UPON maturity, a banana herb—it is an herb, not a tree—sprouts forth its heart pointing at the tent of skies, then, takes a bow at any point in the compass; a heart that bows to the east at the wee hours, as elders have it, yields the so-called ‘mutya ng saging.’ Mutya is a Tagalog word for pearl, gem, beloved, beauty, or maiden.

A flock of malignant beings stands guard to catch the ‘mutya ng saging’. Any intrepid soul who succeeds in seizing it attains, so elders say, prodigious strength and power—which malignant powers-that-be would rather keep. Thus, a power grab or agaw agimat entails a no-holds-barred tussle akin to a Jacob wrestling with a God-sent angel in the dead of night, prior to his date with fate glorious.

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