(Note: The story that follows is a work of fiction and should not be quoted in part or in whole as a traditional Manobo narrative. This is the second of three parts. The first part was posted the previous Monday, and the last part will be posted next Monday.)
Tomigel’s mother objected to the relationship, knowing that human beings would persecute her daughter, as what they had done to her. She did not succeed, though, in separating the lovers. She died not long after. Living in the harsh confines of the jungle had taken its toll on her frail, mortal body.
The hunter brought Tomigel home as a wife. The couple let the people believe that she was from a faraway village and did not mention anything about Tomigel’s life in seclusion with her banished mother. Though Tomigel’s ways were a little peculiar, the other people did not take much notice, for the hunter built a hut for him and his future family at the edge of the jungle and away from the center of the village.
For quite a long time, the hunter and Tomigel lived in bliss, and they were blessed with a son, whom they named Tomelos. Tomigel was half-spirit, and Tomelos was a quarter spirit, so the mother and son had the longevity of immortals. The father, however, had a body that was vulnerable to diseases and deteriorated with age. He passed away while Tomelos was still a kid.
Tomigel and Tomelos eventually lived with the human beings. Though the mother and son did not move to the village, the village came to them. The population of human beings grew, and from the center of the village, more huts were built outward, up to the edge of the jungle. Fortunately for Tomigel, by the time she had neighbors a stone’s throw away, she had been exposed to human beings long enough. She had adopted their ways and could pass off as pure human.
Being half-spirit half-human, Tomigel could understand and communicate with both groups. She became aware of the helplessness of human beings against the forces of nature and the power of spirits to control the same. She used this knowledge to help human beings. Whenever heavy rains or long droughts came, she would see to it that her neighbors were safe and had enough provisions. She would dance around the fields and sprinkle magical dust on the crops so that the grains would cling to the stalks and continue to grow, unhampered by the elements. She would play an invisible flute, the music from which lured game to the village, making hunting a less arduous task. Oftentimes, because the tasks were too great for her to do alone, she would ask for assistance from the spirits.
Tomigel’s acts of helping her neighbors became so frequent that the human beings started to notice that their lives had become much easier. It also did not take long for them to associate Tomigel’s presence with the occurrence of the blessings. Eventually, Tomigel had to admit that spirits really existed and she could talk to them because she was one of them.
By this time, the story about Tomigel’s mother—“the woman impregnated by a beast and driven out of the village”—had become a legend. All the people who had seen the woman had died of old age. Tomigel’s neighbors realized that the story was indeed true and Tomigel was the child of the spurned woman.
The human beings distanced themselves from Tomigel and Tomelos, who was a young man now. Though they could not bring themselves to persecute Tomigel, because they had seen how good her heart was and how valuable to them her help had been, they doubted her story. They could not accept that the parents and grandparents they revered had been wrong.
In no time, though, compelled by need and indolence, the people came back to Tomigel and asked for help. Tomigel was only too willing to lend a hand. The news of Tomigel’s gift spread to other villages. Later on, the requests she received became so great in number and scale that she had to spend most of her day entertaining the supplicants. Tomelos was left with the responsibility of securing his and his mother’s daily food, which he did with a happy heart, since he had become a skilled hunter much like his departed father. Tomigel never received anything in exchange for the help she was giving because it never occurred to the people to thank her and she would refuse if they had offered. Tomelos, meanwhile, could not see or talk to the spirits, probably because only a quarter of himself shared their nature.
Because of the overwhelming number of requests, Tomigel had to stop doing some of them herself and spend all her time instead on communicating with spirits. The requests had also become so complex that they had to be accomplished by several spirits or by spirits from faraway lands. Tomigel later developed a systematic ritual for summoning spirits, and the ritual came to be known as beliyan.
The people took Tomigel’s help for granted. And like most things given free and readily, they abused it. Their demands became unreasonable. At first, they only came to Tomigel for food whenever they had exhausted all means to find such and came home empty-handed. Later on, they demanded that the spirits provide their daily food while they waited for mealtime lying in a rattan hammock. Much later on, they wanted the spirits to stock each house with enough food to last for at least forty years. At first, all they wanted was for the spirits to identify what herbs could heal their ailments and where the herbs could be found. Later on, they wanted the spirits themselves to gather the herbs and cook the potion. Much later on, they wanted the spirits to bring back to life their dead kin.
Human beings started to regard spirits as not much above animals and plants. Because the spirits responded to the requests without any reservations, the people started considering the spirits mere servants obliged to follow them, not as higher beings to plead for blessings from. Whenever a spirit was delayed in granting a wish, the people grumbled. Whenever a spirit failed altogether, the people denigrated all spirits in the vilest of terms.
The spirits decided they’d had enough. They ignored the demands of the petulant people.
The people were outraged. Some accused Tomigel of begrudging the powers of spirits to them. Others accused her of being incompetent, that she had lost her ability as a medium. Tomigel pleaded the spirits to understand the people and resume their deeds, but the spirits were adamant. They told her they would help the people again only if the latter showed humility—if they fell on their knees, asked for forgiveness for their arrogance, and offered something in exchange for each request.
Instead of seeing the error in their ways, the human beings were appalled. They turned their backs on Tomigel and the spirits. They told her they could live without her and her invisible friends. Soon the people faced many difficulties. Having used to being given whatever they wanted, they were no longer able to fend for themselves. Many of them starved to death or succumbed to illnesses. For this and other misfortunes, they blamed Tomigel. Carrying torches, they thronged to her hut, intending to burn her and the hut down.
Tomelos came to his mother’s rescue. He had not shown any superhuman abilities before, so to everyone’s surprise, including Tomelos himself, extraordinary force came out of him. He snuffed out the torches with one blow, and he flung the people away with one swipe of hand. His power as a part-spirit must have lain dormant in him, and it was unleashed only now. Horrified by Tomelos’s strength, the mob retreated.
The people remembered again the story about Tomigel’s mother. They began to speculate that Tomigel’s father must have been a beast indeed and Tomelos inherited the beast’s strength. They began to suspect, and soon believed, that whenever Tomigel conducted a beliyan, she was calling for the help of lowly, filthy beasts, not powerful spirits.
The rumors reached Tomigel’s ears, and at last, her eyes were opened to the cruelty human hearts were capable of. She thought it better to leave the human beings and dwell with the spirits for good. The spirits rejoiced her decision. However, because Tomigel had a mortal body, the people could still see and talk about her even if she ignored them. The only way for Tomigel to be completely rid of the people was to separate the realm of spirits and the realm of human beings. Doing this, however, seemed impossible.
Of course, the spirits could drive away and even annihilate the human beings, but this course of action never crossed the minds of the spirits, for purity and kindness dwelt in their hearts. The solution they came up with was to move their home to another place. They must live far above the earth! The spirits began to prepare for the greatest migration in history.
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