One day a boy called Elonen was making a bird snare, when he hear a bird call out to him- “Tik- tik- lo- den” “Come and Catch me”

When the boy finally completed making the snare, he successfully caught the bird. He put the bird in a jar and took it home. Later he went swimming with his friends, leaving the bird at home.

While he was away, his grandmother grew hungry. Seeing the bird in a Jar, she cooked it and it to erase her hunger. On returning home, Elonen found the Jar empty and knew he would never see the little bird again. In his sadness he wished never to return home. Thus he wandered deep into the forest wishing he could disappear forever. As he walked along, he came across a humungous stone and asked the stone to consume him. The stone obliged and swallowed the boy in one go.

When the Grandmother finally realised that the boy was missing, he went out o search for him but to no avail. When she reached the humungous rock, the rock told her that the boy was inside him. The scared women tried her best to force the rock open. She called horses to break it down, carabao’s to charge at it with its horns, chicken to peck on it incessantly, and even summoned the thunder to shake it, but nothing could budge the rock.

Tired and defeated, she returned home without the boy as grief consumed her.

This is a folktale from the Tinguian People. The Tinguian are a pagan Philippine people who inhabit chiefly the mountain province of Abra in northwestern Luzon.

Sourced From “Philippine Folk Tales” compiled by Mabel Cooke Cole, published in 1916

Click here to submit your Folklore.