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But Handyóng only fed his own anger

To resist the wondrous wiles of Oryol

Concealing himself among talahib

 

Around the serpent’s cave he checked

The traps he had set up for the serpent

Only to find them exposed, dismantled

 

Before long Handyóng was immobile

In the coil of Oryol’s squamous embrace

Entranced with her golden voice & sweetest song

 

       Mari na, magsarô kita, O maisogon, madunungun na Handyóng

 

And he could barely resist the soothing enchantment

But the Gugugurang had reversed their will

Handyóng wriggled free and was ready

 

To thrust his sundang into her vulnerable belly. 

Still Oryol couldn’t bring herself to crush and devour him.

Instead she wailed in helplessness and pain:

       Mari na, magsarô kita, O maisogon, madunungun na

       Handyóng

 

Loosening her serpent grip upon the man,

She left him standing free and unharmed

And revealed herself as the fairest of the forest.

 

       Mari na, magsarô kita, O maisogon, madunungun na Handyóng

 

Oryol had fallen in love. Handyóng was captivated.

And the penultimate chapter of the taming of the beasts

Closed. The song remained forever in Handóng’s recall:

 

       Mari na, magsarô kita, O maisogon, madunungun na Handyóng

 

And working together they tamed the whole land

They tamed wild beasts, tamed wild breasts

And harvested Ibal’s bounty long into its Golden Age.

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✑

TALES OF ANCIENT IBAL:  
The Deluge and the Visit of the Celestial Siblings, p.3

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