The Necklace and The Comb

In the early days, the sky hung low and people could easily reach the clouds. Inday, a beautiful girl who was given family heirlooms for her sixteenth birthday, loved to wear her precious necklace and comb even while she worked. One day, as she was husking rice with a mortar and a pestle, she put her jewelry on a cloud to avoid spoiling them. As she pounded on the rice with her pestle, one end also pounded the sky. Before she knew it, the sky went up high with her heirloom pieces. In time, her comb became the quarter moon and the beads of her necklace became the stars.

Folktales being stories that people created to explain the natural world, “The Necklace and the Comb” is a charming tale on how the moon and stars were formed. Ong likes this story especially because “the imagery is so charming and fanciful.”