Latest / Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme / The Conjure Man of Siargao

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The Conjure Man of Siargao · Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme

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  Speaker 1: Section three of Unting Hunting Stories by Sergeant Kayme. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The conjure Man
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  Speaker 1: of Chargau. When I woke that morning, the monkey was
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  Speaker 1: sitting on the foot board of my bed looking at me.
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  Speaker 1: Not one of those impudent beasts that do nothing but
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  Speaker 1: grin and chatter, but a solemn, old man looking animal
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  Speaker 1: with a fatherly, benevolent face. All the same, monkeys are
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  Speaker 1: never to be trusted, even if you know more about
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  Speaker 1: them than I could about one which had appeared unannounced
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  Speaker 1: in my sleeping room over night. Philippe, I shouted, Philippe.
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  Speaker 1: The woven bamboo walls of a Philippine house allow sound
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  Speaker 1: and air to pass freely. And my native servant promptly
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  Speaker 1: entered the room. Take that monkey away, I said, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: signor cried Philippe. Never you can cannot mean it. The
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  Speaker 1: conjure Man of Chargoo brought him to you this morning
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  Speaker 1: as a gift. Much good always comes to the house
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  Speaker 1: which the conjure man smiles on. Who in the name
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  Speaker 1: of Magellan is the conjure man and why is he
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  Speaker 1: smiling on me? I asked? He is an old, old
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  Speaker 1: man who has lived back in the mountains for many years.
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  Speaker 1: He knows more conjured charms than any other man or
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  Speaker 1: woman in Chargao. The mountain apes come to his house
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  Speaker 1: to be fed, and people say that he can talk
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  Speaker 1: with them. He left no message, but brought the monkey
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  Speaker 1: and said that the beast was for you. Well, take
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  Speaker 1: the creature out of the room while I dress. Can't
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  Speaker 1: you see, Senor Philippe replied, But the way in which
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  Speaker 1: he went about the task showed that for him at
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  Speaker 1: least a gift monkey from the cornjure man of Chargo,
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  Speaker 1: was no ordinary animal. The monkey, after gravely inspecting the
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  Speaker 1: hand which phil respectfully extended to him, condescended to step
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  Speaker 1: from the foot board of the bed upon it, and
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  Speaker 1: be born from the room. After that, the wise man,
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  Speaker 1: for I gave the little animal this name, was a
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  Speaker 1: regular member of my family, and in time I came
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  Speaker 1: to be attached to him. He was never mischievous or noisy,
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  Speaker 1: and would sit for an hour at a time on
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  Speaker 1: the back of a chair, watching me while I wrote
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  Speaker 1: or read. He was an expert in catching scorpions and
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  Speaker 1: the other nuisances of that kind which make Philippine housekeeping
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  Speaker 1: a burden to the flesh, and never after he was
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  Speaker 1: brought to me did we have any annoyance from them.
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  Speaker 1: He seemed to feel that the hunting of such vermin
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  Speaker 1: was his special duty, and in fact I learned later
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  Speaker 1: that he had been regularly trained to do this. Chiefly,
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  Speaker 1: though he helped me in the increase of prestige which
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  Speaker 1: he gave me with the natives, Philippa treated me with
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  Speaker 1: almost as much respect as he did the monkey when
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  Speaker 1: he realized that, for some inscrutable reason, the conjure man
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  Speaker 1: had chosen to favor me with his friendship. The villagers
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  Speaker 1: after that early morning visit looked upon my thatched bamboo
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  Speaker 1: hut as a sort of temple, and I suspect more
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  Speaker 1: than once crept stealthily up conveniently closed trees at night
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  Speaker 1: to try to peer between the slats of which the
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  Speaker 1: house was built, to learn in that way if they could,
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  Speaker 1: what the inner rooms of the temple were like. My
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  Speaker 1: house was up a tree, up several trees. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: like most of those in Chargo, it was built on
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  Speaker 1: posts and the sod off trunks of palm trees. The
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  Speaker 1: floor was eight feet above the ground, and we entered
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  Speaker 1: by way of a ladder which at night we drew
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  Speaker 1: up after us, or rather I drew up, for since
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  Speaker 1: Philippe slept at home, the wise Man and I had
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  Speaker 1: our house to ourselves at night. The morning the monkey came,
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  Speaker 1: Philippe was prevailed upon to borrow a ladder from another
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  Speaker 1: house and burglarized my home to the extent of putting
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  Speaker 1: the monkey in. I had been in Schergau for two
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  Speaker 1: years as the agent of a Hong Kong firm which
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  Speaker 1: was trying to build up the hemp industry there. That
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  Speaker 1: was before the American occupation of the islands. The village
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  Speaker 1: where I lived was the seaport. I would have been
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  Speaker 1: insufferably lonesome if I had not had something to interest
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  Speaker 1: me in my very abundant spare time. For during much
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  Speaker 1: of the year I was, or rather I had supposed
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  Speaker 1: I was, with the exception of the padre, the only
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  Speaker 1: white man on the island. Twice a year the Spanish
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  Speaker 1: tax collector came and stayed long enough to wring every
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  Speaker 1: particle of money which he possibly could out of the
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  Speaker 1: poor natives, and then supplemented this by taking in addition
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  Speaker 1: such articles of produce as could be easily handled and
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  Speaker 1: would have a money value in Manila. The interest which
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  Speaker 1: I have referred to as sustaining me was in the
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  Speaker 1: plan trees and flowers of the island. I was not
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  Speaker 1: a trained naturalist, but I had a fair knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: commercial tropic vegetation before I came to the island, and
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  Speaker 1: this had proved a good foundation to work on. Our
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  Speaker 1: hemp plantation was well in land, and in going to
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  Speaker 1: and from this I began to study the possibilities of
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  Speaker 1: the wild trees and plants. It ended in my being
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  Speaker 1: able to write a very fair description of the vegetation
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  Speaker 1: of this part of the archipelago, explaining how many of
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  Speaker 1: the plants might be utilized for medicine or food, and
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  Speaker 1: the trees for lumber dyestuffs or food. One who has
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  Speaker 1: not been there cannot begin to understand the possibilities of
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  Speaker 1: the forests under the hands of a man who really
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  Speaker 1: knows them. One of the first things which interested me
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  Speaker 1: was a bet Philippe made with me that he could
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  Speaker 1: serve me a whole meal, sufficient and palatable, and use
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  Speaker 1: nothing but bamboo. In doing this, the only thing Philippe
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  Speaker 1: asked to have to work with was a machette, a
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  Speaker 1: sharp native sword. With this he walked to the nearest
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  Speaker 1: clump of bamboo, split open a dry joint, and cutting
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  Speaker 1: out two sticks of a certain peculiar shape, made a
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  Speaker 1: fire by rubbing them together. Having got his fire, he
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  Speaker 1: split another large green joint, the center of which he
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  Speaker 1: hollowed out. This he filled with water and set on
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  Speaker 1: the fire, where it could resist the action of the
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  Speaker 1: heat until the water in it boiled, just as I
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  Speaker 1: have seen water in a pitcher plant leaf in America,
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  Speaker 1: set on the coals of a blacksmith's fire, and boiled
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  Speaker 1: vigorously in this water. He stewed some fresh young bamboo shoots,
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  Speaker 1: which make a most delicious kind of greens, and finally
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  Speaker 1: made me from the wood a platter off which to eat,
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  Speaker 1: and a knife and fork to eat with. I acknowledged
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  Speaker 1: that he had won the bet. It was on one
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  Speaker 1: of the excursions which I made into the forest in
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  Speaker 1: my study of these natural resources, that I met the
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  Speaker 1: conjure man. I had been curious to see him ever
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  Speaker 1: since he had called on me that morning before I
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  Speaker 1: was awake, and left the wise man in lieu of
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  Speaker 1: a card. But inquiry of Philippe and various other natives
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  Speaker 1: invariably elicited the reply that they did not know where
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  Speaker 1: he lived. I learned afterwards that the liars went to
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  Speaker 1: him frequently for charms and medicines to use in sickness,
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  Speaker 1: at the very time they were telling me that they
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  Speaker 1: did not even know in what part of the forest
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  Speaker 1: his home was. Later events showed that fear could make
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  Speaker 1: them do what coaxing could not. It happened that one
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  Speaker 1: of my expeditions took me well up the side of
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  Speaker 1: a mountain which the natives called duil Pitt, so near
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  Speaker 1: as I could catch their pronunciation, I never saw the
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  Speaker 1: name in print. The mountain's sides were rocky enough so
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  Speaker 1: that they were not so impassable on account of the
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  Speaker 1: dense undergrowth as much of the island and was, and
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  Speaker 1: I had much less trouble than usual going forward. After
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  Speaker 1: I left the regular carabous water buffalo track, I had
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  Speaker 1: gone up the mountain for some distance, Philippe as usual
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  Speaker 1: following me. When turning to speak to him, I found
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  Speaker 1: to my amazement that the fellow was gone. How when
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  Speaker 1: or where he had disappeared I could not imagine, for
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  Speaker 1: he had answered a question of mine only a moment before.
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  Speaker 1: If I had been surprised to find myself alone. I
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  Speaker 1: was ten times more surprised to turn back again and
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  Speaker 1: find that I was not alone. A man stood in
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  Speaker 1: the path in front of me, an old man, but
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  Speaker 1: standing well erect and with keen, dark eyes, looking out
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  Speaker 1: at me from under shaggy white eyebrows. I knew at once,
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  Speaker 1: or felt, rather than you, for the knowledge was instinctive
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  Speaker 1: that this must be the conjure man of Chargao. But
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  Speaker 1: I was dumbfounded to find him, as I had supposed,
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  Speaker 1: a native, but a white man, as surely as I
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  Speaker 1: am one. Before I could pull myself together enough to
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  Speaker 1: speak to him, he spoke to me in Spanish, calling
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  Speaker 1: me by name. You see, I know your name, he said,
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  Speaker 1: and then added, as if he saw the question in
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  Speaker 1: my eyes. Yes, it was I who brought the monkey
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  Speaker 1: to your house. I knew so long as he was there,
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  Speaker 1: no man or woman on this island would molest you.
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  Speaker 1: You wonder why I did it, because in all the
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  Speaker 1: time you have been here, and in all your going
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  Speaker 1: about the island, you have never cruelly killed the animals,
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  Speaker 1: as most white men do who come here. The creatures
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  Speaker 1: of the forest are all I have had to love
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  Speaker 1: for many years, and I have liked you because you
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  Speaker 1: have spared them. How I happened to come here first,
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  Speaker 1: and why I have stayed here all these years is
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  Speaker 1: nothing to you. Quite likely you would not be so
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  Speaker 1: comfortable here alone with me if you knew anyway you
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  Speaker 1: are not to know you are alone. You see, your
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  Speaker 1: servant took good care to get out of the way
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  Speaker 1: when he knew that I was coming. How did you
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  Speaker 1: know my name? I made out to ask, And so
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  Speaker 1: much about me? The natives had told me much of
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  Speaker 1: you when they have been to me for medicines, which
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  Speaker 1: they are too thick headed to see for themselves, although
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  Speaker 1: they grow beneath their feet. Then I have seen you
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  Speaker 1: many times myself, when you have been in the forest
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  Speaker 1: and had no idea that I, or any one for
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  Speaker 1: that matter, was watching you. Why do I see you now,
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  Speaker 1: then I asked, because the desire to speak once more
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  Speaker 1: to a white man grew too strong to be resisted,
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  Speaker 1: Because you happened to come to day near my home.
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  Speaker 1: To it, which he added, with a very courteous inclination
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  Speaker 1: of his head, I hope that you will be so
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  Speaker 1: good as to accompany me. I wish that I could
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  Speaker 1: describe that strange home, so that others could see it
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  Speaker 1: as I did. Imagine a big, broad house thatched and
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  Speaker 1: built of bamboo, like all of those in Chargao, that
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  Speaker 1: the earthquakes need not shake them down, but built in
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  Speaker 1: this case upon the ground. A man to whom even
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  Speaker 1: the snakes of the forest were submissive, as they were
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  Speaker 1: to this man had no need to perch in the trees,
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  Speaker 1: as the rest of us must do in order to
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  Speaker 1: sleep in safety. Above the house, the plumy tops of
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  Speaker 1: a group of great palm trees waved in the air.
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  Speaker 1: Birds more beautiful than any I had ever seen on
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  Speaker 1: the island flirted their brilliant feathers in the trees around
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  Speaker 1: the house, and in the vines which laced the tops
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  Speaker 1: of the palm trees. Together, a troop of monkeys was chattering.
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  Speaker 1: The birds showed no fear of us, and one, a
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  Speaker 1: gorgeous parroquet, flew from the tree in which it had
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  Speaker 1: been perched and settled on the shoulder of the conjure man.
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  Speaker 1: The monkeys, when they saw us, set up a chorus
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  Speaker 1: of welcoming cries and began letting themselves down from the
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  Speaker 1: tree tops. My guide threw a handful of rice on
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  Speaker 1: the ground for the bird, and tossed a basket of
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  Speaker 1: tamarinds to where the monkeys could get them. Then, having
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  Speaker 1: placed me in a comfortable hammock woven of cocoanut fiber,
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  Speaker 1: and brought me a pipe and some excellent native tobacco,
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  Speaker 1: he slung another hammock for himself and settled down in
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  Speaker 1: it to ask me questions. Imagine telling the news of
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  Speaker 1: the world for the last quarter of a century to
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  Speaker 1: an intelligent and once well educated man who has known
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  Speaker 1: nothing of what has happened in all that time, except
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  Speaker 1: what he might learn from ignorant natives who had obtained
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  Speaker 1: their knowledge second hand from Spanish tax collectors only a
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  Speaker 1: trifle less ignorant than themselves. Just in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: a sentence, I became aware that some one was looking
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  Speaker 1: at me from the door of the house behind me,
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  Speaker 1: somebody or something I had an uncomfortable feeling that I
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  Speaker 1: did not quite know which. I twisted around in the
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  Speaker 1: hammock to where I could look. An enormous, big ape
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  Speaker 1: stood erect in the doorway, steadying herself by one hand
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  Speaker 1: placed against the door casing. She was looking at me intently,
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  Speaker 1: as if she did not just know what to do.
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  Speaker 1: My host had seen me turn in the hammock, Europa,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and then added some words which I did
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  Speaker 1: not understand. The huge beast came towards me, walking erect
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  Speaker 1: and gravely, held out a long and bony paw for
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  Speaker 1: me to shake. Then, as if satisfied that she had
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  Speaker 1: done all that hospitality her, she walked to the further
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  Speaker 1: end of the thatched verandah and stood there, looking off
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  Speaker 1: into the forest, from which there came a few minutes
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  Speaker 1: later the most unearthly and yet most human cry I
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  Speaker 1: ever heard, I sprang out of my hammock. But before
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  Speaker 1: I could ask what was that, the big ape had
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  Speaker 1: answered the cry with another one as weird as the first.
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  Speaker 1: Sit down I beg of you, my host said, that
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  Speaker 1: was only Atlas Europa's mate, calling to her to let
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  Speaker 1: us know that he is nearly home. They startled you.
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  Speaker 1: I should have introduced them to you before. Now. While
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  Speaker 1: he was still talking, another ape bigger than the first,
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  Speaker 1: came in sight beneath the palms. Europa went to meet him,
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  Speaker 1: and they came to the house together. As I am
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  Speaker 1: a living man, that enormous animal, uncanny looking creature walked
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  Speaker 1: up to me and shook hands. The conjure man had
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  Speaker 1: not spoken to him. That was certain. If any one
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  Speaker 1: had told him to do this, it must have been Europa.
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  Speaker 1: The demands of politeness satisfied, the strange couple went to
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  Speaker 1: the farther side of the verandah and squatted down in
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  Speaker 1: the shade. Can you talk with them? I suddenly made
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  Speaker 1: bold to ask, who told you? I could? The conjure
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  Speaker 1: man inquired sharply, Philippe, I said, But his question was
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  Speaker 1: the only answer my question ever received. Later, when I
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  Speaker 1: said it was time for me to start for home,
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  Speaker 1: he set me out a meal of fruit and boiled rice.
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  Speaker 1: I quite expected to hear him order Europa to wait
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  Speaker 1: on the table, but he did not. And when I
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  Speaker 1: came away and he came with me down the mountain
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  Speaker 1: as far as the Carabou's track, the two big apes
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  Speaker 1: stayed on the verandah as if to guard the house.
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  Speaker 1: When we parted at the foot of the mountain. Although
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  Speaker 1: I am sure he had enjoyed my visit, my strange
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  Speaker 1: host did not ask me to come again. And when
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  Speaker 1: he gently declined my invitation for him to come and
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  Speaker 1: see me, I did not repeat it. I had a
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  Speaker 1: feeling that it would do no good to urge him,
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  Speaker 1: and that if a time ever came when he wanted
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  Speaker 1: to see me again, he would make the wish known
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  Speaker 1: to me of his own accord. It was not more
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  Speaker 1: than a month after my visit to the mountain home
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  Speaker 1: that the Spanish tax collector came for his semi annual harvest.
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  Speaker 1: The boat which brought him would call for him a
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  Speaker 1: month later, and in the intervening time he would have
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  Speaker 1: got together all the property which could be squeezed or
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  Speaker 1: beaten out of the miserable natives. This particular man had
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  Speaker 1: been there before, and I heartily disliked him, as the
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  Speaker 1: worst of his kind I had yet seen, inasmuch as
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  Speaker 1: he represented the government to which I also had to
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  Speaker 1: pay taxes, and was, except for the Padre, about the
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  Speaker 1: only white man I saw. Unless it was when some
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  Speaker 1: of our own agents came to Chergau. I felt disgusted
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  Speaker 1: when I saw that this man had returned. He brought
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  Speaker 1: with him on this trip as a servant, a good
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  Speaker 1: or nothing native who had gone away with him six
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  Speaker 1: months before to save his neck from the just wrath
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  Speaker 1: of his own people for a crime which he had committed.
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  Speaker 1: Secure in the protection afforded by his employer's position and
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  Speaker 1: the squad of the Galog soldiers sent to help in
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  Speaker 1: collecting the taxes, this man had the effrontery to come
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  Speaker 1: back and swell about among his fellow people, any one
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  Speaker 1: of whom would have cut his throat in a minute
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  Speaker 1: if they could have done it without fear of detection
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  Speaker 1: by the tax collector. I noticed, though, that the servant
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  Speaker 1: was particularly careful to sleep in the same house with
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  Speaker 1: his master, and did not go home at night, as
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  Speaker 1: Philippe did. The government representative had a house of his own,
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  Speaker 1: which was occupied only when he was on the island.
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  Speaker 1: It was somewhat larger than the other houses of the place,
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  Speaker 1: but like them, was built on posts well up from
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  Speaker 1: the ground, and reached by a ladder which could be
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  Speaker 1: taken up at will. As I noticed it always was
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  Speaker 1: at night. When the collector had been in Chargo less
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  Speaker 1: than a week, I was surprised to have him come
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  Speaker 1: to my place one day and ask me abruptly if
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  Speaker 1: I had ever seen any big apes in my excursions
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  Speaker 1: over the island. I am obliged to confess that I
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  Speaker 1: lied to him very promptly and directly, for I told
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  Speaker 1: him at once that I never had you see. There
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  Speaker 1: had come into my mind at once what the lonely
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  Speaker 1: old man on the mountain had said about men who
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  Speaker 1: came and killed the animals he loved. And I could
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  Speaker 1: see as plainly as when I left them. There the
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  Speaker 1: two big apes sitting on the verandah of his home,
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  Speaker 1: watching us as we came down the mountain path, and
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  Speaker 1: waiting to welcome him when he came home. The wise man,
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  Speaker 1: sitting on top of the tallest piece of furniture in
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  Speaker 1: the room to which he had prompted mounted when my
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  Speaker 1: collar came in, said nothing, but his solemn eyes looked
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  Speaker 1: at me in a way which makes me half willing
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  Speaker 1: to swear that he had understood every word and countenanced
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  Speaker 1: my untruthfulness. The tax collector looked up at the monkey suspiciously,
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  Speaker 1: as if he some time might have heard how the
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  Speaker 1: animal came into my possession. As in fact I had
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  Speaker 1: reason afterwards to think he had karamba. He grunted. I
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  Speaker 1: have reason to think there are big apes here. One
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  Speaker 1: his black leg in every sense of the words servant
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  Speaker 1: has told me there is an old man here who
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: has tamed them. He says, he knows where the man
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: lives back in the mountains. If I can find a
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: big ape while I am here this time, he went on,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I mean to have him or his hide. There was
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: an agent for a museum of some kind in England
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: in Manila when I came away, and he told me
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: he would give me fifty dollars for the skin of
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: such a beast. He went on talking in this way
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: for quite a while, but I did not more than
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: half hear what he was saying, for I was trying
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: to think of some way in which I could send
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: word to the old man to guard his companions. I
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: finally decided, however, that one, though quite vile enough to
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: do such a thing, would never dare to guide his
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: employer to the conjure man's house. I did not properly
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: measure the heart of a native doubly driven by hate
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of a former master from whom he is free, and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: fear of a master by whom he is employed at
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the present time. The very next day one went to
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the conjure man's house, and, in his master's name, demanded
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: that one of the apes be brought dead or alive
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to the tax collector's office. The only answer he brought back,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: except a slashed face, on which the blood was even
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: then not dry. Was thus of father's lay his children
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: at angers bidding. The next day. I was in the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: forest all day long. When I came home in the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: edge of the evening and passed the task collector's house,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I said words which I should not wish to write
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: down here, although I almost believed that the tears which
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: were running down my cheeks at the time washed the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: record of my language off the recording Angel's book, just
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: as they would have blotted out the words upon this
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: sheet of paper. Europa, noble great animal, lay dead on
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the ground in front of the house. The slim, strong
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: paw like a right hand, which she had reached out
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to welcome me, trabbled with dirt where it had dragged
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: behind the carabou's cart in which she had been brought,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: and which had been hardly large enough to hold her
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: huge body. I knew it was Europa. I would have
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: known her anywhere, even if Philippe White with fear and rage,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: had not told me the story. When I reached home.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Juan had guided the tax collector to the mountain home
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: in an evil moment when its owner and Atlas, by
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: some chance were away. The Spaniard had shot Europa standing
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: in the door as I had seen her standing, and
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the two men had brought the body down the mountain.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I think Philippe and perhaps the other natives expected nothing
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: less than that the village, if not the whole island,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: would be destroyed by fire from the sky that night,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: or swallowed up in the earth. But the night passed
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: with perfect quiet. Not a sound was heard, nor a
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: thing done to disturb our sleep, or if as I imagined,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: was the case with some of us who did not sleep,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: our peace only in the morning, when no one was
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: seen stirring about the tax collector's house. And then it
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: grew noon, and the lattices were not opened, or the
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: ladder let. The Tagalog soldiers brought another ladder and put
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: it against the house, and I climbed up and went
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: in to find the two men who stayed there, the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Spaniard and Huan, dead on the floor, their swollen faces,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: black and awful to look at, I have seen in
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: bad dreams since on the throat of each were the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: blue marks of long, strong fingers. And the body of
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Europa was gone. End of section three recording by maricel
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Qui