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The Anting-Anting of Captain Von Tollig · Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme

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  Speaker 1: Section one of Unting Unting Stories by Sergeant Kayme. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Unting Anting
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  Speaker 1: of Captain von Tolig. There had been a battle between
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  Speaker 1: the American forces and the Tagalogs, and the natives have
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  Speaker 1: been driven back. The stone church of Santa Maria, around
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  Speaker 1: which the engagement had been hottest, and far beyond which
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  Speaker 1: the native lines had now been driven, had been turned
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  Speaker 1: into a hospital for the wounded. The Galogs left by
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  Speaker 1: their comrades on the field. Beneath a broad thatched shed
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  Speaker 1: behind the church lay the bodies of the dead, stiff
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  Speaker 1: and still, under the coverings of cocoanut fiber cloth thrown
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  Speaker 1: hastily over them. The light of a full tropic moon
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  Speaker 1: threw the shadow of the roof over them like a
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  Speaker 1: soft brown velvet pall. They were to be buried between
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  Speaker 1: daybreak and sunrise, that the men who bare them might
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  Speaker 1: escape the heat of the day. The American picket lines
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  Speaker 1: had been posted a quarter of a mile beyond the church,
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  Speaker 1: near which no other guards had been placed. Not long
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  Speaker 1: after midnight, a surgeon, one of the two men left
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  Speaker 1: on duty in the church, happened to look out through
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  Speaker 1: a broken window towards the shed, and in the shadow
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  Speaker 1: against the open moonlight flooded field beyond, saw something moving.
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  Speaker 1: Looking close, he could make out the slim brown figure
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  Speaker 1: of a native, passing swiftly from one covered form to another,
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  Speaker 1: and turning back the cocoanut fiber cloth to look at
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  Speaker 1: each dead man's face. Calling the man who was working
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  Speaker 1: with him, the surgeon pointed out the man beneath the
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  Speaker 1: shed to him that fellow has no business there, he said,
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  Speaker 1: he has slipped through the lines in some way. He
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  Speaker 1: may be a spy, but even if he is not,
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  Speaker 1: he is here for no good. We must capture him,
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  Speaker 1: all right, was the answer. You go around the church
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  Speaker 1: one way and I will come the other. When the
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  Speaker 1: surgeon outside the hospital reached the place where he could
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  Speaker 1: see the shed again, the tagalog had ceased his search.
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  Speaker 1: He had found the body he was looking for, and
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  Speaker 1: sunk down on his knees beside it, was searching for
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  Speaker 1: something in the clothing which covered the dead man's breast.
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  Speaker 1: A moment later, he had seen the men stealing towards
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  Speaker 1: him from the church, had cleared the open space beneath
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  Speaker 1: the shed at a leap, and was off in the moonlight,
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  Speaker 1: running towards the outposts, the surgeons swore, and one fired
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  Speaker 1: a shot after him from his revolver. Might as well
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  Speaker 1: shoot at the shadow of that palm tree. The one
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  Speaker 1: who had shot said, anyway, it will wake up the
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  Speaker 1: pickets and they may catch him. What do you suppose
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  Speaker 1: he was? After he added, don't know, said his companion.
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  Speaker 1: You wait and I'll get a lantern and we will see.
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  Speaker 1: The lantern's light showed the clothing parted over a dead
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  Speaker 1: man's body, and the fragment of a leather thong which
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  Speaker 1: had about his neck with broken ends. Whatever had been
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  Speaker 1: fastened to the thong was gone, carried away by the
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  Speaker 1: Tagalog when he had fled. The next morning, a prisoner
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  Speaker 1: was brought to head quarters. The picquet who caught him, Sir.
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  Speaker 1: The officer who brought the prisoner reported, said he heard
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  Speaker 1: a shot near the church where the wounded natives are,
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  Speaker 1: and then this man came running from that way. The
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  Speaker 1: surgeons who had been on night duty at the hospital
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  Speaker 1: were sent for and their story heard search the man,
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  Speaker 1: said the officer in command. The natives submitted to the
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  Speaker 1: ordeal in sullen silence, and made no protest when from
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  Speaker 1: some place within his clothing there was taken a small,
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  Speaker 1: dirty leather bag, from which two broken ends of a
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  Speaker 1: leather thong still hung only. His eyes followed the officer's
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  Speaker 1: hands wolfishly as they untied the string which fastened the bag,
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  Speaker 1: and took from it a little leather bound book, not
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  Speaker 1: more than two inches square. The officer looked at the
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  Speaker 1: book curiously. It was very thin, and upon the tiny
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  Speaker 1: pages yellow with age. There was writing still legible, although
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  Speaker 1: the years which had stained the paper yellow had faded
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  Speaker 1: the ink. He spelled out a few words, but they
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  Speaker 1: were in a language which he did not know. Take
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  Speaker 1: the man to the prison, he said, I will keep
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  Speaker 1: the book. Later in the day the officer called an
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  Speaker 1: orderly send Lieutenant Smith to me. He said, By one
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  Speaker 1: of the odd chances of a war ware like that
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  Speaker 1: in the Philippines, the forces at first must be hastily raised.
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  Speaker 1: Captain van Thalick and the subordinate officer for whom he
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  Speaker 1: had sent had been citizens of the same town. The
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  Speaker 1: captain had been a business man, shrewd and keen, too keen,
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  Speaker 1: some of his neighbors sometimes said of him. Lieutenant Smith
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  Speaker 1: was a college man, a law student. It had been
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  Speaker 1: said of them in their native town, that both had
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  Speaker 1: paid court to the same young woman, and that the
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  Speaker 1: younger man had won in the race. If this were so,
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  Speaker 1: there had been no evidence on the part of either
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  Speaker 1: in the service to show that they were conscious of
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  Speaker 1: the fact. There had been little communication between them. It
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  Speaker 1: is true, but when there had been, the subordinate officer
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  Speaker 1: never overlooked the deference to his superior I wish you
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  Speaker 1: would take this book, said Captain von Tollig, after he
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  Speaker 1: had told briefly how the volume happened to be in
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  Speaker 1: his possession, and see if you can translate it. I
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  Speaker 1: suspect it must be something of value from the risk
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  Speaker 1: this man took to get it, possibly despatches from one
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  Speaker 1: native leader to another, the nature of which we ought
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  Speaker 1: to know. The young man took the queer little book
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  Speaker 1: and turned the pages curiously. I hardly think what is
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  Speaker 1: written here can be despatches, he said. The paper in
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  Speaker 1: the ink both looked too old for that. The words
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be Latin bad Latin, too, I should say.
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  Speaker 1: I think it is what the natives call an unting.
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  Speaker 1: Unting that is a charm of some kind. Evidently this
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  Speaker 1: one did not save the life of the man who
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  Speaker 1: wore it. Probably it is a very famous talisman, else
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  Speaker 1: they would not have run such a risk to try
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  Speaker 1: to get it back. Can you read it? Not off hand?
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  Speaker 1: With your permission? I will take it to my tent,
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  Speaker 1: and I think I can study it out there. Do
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  Speaker 1: so when you make English of it. I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: know what it says. I am getting interested in it.
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  Speaker 1: The lieutenant bowed and went away. Bring that prisoner to me,
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  Speaker 1: the captain ordered. Later in the day. Do you want
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  Speaker 1: to go free? He asked, when the Tagalog had been brought.
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  Speaker 1: If the seignor wills, what is that book? The man
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  Speaker 1: made no answer. Tell me what the book is and
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  Speaker 1: why you wanted it, and you may go home. Will
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  Speaker 1: the seignor give me back the book to carry home
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  Speaker 1: with me? I don't know, Elsie later about that. It
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  Speaker 1: was an unting, unting the strongest we ever knew. The
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  Speaker 1: man who had it was a chief when he was dead.
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  Speaker 1: I wanted it. If this was such a powerful charm,
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  Speaker 1: why was the man killed who had it on? Why
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  Speaker 1: didn't it save him? The tagalog was silent. Come tell
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  Speaker 1: me that, and you may go and have the book. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: and have the book. It is a very great unting
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  Speaker 1: unting it never fails in its time. The man who
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  Speaker 1: made it, a famous wise man very many years ago,
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  Speaker 1: watched one whole month for the secrets which the stars
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  Speaker 1: told him to write in it. But the last night,
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  Speaker 1: the night of the full moon, he fell asleep, and
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  Speaker 1: on that one day and night of the month. The
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  Speaker 1: unting anting has no good in it for the man
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  Speaker 1: who wears it. Else the chief would not be dead.
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  Speaker 1: You made the attack that day? Are people never would?
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Smith to see you, sir, unorderly announced? All right?
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  Speaker 1: Sent him in and take this fellow out sighed, But
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  Speaker 1: Signor the man's eyes played for him as loudly as
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  Speaker 1: his words, the unting anting. You said, I could have it,
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  Speaker 1: and go Yes, I know, go out and wait? What
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  Speaker 1: do you report, Lieutenant? Can you read it? Yes, this
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  Speaker 1: is very singular, there is no doubt. But the book
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  Speaker 1: is now nothing but a charm. Yes, I found that out,
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  Speaker 1: But I feel sure it was originally something more than that,
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  Speaker 1: something very strange. What it purports to be the record
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  Speaker 1: of the doings of a man who seems to have
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  Speaker 1: died many years ago, written by himself. It tells a
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  Speaker 1: strange story which if true may be of great importance now.
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  Speaker 1: To make sure the record would be kept, the writer
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  Speaker 1: made the natives believe it was a charm, while its
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  Speaker 1: being written in Latin, kept the nature of its message
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  Speaker 1: from them. Have you read it most of it? Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: a word is gone faded out, and a few words
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  Speaker 1: I cannot translate. I don't remember all my latter I
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  Speaker 1: have written out a translation as nearly as I can
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  Speaker 1: make it out. He handed a paper to the captain,
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  Speaker 1: who read, I, Christopher Lunes, am about to die once.
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  Speaker 1: I had not thought that this would be my end,
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  Speaker 1: a tropic island with only savages about me. I had
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  Speaker 1: thought of something very different, since I got the gold. Perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: after all, there is a curse on treasure got as
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  Speaker 1: that was. If there is, and the sin is to
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  Speaker 1: be expiated in another world, I shall know it soon.
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  Speaker 1: I did not. Here. There was a break, and the
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  Speaker 1: story went on. All the others are dead, and the
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  Speaker 1: wreck of our ship has broken to bits and has disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: Before the ruin was complete, though I had brought the
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  Speaker 1: gold on shore and buried it, no one saw me.
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  Speaker 1: The natives ran from us at first, far into the forest,
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  Speaker 1: and the words which would have finished the sentence were wanting,
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  Speaker 1: where three islands lie out at sea in a line
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  Speaker 1: with a promontory like a buffalo's head. I sunk the
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  Speaker 1: gold deep in the sands at the foot of the cliff,
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  Speaker 1: and dug a rude cross in the rock above it.
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  Speaker 1: Some day I hope a white man guided by this
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  Speaker 1: will find the treasure. And there was no more, said
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  Speaker 1: the lieutenant when the captain, coming to this sudden end,
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  Speaker 1: looked up at him. The last few pages of the
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  Speaker 1: book are gone, torn out or worn loose and lost.
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  Speaker 1: What I have translated was scattered over many pages, with
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  Speaker 1: disconnected signs and characters written in between. The book was
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  Speaker 1: evidently intended to be looked upon as a mystic talisman,
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  Speaker 1: probably that the natives, on this account might be sure
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  Speaker 1: to take good care of it. All of the Tagalogs
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  Speaker 1: who can procure them carry these unting un thing. Some
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  Speaker 1: are thought to be much more powerful than others. Evidently
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  Speaker 1: this was looked upon as an unusually valuable charm. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: they are only a button sewed up in a rag.
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  Speaker 1: One of the prisoners we took not long ago, or
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  Speaker 1: a broad piece of cloth over his breast, on which
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  Speaker 1: was stained A picture of a man killing another with
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  Speaker 1: a baron. He believed that while he wore it, no
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  Speaker 1: one could kill him with that weapon, and thought the
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  Speaker 1: only reason he was not killed in the skirmish in
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  Speaker 1: which he was captured was because he had the anting
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  Speaker 1: anting on. Do you believe the story which the book
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  Speaker 1: tells is true? The captain inquired, I don't know. Some
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  Speaker 1: days I think I could believe anything about this country.
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  Speaker 1: Have you shown the book to any one else or
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  Speaker 1: told any one what you make out of it? No?
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  Speaker 1: Do not do so. Then that is all. Now I
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  Speaker 1: will keep the book, he added, putting the little brown
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  Speaker 1: volume inside his coat. Several days later, the officer in
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  Speaker 1: charge of the quarters where the native prisoners were confined
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  Speaker 1: reported to the captain. One of the prisoners keeps begging
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  Speaker 1: to be allowed to see you, sir, he said. He
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  Speaker 1: says you told him he might go free. Shall I
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  Speaker 1: let him be brought up here? Yes? Send him up, well,
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  Speaker 1: said Captain von Tollig. When the man appeared at headquarters
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  Speaker 1: and the orderly who had brought him had retired the
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  Speaker 1: little book, signor you said I could have it back
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  Speaker 1: and go. Yes, you may go. I will have you
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  Speaker 1: sent safely through our lines, but the book I have
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  Speaker 1: decided to keep. The man's face grew ash colored with
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  Speaker 1: disappointment or anger. But Signor, he protested, you told me,
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  Speaker 1: I know, but I have changed my mind. You can
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  Speaker 1: go if you wish, without the book or not, just
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  Speaker 1: as you choose. Then I will stay, the Tagalog said, slowly,
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  Speaker 1: adding a moment later, my people will surely slay me
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  Speaker 1: if I go back to them without the book. Very well.
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  Speaker 1: The captain called for the guard and the man was
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  Speaker 1: taken back to prison, but later in the day an
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  Speaker 1: order was sent that he be released from confinement and
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  Speaker 1: put to work with some other captured natives about the
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  Speaker 1: camp during the next two or three weeks. A stranger
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  Speaker 1: to tagall methods of warfare might very reasonably have thought
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  Speaker 1: the war was ended, so far as this island at
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  Speaker 1: least was concerned. The natives seemed to have disappeared mysteriously.
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  Speaker 1: Even the men who had been longest in the service
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  Speaker 1: were puzzled to account for the sudden ceasing of the
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  Speaker 1: constant skirmishing which had been the rule before. The picket
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  Speaker 1: lines were carried forward, and the location of the camp
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  Speaker 1: followed from time to time as scouting parties returned to
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  Speaker 1: report the country clear of foes. The advance would have
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  Speaker 1: been even more rapid except for the necessity of keeping
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  Speaker 1: communication open at the rear with the harbor, where two
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  Speaker 1: American gun boats lay at anchor. As a result, one
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  Speaker 1: of the advances of the camp was pitched one night
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  Speaker 1: upon a broad plateau looking out upon the sea. Inland,
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  Speaker 1: the ground rose to the thickly forest clad slope of
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  Speaker 1: a mountain, to which the American officers felt sure that
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  Speaker 1: the Galogs had finally retreated. Early in the evening, when
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  Speaker 1: the heat of the day had passed, a group of
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  Speaker 1: these officers were standing with Captain van Thalig in the
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  Speaker 1: center of the camp, examining the mountain slope with their glasses.
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  Speaker 1: What did you say was the name of this place,
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  Speaker 1: one of the officers asked, a native deserter who had
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  Speaker 1: joined the American forces and at times had served as
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  Speaker 1: a guide to the expedition. That is Mount Togonda, he answered,
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  Speaker 1: pointing to the hills before them, and this, swinging his
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  Speaker 1: hand around the plateau on which the camp's tents were pitched,
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  Speaker 1: is La Plaza del Carabaos. The Captain's eyes met those
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  Speaker 1: of Lieutenant Smith La Plaza del Carabaos means the square
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  Speaker 1: of the water buffaloes. As if with one thought, the
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  Speaker 1: two men turned and looked out to sea. The sun
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  Speaker 1: had set against the glowing western sky. A huge rock
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  Speaker 1: at the plateau's farthest limit was outlined, rough carved as
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  Speaker 1: the rock had been by the chisel of nature. The
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  Speaker 1: likeness to a water buffalo's head was striking Beyond the rock.
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  Speaker 1: Three islands lay in a line. Upon the sunset lighted water.
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  Speaker 1: Far out from the foot of the cliff. The two
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  Speaker 1: men could hear the waves beating upon the sand. This
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  Speaker 1: is an excellent place for a camp, the captain said,
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  Speaker 1: when he turned to his men again, I think we
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  Speaker 1: shall find it best to stay here for some time.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps a month of respite from attack had made the
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  Speaker 1: sentries careless. Perhaps it was only that that the Galogs
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  Speaker 1: had spent the time in gathering strength. No one can
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  Speaker 1: ever know just how that wicked slaughter of our soldiers
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  Speaker 1: in the campaign on that island did come about. That
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  Speaker 1: the Galogs swept down into the camp that night as
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  Speaker 1: a hurricane might have blown the leaves of the mountain
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  Speaker 1: trees across the plateau, and then were gone. Again, leaving
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  Speaker 1: death and wounds worse than death behind them. When our
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  Speaker 1: men had rallied and had come back across the battleground,
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  Speaker 1: they found, among the others the captain lying dead outside
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  Speaker 1: his tent. A Tagalog dagger lay beside the body, and
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  Speaker 1: the uniform had been torn apart until the officer's bare
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  Speaker 1: breast showed. The first full moon of the month shone
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  Speaker 1: down upon the dead man's white, still face. End of
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  Speaker 1: section one recording by maricel Cree