Part 1 of Appeasing the Moon Serpents
Every night the bakunawas come.
It started a month ago. Our village was no stranger to the moon serpents, and we readied our gongs and our chants to safeguard the lunar light against the beasts. We rejoiced then, not knowing the hardship we would face. I think back to those happy times and weep.
We were not ready for this.
First, they came alone. The night after the first serpent came, another took its place. It was not unknown to our people that there would be multiple bakunawas in a month following each other. Their kind thought of the moon as a plaything, greedily swallowing it up when they could.
Our people knew of two kinds of moon serpent, differentiated by their bellies. One with a transparent stomach that, when it swallowed the moon, would cause a partial eclipse, and another with a thick-walled stomach that would cause the sky to darken completely.
After the first week we were exhausted. We forced ourselves to push through the pain, and there were even times when the serpents would slip past and gorge on the moon. We chanted twice as hard until we spat blood.
But they did not stop.
We consulted the spirit-talkers among us for answers. They sat beneath their Balete trees and communed with the spirits of sea and sky.
I still remember that night. The spirit talkers cried tears of blood and spoke in a voice of darkness. They told us that this was only the beginning. The bakunawas would come, until the world was completely drenched in midnight.
And there was nothing we could do about it.
I didn’t want to believe the spirit talkers. Maybe something was wrong with their visions. I know that something had to be done to rid our village, and the world of the moon serpents, at least long enough that our village could rest.
But I don’t know what to think now that it has been a month. Our village is tired and we pray to the sun that it would rid us of these loathsome beasts, yet no reprieve comes.
‘The serpents will come as harbingers of the dark. They will take everything from us and lead us into the end,’ the possessed spirit talker’s words echo in my head.
I will not take this lying down. There must be something I can do to stop the moon serpents. I gather my things, my kris, my lucky amulet and some provisions.
As children, we were warned not to stray in too far into the bamboo forest, for there are beings there that are not what they seem. Among these are the muwa, old men and women in one of their forms, and large, hairy creatures once they set aside their illusions.
The answer must lie with them, for if the spirits will not help us, maybe the monsters will.
*In Kinaray-a folklore there are two kinds of bakunawas, one that has a transparent belly, blamed for partial lunar eclipses and one with an opaque belly, blamed for total lunar eclipses
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the bakunawa description in The Soul Book. Demetrio & Cordero-Fernando 1991.
Bakunawa (Kinaray-a) Illustration by Julius Arboleda
Online Portfolio: https://juliusarbo.weebly.com/
