Hello everyone,
I'm posting this up taken from an article which was written by our famous Pyshic researcher, Mr. Jimmy Licauco.
Healer is friends
with 'kapre'
Posted: 11:52 PM (Manila Time) | Feb. 23, 2004
Inquirer News Service
WHILE gathering materials for a book on dwarves, I also came across stories of encounters with other elementals or nature spirits such as kapres and engkantos.
Kapres are among the characters that inhabit Philippine folklore and mythology. They are not supposed to be real creatures, but are merely imaginary. But are they really mere figments of pre-industrial Filipino mind?
The typical description of a kapre is that he is a gigantic human-like male creature, about 10 to 12 feet in height, body and face covered with hair, lives in big trees like caimito, mango, and balete, and smokes a big cigar. He is not usually known to be harmful, only mischievous and naughty.
The following is the interesting story of a healer's unusual encounter with a 12-foot kapre in Calinog, Iloilo about two hours' ride by car from the capital city.
Vicente Laruan, 86, is a well-known healer in the area. He has been performing healing since he was 12 years old, but did not fully accept his calling as a healer until much later in life when his only daughter was stricken with a respiratory disease that he alone was able to cure.
Reynaldo Daguman and Lisa Montero, both former students of mine, accompanied me on Monday, Jan. 26, to the sleepy town of Calinog where Vicente Laruan works as a farmer and heals the sick on the side. He heals by prescribing medicinal plants that the patient has to take internally or place externally on affected body parts.
While waiting for Mr. Laruan to arrive, his wife showed us copper and brass objects he found buried in the fields as he was tilling the soil. One was a covered jar, another a small statue of the Sto. Niņo and another a kris-like knife. Only the cover of the copper jar was left because somebody had bought the jar. Mr. Laruan uses the objects in healing.
Another object he found in the fields was an odd-looking tree trunk. He used this for healing, too.
What got me interested in seeing Mang Vicente was his reputation for eating live or burning charcoal for breakfast without getting hurt. He also has a reputation of talking to kapres and dwendes.
When we were in his humble place, his 76-year-old wife served him, not a plate of rice and chicken but a cauldron of live charcoal. He ate a few live ones in front of us. Then he showed us his tongue which was not burned at all. He said he also walked on fire and even washed his feet, not with water, but with fire when coming from the fields. He just smiled as our faces must have shown our shock at the things he did.
Vicente makes a distinction between spirit-induced sickness and one that is physically caused. If he finds the ailment to be merely physical, he sends the patient to a medical doctor. He does not treat them. "I only treat diseases caused by bad spirits," he said.
What to me was the most fascinating story he told us was his encounters with a kapre in the fields. They had, in fact, become close friends and he was never afraid of him.
He was out in the field one evening when the kapre first appeared to him. The creature was tall, about 12 ft. in height because Vicente said his head was as high as the ceiling of his nipa house. His house is really big compared to ordinary houses.
One time, Vicente needed a match to light his cigarette. He saw the kapre smoking a cigar. The creature lighted Vicente's cigarette with his cigar. Vicente said he was then able to smoke his cigarette. Now, that's new to me. If kapres were not real, how come the healer's cigarette was lighted? And how come many people report smelling cigar smoke when a kapre is around?
I asked Vicente how the kapre looked and he said, "He is very tall, like a giant, full of hair all over his body." His cigar was not really bigger than what ordinary men smoked. Vicente said it's the same size. This demolishes most of the drawings of kapres with gigantic cigars.
How is he dressed? Vicente said the kapre was completely naked but his body and face were almost entirely covered with hair.
Then I asked curiously, "Since you see the kapre so close and completely naked, did you ever see the kapre's genitals or organ?"
Vicente said, yes, of course. "It looks like any ordinary man's sexual organ," he said, matter of factly.
That was the first time I heard somebody say he saw the genitals of a kapre. After we left Calinog, I remembered something I failed to ask the healer about the kapre's organ. I failed to ask if it was circumcised!
Address letters to this column to 308 Prince Plaza I, 106 Legaspi St., Greenbelt, Makati. Call 8107245 or 8926806. E-mail jlicauco@edsamail.com.ph. Visit http://j.licauco.tripod.com. Listen to my dzMM radio program every Sunday, 6-8 p.m.
http://www.inq7.net/lif/2004/feb/24/lif_22-1.htm