August 29, 2013

Philippine Legend of the Snake Beneath the Mall

The basic story is this:
When a businessman's wife became pregnant with twins, everyone in the family became excited. However when the wife finally gave birth, only one of the twins was human, the other was a snake. Despite having a snake for a child, the parents still accepted him, but due to the situation, the businessman decided to hide the snake in a secret basement of their family business, a shopping mall. To keep up with the monster's large appetite, they installed a trap in the fitting rooms inside the mall, to imprison a victim for the snake to eat. As years went by, the businessman noticed his shopping mall becoming successful, and credited his snake son for the good luck, thus the snatching of victims continued.

The Robinson's Snake is still the most popular version though. During the 1980's, Gokongwei allegedly had twin girls, but one of them was a snake who lays golden eggs. There had been similar stories of the snake child way before the Robinson's one became known though. A strong one was from Davao city, in which the said snake was being transferred between branches once in a while to avoid suspicion. The same rumor has also been attributed to Cagayan de Oro's Gaisano Superstore. The odds of getting a snake child is getting better it seems haha.

When I asked my mother about this snake legend, she replied that the establishment was Jerry's Shopping Center. In the version she knew, the businessman suddenly died. Without the head of the family to take care of the snake, it soon starved and died alone. Its death brought down the good luck it had fostered when it was still alive. Now, only a few branches remained in Mindanao. She only heard it from somewhere, so again it's a rumor, but I enjoy the way this version ended the tale.

2 comments:

  1. This is pretty much a rumor. I've heard of this as well, I actually didn't expect you'd include this as scary. In a version I know, they only activate the trap doors on "pregnant women". This other version I know too is that a famous actress (her name was Alice Dixon I think, google it up) lived to tell the tale. idk but I think this legend is a downright hoax. Awesome blog btw!

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