The Legend of Mount Kanlaon

There once lived on the island of Negros a princess named Anina who lived a
very sheltered life.
One day, Anina overheard her father talking to the kingdoms chief priestess.
The priestess was frantic about a report that they could not find a single
maiden who was unblemished.
Later, Anina asked her father what it was all about, and the king finally broke
down. There had long been a seven-headed dragon threatening the
kingdom, and the monster could only be appeased if an unblemished maiden
was sacrificed to it.
In fear, all the women in the kingdom had cut themselves to disqualify
themselves from the sacrifice. Parents cut their own baby girls so as to spare
the infants from the sacrifice. But the king and the queen couldnt bring
themselves to mar their daughters beauty, and so Anina was the only
remaining unscarred female in the kingdom.
Anina did not weep. Instead, she willingly offered herself for the sacrifice.
Fortuitously, on the day she was to be brought to the mountain where the
dragon lived, a man calling himself Khan Laon appeared. (Khan in his
language meant a noble lord.) He said he came from a kingdom far away in
order to slay the dragon and spare Aninas life.
No one believed the dragon could be killed, but Khan Laon insisted that his
ability to talk to animals would help him. He asked the help of the ants, the
bees and the eagles.
The ants swarmed over the dragons body and crept under its scales to bite
its soft, unprotected flesh, while the bees stung the fourteen eyes of the
dragon till it was blind. The largest eagle carried Khan Laon to the mountain
where he was able to easily chop off the seven heads of the writhing beast.
In gratitude, the king gave Khan Laon his daughter Anina to be his bride,
and the people named the mountain after the noble lord.
And that is how, according to the story, Mount Kanlaon got its name. That it
is a volcano is because of the spirt of the dead dragon.

The Story of Bathala

BathalaIn the beginning of time, there were three
powerful gods who lived in the universe, although they
did not know each other. The three gods were Bathala,
the caretaker of the earth, Ulilang Kaluluwa (Orphaned
Spirit), a huge serpent who lived in the clouds, and
Galang Kaluluwa (Wandering Spirit), the winged god
who loves to travel.
Bathala often dreamt of creating humans due to
loneliness, but the empty earth forbids him to do so.
One day, while Ulilang Kaluluwa was visiting the Earth,
his favorite place, he met Bathala. Ulilang Kaluluwa was
not pleased for he sees another god rivaling him, and
so challenged Bathala to a fight to decide who would be
the ruler of the universe. After three days and three
nights of fighting, Bathala killed Ulilang Kaluluwa and
burned his remains.
A few years later, Galang Kaluluwa wandered into Bathalas home. The
winged god was welcomed by Bathala with much kindness and invited him to
live in his kingdom. The two gods became true friends, and they happily
spent many years together.
However, Galang Kaluluwa became very ill. Before he died, he instructed
Bathala to bury him on the spot where Ulilang Kaluluwas body was burned.
Bathala did exactly as he was told. Out of the grave of the two gods
sprouted a coconut tree. Bathala took a big round nut from the tall tree and
husked it. The nut reminded him of the Galang Kaluluwas head, while the
leaves reminded him of his friends wings. He also noticed that the trunk was
hard and ugly like the body of his enemy, Ulilang Kaluluwa.
Bathala realized that he was ready to create the creatures he wanted with
him on earth. He created the plants, animals, and the first man and woman.
Out of the trunk and leaves of the coconut trees, Bathala built a house for
the people. The first people drank the coconut juice and ate its delicious
white meat for food. They used the leaves of the coconut trees for making
mats, hats, and brooms. They also used the fibers of coconut trunk for
making rope and many other things.