This Philippine origin myth recounts the story of Toglai and Toglibon, the first man and woman, whose children dispersed from their home on Mt. Apo due to a devastating drought. Each group founded new tribes named after their carried possessions or settled locations, such as the Magindanau and Bilaan. Two children who stayed survived through sugarcane, leading to the Bagobo lineage.
Source
Philippine Folk Tales
compiled and annotated by
Mabel Cook Cole
A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1916
► Themes of the story
Creation: The tale describes the origin of different tribes from the first human couple, Toglai and Toglibon.
Loss and Renewal: The drought signifies loss, leading to the dispersal (renewal) of the population into new tribes.
Conflict with Nature: The severe drought forces the characters to leave their homeland in search of sustenance.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Philippines peoples
In the beginning there lived one man and one woman, Toglai and Toglibon. Their first children were a boy and a girl. When they were old enough, the boy and the girl went far away across the waters seeking a good place to live in. Nothing more was heard of them until their children, the Spaniards and Americans, came back. After the first boy and girl left, other children were born to the couple, but they all remained at Cibolan on Mt. Apo with their parents, until Toglai and Toglibon died and became spirits. Soon after that there came a great drought which lasted for three years. All the waters dried up, so that there were no rivers, and no plants could live.
► Continue reading…
“Surely,” said the people, “Manama is punishing us and we must go elsewhere to find food and a place to dwell in.”
So they started out. Two went in the direction of the sunset, carrying with them stones from Cibolan River. After a long journey they reached a place where were broad fields of cogon grass and an abundance of water, and there they made their home. Their children still live in that place and are called Magindanau, because of the stones which the couple carried when they left Cibolan.
Two children of Toglai and Toglibon went to the south, seeking a home, and they carried with them women’s baskets (baraan). When they found a good spot, they settled down. Their descendants, still dwelling at that place, are called Baraan or Bilaan, because of the women’s baskets.
So two by two the children of the first couple left the land of their birth. In the place where each settled a new people developed, and thus it came about that all the tribes in the world received their names from things that the people carried out of Cibolan, or from the places where they settled.
All the children left Mt. Apo save two (a boy and a girl), whom hunger and thirst had made too weak to travel. One day when they were about to die the boy crawled out to the field to see if there was one living thing, and to his surprise he found a stalk of sugar-cane growing lustily. He eagerly cut it, and enough water came out to refresh him and his sister until the rains came. Because of this, their children are called Bagobo.
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Dreamtime Whispers 