Sikalak
Visayan · mortal · Visayan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Sikalak is the first man in the Visayan origin tradition recorded by Loarca and the Boxer Codex. A single length of bamboo drifted upon the primordial sea to the feet of the gods; a bird, alighting and pecking at it, split the cane, and from one joint stepped Sikalak, the first man, and from the other Sikabay, the first woman. From the two of them the peoples of the islands are descended. His name preserves the Bisaya root for 'male,' set against Sikabay's 'female.' Colonial variants give the pair as Silalak and Sibabay.
Domains
- human origins
Powers
- fathers humankind
Relations
- spouse: SikabayLoarca, Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas (1582), in Blair & Robertson, vol. V, pp. 121-135. (primary)
Sources
- Sikalak (Sicalac) is the first man of Visayan tradition, who emerged with the first woman Sikabay 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)