Legends of the Sto. Niño de Cebu (Part 4)

Manuel Enriquez dela Calzada originally wrote this in Cebuano, it was translated into English by Martin Abellana. It was published in 1965. It was Consuelo Enriquez-Uy, a descendant of the Dela Calzada, who donated copies of the book to the Cebu City Library.

Numerous entries on the legends of the Sto. Niño de Cebu are contained in the book. CEBUpedia is running a series of selected stories in the book, with the hope that the Cebu City government, in coordination with the family of Manuel Enriquez dela Calzada, will reproduce the book so it can be distributed to the public schools in Cebu City.

“On one particular day during this time, there was a brisk breeze to temper somewhat the heat, enough breeze for one particular boy to fly his kite. The people were asleep, leaving the boy all alone to enjoy his pastime. The boy had not enjoyed long looking at his kite when suddenly the string of his kite snapped. The kite was carried by the wind and the boy followed it. The kite slowly descended but instead of directly falling to the ground, it eddied and dropped in the palace of the king. (Note: referring to King Humabon of the Kingdom of Banawa, now known as the San Nicolas District).

“The palace seemed to be deserted for the occupants were asleep. The boy went up to the palace climbing up a window and went directly to the room where his kite fell. When the boy reached the room, he found there was another boy playing with his kite. The two played together flying the kite by running all around the room. Their running here and there shook the palace as if it were shaken by an earthquake. This awakened the occupants of the palace including the king and the queen. What caused the palace to shake? They went to the different rooms to find out for they thought that somebody had caused the palace to quake since there was an earthquake after all.

“Finally they opened the door of the room where the altar was. There they saw the boy panting for breath and sweating profusely. They asked the boy what he was doing. The boy answered that he was playing with the Boy on the altar. They looked at the Image of the Holy Child. They saw that the Image was also sweating profusely. Its clothes were totally drenched.” (To be continued)