IN the early times in Bohol, there was a king of the crabs called Mangla. One night, very tired and sleepy, Mangla ordered his old sheriff, Cagang, to call all his frog followers. The sheriff brought them together in a short time.
Mangla said to the frogs, “Watch my house while I sleep but do not make any noise that will wake me up.” The frogs said, “We are always ready to serve you.” So the king of crabs went to sleep.
When Mangla began to snore, it rained hard and the frog guards could not help laughing. The king woke up, very angry. But he was still tired and sleepy, and did not immediately ask the frogs why they laughed. He waited until morning.
As soon as the sun shone, Mangla called the frogs and asked, “Why did you laugh last night? Did I not tell you not to disturb me?”
The frogs answered, “We could not help laughing because we saw our old friend, the snail, carrying his house on his back.”
The king understood and pardoned the frogs. Then he told his sheriff to summon the snail.
In a short time, the snail came. The king asked, “What did you do last night to make the frogs laugh?”
“Sir,” replied the snail, “I was carrying my house. Because, sir, the firefly was carrying fire. I was afraid my only dwelling would be burned.”
The answer seemed reasonable to the king, so he pardoned the snail. Then he told Cagang, his sheriff, to summon the firefly.
The firefly appeared before the king, whose eyes were now flashing with anger, and he said to the culprit, “Why were you carrying fire last night?”
The firefly was very frightened. In a trembling voice he said, “The mosquito is forever trying to bite me. To protect myself I have to carry fire all the time.”
The king thought the firefly had a good enough reason, so he pardoned the firefly, too.
The king now realized that there was trouble brewing in his kingdom. He would not have been aware of it if he had not been awakened by the laughter of the frogs.
He sent his sheriff to get the mosquito. In a short time, Cagang appeared with the mosquito. Expecting trouble, the mosquito, had told all his companions to follow. Before the mosquito had even reached the palace, the king was already shouting with rage. So the mosquito bit the king’s face.
Mangla screamed, “So it is true, what I heard from the frogs, the snails and the firefly! You bite! The king ordered his sheriff to put the mosquito to death. But, before Cagang could do so, the companions of the mosquito appeared. Cagang finally killed the mosquito and then scurried home. The mosquito’s friends chased him, bent on avenging the murder.
Cagang’s house, however, was deep under the ground, and the mosquito’s friends could not get in. But they still remained humming at the door.
Even today, at the doors of the houses of Cagang and his followers we can see the dead mosquito’s friends humming and trying to get in. Often mosquitoes mistake the holes of our ears for Cagang’s house and that is the reason mosquitoes hum in our ears.
A Visayan folktale from Dean S. Fansler (1921)
