I live in Southern Philippines. Exotic creatures , caves , myths and legends. Our forests still has many secrets untold. When our anscestors were walking the earth, they encountered passed through myths and legends through words. Our ancestors worshipped nature and believed that everything had a life force of its own. This religion is called animism, and instead of statues of saints like what we have now, they had anitos, like the Bul-ol or rice god of the Ifugaos, to which they would give food offerings called maganilo so that they will be blessed with great harvests. To bless these offerings, enter the babaylan and the Asug or male priests offer dances and songs and sometimes talk to the spirits that they can see. And they all believe that all “engkantos” are evil, engkantos are actually any spirit that the babaylan can talk to. But some engkantos are nice. They believe that some of them mostly chatted with them. But there is one evil engkanto . . .

. . .They can be found in nature, but a surefire way to locate one is to find an old balete tree and wait for them to appear…only to find out that what appeared isn’t a forest spirit but a “dwende.” Some say that they are 3-4 feet tall and are actually miners from Southern Europe who ventured into European highlands in search of bronze. Southerners are shorter than Northerners, a description that may have influenced visitors into thinking that they are dwarves.

Please wait for part 2. I have to sleep now and I may continue tomorrow.