SamaU's Courtship

By this time, the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines and their galleons ply the waters of Mindanao. Their route passed Butuan doing brisk trade with the natives. It so happened that one of these Spanish galleons needed repairs for its mast. They had to make do with a bamboo pole from Butuan. In a few days, it was ready to sail again. As the ship neared Caraga, a strange thing happened. The bamboo pole split open and out came a mysterious young man named SamaU. Unaware of what happened to the bamboo pole, the Spaniards wondered how SamaU came to be among them in the ship. But as the ship neared the sabang (the spot where Mayo River entered the sea), SamaU disappeared as mysteriously as he came. SmaU was following the Mayo River's course upstream, when at one point, he found a limao fruit floating in the river, caught in a tangle of a woman's hair, seven yards long. As he picked it up to take a closer look, he felt the strand of hair snap off his hand. Nearing Ul-loy's home, he heard the sound of the loom as Maag worked. The sound suddenly stopped as Maag discovered knots in the strips of weaving materials that may cause the thread to beak off. Instead of repairing the loom, Maag stood up. Baul-loy wondered where she was going and asked her. The young lady said a visitor was coming and she was going to her room. She explained to the older woman that she felt a strand of her hair pulled off by its roots when someone picked up the limao fruit in the river. SamaU proceeded to Ul-loy's home and was welcomed. Baul-loy offered him a yapugan to chew. A yapugan is a portion of the betel nut mixed with a little lye and wrapped in a buyo leaf to be chewed. It was the custom of the times that a young man who is interested in a certain young lady comes to her house and asks her for yapugan. Once the lady heeds his request and offers him a yapugan, it can only mean she had accepted his love. Then marriage is discussed. Baul-loy's offer of the yapugan to SamaU was a mere gesture of courtesy, as she was married and old enough to be his mother. She offered him six yapugans in all, nut each time SamaU courteously refused. Then the guest spoke up. He said he was requesting the seventh yapugan if the young lady of the house should favor him with it. Baul-loy replied by saying that nobody else lived in the house except she and her husband. But SamaU did not believe her remembering the limao fruit entangled with a woman's hair. At last Maag came out of her room. She came to him with seventh yapugan in her hand which it pleased the young man. SamaU expressed her desire to marry Maag. He met no obstacles. She only warned him that she was forbidden to laugh, since this would cause a storm and an earthquake. So that if he were to marry her, he should guard against anything that will make her laugh.