The Golden Eagle (Anthony de Mello)

A man found an eagle egg and put it nest of a backyard hen. The eagle hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the backyard chickens did thinking that he was a backyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would trash his wings and flew a few feet into the air like the chickens. After all that is how chicken supposed to fly isn t it? Year passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. It floated in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe who s that? he said to his neighbor. That s the eagle, the king of the birds said his neighbor. But don t give it another thought. You and I are different from him. So the eagle never gave it another thought. He died thinking he was a backyard chicken.

The Rainbow (Mindanao legend) Long, long ago, there lived a Manobo couple along the coast of sarangal bay. There were quite prosperous but they were childless. Both sought the advice of the parugalian-an but to no avail. Their last resort was to contact the walian or medium to make a ritual to the diwata of fertility who turn would invoke the mercy of the god the midlimbag to give the couple what they were asking.