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| Image Credit to olrakbustrider of deviantart |
The epic opens with Iling requesting the bard Kadungung to recount
the tale of the glorious Ibálong of long ago. Forthwith, Kadungung described
the ancient land and spoke of its first hero, Baltóg, a white Aryan, who had
come from Botavara (Bharata-varsha or India). He planted a linsa patch in
Tondol (now in Kamalig) which, one night, was foraged by a giant wild board
(Tandayag). The furious Baltóg chased the Tandayag, killed it with his bare
hands, and hanged its enormous jawbones on a talisay tree. For this marvelous
feat, he was acknowledged chief of the local shaggy hunters.
Next to come was Handyóng. With
his followers, he fought the monsters of the land. But Oryól, a wily serpent who appeared as a
beautiful maiden with a seductive voice, Handyóng could not destroy. In the end, Oryól helped Handyóng clear the region of ferocious
beasts.
With Ibálong rid of wild createures, Handyóng turned to making wise laws and
planting the land to linsa and rise. A period of invention followed: boats, farm
tools, weaving looms, claywares, even a syllabary. Together, the people built
tree houses.
Then came a great flood that changed the features of the land.
Three volcanous erupted simultaneously. A strip of seacoast rose from the sea
bottom in Pasakáw. The Malbogóng Islet
fromed in the Bikol River. The Inarihan River altered its course. A lofty
mountain sank at Bató, forming
a lake. A Dagatnóing
settlement was wiped out along kalabangan Gulf.
Despite the calamities, Ibálong grew powerful under Old Chief
Handyóng, whose
constant companion, by then, was the young Bantóng. Althoughgiven a thousand men to destroy
the half man and half beast Rabót who could changed its enemies into
rocks, Bantóng slew it
single-handedly – to the loud cheers of hos thousand warriors that reverberated
throughout the forests and mangrove swamps. Brought to Ligmanan, the corpse of
Rabót, the
corpse of Rabót was
horrible to behold. The Great Handyóng himself
was shocked at the sight.
At this point, the Ibálng epic-fragment ends abruptly, even as
Kadungung promises to continue the story some other time.
From: Ibálong, the Bikol
Folk
Epic-Fragment
(1969)
By: MERITO B. ESPINAS, Ph.D.