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Pilandok
and the Sumusong-sa-Alongan
( Maranao ) |
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| Pilandok was a prankster.
He belonged to a poor family. One morning he left his
parents to look for food. He walked and walked until
he became tired. He lay down beneath a tree on which
hung a huge beehive, closed one eye, and rested. |
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| Soon a prince called
Sumusong-sa-Alongan came by, riding on a horse. On his
saddle hung many bags of gold and other beautiful things
that he had won on his conquests. He asked Pilandok
what he was doing under the tree. Without opening his
eye, Pilandok answered that he was he servant of a powerful
sultan and that he was guarding a royal gong whom no
ordinary man may beat. And then he pointed up at where
the beehive hung. |
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| "Let me beat
the gong, Pilandok," Sumusong-sa-Alongan said. |
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| "No, the sultan
will be angry with me if I let just any man beat the
royal gong," Pilandok said firmly. |
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| "I
am not an ordinary man. I am the son of a sultan myself.
Here – I will give you a whole bag of gold if
you will only let me beat the gong."
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| Pilandok pretended
to think. And after a while, he said "I’ll
take that bag. But please, beat the gong only when I
am far away, for the sultan might come at the sound
of it and chop off my head." |
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| Pilandok swept up
the bag of gold and ran away as fast as he could. When
Sumusong-sa-Alongan could no longer see him, the prince
took a big stick from the ground and beat the beehive.
Hundreds of angry bees were upon him in an instant,
and if a troop of soldiers had not come his way and
helped him, he would have died. |
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| Pilandok lived happily
with his bag of gold. |
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