Engkantada (Waray)

“Stop! The child can’t handle the cold!” the woman shouted across the river.

It was a strange sight to her, a deviation from her daily routine. Earlier this morning she had gotten up to walk to Magsohong to hear mass. When she reached the river, she heard the cry of a small child and curiosity filled her.

She saw a beautiful woman bathing her child and surely, she had to stop this. It was too early in the morning and the river was freezing cold, the child would not be able to bear the temperature. Her shouts reached the woman.

And the beautiful woman vanished.

This was the work of magic, she knew in her soul, for no mortal could be capable of disappearing into thin air.

But even then, the beautiful woman could not possibly just leave her child alone. Through the forest her cries echoed, “Return to your child! Come back!”

Being a woman of faith, she could not, in good conscience leave the baby alone to fend for itself. She took the young child and brought it to the church at Magsohong. It was then that she decided to raise the child and she asked the priest to baptize the baby then and there.

And that night she dreamed.

It was as if she was wrapped in light. She was face to face with the beautiful woman in the river. No words were spoken, but they didn’t need to be. The woman knew what she should do. For better or worse, she would take care of the child, for it was the will of the beautiful woman.

She knew in her bones that the beautiful woman was something more than human, but she would not waste time with idle thought.

As the years passed the child blossomed into a beautiful young woman, though there were things that made the woman wonder about the child’s origins.

Every morning at the break of dawn, as she was about to prepare breakfast for the child she would go into the kitchen and see various foods prepared for them. She didn’t see anyone come into their house and she wondered who would do such a thing. Years passed and she didn’t question the appearance of the food, but something inside her burned with curiosity.

One day all of this came to an end. The beautiful woman reappeared in front of the woman’s house.

The beautiful woman gave splendid riches to the woman that raised her child, but the child had to return to her true mother.
Their goodbyes were not easy. The woman looked at the girl that she took upon as her daughter and cried. She had told herself that this day would eventually come, that the woman from her dreams would take her adopted child away to live as their kind do.

And the child loved her adopted mother as well. They held each other tight, counting down the seconds until they finally had to go.

The woman remembered the first day she laid eyes on her adopted daughter. That day at the river was the start of her blessings. She had lived a full life with the child and it was time to begin a new chapter in her life.

That chapter would not start empty handed, for the beautiful woman rewarded her with riches too numerous to mention.
All the gold in the world cannot replace the laughter of a child, but the woman knew the child was never hers to begin with.

She took the riches from the beautiful woman, thanked God for her blessings and lived life to the fullest until her last days.
The story of the woman and the enchanted child reached the ears of the farthest denizens of Samar, and the barrio that eventually rose in the area, Canipulan, was home to this tale of blessings and magic. This is why people of that area believe in the enchanted race.

For you never know where they are or what they will do. The enchanted people live on the edges of the world, in the realm of the unreal.

Waiting for their chance to play with humans.

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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza

Adapted from ‘The Fairy’s Child’ in Philippine Folk Literature: The Legends. Eugenio. 2002.

Engkantada (Waray) Illustration by Issa Barte
InstaGram: @issabarte.art

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