Other Media

• Lending Motif → Widespread in the Eastern Visayas

• Boat Motif (from Maria Cacao’s boat) → Dalaguete or Argao, Cebu

• Mangao, Maria Cacao’s Wife → Could be the agta (giant) in the Lost Lender tale

• It’s possible that Maria Cacao may be a Dalaguetnon

Evidence of The Lost Lender in Maria Cacao’s Story

• Consider the 12 versions of the Lost Lender Story

• Five Constants → (1) The Lost Lender; (2) Lonely Abode; (3) Aid to the Poor, (4) Abuse of Trust; and (5) Punishment

• Settings → 8 versions of the story take place in a cave

Evidences of the Legend of Maria Cacao

• Considered 7 versions of the Legend of Maria Cacao,

• Constants included the Mysterious Maria Cacao, her dwelling place, the cacao trade, the boat and bridge, and lastly the disappearing act

(1) Ang Balay sa Agta

• • “The House of the Giant” → Setting of the story

  • A giant used to lend plates out to people

  • He stopped when people started to not return the paltes

(2) Si Maria Kakaw

• • Classic story of Maria Cacao

  • Coming downriver would cause floods and the Mananga bridge being destroyed

  • This variant has an engineer approach Maria Cacao’s cave

  • He asked her to please not destroy the Mananga bridge

  • After that, said bridge was never destroyed again

(3) The Golden Boat of Mangao

• • Mangao here was a kidnapper of children who wander too far from their homes

  • Story warns kids to come home after the Angelus Bell (usually at 6PM)

  • Maria Cacao is not mentioned in this variant

(4) The Friendly Engkantada

• • Said engkantada would lend the townspeople her chinaware for festivals

  • One person broke her china and the others just didn’t return the goods

  • From that day onward, she has never showed herself

• Four places of origin → Contributed motifs to the Maria Cacao legend

• 1st → From Argao by Portia Kintanar → Borrowing and Boat Motif

• 2nd (Naga) and 3rd (Bohol) → Borrowing Motif

• 4th (Talisay, Cebu) → Boat Motif

• Borrowing Motif → Widely spread in Eastern Visayas

• Boat Motif → Traceable to either Dlaguete or Argao, Cebu

• Bohol and Leyte (alone) → 12 versions of the Borrowing Motif

Constant Elements in Folk Stories

• Kind spirit

• Dwelling in isolated places (like caves)

• Lending articles to poor folks

• Violation of returned items (usually chinaware and wedding clothes)

• Punishment → Withdrawal, Closing of Cave, or Transformation

• Dalaguete. Argao and Talisay all have a high bridge → May have favored the boat motif

• Stories were told from Sogod, Cebu and Punta Gorda, Bohol → Regarded as “decayed”

• Compared to the Lost Lender → Maria Cacao lives near mountain cliff, not in the cave

• Aligada says that [Maria Cacao] may be a businesswoman who lends silverware as a way to compensate for the bridge destruction

• The informant, Kintanar, had confused and combined the two separate motifs (boat motif and lending motif) in one tale, since its common in Argao

• Lantoy Mountain → Setting of The Lost Lender and where Maria Cacao lives

• Argao in the Lost Lender → Agta lives on a cave facing west

• Argao, Cebu in Maria Cacao → Lives on a cave on the other side of the mountain

• Originally from Dalaguete but later moved to Cebu City (Mr. Matarlo)

• This version emphasized Maria Cacao as a businesswoman

• She exports cacao in exchange for cars and manufactures plates for export

• Narrates only the boat motif

• Mentioned party of beautiful men and women onto the boat

• Suggested to be “Encantadas”

• In this version, Maria cacao kidnaps people and keeps them as her servants

• Narrator recounted his life history to get this variant

• His version entails discourse of his homeland → Small village and town in Cebu

• Says that the father of Maria Cacao was one of his ancestors (apohan sa akong apohan)

• Narrator recalls the year of death of his forefathers up to one “Tata Cero”

• This variant is connected with buried ancestors

• Accounts of the narrator’s migration experience

• Narrated during her childhood → Set in her parents’ home in Barangay Coro

• Inevitably connected to the dakong bato (big stone) in front of her parents’ house

• Linked to the memory of the narrator

• [Strangely, no further information is mentioned; just the fact that this version exists]

• After Typhoon Sendong in 2011, a boat was seen going around and picking up passengers

• A woman, some say it was Maria Cacao, was at the helm of the boat

• Some believe that she is collecting souls and to reject offers of boats

• Much like Typhoon Sendong, there were sightings of a boat picking up passengers

• The boat had an unnamed woman at the helm

• Normally represented as a “mature naked woman with a conch shell (budyong)

• Constantly surrounded by fish

• Waters flow into the underworld → Transitioned into becoming an Underworld goddess

• Some variants of the myth say that after her daughter Lidagat (also a sea goddess) died, Magwayen became a “dark ferrywoman to the underworld” with black mourning clothes

• Domain covers all bodies of water and some mountains

• No pre-colonial deity is associated with Mount Lantoy

• Magwayen may have been later associated due to the river

• Name of the “Argao” municipality may be from Maria Cacao’s boat

• In Greek Mythology, Jason and the Argonauts sailed on a boat named Argo

• Only other golden ship in Philippine mythology is from Bukidnon and North Cotabato

• In the “Ulaging and Ulahingan epics of the Manobo people”, captained by a guy, Agyu

• Pre-colonial Philippines had a lot of gold → Could have influenced Golden Ship