Tagalog Texts with Grammatical Analysis

8. The seven dwarves.

A certain married couple had seven children who were dwarves. The father was out of work and could not find any. The mother also was not earning any money, for her body was weak and often sick.

One noon they were sitting on a bench and discussing the life they were leading. The man asked what they had better do with their many children. The woman suggested that they should look for work for their children, so that they might earn money. But the man answered that, in his opinion, they would not be able to find any work, since he himself had not been able to find any. Therefore he suggested that they had better abandon their children.

This made the woman grieve and weep. She would not consent to abandon the children. But her husband made it clear to her that, if they did not do this, they would all die of hunger. Finally the woman consented and they agreed that they would take their children for a walk and leave them on the way.

While they were discussing this, the seventh child was in a crack of the bench on which they were sitting and heard what their parents were going to do to them. After they had finished talking, the child at once looked for his brothers and sisters and told them what he had heard. They all wept, because their parents had not told them that they were a burden to their life. They thought that, if they had known this, they would have done anything whatever to help them gain a living. However, they agreed that they would go along, if they were asked to go walking, and would allow themselves to be led astray.

On the next day their father came to them, told them to get dressed, gave them some cakes, and told them that they should all go for a walk. When they started out, the seventh child did not eat his bread, but, starting at their gate, he crumbled it and scattered it along the road which they were walking. When they had gone some distance, he ran out of bread and asked his brothers and sisters for some. But they did not give him any. He did not tell them why he had run out of bread so soon. When he could get no bread, he picked up stones and these he dropped one by one on their path.

When they came to a jungle, their parents left them, telling them to wait for them there and that they would soon come back. Their parents left them, but they knew that their parents would not come back to them.

When a short time had passed, they heard a noise. They went toward the place from which the noise came. There they saw a great giant bathing by the side of a well. They looked round about the place, and by the side of a tree they saw the clothes of the giant. The seventh child sent his brothers and sisters away and told them to hide, and he would steal the giant’s shoes. They did this and the child stole the shoes.

When the giant had finished bathing and was getting dressed, he could not find his shoes. He got angry and cursed. He called for help. When the one who had stolen the shoes heard this, he quickly approached. When the giant saw him, he did not suspect him, for, on account of his smallness, the giant thought that he would not be able to carry the shoes.

Therefore the giant said to him: “If you will carry this bag of money of mine to my wife and tell her to buy some shoes and to bring them to me, I shall pay you much money.”

He said further that he could not walk without shoes, and therefore he should hurry. Taking the bag of money, the child promised to return at once. However, when he had gone some distance, he called his hidden brothers and sisters, and when they were assembled, he suggested that they go home. But his brothers and sisters answered that they did not know the way home. He however answered that they should follow the stones and bread he had dropped on the way.

One of his brothers said that, if he had known what he had done with the bread, he would have given him some when he asked for it. They were sorry for the stinginess they had shown toward their brother.

It was not long before they came upon the trail of stones along their way. This they followed and arrived at their house, bringing with them the bag of money, which they at once gave to their parents. The latter rejoiced and were sorry for their bad conduct toward their children,—they rejoiced because they had now the means of living for a long time to come.

9. A policeman who played vampire.

In the summer of the year 1902, when the ripe fruits of the fruit-trees were hanging from the branches, there circulated all through the town of San Antonio the rumor that a vampire was going about the town.

The people of San Antonio in those years believed in ghosts, vampires, dwarves, and other objects of terror. Most of them had not been fortunate enough to get an education, but, in spite of this, they were kindly, quiet, and industrious people.

The houses in this town were built of nipa-fibre and bamboo. There were also some frame houses. Most of them stood in large enclosures, and the rear part of these yards was planted with trees that have tasty fruits, such as the custard-apple, grape-fruit, santol, mabolo, mango, and the like.

These fruits were just getting ripe, when the rumor spread that, for several nights back, some women had caught sight of the vampire in various back yards. The women and children were filled with great terror; accordingly, as soon as darkness came down, they staid still in their houses. Most of the men also were afraid, but there were some who said that they were not afraid, because they had not yet come across a vampire and therefore did not know whether it was really to be feared.

A vampire is a being of great power. It changes its body into various forms. At some times it has a body like a human being, but black, at others it is a large dog or pig. It eats people, especially children. But its favorite food, by far, and that which it most commonly eats, is the child yet unborn and still in its mother’s womb. Therefore the pregnant women in the town had great fear. They did not allow their husbands to sleep, for watching at their side. A vampire is hard to kill with knife or gun, because it has but one place which one must hit or wound in order to kill it, and this place is secret. The only thing it flees from is garlic, which therefore is much used in driving off vampires.

A surprising thing, however, about this vampire was its habit of keeping itself in back yards. Strange was also the fact that it was mostly young girls who said that they had caught sight of this vampire in back yards, up in grape-fruit trees and other trees. A few bold men said that they suspected that this spook was a thief and no vampire.

It was a certain policeman of more than usual courage who spied upon this vampire in a back yard in which it had recently been seen. When darkness came, he went to his hiding-place. It was not long before the vampire came and climbed on a grape-fruit tree, and he heard it picking many fruits. It came down and went away, but was followed by the policeman to a house which it entered.

Great was the surprise of the policeman, when he saw here his fellow policeman wrapped up in a black sheet and just putting down on the floor a black bag full of grape-fruit.

He summoned his fellow policeman to the town hall and there on the next day accused him before the judge. The policeman who had played vampire was put in jail for the crime of theft.

10. A vampire that got killed.

One evening in a students’ boarding-house in the town of Malolos I heard an old man, ninety years of age, tell a company the following story:

When he was still a young unmarried man, he lived in the country. There were only a very few neighbors. One day there was a death in the house of a neighbor. Following an ancient custom, he went to the house of mourning.

When he arrived there it was not long before he was told that there was a vampire in the place. He had a great and inherited hatred of vampires and therefore decided to watch that night.

Late in the evening he left the house and in a wagon not far from the house, there he lay down. There was a full moon that night, so that he had a clear view of things round about. As he saw nothing that could be suspected of being a vampire, he went to sleep.

At midnight he woke up, and the first thing that struck his eyes was a black object on the roof of the house where there had been a death. This black thing had not been there before he went to sleep, so he suspected that this was the vampire he had been told about. Vampires eat dead people, so he concluded that the dead person was the thing for which the vampire had come there.

Carrying a bolo-knife, he went up to the house. The people were asleep. Up above he saw something hanging down from the roof of the house. It was like the intestine of a chicken. It got longer and longer, until the end of it went into the mouth of the dead person. The corpse stood up from the place where it lay, when this thing went into its mouth.

What the young man did was to walk up to the upright corpse and, with the bolo he was carrying, cut the thing that was like the intestine of a chicken. When he had cut this, something came down with a thud at the side of the house. He went down, and there he saw the dead vampire.

11. Sorcerers.

In some places in the Philippines the people have a firm belief in sorcerers. According to their belief a sorcerer is a person of great power, and this power comes from a demon or else is inherited from one’s parents. Before one may gain this power one must first become friends with a demon and serve it. However, there are some also who believe that one may find or snatch up this power in a jungle or some uncanny place that is hard to reach and usually full of terror.

The kulam is that seized, inherited, or given by the demon, and it is the source of the possessor’s power. The appearance of the kulam is not always the same. Sometimes it is a stone or a small doll of ugly appearance. In the dark this kulam glows like a firefly, but this glow disappears when the kulam desires it. The kulam and the person, man or woman, who possesses it, do not separate even for a moment, and even when bathing the sorcerer carries his kulam. Therefore, curious people, when they wish to find out whether a person whom they suspect is really a sorcerer or not, watch him at his bath. If the sorcerer is not careful and has no suspicion that he is being watched, the watcher sometimes succeeds in seeing the kulam.

The sorcerer has also the power of concealing the kulam inside his body, and the people are not rare who have seen a sorcerer at his death. At the last moment, before breathing ceases, he spits out the kulam.

This happens only when the sorcerer does not wish to bequeath his kulam. If, however, he wishes to bequeath it, then, long before the sorcerer dies, he calls the person to whom he wishes to bequeath it and in all secrecy gives him the kulam.

The great power of the sorcerer is used by him against his enemies, against people who have incurred his anger; or against their live stock, in case he wishes to make this latter the object of his vengeance. He also uses his power in playing jokes on a person or animal that has gained his liking.

His victim usually acts like crazy. Sometimes the person he has bewitched complains that his whole body is sore, keeps shouting, and cannot keep quiet even for a moment. In the case of animals,—usually the pig most valued by the owner,—the punishment he gives is like the disease of cholera, but more severe than this. The bowel-movement of the animal does not stop, and after a few hours, no matter how fat the animal, it becomes skin and bone. The bewitched person eats mightily, like two men, and keeps asking for tasty food. Therefore people believe that the sorcerer who is punishing him shares in the eating of the sick person.

The sorcerer has the power of entering the body of the person bewitched. This is the belief, but in what way the sorcerer effects his entrance or at what point he enters the body of the person he is bewitching, there is no one who knows. However the place where he comes out is the forefinger. This fact is of great importance for the cure of people who have been bewitched and also for the punishment of sorcerers.

Although the power of the sorcerer is great, yet there are some things which he fears, usually strong people who are bold and have no faith in the powers of sorcerers and other things that terrify other people. Therefore it is not rare that, after the first or second time he cures a person of this disease, some man receives the title of “witch-doctor.”

I once heard someone who had seen the cure of a bewitched person tell the story. The narrator had a neighbor who had a young daughter. This young lady had many suitors, and one of them was suspected of being a sorcerer. He had the bad fortune to be one of those who were not accepted. In his great anger he bewitched, one after the other, the betrothed man and woman.

He began with the woman, and her parents at once called in a witch-doctor for her. When the doctor arrived and saw the patient, he said that the woman was really bewitched.

He told the people who were there not to let the bewitched person know that he was in the house. If the patient knew this, the sorcerer who was inside her body would have a chance to go away at once. The doctor went up to the woman without her being aware of it and suddenly seized her two forefingers in a tight grip. She shouted all the louder and trembled like one in terror.

The sorcerer, according to people’s belief, feels any pain that is given to the body of the person he is bewitching while he is within the latter’s body. Likewise, when one speaks with the patient, it is he who answers.

Therefore the doctor suddenly asked: “What are you doing here, you brute?”

The patient did not utter a word, but tried to get free. The strength she displayed was not the usual strength of a woman.

But the doctor did not let her go, and asked her again: “What are you doing here? Why have you come here? If you do not answer, I shall torture you.”

The woman answered in a pitiful tone: “No, sir, I shan’t do it again; let me go, sir; you are torturing me already.”

“Shall I let you go?” asked the doctor at once. “Promise me first that you won’t come back.”

“No, I shan’t come back, sir,” answered the woman.

“If I catch you here again, I shall kill you. Don’t be troublesome. Stay still in your house.”

“Yes, sir; yes, sir; I shan’t come back, sir. Please, let me go!”

While this dialogue was taking place, the woman was struggling to get loose and trying to make the doctor let go of her forefingers. When the woman had made her promise, the doctor let go of her two forefingers. The face of the woman, which just before had been expressing great suffering, now became quiet, and she was like a madwoman who has got back her reason. She became quiet, stopped shouting, and was able to converse intelligently.

The man lived in a near-by town. When he was bewitched his brother called a physician for him. In his extreme anger, this brother called a physician who was fierce and cruel in his treatment of sorcerers.

The physician came secretly to the sick man’s house. From his hiding-place he first determined at what time the sorcerer was in the body of the sick man. This showed itself in the shouting, movements, and senseless talking of the patient. The physician sharpened a bolo-knife and, when he had done this, quickly ran to the side of the patient. He then seized the latter’s two forefingers, leaned over his body, and cut several deep gashes in his face. The patient screamed and tried to get away, but when he did get away there were wounds in his face and the blood was flowing in a stream. The physician left him without a word. He sought out the brother of the wounded man and told him not to heed his brother’s wounds, for tomorrow they would go away and be transferred to the sorcerer, for it was the latter whom he had reached in the body of his brother. On the next day the doctor went to the man whom he had cured with the knife and was much pleased when he found him well and without the marks of wounds in his face. A few days later they heard that a sorcerer in the neighboring town was in a serious condition, owing to the unceasing flow of blood from some wounds in his face.

There are also, however, some sorcerers who are quick and have not been caught by physicians. The physician, too, must be skilful and quick. Anyone at all can cure a person who has been bewitched, since there is no other method of cure than that of inflicting pain on the body of the bewitched person. The danger, however, is great, since, if the one who is attempting the cure is not quick, owing to lack of practice, the sorcerer will be able to get away. In this event it is the bewitched person himself who will suffer from the punishment. It is related that there once happened something like this which follows.

One of two brothers was bewitched by his rival in courtship. There was no witch-doctor within call. In his great pity for him, the older brother decided to cure him, even though he had had no practice. He was not practised, to be sure, but he had often heard from physicians the manner of cure. One evening, when he thought that the sorcerer was inside his brother’s body, he quickly seized a bolo, and, stepping up to his brother, cut him without care. On the next day, instead of his finding his brother well and unwounded, the latter was a corpse. The sorcerer had got away.