The Star

Adopted from the Yapyap Ritual of the Ikalahan

Once upon a time a boy named To-diw was walking through the mountains and forests
and discovered a beautiful lake surrounded by forests with abundant wildlife. He said to himself.
“This is where I want to live. It is both beautiful and productive.” He was still young and could
stay with his parents but he was also industrious and he was strong.

He made himself a small shelter and slept there that night. Early the next morning he
used his knife to make some simple tools and prepared a field for taro near the lake. When the
field was ready he went home and got enough young plants from his parents to plant in it. Then
he also planted a field of sugar cane above it.

Even before he finished the cane field, however, he thought, “The rainy season will come
soon. This shelter will not protect me when the rains come.” He went back to his parent’s home
again and gathered materials and tools so he could build himself a proper house.

As soon as he returned he began to level an area for his house. He worked every day until it was
too dark to see and then he prepared his supper and slept in the shelter he had made for himself.

One morning, when his house was nearly finished, he prepared a simple breakfast and said to
himself. “I will go for a short time to see my fields.”

When he got to his taro field he was very surprised. The taro plants were upside down. The
leaves were in the mud and the roots were in the air. “This is not right.” He said. “How could this
happen. I know I did not plant them like that.” He went into the field, cleaned the leaves and
replanted all of his taro properly. He also checked his sugar cane and saw it was growing well so
he returned to build his house.

He had cut a few trees to make posts, beams and girts for his house. He used the bark for the
outside walls. H found grass nearby to make a good thick roof. He stored the scraps of wood,
shavings and small branches in his kitchen to be used as fuel.
While he was building his house his sugar cane and taro were growing. Every morning he went
to see them and he was very pleased.

Then one morning when he went to see his field, the taro near the lake were all upside down
again. “What is going on here?” he asked himself. “This is not right.” He could not answer the
question so he cleaned the muddy leaves again and replanted his taro properly, still wondering
how it happened.

The next morning he went out early, as usual, and discovered that it had happened again. “Now
this is too much!” he said to himself. “I am going to find out what is happening here.” He planted
his taro and went back to his house to plant vegetables and fruit. After his lunch, however, he
went to sleep. It was not his custom to sleep during the day but he has a plan.

When it became dark he woke up, prepared his supper, ate and went out to hide in the thick stand
sugar cane. It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear. There was only a small sliver of new
moon and the stars were very bright. As he was admiring the beauty of the night he noticed the
some of the stars were moving. They were coming down toward him. He hunched down into the
sugar cane field so that he could watch but not be seen.

Soon six stars came down and landed on the edge of his taro field. When they took off their
wings he saw that they were beautiful girls. They wanted to play and bathe but the taro were in
their way so they pulled them up and stacked them one side. Then they went into the cool, clear
water of his lake and started bathing.

They splashed water and chased each other with much laughter and giggling. To-diw watched
them in fascination. Then he moved quietly to where they had left their wings. He took one pair
and hid them under old sugar cane and taro leaves among the sugar cane stalks so they could not
be seen. The stars girls were having such a good time they did not notice what he had done.

To-diw continued to watch the star girls as they played. He was aroused by their beauty and
fascinated by their play.

When the wild roosters began to crow the girls suddenly realized that it was almost dawn. They
ran to replant the taro but they were in a hurry and did not know how to do it so most of it was
upside down.
 As they were returning the taro, To-diw walked calmly toward them and said politely, “So you
are the ones who have been upsetting my taro.” They turned around in shock and ran for their wings,
put them on and flew back into the sky. One of them, of course, could not find her wings. She was
looking for them frantically when o-diw approached her. She was afraid but he spoke gently to her
saying, “You must be tired. I am sorry that your wings are lost but there is a house here where you can
rest.” She was not comfortable being out in the sunshine so she quickly ran into the cool house. He left
her there to sleep and he hurried to his parent’s house to borrow some clothes for her.
It was nearly noon before the star girl awakened. She accepted the clothes and put them on but
she was still afraid. He cooked food for her and made her feel at home. That night he slept in the kitchen
which was separate from the house. He befriended her for many days until finally, one evening, she said
that it was not proper for him to sleep in the kitchen. She invited him to come inside the house and that
night they slept and played together as man and wife.
Soo she was pregnant and delivered a handsome boy. Both of the parents worked to improve
their farm and their house and they enjoyed raising their son.
One day, when the boy had learned to walk and talk a little, the mother instructed her husband
saying, “You take care of the child while you continue to make the furniture for our house. I will take my
basket, weed the plants and bring some tubers home for supper.” She went out and weeded the
vegetables and taro and then she went to weed the sugar cane. As she was stripping some of the leaves
from the cane she discovered her wings. They had been rained on many times and they were very dirty
but she cleaned them off and decided to test them. When she put them on they still it so she tried to fly.
She was able to fly immediately and it felt so good to fly again that she flew straight back to the sky.
When To-diw finished working he picked up his son and said, “It is late already. Let’s go see your
mother. We can help her if she needs help.”
When they got to the fields they could not find her. They looked in all of the field and in all of
the surrounding area. When To-diw started looking at the work she had done. He saw that she had
finished weeding the vegetables and the taro and he saw where she had started stripping the leaves
from the sugar cane. Then he remembered that he had left the wings in the cane field. He hurried to
where he had left them and saw her basket, nearly full of tubers. The headband was neatly placed on
top but the wings were gone. He knew then that she had found them. He was very sad because he loved
her very much but he also understood that she might be lonesome for the others stars. “Maybe she will
come back.” he said to his son. He picked up her basket and they went sadly back to their house.
 That night, the little boy, who was still not weaned, cried for his mother. There was nothing the
father could do but the mother, in Heaven, heard the cry and went down. She fanned her husband with
her wing so that he would not awaken, then she nursed her child. When she was finished she fanned her
husband, again, so that he could awaken the next morning. “I must not let my husband know that I have
come here,” she said to herself. “He might hide my wings again and keep me here.”
This happened every night for a long time. The man was surprised that the baby boy was
growing so well and being weaned so easily. He did not know that the child was still nursing every night.
Finally the boy mentioned to his father about his mother’s night-time visits. This surprised his father but
it also pleased him. “She has not forgotten us,” he said to himself.
That night, before they went to bed, To-diw said to his son, “Tonight, when you mother comes,
you just awaken me so I can talk to her.” His son agreed to do so.
That night, when she came to comfort her son, the boy tried to awaken his father but he would
not wake up. “Don’t bother him,” said the mother when she noticed what he was doing. “He will
awaken in the morning.”
In the morning the father asked his son if his mother had come during the night. “Yes. She came
but you would not wake up.” He said.
“Tonight you must shake me very hard,” he instructed his son who quickly agreed.
That night the same thing happened. When the mother appeared, the boy shook his father very
hard but he would not wake up. The child could not know, of course, that the mother had put him into a
very sound sleep with the fanning of her wing. She would fan him again when she left to allow him to
awaken in the morning.
When the father scolded his son for not awakening him, the boy replied, “I tried to awaken you,
I even hit you but you did not wake up.”
“Tonight I will leave this iron digging tool beside the fire. As soon as your mother comes you
must press the hot iron to my forehead and then I will make up,” he replied. “Don’t forget.”
“But I do not want to hurt you,” objected the son.
“Never mind. I will wake up quickly and I will not be seriously hurt,” he said.
That night, as usual, the mother came and fanned her husband so that he would sleep. The boy
quickly got the hot iron and burned his father on the forehead. The burn was very deep but his father
still did not wake up. The mother saw what was happening and stopped him. “Do not do that to your
father,” she said. Then she looked at the burn on her husband’s forehead. “This is very deep. We must
cure it.” she said.
 The boy felt very bad that he had hurt his father. “He told me he would wake up quick,” he
sobbed. “Please make it well again,” he begged her.
“We will,” His mother said as she touched the burn. Then she kissed it and it healed
immediately. The man also woke up at that moment and saw his wife. He was very happy to see her but
she said, “Do not keep me here. I love you both I must return to the sky. I must do my task.” Then she
flew away and did not return anymore.
The boy and his father continued to work on their farm. They were lonesome for the boy’s
mother but frequently, in the evenings when the moon was dark, they would sit outside and watch the
stars.