The Cow and the Carabao (Northern Luzon)

1. The Cow and the
Carabao
(Northern Luzon)

2. It is said that a long time ago, the first cow
and the first carabao wore skins that fit them
exactly. They could both walk on only their
two hind feet then. They both served a
farmer who demanded much of them as
beasts of burden. But the cow and the
carabao were thinking that he made them
work too much.

3. "No one should work this much under
the heat of the sun!" the cow remarked.
"We deserve a vacation!"
"What say you we play hooky one noon,"
the carabao proposed, "While the farmer
is resting in the shade, as he always
does when the sun is at its most
furious?"

4. So it was that one noon, while the farmer who owned
the first cow and the first carabao was fast asleep, the
two friends shrugged off the plow and raced to the
nearby river. They took off their skins, hung them on
the low branch of a tree at the riverbank, and dived
underwater. But alas, as they were having their fun,
the farmer woke up, saw that his two beasts were
missing from the fields where they belonged, took up
his whip and went out searching for them. By following
their footprints he found them almost immediately,
bathing in the nearby river.

5. The farmer frightened the two beasts with his whip and
made them scramble up to the bank. In their haste to
appear decent before their master, the cow and the
carabao switched skins, but then they were not able to
get the false skins off again. As the carabao was larger
than the cow, his skin sagged at the cow’s belly, and
the cow’s skin clung tight to his flesh. And then it was
impossible to retain their pride.

6. They came before their master on all fours, begging to
be forgiven. The farmer said they were forgiven, but
they could no longer walk on only two legs, and they
could never take off the false skins they wore. The cow
and the carabao accepted their fate timidly, and
handed down to their offspring their symbols of shame.