MORE SCARY STORIES FROM ASINGAN

by Lito Domaoan

I was required like everybody else in grade 5, to guard our garden at night to deter those people who might want to destroy or steal our vegetables. We had radish, cabbage, pechay etc. I was determined not to guard because my Aunt disliked it. When it's my turn to guard the garden with some other kids , my aunt hired somebody to take my place. ( I hated my garden teacher for requiring us to guard our garden at night and for his arimpuyot, a painful sort of physical punishment It is a big pinch in the crotch.!)..

The kids who stayed there overnight told lots of weirds things that appeared at night. One was a woman wearing a flowing white dress. She did not look like a Filipina but more like a Spanish, American or a halfbreed (mestiza). Sometimes the apparition takes the form of an animal. I get easily scared when I was a kid. My imagination was very active especially across the street from the garden is the Asingan cemetery. I heard there were lots of ghosts coming out at of their graves at midnight.

One December, I, my sisters, cousins and other kids went caroling first in poblacion then we decided to go to Macalong. To go to Macalong, we had to pass by the cemetery surrounded by those big bangar trees. We were talking and singing so loud, that we didn't notice a big pig following us. Then we heard it making a weird noise. I looked around and I saw a huge pig with a burning eyes that glow in the dark. At first I ignored it. Then I told the other kids, "Adda ti nagdackel nga baboy na sumursurot" (There is a big pig following us). One of the other kid looked back but he said "Awan met" ( There is nothing). But we were already near the cemetery. I looked around I still saw the big pig with glowing eyes... I got frightened and cried "adda al-alia!" (There is a ghost!) Immediately, everybody turned back, screamed, and ran as fast as they can. Many of us lost their slippers or wooden clogs in the process. And some of them were brand new!

Those bangar trees bordering the cemetry were something. The positive thing about the bangar trees is that these are so tall and beautiful. One classmate brought to school some bangar nuts, and we all tasted them and they were so good! ( I never tasted a nut which is so good even tasted better than the nuts being sold here in the US).

Well, when the tree started to bear nuts again we decided to go and gather some. But the nuts were hanging on the tree's high branches. They were so high we had to throw a piece of wood or stone just to make the nuts fall down.Somebody cautioned us to very carefull in throwing stones. We might hit invisible, supernatural beings in the branches. . So before we casted a stone or a branch, we chanted " Bari bari Lake, Bae!" Lake means grandpa, bae means grandma, I dont know what bari-bari means in English. But it is like saying "Excuse me" to the the invisible spirits residing on the trees' branches.(People used this phrase too in Asingan when they pass by an anthill in the fields.It means "May I pass?" to whoever is residing in that anthill. Of course ants reside there that's why these are called anthills. But others think a small powerful goblin called KA-EBB-BA-AN lives there. If you pass his "house" without asking permission, or if you kick it for fun, next day you will get sore boils all over you. If a person has uncurable skin diseases, people say it was a "punishment" from the KA-EBB-BA-AN.)

I remember vividly, during the time I was studying in Manila, I meet one of my former classmates in one of my subjects at the Far Eastern University. After our usual greetings, he asked me from where I came from. Upon learning that I am from Asingan. He asked me if I know certain Asinganians..I said I know them, when he told me their names. He said that they all died mysteriously just because they started cutting the bangar trees in the cemetery. Some died immediately, others died after a couple of weeks.

Now I believe that the bangar trees are probably the abode of supernatural beings. Or the conclave of dead people's spirits.

If those trees are still there, wanna try cutting them?

some more stories to come From Angelito E. Domaoan