It’s been days since I got sick.
They tell me that it’s because I did something to anger the spirits, but I know I would never do that, not knowingly at least.
I knew I never should have gone out, nature isn’t my thing and after this I don’t think it will ever be.
I breathe deep as the babaylan passes me.
I take special care to see what he does during the ritual. He asks for a pot with a capacity of one ganta. He then asks for broken china plates which he puts inside the pot.
Then he calls for the lolid.
One guide tells me that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The lolid are invisible spirits that roll around because they have no limbs. It would have been impossible for me to see them.
The babaylan shakes the pot, causing a great commotion as he shouts:
“Do-ol na kamong mga lolid nga natomban
(Come here now invisible beings that were stepped)
Ari na ang among guibayad
(Here now is our payment)
Kuha-a na ang inyong kaligotgot sa mada-oton
(Remove now your anger from the patient)
Ari na kamo ug uban kanako didto sa kawayanan
(Come to me now and go with me to the bamboo thickets)”
The babaylan exits the house with the pot and shakes it until he reaches the bamboo groves close by. He places the pot on the ground and removes the cover as he leaves.
It is then that the ritual is completed.
The babaylan says that it will take a few days before I get better and I sigh with relief.
Coming from all this I know I learned one lesson:
I should watch where I step.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by The Bais Forest Preserve Negritos: Some Notes On Their Rituals and Ceremonials by Timoteo S. Oracion (1967) in Studies in Philippine Anthropology (In Honor of H. Otley Beyer)
Lolid Illustration by Leandro Geniston
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