jungle
Plot:
Two friends, the monkey and the turtle, strolled together and found a banana plant. The turtle and the
monkey plant halves of a banana tree. Thinking that the upper part with leaves would bear fruit soon,
the greedy monkey plants the upper half but it withers. The turtle, on the other hand, gets the ugly-
looking lower portion with the roots, but it flourishes and soon is laden with fruits. The turtle, however,
cannot climb the tree to gather the fruits, so the monkey volunteers to pick them. But he eats all the
bananas while he is up on the tree, throwing the skin down on the tortoise. Angry, the tortoise plants
some pointed tho The next day he searches around the tree. The monkey comes down and gets his just
desserts.- wounded and bleeding, he searches and finds the turtle. As punishment he gives the tortoise
three choices: to be roasted under hot coal, chopped to pieces or be thrown into the water. The clever
turtle chooses the others and deceives the monkey into thinking that he is afraid of drowning. The
monkey throws the turtle in the water, where the latter soon surfaced with a fish. He tricked the monkey
to jump to the water and drown.
Theme: The weak and the cunning can be alot stronger than the powerful.
