AND He was born and raised in the Philippines. We moved to the USA when I was 11 years elderly. This story took place in the Philippines when I was 7 years elderly. I remember some things that happened to me, but not fully. My uncle repeated my story again later when I get a little older. And then from time to time when we have family meetings, someone from my family will leave this story again, because it was a bit stunning!
The story began when my dad and I went to visit his sister, my aunt and cousins in the province. My aunt has 3-day; One of them is my age and the other two years older than me. When we got to their home, I remember that my aunt and cousins ran out of the house to welcome us with such joy and excitement.
After the first visit, my cousins and I went outside to play Hide & Seek. My older cousin was a seeker while everyone else was hiding. My aunt's house was in the forest. Her house was surrounded by mountains and trees on trees and elevated grasses.
In the Philippines there is a belief that most Duwende's [Dwarfs] He lives in the forest or in a place where there are a lot of trees. And if you cross their path, without saying “Tabi-tabi after nuno” (which means: pardon or sorry for little people), they will cast a bad spell. It all depends on Duwende you met with. Some are nice and some are bad. If you exceed the bad Duwende, he/she can throw death at you, some can give you warts all over your body and make you ugly and hideous, so people will be disgusting and do not want to be nearby.
Return to the game in hiding and search. My cousin was a seeker and everyone was hiding. I wanted to hide where my cousin couldn't find me. So I saw it is a very enormous tree, something that seemed like a hundred years. I found a petite hole around it and hid there. Without thinking and forgetting what my elders told me about Duwende, I forgot to say what we should say and hide on a tree for a long time. After what seemed hiding forever, I left the hole and returned to the place where my cousins were. They said they gave up looking for me because they didn't find me anywhere.
That evening before dinner I did not start to feel too good. I remember chills, a lot of travel to the bathroom vomiting, and then I can honestly say that I don't remember what else happened. But my dad and my aunt told me that I was practically in a decimal for 3 days. They said that in some cases I was hallucinatory. I sweated, laughed, cried, and sometimes I talk to someone before me, as if someone was there. But there was no one there. They even took me to a local hospital, but doctors could not tell my family what was wrong with me.
So my aunt asked her children what we did outside. My cousins told my dad and aunt that everything we did was played in hide & see. They said that I had not been long and that they could not find the place where I hid. My dad and my aunt knew then that maybe I was a victim of evil Duwende. They took me to Albularyo (witch doctor) to find out what's wrong with me. As my dad explained to me, he said that as soon as they brought me to the witch's house, the witch knew that I played or something bad was in my presence.
The witch lit a candle. I took the bathtub and poured around it in all or two water. Then it mixed a few drops of special oil from a plant with water. While chanting in a strange tongue, she took a lit candle and poured melted wax into the bathtub with water and oil. When she poured the wax, the figure began to form. My uncle said that the melted wax on the water formed a huge tree with a hole. Inside the hole there was a man (who was supposed to be me), and around me there was about 4 or 5 DUVENDE. Some people where they stand there, staring at me, and some looked like they were throwing something at me.
So the witch doctor advised my family to take me back where it was a enormous tree and said “Tabi-tabi after Nuno” and brought a few fruits to the victims. On the same day, my dad and my aunt took me to the tree and justified me from the wrong actions and brought a lot of fruit with them. I just remember that I woke up the next day without any memories of what happened to me!
