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Pilandok
The clever mouse-deer of Maranao and Palawan tales. It wins every story with a trick, never with strength.
Folklore is retold; versions differ.
Sources: Wikipedia: Philippine mouse-deer (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikidata (CC0)
The story
Pilandok is the clever mouse-deer of Maranao tales from Lanao. The word also names a real animal. The Philippine mouse-deer is a small hoofed animal about 40 to 50 centimeters long. It is not a true deer. Males have no antlers but have long upper teeth. It lives alone, rests in dense forest by day and feeds at dusk. The real animal lives on Balabac and nearby islands off southwest Palawan.
In the stories, Pilandok is small and weak, but he wins with wit. In one Maranao tale, he tricks a prince into giving up a bag of gold. The prince ends up facing a hive of angry bees. Tellers use him as the hero who beats bigger, richer or stronger opponents. The tales are told to children for fun and also to show that careful thinking can matter more than strength. The Molbog people of southern Palawan hold the animal sacred.
The real animal is Endangered. Forest loss for coconut farms is its main threat.