The Origin of the World

Seacost dwellers believed that heaven and earth had neither beginning nor end and that they existed for eternity. Between them lived a sea-wind and a land-wind who married. From this union came the reed or bamboo.

The mountain dwellers, who also believed in the eternal existence of heaven and earth, added that a bird pecked at the bamboo and broke it in two. From the bamboo then emerged Silalak, the first man, and Sibabay, the first woman. The two married and from them descended the Filipino people.