BLOG POST 4: Forest spirits

Have you ever heard of some stories about creatures that lives within the forest? These creatures that, for some reason, likes to interact with humans for a certain reason. The question is, what is it that they want? Why are they keep on crossing from their world just to go to ours? There may be a thousands of reasons but we all know that we are not the only living beings in this world.

Ever since I was a kid, my parents, aunts, uncles, and my cousins would always remind me to not point my finger on any tree. At first they did not explain this because all they said was "It's bad to point that's all" but I was not satisfied from their answers so I kept on asking them the same question until one of my aunt told me the reason. The reason behind it was quite common, because after all pointing is rude right? That concept also applies to the other living beings in this world such as the Engkantos. You wouldn't want to offend someone especially the engkantos. I've read an article entitled "Encountering the Engkanto" by Radel Paredes on a site called newsinfo.inquirer.net. It stated the description of an engkanto as a tall, golden haired, white skinned creature that is usually dressed in expensive clothing. According to this article, engkantos are capable of manipulating human dreams by enchantments. engkantos live in a parallel ghost city where in it is located within the cities of the humans as well. The author gave a very short story about a man named Joshua Cabrera who experienced the enchantments of the engkantos. He said that he dreamed that he was standing in the middle of a highway before a black limousine. A woman with golden hair and skin as bright as the moon came out of the car. The woman invited her inside of the car and when he came inside the car he saw food on a small table. When he got a bite from the food he felt that the taste was a bit bland so he asked for salt. The woman screamed after hearing the word "salt". The scream was so loud that it woke him up. So apparently, aside from the aswangs and the manananggals, engkantos are also weak against salt.

Engkantos' cities are believed to be located in the banyan tree. The banyan tree (also known as the Balete tree) is often associated with supernatural beings after all. An article entitled "Centuries-old balete tree attracts tourist in Aurora town" by Marjorie Gorospe on ph.news.yahoo.com stated that there was a time that a family wanted to cut down a balete tree but the person that is assigned to use to do the job got ill so they thought the tree was inhabited by engkantos. The family decided to let the tree grow. The tree is now a tourist attraction and is called the Millennium Tree. It is located at Maria Aurora, Philippines.



As a conclusion for this blog post, even the supernatural beings want to protect the environment so why would we, the humans, destroy something that we really need. This might also prove that there are really creatures that lives among us because of the articles that I've read and shared. Even back then, there are a lot of people who claims to see or encountered engkantos. Do not forget about pointing your finger to the trees of the forest is rude because you'll never know when you are offending an engkanto until they make you suffer for what you did.