“I am Envy.  My people are condemned.”

But they closed their ears and would not hear.

More wealth brought greater luxury.  They lolled in idleness.  They idled in the midst of magnificence.  The voice warned: 

“I am Sloth.  I bring final warning.”

They were used to the voices now, and gave them not the slightest heed.  Their insolence and greed grew greater.  The fair island shook with dissension and strife.

One day the sun was hidden by blackness.  A fearful tempest burst over the land.  The people on the other islands saw Polobulac wrapped in seven huge pillars of flame.

When the sky cleared, Polobulac was nowhere to be seen.  In its place, seven blackened rocks marked the spot where stood the beautiful isle.

They are there to this day.  You can see them as you leave the harbor for southern ports.  Sometimes they appear as one.  Again they seem to group in twos and threes.  But there are seven.

They are called the Deadly Sins.

The Escape of Juanita

Have you heard of the terrible Tic-balan,
A tall and thin and very black man,
With terrible teeth and a horse’s head,
And covered with hair that is long and red?

He lives in the awful Balete tree,
And to pass the place you must say “Tabi”;
If you do not, the Asuang comes at night,
And throws big stones till you die of fright.

Now once there lived in Santa Cruz town
A little girl known as Juanita Calaon;
She was gentle and sweet and as good as could be,
And she always bowed low to the Balete tree.

One day to the forest alone she did roam
To get some good wood for the fire at home;
She gathered some twigs that she found on the ground,
And all of them fast in a bundle she bound.

Then happy and free, with the pack on her head,
She followed the road that back to town led. 
She sang as she walked, and so happy was she
That alas! she bowed not to the Balete tree.

All at once then she heard a most terrible roar,
And the Tic-balan fierce through the air seemed to soar. 
He seized poor Juanita, and quick as could be
He shut her inside of the Balete tree.

Two days passed, and when the girl failed to come back,
Her parents went out, and no friends did they lack
To help in the search, for the whole pueblo came,
And loudly they shouted poor Juanita’s name.

At last when they thought that the search brought no good,
One man found Juanita’s neat bundle of wood;
He called the good news, and as more came to see,
Loud knocking was heard in the Balete tree.

Then many were frightened, but many were brave,
And wondered by what means the girl they could save;
For they knew that it must be Juanita who knocked,
And that inside the Balete tree she was locked.