Night Falls # 2 The Philippines Dragons

The Dragons of Philippine mythology's chief distinguishing traits are having a body  basically like that of a  snake, or crocodile covered in scales,  yet having the forelegs and head of a fierce animal or bird.  They also have the ability to emit fire. They have been classified into 4 types : birdlike, fish-like, saurian and snakelike.

Birdlike:

•The Minokawa of the Bagobo is said to have been a bird as large as the actual islands of Negros and Bohol.  Its beak and talons were made of steel!  Its eyes were mirrors and its feathers were sharp swords. It lived beyond the sky at the eastern horizon. Legend has it that the Minokawa always tried to eat the moon, which lead to local legends connecting it to Eclipses.

•The Baua of the Hiligaynon is a very large bird that lived above the sky in a very large hollow cave called Calulundan, the entrance of which was "guarded" by blue smoke.

Fishlike:

•The Baconawa of Hiligaynon on the other hand, has been described as resembling the form of a shark.   Its mouth was the size Ofa lake. "Its tongue was very red and about its mouth it had whiskers about one palmo in length." It had enormous ash-gray wings that had tremendous power in flight. It had gills and smaller wings at its sides. It lived in the depths of the sea.

Saurian:

•The Buwaya of the Tagalog were commonly known as crocodiles, was considered in ancient time to be a sacred beast of the lake and river. They usually gave offerings of fresh meat in the middle of the lake to  applease it so that it wouldn't trouble them when they passed by the lake. It is believe that it was  called a "Cayman" in the Pre-Hispanic Philippines and was considered to be a medium size dragon.

•An unnamed seven-headed dragon from Samar was said to make the earth tremble when it walked out of its lair. Such a dragon has been tracked down in the folk tradition of Timor, Cambodia, Sunda and Malaya.

Snakelike:

• The Mameleu of Negros Island was described as a large serpent living in the sea. Its body was a big as that of a carabao being thirty fathoms long. Its eyes were like two torches, and in their orbits gleamed two jets of fire. Its head is as large as that of a carabaos too and had two white horns. A sported long tusks and teeth about two cuartas long. Its scales, the size of dinner plates, were hard and resistant. It is also known to eject green spittle (saliva) when hungry. It was said it lives in the ocean.

• The Marcupo, or Macupo of the Hiligaynon was said to be a large snake with a showy red crest. Its tongue was long with thorn like hairs.  It had a sharp tusks  and its tail ended in a fork. It could exhale a poison that would kill on contact. When it sprinkled its poison on plants, the poison made them barren and killed any  birds found on their branches. The mere shadow of the poisoned plant could kill beasts. It could be found in one of the highest mountains of the ancient and well-known province of Bulgas which is between Marapara and Canlaon.

Special thanks to my friend, Wintrycynicism-chan for these reference links :)

And also to my friend dinosaurprinces for helping proof-reading this illustrated research.

REFERENCES:

Research book : Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology.

Links:

Philippine Mythology and Folklore

Magical Creatures and Non-Human Beings of the Philippines.