Myth and Legends

The Chocolate Hills in Bohol

In the very early daays in the island of Bohol in the Visayas region, the area covering most of it’s rice fields was originally a flat land. What bothered the farm folks at length even up to now are the extreme climatic changes affecting the region which have caused untold difficulties for them. At the onset of the dry seasons, much of the ground would be extremely dry and hard they nearly always broke their backs trying to plow the fields.

Even more troublesome was that the local farmers have to force themselves to work on the fields while sweating continuously under the tremendous heat of the sun. On the other hand, during the progress of the rainy seasons, the fields and the inroads would be extremely muddy; it was slippery to walk around. It was only during the autumn harvest time that the rice fields come alive once more with the tall palay shoots growing everywhere that make the whole terrain looked verdant green.

So pleasant a sight to see, one readily forgets about the hardships one had to go through the previous months. One day, according to the old folks there, there came two giants from the opposite side of the island. One came from the east end and the other from the west tip. Fearing for their lives, the people left and settled in the remote areas of the island. “Hey, you there! This is my land!” declared the giant from the east. “Get out of my land at once! Find your own elsewhere!”

“No! I am not going to leave. I came here first!” insisted the giant from the west. “You should be the one to leave!”

“No! I am not going anywhere! Just get away from my land!” shouted the furious giant from the east thumping her feet on the ground at the same time.

It had just rained a while ago that the field was muddy everywhere.

The giant from the west began to pick some of the mud, made a ball out of it and hurled it at the giant from the east. It hit her right shoulder. Wanting to get even with her, the giant from the east quickly retaliated by throwing a similar ball of mud right into the face of the other giant. For some time they kept hurling these balls of mud at each other and it went on for hours. Then they charged towards each other.

The people just stood and watched the fist-to-fist fighting between the giants with no one letting up. Finally, they punched at each other out for good. One after the other, they fell to the ground and died. What were left of their fight were hills upon hills of the round balls of mud they hurled at each other. After the fight, the farmers came back to the fields, first to bury the two giants and then went on to lead a peaceful farm life once again.

During the dry seasons, up to now one can see for herself these brown hills ranges stretching for miles and miles across the island that looked like candy chocolates when watched from an elevated view point. These hills are now more popularly referred to as the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, one of the marvels of nature, making it as one of the prime tourist spots to wit. Nonetheless, as harvest times comes, these chocolate-coloured hills turn verdant green once again as the palay shoots out from the hills that make up these fields, giving everyone a renewed zest for living.