The Alimokon Egg

There once lived a man called Ul-loy and his wife Baul-loy by the river near the maabong trees. They were charged with the responsibility of guarding the Kaagan and Mandayan boundary as marked off by the maabong trees. One day, Baul-loy was gathering the day's wash when she espied an alimokon bird's egg. She relished alimokon eggs cooked in nearly done steaming pot of rice, so she brought this one home. When she reached her home, she placed the egg in a basket in her room, while attending to her other household chores. Distracted, she forgot to cook the alimokon egg. When she remembered the egg says later, an amazing thing happened. The alimokon egg hatched twins, but they were not alimokons. The twins were a male snake named Agwaon and a female child named Maag. As the twins grew older, Agwason derived great enjoyment in playing sipa with the children. Eventually, the snake grew to an enormous size. Agwason's playmates also grew up, but gradually, they avoided Agwason. They told him that they were busy with more important things so they did not have time to play sipa anymore. Sensing Agwason being saddened by this turn of events, Ul-loy told Agwasion that the other children are shying away from him not because of loss of interest in the game of sipa but more so because they were afraid of the snake's enormous size. Agwason replied that it was time for it to (to heaven). But Agwason would leave its twin sister Maag behind. Before leaving, Agwason told Ul-loy that in times of adversities and sickness, his descendants have only to perform a Diwata Ritual invoking Agwason's name and it will give them succor. As Maag grew to maidenhood, she mastered the art of weaving and made many beautiful woven fabrics.