The Legend of Tawg and the Curse of Tintinan Island

Epilogue

The Legend of Tawg and the Curse of Tintinan Island

Epilogue:

For the most part of the last five centuries Tintinan Island remains uninhabited. Although there was purportedly a homestead built during the late 60's, it was said that the property was later abandoned for reasons unknown. Rumor has it that those who tried to live on the island tends to exhibit a severe disordered state of mind within a couple of years.

The sandy beach where Tintinan waded to her death is now barren and craggy except for a small strip-like pathway that leads to the deepest part of the bay. Oftentimes, after a tempestuous night, tracks of footprints are said to be found along this sandy stretch heading towards the sea. To this day, local fishermen still avoid the place at night whenever possible, for whatever unimaginable reason other than the reputed presence of St. Elmo's fire and the unmistakable wind-borne distressed weeping of maidens heard during stormy nights, nobody really knows why.

Ironically, the last standing 'agoho' (pine) tree which were also called 'Maribojoc Tree' by the locals was cut down in 2021 by order of the town's parish priest, exactly five hundred years after it was, as the legend goes, transplanted by a corresponding friar who came to preach. The 'lansijang's' may have no branches to roost for now but everybody knew that they'll be back someday, somehow.

There were speculations that some of the timbers that were used as supporting girders under the sacristy floor of the town's old church were salvaged from the sunken caravel. However, in 2013, a massive 7.2 magnitude earthquake destroyed the collosal edifice erasing all validation to the claim.
The wreckage of the 'Concepcion' still remains to be found.

Some remote pockets of the huge coastal swampland which covers in hundreds of acres in totality are still inaccesible and unexplored by man even to this day.
Legend has it that the enfeebled Kusgan, who was already blinded by age, along with his devoted wife Busilak, hid in the marshes upon learning of Tawg's fate where they were later found dead and were buried under a clump of mangrove trees near a bend on the Abatan riverbank. From then on it was said that during moonless nights thousands of fireflies gather up to illuminate the place where they had been laid to rest, perhaps as a token of homage and respect or a gambit to ward off the toothless 'Kangag', Kusgan's legendary nemesis, from desecrating their grave.
The persisting urban myth that couples who came to watch the spectacle of the fireflies at night are bound to be faithful to each other in their married life still remains to be substantiated.

In the late 60's, a local carpenter who also moonlighted as a fisherman bestowed a dead half-meter foundling crocodile, stuffed and preserved in formaldehyde, to the town's Catholic-run high school which he allegedly found in the swamp near Tintinan Island. The said reptilian was mounted on a glass display case for all to see although some skeptics pointed out that it was probably just an unknown sub-genus of the monitor lizard specie. Regretfully, the showcase did not survived the 2013 tremblor and was never classified scientifically.
No crocodile were sighted ever since.
None so far.
Or maybe none just yet.

The jetty where the legendary Tawg and his few brave warriors last stood is now being rebuilt and converted into a box-container terminal port.
Only time will tell when will it be known again as 'Dungguan', the place where these legendary stories all began.