The myths of Calbiga

I guess every small town has its own stories of duwendes and unseen spirits living in large beautiful houses in “cities” whose gateways are often large trees in the middle of nowhere. Some people have gone to them or were brought to such “cities” by their spirit “friends”, while a few of these never return or are never seen alive again. Stories like these abound in Calbiga, but these are not tales invented by unlettered folk but real experiences told by those who came in contact with these spirits.

A well known site is found along the barangay road that starts from Calbiga’s “taboan” (market) site, the road we took that late Wednesday afternoon. The trip was unexpected. Another pais, Mario, who sits as the mayor’s trusted aide, arrived at Luman’s place as we were about to finish half of the galloon of our favorite brew. He said he and the mayor were going to inspect the portion of the road that was lately filled up with gravel, ready for cementing. At the end of that little inspection, we were going to continue our “session” at a sing-along joint. I didn’t expect that that road has its share of tales that skeptics would label as “tall tales.”

The stories did not come out until the next morning when we were having breakfast at the ancestral home of Unding’s wife. Unding opened it up. There was one young student who appeared to be “possessed” but was actually being “dragged” by the spirits to go with them to their “house” passing through the famous narra trees. Nonoy even took video shots of one of her “seizures” and managed to ask her who the beings were and how they looked like. The girl only looked behind the puzzled Nonoy, indicating with her eyes that these beings were just behind him. The visits of the invisible beings stopped after a faith healer intervened.

One time the Samar Electric Cooperative received an application for connection from a stranger who claimed he lived in the area where the large narra tree was located. The stranger wore a hat and a pair of boots. Dutifully, Samelco’s personnel visited the place and set up an electrical connection. The puzzled personnel, of course, saw nothing but the large narra tree, but they set up the connection just the same because the stranger had paid the required fees.

A large portion of the road is already concreted today, but years ago when it was still in bad shape, locals who used to spend evenings on the roadside in their habitual drinking sessions could see beautiful cars passing by, undaunted by the bumpy, unpaved road. Later they would shake their heads in wonderment when the cars never returned. The road was at a dead end.

Stories like these abound in Calbiga but it seems nobody has written about the phenomena, as if these are silly stories. Maybe. But I told Nonoy these are part of the local culture that visitors would love to listen to, part of the lore that gives a place like Calbiga its unique character. I wish somebody would take time to write these stories down.