The Legend of the First Rainbow

A star fairy, once strayed onto the Earth. Mesmerized by the beautiful sights, she dashed into a tree and fell
down unconscious, her wings torn. A farmer found the divine creature. He took great care of her and inevitably
they fell in love. The fairy and the farmer married and had a child.
But every night, the fairy would look at the stars and think about her family and friends there. So, one day she
decided to pay them a visit, and took off with her son. When she reached the star kingdom, the king was furious
at her for straying too far, and confiscated her wings. She couldn't go back to her husband and became morose,
looking down, for hours at the river near their house. The farmer too, would stand on its bank, waiting for his
wife and child. One day, the king chanced upon the lovesick couple, and taking pity on them, made a bridge of
seven gleaming colors for the fairy to climb down and spend a few precious moments with the farmer.
THE BOY WHO BECAME A STONE
One day a little boy named Elonen sat out in the yard making a bird snare, and as he worked, a little bird called
to him: "Tik-tik-lo-den" (come and catch me).
"I am making a snare for you," said the boy; but the bird continued to call until the snare was finished.
Then Elonen ran and threw the snare over the bird and caught it, and he put it in a jar in his house while he went
with the other boys to swim.
While he was away, his grandmother grew hungry, so she ate the bird, and when Elonen returned and found that
his bird was gone, he was so sad that he wished he might go away and never come back. He went out into the
forest and walked a long distance, until finally he came to a big stone and said: "Stone, open your mouth and eat
me." And the stone opened its mouth and swallowed the boy.
When his grandmother missed the boy, she went out and looked everywhere, hoping to find him. Finally she
passed near the stone and it cried out, "Here he is." Then the old woman tried to open the stone but she could
not, so she called the horses to come and help her. They came and kicked it, but it would not break. Then she
called the carabao and they hooked it, but they only broke their horns. She called the chickens, which pecked it,
and the thunder, which shook it, but nothing could open it, and she had to go home without the boy.
The Legend of Mount Kanlaon
There once lived on the island of Negros a princess named Anina who lived a very sheltered life.
One day, Anina overheard her father talking to the kingdom's chief priestess. The priestess was frantic about a
report that they could not find a single maiden who was unblemished.
Later, Anina asked her father what it was all about, and the king finally broke down. There had long been a
seven-headed dragon threatening the kingdom, and the monster could only be appeased if an unblemished
maiden was sacrificed to it.

In fear, all the women in the kingdom had cut themselves to disqualify themselves from the sacrifice. Parents
cut their own baby girls so as to spare the infants from the sacrifice. But the king and the queen couldn't bring
themselves to mar their daughter's beauty, and so Anina was the only remaining unscarred female in the
kingdom.
Anina did not weep. Instead, she willingly offered herself for the sacrifice. Fortuitously, on the day she was to
be brought to the mountain where the dragon lived, a man calling himself Khan Laon appeared. (Khan in his
language meant a noble lord.) He said he came from a kingdom far away in order to slay the dragon and spare
Anina's life.
No one believed the dragon could be killed, but Khan Laon insisted that his ability to talk to animals would help
him. He asked the help of the ants, the bees and the eagles.
The ants swarmed over the dragon's body and crept under its scales to bite its soft, unprotected flesh, while the
bees stung the fourteen eyes of the dragon till it was blind. The largest eagle carried Khan Laon to the mountain
where he was able to easily chop off the seven heads of the writhing beast.
In gratitude, the king gave Khan Laon his daughter Anina to be his bride, and the people named the mountain
after the noble lord.
And that is how, according to the story, Mount Kanlaon got its name. That it is a volcano is because of the spirt
of the dead dragon.
How the Moon and the Stars Came to Be (Mindanao)
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 she began working, and each time that she raised her pestle into the air it struck the sky. For some time she
pounded the rice, and then she raised the pestle so high that it struck the sky very hard.
Immediately the sky began to rise, and it went up so far that she lost her ornaments. Never did they come down,
for the comb became the moon and the beads are the stars that are scattered about.
The Creation Story
When the world first began there was no land, but only the sea and the sky, and between
them was a kite (a bird something like a hawk). One day the bird which had nowhere to
light grew tired of flying about, so she stirred up the sea until it threw its waters against
the sky. The sky, in order to restrain the sea, showered upon it many islands until it could
no longer rise, but ran back and forth. Then the sky ordered the kite to light on one of
the islands to build her nest, and to leave the sea and the sky in peace.
Now at this time the land breeze and the sea breeze were married, and they had a child which was a bamboo.
One day when this bamboo was floating about on the water, it struck the feet of the kite which was on the

beach. The bird, angry that anything should strike it, pecked at the bamboo, and out of one section came a man
and from the other a woman.
Then the earthquake called on all the birds and fish to see what should be done with these two, and it was
decided that they should marry. Many children were born to the couple, and from them came all the different
races of people.
After a while the parents grew very tired of having so many idle and useless children around, and they wished
to be rid of them, but they knew of no place to send them to. Time went on and the children became so
numerous that the parents enjoyed no peace. One day, in desperation, the father seized a stick and began beating
them on all sides.
This so frightened the children that they fled in different directions, seeking hidden rooms in the house -- some
concealed themselves in the walls, some ran outside, while others hid in the fireplace, and several fled to the
sea.
Now it happened that those who went into the hidden rooms of the house later became the chiefs of the islands;
and those who concealed themselves in the walls became slaves. Those who ran outside were free men; and
those who hid in the fireplace became negroes; while those who fled to the sea were gone many years, and
when their children came back they were the white people.
The Legend of La Union Province
Long ago its well known among old folks living in Pangasinan and Ilocos that the province of La Union not yet
existed. But a feud between the people of Pangasinan and Ilocos over a vast area between them sparked the idea
of creating a separate new province. They referred to it as the uniting factor, and later called it La Union. Then
the legend of La Union started to circulate around.
It was about siblings that kept on quarreling with each otherPangasinan and Ilocos. They had different
mothers but had the same father. Pangasinans mother was named Pampanga while Ilocos was named Cagayan.
This allegedly started the story that is now the legend of La Union.
The father of the siblings, Fernando, was often put to shame when his sons quarreled in public. And it was often
about who Uniangan, their brother born between them, would follow. The legend of La Union goes that each of
them would make Uniangan run errands at the same time. When Uniangan could not satisfy their demands
simultaneously they two other brother would fight over it.
One day a Spanish Friar passed by their house and observed the brothers Pangasinan and Ilocos quarreling and
shouting at the top of their voices. The priests stopped for a while to listen but could not understand the dialect.
Finally an interpreter was called and the mothers of the two boys were summoned. This story on the legend of
La Union says from what the priest heard all the quarrel was centered on who had more clout to order Uniangan
around.
Ah! the priest finally remarked. I know what you should do! Wed cut Uniangan into two so that each of you
could have half of him! The two brothers were taken aback by the advice and looked at each otherand then
at Uniangan. The legend on LaUnion continues that they finally realized their foolishness and started to pity
their brother Uniangan. The priest saw the wonderful reconciliation among the brothers and patted Uniangan on

the back. According to this legend of La Union the priest said Uniangan was the cause of The Unionor in
Spanish, La Union. From the day on Uniangan was renamed La Union.
When the 3 brother got old and eventually died they were buriedside by side with La Union in the middle of
Pangasinan and Ilocos. So, as this legend of La Union goes, the mounds grew bigger with the passage of time
until they became provinces.