The World of the Spirits
by Gabriel S Casal
(page 4)
The Mandaya have an extra powerful medium, the silag, who is called on when all other mediums have failed to heal a sickness or to interpret an omen. The silag may be male or female, and can interpret any dream or vision and give meaning to any sound heard during a séance.
The Kalinga have their mandadawak--an unassuming elderly woman who usually wears a turban. She beats a bamboo stick against a porcelain dish; she chants; she becomes drowsy; she yawns--and from the yawn resounds the name of the spirit ancestor or relative who has been causing all the trouble.
Interpreting omens is a common chore of mediums and shamans, since nothing is undertaken in the Ma’i world unless the auguries are favorable. The Tinggian who is building a house knows the site is auspicious if the small bird called labeg alights on the construction. The bird is seized, its feathers are oiled, beads are tied to its claws, and then it is sent back to the spirits that sent it. The Ifugao and Bontoc can tell from the “talk” of birds in the woods if an expedition will have luck. To dream of a rainbow or of the dead is a good sign for the Kalinga hunter, but to dream of snakes or falling rocks is a bad omen. An important enterprise among the Mandaya requires the killing of a pig or chicken, whose entrails are read for auguries. A smooth liver is interpreted as propitious, a spotted liver is a portent. The configurations made by spilled wine or an egg yoke, and the shadows cast by a glowing firebrand or a dangling knife are also read for omens.
Magic can provide antidotes to bad omens or the curses of an enemy. To protect a field from spoilers, whether human, animal or spirit, the Maranao farmer scribbles a magic formula on a piece of paper. The paper is thrust into an empty bottle and hung up in the middle of the field, to the ruin of trespassers. If human, they come out with big boils and incurable skin diseases. Magicians give the spirits they command a tuft of hair, which shoots through the air like a meteor until it hits the intended victim. The victim doubles over with acute stomach pains, and may die or be maimed for life.
Among the Bukidnon, the magician is a baylan so close to his protector that he does not have to go into a trance to contact the spirit world. He can see, hear and command it even when he is fully conscious. Among the Maranao, magic is known as kata-o; the magician is a pangangata-o; and his genie, or servant spirit, is a pamamantak. Like the Tagalog kulam is the Maranao pantak, or sorcery, which can cause a victim great anguish of mind and body. The magician is also skilled in extracting gamot, or philters from plants and animals. Some philters are for poisoning the food of victims; other philters are love-charms. The philters intended for curing illness normally have a medicinal value, since their use is based on a folk science that has tested their effects on certain diseases.
Besides charms, there are magic spells for thwarting evil. The flight of a moving tuft of hair can be stopped instantly by shouting “Pananggalan!” There is a prayer to recite on seeing lightining or hearing thunder, and a set of words to pronounce when passing a balite tree. The Maranao are especially terrified of waterspouts; when one hovers into view, they burn orange leaves and wave yellow flags and caution children not to point at the waterspout. They also have a fail-safe verse to drive it away--but that is dangerous: the spirit of the waterspout may return to destroy the person who cast the spell. Similarly, there is an incantation to stop rain, but when its habitual user dies, a vengeful downpour will wash away his grave. The angels Michael, Gabriel and Israfel are invoked amid clouds of incense at weddings, and when barren couples pray for a child. When a woman goes into labor, the evil spirits are warded off with incantations, a white flag and incense in a coconut shell. Food and white cloth are offered to the spirits when they are summoned to curse a killer or punish an adulterer, with hunger, misery, illness, sufferings, and death at the earliest possible time.
Illness is caused either by evil spirits doing mischief or by good spirits inflicting punishment. A medium is then called to placate the spirits and so heal the sick.A Mangyan invalid may be made to ride a pig, which is afterwards sacrificed to the spirits. The Kalinga priestess sacrifices a chicken, sprinkles a basket of rice with the blood, and hangs the basket atop a bamboo pole in front of the invalid’s house. The guardian stones at the entrance of every Tinggian village are anointed with oil and adorned with new bark bands when an epidemic approaches from outside. A high-spiked fence is erected before the village gate and the entire settlement is cordoned off with bamboo or rattan.
The Palawan believe that illness is caused by a breach between the sick person and the supernatural: “Something was done wrong, or this evil would not have happened”. The blood of domestic chickens and pigs can “wash away guilt” and thus restore the balance; but no healing can be expected from the blood of wild chicken or wild pig. Long before the modern fear of germs, the Maranao knew of the organisms that make food and water harmful, and a dog’s bite dangerous. The elements that cause disease are called kagao, oled and bisa. Rabies is bisa aso and snake venom is bisa nipai. But death is always caused by the will of God, not by disease.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
