Kudaman: Summary of the Oral Epic from the Palawan Highlands

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Kudaman is one of the 63 epics of Palawan. An epic is called tultul in Palawan culture. It was first recorded and translated into French by Nicole Revel-MacDonald, who also first published it in book form in France in 1983, in Palawan language and French. The singer was named Usuy, who had learned this epic from Buntäli, his nephew.

In the highlands, it was observed that all the babaylans are also bards but that the reverse is not true; not all bards are babaylans. In addition, there is a close, performance-based linkage between the act of chanting the epics, tultul, and that of chanting the shamanic voyage, ulit.

The complete epic is composed of six songs. It takes seven nights to perform the epic. The first night is used to introduce the epic; each of the six songs takes a night to perform.  The hero Kudaman appears after the introductory chant.

Epics are always chanted at night, ending at daybreak; it is forbidden to sing when the sun shines and during the day. This prohibition links the epic to the night and a sacred world. Moreover, one would never chant for amusement in a light joking manner.

The long chanted stories of the highlanders are frescoes of mores, tableaus of nature and of institutional life, testimonies to a cosmogony, an ethic, a lifestyle, a world view proper to the highland culture.

In the highlands, where the art of the epic reaches its peak and where mythological memories are abundant, it seems at first that the mythical elements referred to in these long chanted narratives are rather few. The content of the tultul is in no way the content of myth, and these narratives are far from etiological accounts. However, mythical references are not totally absent: the tultul refers to natural celestial, atmospheric, cosmogonic, visible, and invisible events and manifests these events in an indirect or rather allusive manner.

A unique element of Palawan epics is that their main characters are children, even infants.

Kudaman: An Oral Epic in the Palawan Highlands

(Prelude)

As the narrative starts, two cousins go to the river to fish. One of the two disappears; she is the heroine of the epic, Tuwan Putliq. Her father is extremely worried and asks her husband to go and look for her. This man, Mutaq-Mutaq, does not make any attempt to do so. They send the message to the Young Man of the Cumulus Clouds, Känakän ät Inarak, and he proceeds to the pool of water, notices a scale from a crocodile, and is finally able to bring back the tiny nail of the woman after picking it from between the deepest teeth of the oldest crocodile. The father of the girl had promised to give him his daughter if he took the risks and let him take the nail to his house. The young lady, suffocating in the betel-nut box where she was deposited as a tiny nail, opens it and reappears as sparkling bamboo; the house glitters like the rising sun.

(Chant I)

Hence Tuwan Putliq becomes the wife of the Young Man of the Clouds—she owes him her life. This theme is immediately followed by the Lady of the Spirits of the Sea seducing the Young Man of the Clouds while she is the spouse of Kudaman. Here, for the first time, the hero appears. As the Young Man of the Clouds seizes the Lady, Tuwan Putliq leaves him (adultery). Meanwhile, Kudaman sends the Linamin ät Säqitan Dagat to her father, Surutan Tamparan, the Sultan of the Shore, with no comment (repudiation). As Kudaman leaves, he meets Tuwan Putliq on his way and offers her betel to chew. This gesture amounts to a request to marry her. When she accepts the betel nut, we know she consents. Thus she becomes his first wife. Meanwhile, Surutan Tamparan discovers his daughter’s transgression and threatens to cut off her head with the Scissors of the World. She submits to this punishment but comes out of the ordeal more glamorous than ever. She is eager to meet Kudaman again. A new episode presents Mutaq-Mutaq paying a visit to Kudaman, offering to make a blood pact with him. They exchange gifts to seal their agreement ritually. They live under the same roof. Kudaman convenes a meeting to offer a rice-wine drinking feast. He prepares 180 jars and gongs are played to invite all around. Before joining this festive occasion, the Sultan of the Shore pronounces his judgment on the abduction of his daughter. The fine is 180 plates. He reinforces this judgment with a complementary one to avoid any conflict between Kudaman and Mutaq-Mutaq, since they are now blood brothers. Kudaman leaves for new countries in search of beautiful clothes. He rides his pet bird, the purple heron, Linggisan, and entrusts his wife to Mutaq Mutaq, the former husband of Tuwan Putliq, since he will be absent for seven years. The hero buys clothes from the Sultan of the Shore and, on his way, meets the Lady of the Emerald Dove. As he returns home, he stops over to put her in his betel-nut box. Welcomed back by Tuwan Putliq, he is informed that the Lady of the Good Spirits of the Sea has returned (his former wife) to him and has become, by pact, the sister of Tuwan Putliq. Then he introduces the Lady of the Emerald Dove. They are now three sisters. An exchange of rings follows. The hero leaves once more, entrusting his new wives, duwäy, to his first wife, puqun. She is the eldest, they are the younger. During this voyage, it is the Lady of the Pine Trees who is stricken to the heart by the beauty of the bird and the bird’s master likewise. Another woman stops over and becomes his fourth wife. They behave toward each other as “sisters.”

(Chant II)

(A ritual feast is planned in a peaceful world)
In togetherness they agree to build up a large meeting house in order to celebrate the rice-wine drinking ceremony. They start to play the gongs and rejoice, inviting all around. The hero makes the jars simply by opposing his hands.

(Revelation of danger by a dream)

But a sudden dream interrupts the feast, revealing the coming of threatening visitors and their intention of capturing and taking away Kudaman’s four ravishing wives. But the hero is a man of wisdom who wants to avoid a war, for violence is a moral mistake towards Ämpuq, the “Master.” As the Ilanän come, he and his household are  ready to face these aggressive visitors. Courtesy and refined peaceful manners, as opposed to brutality and violent manners, are exemplified.

(Violence and war)
The fight starts, and Mutaq-Mutaq cannot refrain from entering a celestial battle with his magic devices. He is followed by the brave Känakän ät Inarak. Finally, Kudaman enters the fight in order to save them and takes leave of his wives, offering them basil as a token-flower. The fight turns out to be a magic game between a violent outsider chief and a wise autochthonous headman. It ends with Kudaman’s victory and Ilanän’s death.

(The order of the world is restored: life resumes)
On the way back, they visit Limbuhanän, Kudaman’s first cousin, who recently married the Lady of the Pine Trees. After seven years, when the whole party reaches the house, the hero’s welcome by his four wives is a model of behavior. Calm, dignity, and subtle tenderness are the basic constituents. Before the drinking feast resumes, they have to conduct a jural debate on the marriage of Limbuhanän. The advice to the young couple is reiterated; among these counsels is good behavior between husband and wife, duties toward the affinal relations, and observation of the main principle of the law, Saraq.

(The feast as a symbol of peace and harmony)
The music of gongs resumes and the ladies start to enter the dance. After three nights, they open the jars and follow the “Custom of the Jar.” The Sultan of the Shore, his seven wives, and numerous followers are present and, being Kudaman’s father-in-law, the Sultan is the first to drink (respect to the eldest and to affinal relations). All of them successively enter the state of drunkenness and carefully watch over each other during the “trip.” Kudaman is the last one to drink and the Lady of Hooks attends him. Seduced by her graceful care and beauty, Kudaman plans to take her as elder wife.

(Mercy to his enemies)
He brings the Ilanän back to life by spitting betel nut, reiterating a mythical gesture from the creation of the world. Their blood pact is to lay down their arms. After a decision by the Supreme Judge, they have to cut Tuwan Putliq into two halves, but she comes out of this ordeal as beautiful as ever. The Radja take leave, followed by Känakän ät Inarak and all the other guests. They are hoping for another feast in the near future.

(Chant III)

This feast is to be hosted by the Sultan of Another World. Kudaman and his four wives fly on the Linggisan, their mount. There they also meet the Ilanän, who declare they have no aggressive intentions. By turn, the guests become inebriated and each trip is described in its specific intensity. But Limbuhanän asks to stop the playing of gongs, for an excess would offend the Weaver of the World. Then Kudaman makes the voyage, ulit, a shamanistic experience that brings him into communication with the Weaver of the World, Nägsalad. He is offered the jars but also warned against any act of violence. After a general leavetaking, they all return to their homes.

(Chant IV)

Before leaving for a new country—on a quest for a new spouse—Kudaman once more entrusts his secondary wives to his first wife, Tuwan Putliq. She feels sorrowful and begs him not to leave. In spite of Mutaq-Mutaq’s opposition, however, Kudaman never cancels his plans or resists his desires. The hero leaves for seven years, offering a basil flowerpot as an icon of his person (alive or dead) while he travels. The rich merchant welcomes him with courtesy and presents his visitor with magnificent gold rings with a delicate flower as their central motif. Kudaman is invited to stay, but declines the invitation and returns, exhausted, to his house. He refuses to chew, and the wives carry him in their arms like a pillow, when suddenly he disappears. The four of them search for him, projecting themselves into the median space and mingling with the stars. The brave Lady of the Ginuqu Tree reaches Amuq’s abode and questions him. He reveals to her the essence of Kudaman’s magical power. She shares this knowledge with her “sisters” and all four of them approach him and bring him back home. As soon as he returns, he plans another feast and invites the Sultan and Säwragar. The flying mount is sent to fetch them. During the fourth night of rice wine drinking, Kudaman escapes the vigilance of his four wives and absorbs 180 jars, then consumes the whole stock of sugar canes. As he turns into a cloud, Limbuhanän assists him in his trip. This time he falls to the center of the earth. The Lady of the Young Men seizes him in her hand and cures him, wiping his face with a scarf in order to appease him and to bring him back to consciousness. Since they are attracted to each other, he decides to bring her back with him. There are now five “sisters” and the house becomes silent after the departure of all the visitors. They are alone.

(Chant V)

As in the past, and for seven years, Kudaman undertakes a journey in quest of beautiful ornaments for his spouses. (The reiteration of the travel motif is the basic dynamic principle of the narrative. This epic is basically a quest for spouses in a society where polygamy was the rule.) By passing in the sky on his flying carriage, Kudaman seduces the very beautiful Lady of the Sandbar, Linamin ät Balintang. On his way back, he stops over and makes her his wife. It is a case of agaw ät tumang (abduction of a fiancée), and she is introduced to the others as the seventh spouse, hence becoming the seventh “sister.” The marriage and the feast of drinking rice wine are celebrated, and it is the turn of the Lady of Anduwanän, the Abode of Ampuq, to fall in love with the bird and his master. During the feast, Limbuhanän and Kudaman refrain from drinking. Kudaman asks his first cousin to fill up the jars in the future and thus ensure the continuity of the rituals commemorating the Master of Rice.

(Chant VI)

Mutaq-Mutaq is sent to Limbuhanän to organize the next feast; he does not forget his promise and prepares the yeast and the jars. As the celebration starts, the Supreme Judge and the Sultan together with his seven daughters attend, but Kudaman decides to depart for an unknown world. On his way, he captures the love of Linamin ät Mälana, the Lady of the Oil of the World, and farther on, the Lady of the Void. When he returns and they reach an agreement, he introduces these two ladies to the others and they all become sisters. Once the marriage is celebrated, the rice-wine feast can be held. But the Lady of the Hawks comes to attend Kudaman in his drunken state, according to a prior agreement between the two, and by gratitude he wishes her to become his tenth wife. Here is a lady with no dowry to pay, for she has no relatives. Meanwhile, Känakän ät Inarak marries the seventh daughter of the Sultan. As dowry, the latter provides a river flowing down from the sky to the Sultan’s residence, while a syzygyum tree and a grapefruit tree continue to bear the most beautiful fruit the whole year long.

 

SOURCE: Revel, Nicole (1996), Kudaman: An Oral Epic in the Palawan Highlands, Journal, Oral Tradition, 11/1 (1996): 108-132