Badong and the Legend of the House Lizard as used to be Told in Tanauan, Batangas
[In this article: Batangas Province, Batangas beliefs and folklore, Tanauan Batangas, Batangas legends, house lizard, butiki, butiking bahay, common house gecko]
![]() |
Image source: Firos AK - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67313145. |
One day, Badong was promenading around when he chanced to meet a beautiful damsel. Because of his great love for the girl, he began to propose to her and plead for his heart's cause.
Instead of accepting his love however, the girl told him to get first the heart of his mother before she could ever love him.
Badong, in his eagerness to win the girl's love, went home hurriedly to get his mother's heart. When Badong reached home, he found his mother praying intently before an icon hanging by the wall of the house.
He unsheathed his sharp dagger and sneaked behind his praying mother noiselessly. With cat-like agility, he sprang upon
her, killed her instantly, and got her heart.As he was going downstairs, it happened that the heart he was carrying tell onto the ground. The heart began to bounce and bounce.
Badong reached for it but he could not take hold of it. He stumbled many times in his efforts to get the heart. In his
last attempt, he fell again.This time, he could not get up any more. The frustrated figure of Badong was suddenly transformed to a small crawling animal, which was later on called “butiki” or house lizard2.
2 The butiki is also known as the Common house gecko.” Wikipedia.