Malahom

History and Legends
Long ago, after Kandaya had risen from the sea, Malahom was once a giant who roamed the desolate land. The spirit’s form was as tall as a coconut tree and as sturdy as a mountain. Tired from walking on the dry, hard ground, he prayed for rain to soften the earth. After the skies opened, the island was soon slick with mud. Malahom slipped and fell, sinking under his own weight. He struggled to free himself, but after nine days, his feet grew into roots and his body hardened into the trunk of a heavy mangkono tree. Today, the place where he fell is a muddy swath of mangrove forest called Malahom’s Mire.

Unable to move, the spirit grew lonely. His sadness bore many fruits, each containing seeds in the shape of half-moons. Where they fell, new plants sprouted: herbs, shrubs, creeping vines, and other trees. Over time, vegetation blanketed the land, drawing animals great and small to settle on Kandaya.

One day, Malahom’s seeds sprouted a pair of trees that each produced a single, large pod. When the curious katala pecked at these unusual fruits, they split open to reveal the island’s first halflings. Named Makahoy and Luntian, they founded the village of Taonglupa in the quiet shade of their mother trees. To this day, the village’s residents are the spirit’s most devout worshippers. For Taonglupa residents, all living beings sprouted from Malahom are considered kin, and all the lands upon which they live and grow are considered sacred.

Malahom embodies the essence of life itself, from its creation to its will to survive. Each child of the spirit is given a natural fate that only he knows. When a person dies from a nonviolent cause, it is said that this was Malahom’s will.

Relationship with the islanders
Most of Kandaya knows Malahom as a fertility spirit. Farmers seek his blessing for permission to cultivate the land and protection from drought. As they ready their fields for planting, they invoke the spirit through chants for bountiful harvests.

Each settlement maintains shrines raised on wooden posts in their fields. These contain carved wooden figures of trees that represent Malahom, along with food offerings. Anahaw leaves are folded into the shape of a katala bird and stuffed plump with rice to encourage greater crop yields.

Families seeking to conceive will pray to Malahom each night of the first quarter moon for successful childbirth. They wish for their future children to grow strong like the mangkono.

The insular village of Taonglupa is home to Malahom’s most fervent worshippers. Devotees there recognize each other as “supling”, meaning “sprout”, to honor the story of their creation and their connection to their green siblings. Taonglupans ask each plant for permission before taking from it, and must harvest sustainably to ensure their continued survival. When loved ones fall ill, the entire community gathers to entreat Malahom for mercy, hoping the spirit will find it in his heart to extend their lives.

The forests surrounding Taonglupa are home to flocks of katala, who return each year to the same trees for nesting. Villagers keep the sacred birds well-fed with fruits and seeds, and the expressive parrots provide endless amusement with their clownish antics. Some are such skilled mimics that their voices are mistaken for those of village residents.

Important Festivals
The harvest festival lasts nine days, and involves song, dance, and ritual feasting across Kandaya in praise of Malahom. Farmers from each settlement present the largest of all their produce to the spirit in gratitude, then bury it in their fields to return it to the land when the festivities are over.

During this most fruitful of seasons, Kandayan families who wish to bear children make offerings of round rice cakes and globular fruits to their home shrines, which they later eat, so that they may conceive healthy children.

In Taonglupa, the celebrations take on a unique local character. Villagers square off with spears and shields in hand, while an elder sings a heroic tale. But this isn’t a physical fight; it’s a dance. Accompanied by drums and flute, multiple suitors vie for the affections of the same person, who offers a gift of betel nut to the lover of their choosing. Courtship rituals involve romantic songs and dances that invoke Malahom’s blessing for marriage. Poetry recited in rhythmic verse often uses the budding of new plants as metaphors for the young Taonglupan’s readiness to enter a fresh stage of life.

To commemorate their sprouting, dancers gracefully move one at a time, holding a leaf that is passed to the next performer. Devotees paint their bodies with mud and don dried banana leaves, imitating the movements of the katala birds who released the first Taonglupans from their fruit pods.