The Myth on the First Man and Woman

How did the first man and woman came to be? This Philippine myth tells us how.

According to this myth, the first creations were the sea, the sky, and a giant bird. How they appeared was not mentioned, but they just existed. There was no land yet, so the giant bird just flew continuously. According to the myth, the bird finally grew tired of flying, but the predicament was that there was nothing yet to land on. Being smart, or so the myth avers, the bird instigated the sea to throw rocks on the sky.

Somehow the sky was hit, and it retaliated by a tremendous downpour. The rocks thrown plus the downpour later produced land masses all over the world, says the myth. The land produced plants much later. Now the giant bird had something to perch on. As it was relaxing on a branch, the myth says, it became thirsty. So the bird flew again in search of fresh water, this time. But the sea yielded nothing but salt water. So the bird tried searching on the land. It came upon a cluster of shrubberies where giant weeds grew nearby. The giant bird, the myth continues, knew that these giant weeds had stored water between their knots. So the bird started pecking on a bamboo, the name of the giant weeds.

After much pecking, the bamboo remained the same. The myth says that when the bird was about to leave for another round of search, voices from inside the bamboo urged it to continue pecking. The bird obliged, but to no avail. Finally, being a smart bird, it picked up a big rock with its claws, flew high, and, the myth says, dropped the thing on the bamboo. It crashed open the bamboo and from inside, the myth declares, appeared a man and a woman, naked. That shooed scared the bird off. It was its first time to see humans.

Without realizing it, the bird was instrumental to the creation of the land masses all over the world and the first human beings, as far as this myth is concerned. But for the bird, all it wanted was something to land on to get some rest, and some fresh water to quench its thirst.

This Philippine myth on the origin of man and woman suggests that necessity is the mother of creation. And secondly, unsung heroes always take the back seats in any story.

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