How Negritos Come To Fear The Forest

Tales of a Filipina childhood:

E.: One day, when I was nine years old, I came home from school, but everyone was gone - my parents and all my cousins - everyone was gone. I called out "Mama! Mama!", but no one answered. Where did they all go? I thought, "maybe everyone went next door to the nearby farm," so I walked over there. They grew lots of abaca (used for making rope), and coconut and banana trees there. The forest was thick there. As I got closer, I heard chopping, like with a machete, and I thought "maybe everyone is getting coconuts from the trees, and chopping them up to get coconut meat (copra), and so that's why everyone left." The forest was getting thicker and thicker. Then, the chopping stopped....

Suddenly, I was face-to-face with a negrito child - girl or boy, I don't know. M-a-a-a-r-r-r-c-c-c! The negrito was black, black, black, and real short! I looked at the negrito, and the negrito looked at me. I shouted to the top of my lungs "Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!" and the negrito shouted back "Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!" The negrito child turned and ran away as fast as it could, and I turned and ran away as fast as I could in the other direction."

M.: You shouted through the top of your lungs?

E.: I shouted TO the top of my lungs!!!! M-A-R-C! I never, ever saw a negrito before!!

M.: But there are lots of negritos in the Philippines.

E.: Yes, but I never knew any. All my friends would always tell me, "you are too snobby."

M.: Where did the negrito come from?

E.: I don't know - maybe the mountain, or the jungle, or the wild - derness.

M.: Poor negrito!

E.: I ran all the way home. When I got there, my mother and everyone was there. They said everyone had been there all along, and they hadn't gone anywhere. M-A-R-C! In the Philippines, we believe spirits can hide people!!!! I think the spirit of the duwende (dwarf) hid my mother and my family from sight!!!!