Elonen, a boy crafting a bird snare, captures a taunting bird but leaves it home while swimming. His hungry grandmother eats the bird, leaving Elonen heartbroken. Wandering into the forest, he asks a stone to swallow him, which it does. Despite various creatures’ attempts to rescue him, including horses, carabaos, and thunder, the stone remains unyielding, leaving his grandmother grief-stricken.
Source
Philippine Folk Tales
compiled and annotated by
Mabel Cook Cole
A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1916
► Themes of the story
Transformation: Elonen’s metamorphosis into a stone signifies a profound change in his state of being.
Family Dynamics: The relationship between Elonen and his grandmother, including her actions and his subsequent reaction, highlights complex familial interactions.
Loss and Renewal: Elonen’s loss of his bird and his transformation can be interpreted as a cycle of loss leading to a new state of existence.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Philippines peoples
One day a little boy named Elonen sat out in the yard making a bird snare, and as he worked, a little bird called to him: “Tik-tik-lo-den” (come and catch me).
“I am making a snare for you,” said the boy; but the bird continued to call until the snare was finished.
Then Elonen ran and threw the snare over the bird and caught it, and he put it in a jar in his house while he went with the other boys to swim.
► Continue reading…
While he was away, his grandmother grew hungry, so she ate the bird, and when Elonen returned and found that his bird was gone, he was so sad that he wished he might go away and never come back. He went out into the forest and walked a long distance, until finally he came to a big stone and said: “Stone, open your mouth and eat me.” And the stone opened its mouth and swallowed the boy.
When his grandmother missed the boy, she went out and looked everywhere, hoping to find him. Finally she passed near the stone and it cried out, “Here he is.” Then the old woman tried to open the stone but she could not, so she called the horses to come and help her. They came and kicked it, but it would not break. Then she called the carabao and they hooked it, but they only broke their horns. She called the chickens, which pecked it, and the thunder, which shook it, but nothing could open it, and she had to go home without the boy.
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Dreamtime Whispers 