Reading Notes: Filipino Tales, Part B

To me, "The Iguana and the Turtle" seems like a tragedy. The turtle lies and tells ridiculous stories to his friend, who wants to believe him and is hurt for it. I wonder if I could tell it in a way that is very dramatic and emphasizes this tragic element. I feel more backstory would help, as to why the iguana and the turtle are such good friends in the first place and what makes the iguana willing to believe the turtle even when he tells outlandish tales.

So much drama about the king of the crabs and his sheriff! I am curious as to why Lamoc bit the king's face instead of coming up with a placating lie like the rest did. Perhaps he had no interest in court intrigues and prefered to be straightforward. This is probably my favorite mosquito story. I am also curious as to the meanings of the names. Does Lamoc mean mosquito in Boholano, the dialect of the Visayan language Cebuano spoken in the area the story teller was from? The answer is yes, according to Google Translate. I had some trouble with some of the other names, but Aninipot appears to mean firefly, which makes sense as his eyes were flashing fire. While I enjoyed the names, I think I would have appreciated the story more if it were clearer which animals were playing a role. I initially assumed that they were all crabs, but that does not seem to be the case, if Lamoc is a mosquito and Aninipot is a firefly. That leaves Hu-Man, as I am pretty sure the king, Mangla, his sheriff, Cagang, and his people the Bataktak (yay reduplication) are all crabs. Since Hu-Man carries his house on his back, perhaps he is a snail or a hermit crab.

Land Crab. Web Source: Wikipedia.

Not related to the story, but the coling is a lovely bird.

Bibliography: Dean S. Fansler's Filipino Popular Tales, link.

Update: Hu-Man is indeed a hermit crab, but his name would be spelled in modern orthography Umang. Also, the Bataktak, as suggested by the author's note, are actually frogs.