Sikabay
Visayan · mortal · Visayan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Sikabay is the first woman in the Visayan origin tradition, who stepped from the second joint of the bamboo that a bird split open beside the first man Sikalak. In a folk elaboration she at first refuses to take Sikalak, being of the same stock, until the earthquake, the birds and the fishes of the sea urge the union, and only then does humankind begin. Her name carries the Bisaya root for 'female'; colonial sources also give the pair as Sibabay and Silalak.
Domains
- human origins
Powers
- mothers humankind
Relations
- spouse: SikalakLoarca, Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas (1582), in Blair & Robertson, vol. V, pp. 121-135. (primary)
Sources
- Sikabay (Sicabay) is the first woman of Visayan tradition, who emerged with the first man Sikalak from a bamboo split open by a bird.: Loarca, Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas (1582), in Blair & Robertson, vol. V, pp. 121-135. (primary); Boxer Codex (c. 1590), ed. Souza & Turley (Brill, 2015). (primary)