Check out these lesser-known creatures, feared and revered, all born from the identical soil that remembers our roots as Filipinos
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is house not solely to hundreds of islands, but additionally to the numerous mythological creatures believed to inhabit them.
Whereas many Filipinos are acquainted with the tree-dwelling kapre, the mischievous duwende, and particularly the bloodthirsty aswang, there are additionally fairly just a few lesser-known ones — creatures each feared and revered, all born from the identical soil that remembers our roots as Filipinos.
Anggitay
In the event you suppose that solely the Greeks have centaurs, you then haven’t heard of this mythological creature from Batangas. The anggitay is an ethereal amalgam of a girl’s face and higher physique, a mare’s decrease physique, and a unicorn-like horn on its brow.
This isn’t to be mistaken for a tikbalang, which possesses a horse’s head and hooves and is usually identified to be a mischievous trickster who likes to mislead vacationers and play tips on human senses. Different depictions of the tikbalang paint it as a creature that abducts and mistreats kids and ladies.
The anggitay is believed to be the alternative, and supposedly helps information misplaced vacationers again to the suitable path. It’s most related to amassing treasured jewels and gems, mirroring their intrinsic reference to the land.
Nevertheless, it’s identified to be elusive to people, and is claimed to typically solely seem on a vibrant but wet day.
Karkarison
In the event you hear a faint squeaking sound on the road after a midnight bathe, it means a karkarison is within the neighborhood — and somebody in that road is claimed to fall in poor health and die the subsequent day.
The karkarison is a small cart pulled by a headless bull and ridden by three or 4 headless, woman-like figures. Throughout epidemics, it roams by means of villages spreading illness. In any other case, it solely makes uncommon appearances, and is claimed to journey from one haunted tree to a different earlier than vanishing.
Haunted timber are believed to be the resting locations of the karkarison and different spirits. Villagers typically gentle fires close by and throw bones into the flames to maintain these creatures away.
Different preventive measures embody inserting rice-chaff smudges by home gates and beneath staircases, and drawing white crosses with lime on doorways and posts.
Pasatsat
The pasatsat’s story was born out of the trauma suffered by Filipinos through the Japanese occupation. As Filipinos then might barely sustain with the price of residing, they didn’t have the means to honor the useless correctly, both. Some households wrapped their deceased family members’ our bodies in a banig (mat) as a substitute of giving them a correct burial.
The pasatsat, mentioned to have originated in Pangasinan, typically reveals itself to passersby on abandoned paths as a corpse in a rolled up banig. It’s believed to be the spirit of an individual who died or was killed throughout World Battle II.
The phrase comes from the Pangasinense phrase “satsat,” which suggests “punit” (rip) — alluding to the concept of needing to stab the banig for it to vanish. Because the physique by no means reveals itself, one of many solely indicators of its lingering presence is the scent of decay.
Lampong
Whereas many Filipino legendary beings are depicted as violent or malevolent, the lampong is deemed much less hostile, and even perhaps pleasant, because of its obligation to guard and protect.
Among the many Ilongot of Northeast Luzon, the lampong’s function is to defend wild animals. It’s typically identified to take the type of one amongst its flock or metamorphose right into a white one-eyed deer, watching over them and even distracting or diverting preying hunters.
A hunter’s first 5 pictures are mentioned to at all times miss the lampong. However when it lastly pierces by means of, the hunter’s power will start to fade day-to-day till he dies eventually.
Sangkabagi
May something be extra bone-chilling than a manananggal flapping its wings throughout the night time sky? Seems, there may be. The sangkabagi resembles a grim reaper on a flying boat, in the hunt for souls to hold and transport to the realm of the useless.
Legends say the sangkabagi snatched individuals as they slept and consumed livers to fill the injuries with herbs. They allegedly command termites or weevils to destroy the garments, rice, corn, and seeds of anybody who has wronged them.
Nevertheless, some accounts famous that the sangkabagi have been antagonized by Spanish colonizers and have been initially identified to be useful — guiding the useless to the afterlife, therapeutic the sick, and even gifting their dearest pals a magical ebook that permits them to journey anyplace immediately.
These are solely a few of the many Filipino folklore creatures that will have been forgotten, however live on in our recollections and within the tales that we inform.
Whereas we frequently discover it simpler to be taught in regards to the mythologies of different nations, whose tales are extra accessible and preserved than ours, it’s by no means too late to be part of a rising technology that fights to recollect. – Jaella Magno/Rappler.com
Jaella Magno is a Rappler intern finding out AB Literature main in Inventive Writing at De La Salle College.
