The Maiden Who was Turned into a Myth
On a quiet town of Talim Island in Binangonan, Rizal is a curious mountain that resembles the robust breast of a young, slim virgin. Mt. “Susong Dalaga” (“breast of a young virgin”) has many tales and myths circulating in the lowland vicinities, and this myth version is among them.
A young virgin lying down the green meadows of a nearby hill—this is how most old folks in the locality of Sapang in Talim would probably start the myth on the 200-meter high mountain that is said to be inhabited by monkeys, iguanas, and wild boars. The native beauty of this unnamed teenage virgin was once said to be the town’s pride and the townsmen’s obsession. She had lots of suitors, and the myth even ventures to say that all the men of the place and the adjacent towns all came running after her.
She had the most conspicuously upright breasts of all the women in the place, and made sure the prominence was even more pronounced through the showy dresses she wore. Her suitors feasted their eyes on her most striking feature—the myth depicting men falling heads over heels, drowning in their wild imagination.
But the young virgin didn’t seem impressed by any of them. All she ever did was to go up the hill and lie down to watch the distant Laguna Bay quietly. Nobody knew exactly where she lived—the myth paints her as an elusive maiden, suddenly seen ambling in pathways, and then disappearing into the thickets. Accordingly, she was some kind of a human with the delicate features of a mystical creature—a nymphet’s fine physique, a voice as soft as the bay’s breeze, a face as clear as a summer morning sky, and hair as full as the fields in harvest, and black as the Binangonan night.
Then the women of the vicinity started turning against her. Losing their husbands and sons to this alluring damsel, they sought to bury her alive and leave nothing of her but a myth, assigning her memory to oblivion. And one night they did so. Spotting her strolling to her favorite hilltop, they choked her to death and buried her right on the hilltop, ending her life and starting her myth.
Mornings after, the hilltop gradually transformed to resemble the full-bodied breast of a young virgin. Even to this day, men stop to stare in wonder at the amazing likeness it has to the real thing—and if the myth was real after all.
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very interesting infos about phils…miss pinas so much!! happy new year!!