Witawit - The TRUTH

On the August 11 episode of KMJS, one of the featured topics was the 'Witawit' which, according to the people of Iloilo was their version of 'Kamatayan' or Grim Reaper. This topic was brought to light by a viral photo on social media that purportedly shows the Witawit as a disembodied head floating in the air above one of the three boats that would later capsize in a squall off Guimaras island that killed 30+ people.

Before that episode was aired, I received an SMS message from KMJS asking my take on the said viral picture in relation to Pinoy folklore and a few days later, the crew was interviewing me in my living room for their Witawit segment.

During the interview, I provided a detailed description of the concept as well as the Medieval origin of the Grim Reaper,' or 'Sundo, along with other possible parallels of the Witawit in Filipino and Malay folklore but my take on the subject was whittled down from an hour to a few insignificant seconds of airtime that did not even scratch the surface of the REAL topic. That's half expected though. It's the editor's call anyway, but I digress.

To be honest, I think the floating 'head' was nothing more than dirt or lens artifact. I wasn't interviewed for my opinion on the picture though (although I was a graphic artist for 4 years). KMJS wanted my take on the mythical/folkloric aspect of the 'Witawit' so that chunk of the interview and many more interesting bits were left out.

Below is the full segment regarding this alleged being:

See, I would like to set the record straight. Word of warning though. The truth (as always) is way more stranger -- or boring -- than fiction

You see people, there is NO Witawit. It exists only in the realm of entertainment, particularly Shake, Rattle and Roll 4 the movie. In one of their interviews with PEP, Shake directors Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes admitted that the 'Witawit' is an entirely made up creature, in much the same vein as the more famous Undin. Check the link below:

Witawit and Undin

In other words, the Witawit is a 90's fabrication with no real roots in Philippine folklore unlike the Aswang or Tikbalang. As for why the Witawit is famous in Iloilo -- well, Direk Peque is Ilonggo so go figure. This is not to take away anything from the genuine entertainment value of the famous horror series I grew up watching though. What I'm saying is that this clearly a case of real life imitating fiction, albeit tangentially.

You see, Shake Rattle and Roll 4 painted the Witawit as a nature spirit or elemental that has a thing for kids and trees. Not a grim reaper type of creature that dwells in or above the seas. When it comes to 'floating heads,' the Tausugs and Malays have more colorful critters in their folklore like the Berbalang and the Penanggalan which I would discuss in detail on my next post.

Still, I can't help but marvel though when the supposed 'psychic' described the Witawit as a worm-like creature as big as a jeepney that uses its horns to 'swim.' I think this is truly pushing the bounds of credulity.

We have WAY more interesting creatures in our rich folklore and mythic menagerie. We don't need a Tremor-type monster wannabe that moonlights as the Grim Reaper. Oh c'mon.

And lest we forget, the Guimaras tragedy is an accident that can happen to anyone anywhere. Squalls can develop and dissipate without warning, even in enclosed bodies of water like Taal Lake. This is something I experienced firsthand while sailing towards Volcano island in 2014. One moment it was all warm and sunny but in a span of a few seconds, the skies got dark, the wind howled and rain started pelting our boat like crazy. Good thing the wind and waves weren't as strong but in an open body of water, squalls are stronger many times over and can wreak serious damage.

Plausibility scale for Witawit: 0/10

Tikbalang?

One of the most popular and enduring mythical creatures in Filipino lore. The tikbalang is said to be a half human, half horse creature in the mold of the Greek Pan, that is, having an upper body of a human and lower limbs of a horse (check out my original drawing above ^). There are two known versions of the creature's appearance: the more popular and oft portrayed version has the tikbalang with the head of a horse while the lesser known version has it sporting a human visage. Both versions however agree that the tikbalang has unusually long, powerful legs that resemble the rear quarter of a horse, hooves and all.

Legend has it that whoever can ride the tikbalang and pluck the golden hair from its nape can tame the beast and make it a willing slave. In its element however, the tikbalang, powerful as it is ,does not hurt or kill people. At worst, it leads people astray and plays mischievous tricks on their senses.

As far as I know, the word tikbalang is universally understood throughout the Philippines although there might be other regional variations of its name that I don't know of. As for the etymology of the word, I'm not that sure, really. In tagalog, a balang is a locust. Of course, we all know that locusts have relatively long hind legs so I'm wondering if this has got something to do with the portrayal of the tikbalang as hunched over with legs folded, knees taller than its shoulders. It would sure look like an oversized locust somehow.

I know a couple of people who had tikbalang stories. One of them is my father. When he was a teener living in Antique he mentioned one particular night when two of his brothers were quarreling and socking each other outside their hut after a late evening drizzle. You can hear shouts and a dull thud here and there. After sometime, their mother broke up the fight and asked them to sleep away their tempers and change their clothes for the night. The two grudgingly obliged. A few hours later, there were dull thuds all over again, this time however, the sound shifted from one side of the house to the other. Father said the last time he checked, both his elder brothers were fast asleep, tired from their fisticuffs earlier. Who or what could be making the sound outside? He tried to sneak out of the back door to check but his mother, who was still awake and sitting near the window, stopped him and told him nonchalantly that he should stay inside as "there's a tikbalang outside". He obeyed and made sure that everyone was inside at the time. My father was the 7th of nine siblings by the way, and everyone except for himself and my grandma was fast asleep already.

Still the dull thud-thud-thud continued, one at a time on each side of the house. He describe the sound as akin to the sound of the heavy pestle used for separating the rice chaff from the grain. He was forbidden even to sneak a peak at the window so he can only imagine what it looked like. Apart from the dull thuds, there was no other sound to hear except the stridulation of crickets and cicadas. He fell asleep to the sound of the "tikbalang" jumping like crazy outside.

The next morning he woke up to find that their neighbors and relatives were all milling around a strange sight: huge hoof impressions, each the size of ripe coconut littered each side of the house. the impressions came in pairs and overlapped each other. Each mark was several inches deep and filled with rainwater from last night's drizzle. No one owned a horse in the barrio and not even a thoroughbred bronco can make impressions that big. It's clearly not a buffalo's since the hoof is not cloven in the middle. Whatever made those impressions would be immensely bigger and heftier than a carabao or a horse judging from the depth and size of the impressions. The fact that the impressions came in pairs suggest a bipedal creature left those marks. Granting that this thing had legs proportionate to a horse and the torso of a human relative to its legs, it could've easily scraped the ceiling at around 10-15 feet tall.

Unfortunately, no one had a camera at the time. Which was understandable considering that the area was so poor at the time some students had to walk unshod to and from school just to make their precious "bakya" last longer. Umbrellas were expensive and were almost unknown so if it rained, people used banana leaves instead. The blessings of Tesla's electricity still hasn't reached those parts yet (this was in the early 60's).

What was the tikbalang's business jumping over the roof at those late hours? What it did was similar to the Filipino chidren's game called "Luksong Tinik" lit. "Jumping Thorns" but its motives were never known. Tikbalangs have been known to be playful and mischievous so it's anybody's guess.

I only wish I was there. I could've punched a small hole on the wall and taken a peek, but after a night of rains (cloudy sky, no moon, no electricity) I don't think I can make out much, if anything at all.

Philippines - A Cryptid Farm

The Philippines has a colorful menagerie of cryptids that have endured over the ages. From orb-like beings to humanoid creatures, name it, we have it. Here's a partial list of some of the cryptids and mythological beings that I can recall from the top of my mind:

• Aswang
• Mananggal/Wakwak
• Tikbalang
• Kapre
• Tiktik
• Mandurugo
  
• Maranhig
• Batibat
• Angab
• Tiyanak
• Kugtong
• Tika
• Nuno sa Punso
• Engkanto
• Laman Lupa
• Duwende
• Ekek
• Pasatsat
• Santelmo
• Aghoy
  
• Sirena
  
• Siyokoy
• Manaul
• Sigbin
• Amomongo
• Alan
  

It is worthy to note that to some extent, some of these cryptids seem to share a common linguistic, if not cultural origin with those of our Southeast Asian neighbors. Although the meaning might be different, there are some near-cognates among the many words used for some of the famous cryptids we have here and elsewhere in Southeast asia. Our very own manananggal has a counterpart called Penanggal or Penanggalan in Malaysia. The root word of both words would be the Filipino "Tanggal" and Malaysian "Tanggal" which means "to detach." Other phonetic parallels would be the Philippine "Tianak/Tiyanak" and the Malay "Pontianak."