Devils, Famillars and Spaniards: Spheres of Power and the Supernatural in the World of

Seberina Candelaria and Her Village in Early 19th Century Philippines

Author(s): Greg Bankoff
Source: Journal of Social History, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 37-55
Published by: Oxford University Press
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SPHERES
OF
FAMILIARS
AND SPANIARDS:
DEVILS,
IN THE WORLD
OF
AND THE SUPERNATURAL
POWER
AND HER VILLAGE
IN EARLY
SEBERINA
CANDELARIA
PHILIPPINES
19TH CENTURY
By Greg Bankoff

The University

of Auckland

Historians are rarely permitted insight into the inner world of the imagination
of those long dead. While the activities and deeds of a prominent few are well
documented, the jumble of desires, fears and beliefs with which they perceived
and attempted to make sense of the world around them is little understood.
This is especially so in the case of the common people whose lives, let alone
thoughts, are often the subject of historical speculation, especially in the nonwestern world where written records are few and their preservation haphazard.
The trial, then, of Seberina Candelaria is deserving of our attention in all these
respects. She is a young woman aged twenty-two, otherwise historically unremarkable, illiterate, from a largely insignificant rural community, Obando, north
of Malabon and west of Polo, in the province of Bulacan on the archipelago's
principal island of Luzon, who, in 1808, is arraigned before an ecclesiastical
court accused of associating with the Devil who appears to her in the form of
a demonic familiar. The detailed transcripts of this case, that extend to nearly
seventy closely hand-written pages, contain not only Seberina's compelling ac?
count of how she entered into compact with the Devil, but also the evidence of
her neighbours and fellow villagers who sought to know the future or that which
was hidden from them by currying favour with her familiar. As the case unfolds,
the proceedings also provide insight into the beliefs and opinions of her examhad penetrated ecclesiastical
iners, revealing to what extent the Enlightenment
views in the Philippines by the turn of the nineteenth century.
While the nature of the power structure within municipalities has been the
object of considerable scholarship,1 the question of dissent and opposition in the
village has received far less attention apart from the figure ofthe tulisan or bandit
as social avenger.2 But James Scott and Michael Adas write about another type
of resistance, those commonplace
forms of protest that popular struggle takes
when it does not seek to openly confrbnt the forces that dominate. What the
former calls weapons of the weak3 and the latter avoidance protest include4: foot
dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander,
arson, sabotage and the like. These models have subsequently been applied to
more contemporary rural conditions in the Philippines.
However, Scott carried this notion of a dissonant political culture one step
further to embrace not only actions but also the alternative meanings given to
public texts and those words of anger, revenge or self-assertion spoken by subordinates out of earshot of their betters.6 These hidden transcripts most certainly
masked acts of defiance but also functioned "as a barrier and a veil that the dom?
inant find difficult or impossible to penetrate."7 Here the scholar stands poised
at the threshold of historical consciousness,
how people perceived the world

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journal of social history

38

fall 1999

around them in the past, where sources that had been previously sparse now
The Philippines, in this respect, is actually more
become virtually non-existent.
fortuanate than many other societies in Southeast Asia, in that a considerable
body of early lexicological and vernacular religious material has survived from
which fascinating insights into the popular imagination have been inferred.8 But
sources such as the detailed transcripts of a trial for demonic possession remain
rare and are deserving of close historical scrutiny.9
Witches

and devils

Before examining the case of Seberina Candelaria to see what light it sheds
on the supernatural beliefs ofa rural Tagalog community in the early nineteenth
century, the concept of witchcraft both in western and indigenous societies
requires some explanation and historical elaboration. The witch has alternately
either been regarded as primarily a delusional figure or been accepted as fact
in Christianised Europe.10 The existence of the Devil was not doubted before
the scientific rationalism of the nineteenth century but his powers have been
variously assessed at different times. Thus the thesis that demonic action was real
but essentially psychological or spiritual in character, sometimes referred to as
the Augustinian doctrine, prevailed throughout much ofthe Middle Ages. Weak
minds, particularly, it was thought, those of women, were liable to be deceived by
blandishments and vain imaginings.11 Gradually this view was replaced by one in
which theologians, beginning with Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century,
no longer believed that the Devil's power was limited to simply the mentai sphere
but had a real existence in the form of magic performed by practitioners in the
black arts who worshipped and entered into a covenant or pact with the Devil.
By the late fifteenth century, witches, far from being poor deluded individuals,
were now considered dangerous criminals who used their powers of enchantment, spell and sorcery to bring about death, disease and misfortune to their
neighbours. While there were marked variations among countries and even
among regions, the systematic persecution of witches came to be regarded not
only as a religious duty but as the civic responsibility of ecclesiastical authorities.
The publication of Matteus Makficarum (Hammer of Witches) in 1487 estab?
lished witchcraft as primarily a social crime of malefice and provided the manual
by which the great witch-hunts ofthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were
conducted, reaching a climax between 1575-1650.12
Prosecutions continued
into the early eighteenth century until beliefs in the actual demonic powers of
the witch were supplanted by the conviction, borne ofthe Enlightenment,
that
witchcraft was simply the popular derangement of ignorant people, only to be
finally dismissed as pure fantasy in the twentieth century.13
One of the principal debates in the historiography of European witchcraft
was prompted by Margaret Murray's assertion that the witch, rather than being
a fabrication, actually belonged to a pre-Christian Dianic fertility cult that had
survived in certain remote regions of the continent.14 She claims that the ex?
istence of this religion was responsible for the extraordinary
consistency over
time and place in the beliefs and rituals associated with witchcraft as manifest in
trial confessions. Murray's ideas were not accepted, her evidence questioned and
she accused of having "invented a religion for the purposes of her
argument."15

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

AND SPANIARDS

39

But no such simple refutations can be made in the case of the Philippines. Un?
like other societies within Southeast Asia where there has been a notable lack
of detailed accounts of witchcraft and sorcery in the ethnographic literature,16
there is substantial evidence of malign magical practices surviving the enforced
Christianisation
of the colonial period and still influencing social behaviour in
the mid twentieth century.17
An important aspect ofthe Spanish conquest and incorporation ofthe Philip?
pines, largely overlooked by historians, is that these events took place at the
height of the great witchcraft persecutions. While more witches were burnt at
the stake in France and Germany, nonetheless there were notable witchcraft tri?
als in Spain at the start ofthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially in
the Basque provinces.18 The prevalent theological opinion on witchcraft must
have influenced the way in which the early missionary fathers viewed the reli?
gious practices they encountered in the islands after 1565. More especially, the
disappointing experience ofthe Americas, where idolatrous practices thrived de?
spite the early enthusiasm with which tens of thousands of indigenous peoples
had flocked to seemingly embrace the Holy Faith, must have proved a salutary
admonition to many. As apostasy was increasingly seen as the DeviFs handiwork,
local inhabitants were no longer regarded as ignorant simpletons but as mem?
bers of a counter-Church
with its own parodies of Christian rites: 'excrements*
instead of sacraments, female as opposed to male ministers.19 It is from a theo?
logical perspective formulated in the context ofthe great European witch-hunts
and confirmed by their recent experience in the Americas that the missionary
orders embarked on the conversion of the Philippines and approached the reli?
gious practices ofthe archipeiago's inhabitants. What they found, of course, only
seemed to confirm the worst of their fears, with many of the early missionaries
regarding the Indios as being in the DeviPs service.20
Early accounts ofthe islands suggest that the various peoples of Luzon and the
Visayas were mainly Animist, venerating the spirits of nature and those of their
ancestors while placating a host of malevolent ones.21 There were reportedly no
temples or gathering places set apart for worship though certain topographical
features or groves were held to be the preserve of particular spirits.22 Sacred effigies, however, were commonplace and revered in most homes being referred to
variousiy as anitos or divitas and being variously associated with war, health, agri?
culture, fisheries and the like and to which sacrifice and offerings of perfume and
food were made.23 More important ceremonies were performed by a numerous
class of professional celebrants, mainly women, known as catalonans (Tagalog) or
babayknes (Visayan) in private homes or at feasts in specially prepared bowers
erected for that purpose close to the host's house.24 Though many priestesses
evidently inherited their office, ties of kinship might also be adoptive and all
served a noviciate before officiating at rituals, for which services they were paid,
reference being made to their rich attire, jewels and wealth.25
The central feature of these ceremonies was the moment at which the priestess entered a trance where her body would become possessed by the spirit
being evoked or placated.26 Sometimes these actions might be quite violent
affairs, reference being made to them hurled to the ground foaming at the
mouth, staring wildly, with their hair standing on end.27 In these states, the
with the participants, interpreting signs and
priestesses would communicate

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40

journal of social history

fail 1999

omens and answering questions, though their responses were often capable of
various interpretations.28 Dance and song were important elements ofthe ritual,
precipitating the reverie, and would be performed by celebrants to the accompaniment of bell, gong and kettle-drum,29 the cadence of which was described
as harsh and irregular.30 Onlookers, meanwhile, would drink themselves into
states of complete inebriation.31
Apart from divination and auguries usually performed on animal entrails,32 the
priestesses were also consulted as physicians.33 Evidently, many had extensive
knowledge of herbs whose properties were used medicinally to cure disease which,
no doubt, contributed to their status.34 But their station in indigenous society
remains more difficult to gauge. Spanish missionary sources attempt to decry
their influence: Fr Colin contending that "they were not honoured or esteemed"
but considered "an idle lot who lived by the sweat of others."35 Pedro Careen, on
the other hand, while dismissing the priestesses as "a band of worthless women,"
goes on to deplore their "tyrannical hold" upon the village "by various means
and plots compelling many to repair to them upon every occasion."36 However,
their function as intermediaries with the spirit world, often on behalf of the
sick, combined with their medicinal skills, confirm the role of these women as
shamans whose importance would be considerable especially within societies
without highly developed superordinate forms of social control.
Certainly most of the missionary fathers thought these women dangerous
influences and considered them responsible for the regular incidences of apostasy
with which they had to contend. In the first place, the priestesses were held to
derive their powers from the Devil with whom they were in communication.37
They were blamed for the governmental and religious institutions ofthe country
"founded on tradition, and on custom introduced by the Devil himself" through
their offices.38 All the inhabitants, therefore, were 'in the service ofthe devil,' "a
people abandoned by the hand of God and governed by the devil in accordance
with his laws."39 Despite the initial willingness of many indigenous people to
embrace Christianitv, apostasy was rife and priests were urged to be on their guard
against backsliders.40 Many pre-Christian rites were maintained in secret41 under
a veil of silence and subterfuge to conceal such worship from the notice of local
priests.4 On some other occasions, however, their practice provided the nucleus
about which more serious opposition to Spanish rule coalesced, as in the revolt
on Bohol in 1622.43
Spanish authorities were uniformly hostile to the maintenance of pre-Christ?
ian practices. Parishioners were urged to abjure such rites and denounce all
sorcerers, witches, magicians and apostates on pain of being 'punished most
severely'.44 In particular, children, receiving instruction in the local convento,
were exhorted to report the activities of their parents and elders to the parish
priest and then often used to desecrate sacred artefacts by throwing them into
the privies and urinating and defecating over them.45 In the most extreme cases,
there is also evidence that some celebrants were bumt "in order that, by the light
of that fire, the blindness in which the divata had kept them deluded might be
removed."46
Despite the severity of Spanish responses on occasions and the increasing
consolidation
of the colonial regime during the seventeenth
and eighteenth
centuries, there is no indication that pre-Christian rites and practices ceased,

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

AND SPANIARDS

41

Incidences of such worship

though they certainly became more clandestine.
uncovered among the Zambals in 1683 were said to involve 'the principal people
ofthe village\47 Mid eighteenth century Augustinian and Dominican missions to
the Visayan islands report the presence of *wizards*able to change themselves into
crocodiles or other animals to commit murder, and of sorcerers whose magic is
able to cause or cure various sicknesses.48 A fascinating account ofthe continuing
widespread prevalence of these beliefs and practices is contained in a supplement
to El Renodmtento, a Manila newspaper, written by Jose Nunez in 1905.49 The
author recounts his own experiences with regard to witchcraft and the existence
of witches which he calls mangkukukms. Remaining entirely sceptical himself
("I have not come to believe in, or to be convinced of, the existence of witches
in Filipinas"), he nonetheless concludes that "such beliefs continue to exist in
the popular mind."50
Nor have these kinds of beliefs apparently disappeared as a result of the dra?
matic political, social and economic upheavals of the twentieth century. The
anthropologist, Richard Lieban, recorded 111 cases of sorcery and malign magic
in Cebu, the Philippines' second largest city, and on the neighbouring island of
Negros during the 1960s.51 Moreover, there appears to be a remarkable conti?
nuity in the types and forms of practices described by these authors spanning
the centuries from the initial accounts of the early Spanish missionary fathers
to Lieban*s study four hundred years later. In other words, far from being supplanted by the introduction and near universal adoption of Christianity in the
northern and central islands of the archipelago, the evidence suggests that such
beliefs remained commonplace
in many parts of the Philippines, especially in
rural areas. It is in this context, then, that the circumstances surrounding the
trial of Seberina Candelaria need to be considered.
The supernatural

world of Seberina

Candelaria

Charges accusing Seberina of consorting with a duende or demon familiar

were laid before the vicario fordneo, the bishop's representative
at the district
level and the lowest level of the judicial structure in ecclesiastical
matters, in
the casa parroquial of Obando on 4 June 1808.52 It was averred that her familiar
was able to determine the identity of thieves, the whereabouts of lost items and
other marvels during nightly gatherings held in the town and throughout the
district. Many people had been attracted to these assemblies, bringing with them
money and candles as offerings in the hope of securing an auspicious response to
their questions. As a result of these allegations, the judge ordered the arrest and
of Seberina, her husband, Sebastian, and their
confinement,
incommunicado,
various accomplices while an investigation of these events was made.53
The evidence collected during the course ofthe inquiry includes the frank and
detailed statement of the defendant herself, and this provides one of those rare
of someone
opportunities enabling the reader to enter into the consciousness
alive two centuries ago and to experience the world, if for however briefly, as
she did. Seberina describes how she was followed one day as she was returning
home from Polo, the nearest town, after prayers. As her pursuer drew close by, she
perceived it "to be a man or such she took it to be" and she addressed him, asking
him why he was following her in this manner when she was a married woman.

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42

journal of social history

fall 1999

He responded by making crude aspersions casting doubt on her marital status,

and then the two proceeded on their way as before. Nothing else untoward took
place until Seberina approached the house of her mother-in-law when a nearby
tree suddenly began to shake so violently that she thought it would fall on top
of her. Other strange things then began to happen: sand was continually flung
about the house and objects mysteriously moved but there was no more sign of
the man. Some days later, however, a small figure, no bigger than half a vara (1
vara = 0.836 metres), appeared to her while she was working in the family field
(sementera).5* He offered her a golden rosary and a purse of money and grew
angry when she refused them, pinching her, throwing sand into her eyes and
calling her mad. After this, he appeared most days at sunset, telling her that he
was a demon familiar and that his name was Isac.55
When Seberina returned to Obando, the familiar followed. From this time on,
Isac conversed with her frequently, answering any question she put to him. Soon
the news spread and people started coming to the house to consult him, offering
money in return for information about the whereabouts of lost or stolen items.
Few, however, claimed to have seen the familiar, and those that did reported
only a shape dimly perceived in a dark corner. Certainly, there are no other
descriptions of his appearance. But everyone heard him: witnesses' testimonies
describe a great variety of voices?thick
and muffled, thin and clear, small 'as if
faked by someone'. Often these voices appeared to originate outside the room,
from beneath the floor or above the ceiling. Sometimes Isac sang, entertaining
his audience with verses from popular or amorous ballads though it was not
always possible 'to understand what he said in his song'. At other times, he
would abuse them, mouthing 'kitchen remarks', making obscene allusions to his
and their genitalia, and commenting on the activities of spouses in the absence
of their partners. Usually he danced: both the executed steps of formal dances
but also wild cavorts and capers to the sound of castanets and drum. Again
these activities were mainly heard rather than seen, taking place in a darkened
alcove or nook where visibility was poor. However, several witnesses insist that
it was impossible for Seberina to have played a role in the production of these
sounds and that she could always be seen at some distance from where the noise
emanated. All these gatherings took place after dark.56
Isac's reputation spread and presently Seberina was invited to homes in Polo
and throughout the district as he only appeared when she was present. On these
visits, all manner of questions were put to the familiar. Many inquiries had to do
with stray animals or other lost items. One man returned on three consecutive
nights seeking the whereabouts of a missing horse, having failed each time to
find the beast at the designated location. Many apparently believed the familiar
had the power to move things, asking him to return missing goods from whence
they had come. Others asked after their loved ones: whether they were safe,
had they been arrested, were they on their way home. Or they were concerned
about their health. There are indications that Seberina also acted as a healer,
though her performance in this role does not seem to have been directly related
to the familiar but rather to have been strengthened through her association
with him.57
While Seberina's visits conferred a certain local notoriety on her, they may
also have become something of a necessity. Her husband, Sebastian, arrested

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

AND SPANIARDS

43

along with her but against whom charges were subsequently dropped, had begun
to beat her. He wanted an end to these nightly entertainments
in what was his
mother's house. Perhaps, too, there was a degree of maternal rivalry or pressure.
Seberina tried to put a stop to these visitations "but she did not know how to
and he [the familiar] always came anyhow."58 Events now begin to elude her
control. People in the village and the surrounding district become alarmed. The
evidence of Fulgencio de San Juan, a local chorister, clearly strikes the note of
unease that many felt despite due reservations that should be given to the nature
of his occupation and the context ofthe venue in which he spoke. A witness to
one of these nightly events, he says how: "seeing the futility of these happenings,
some false, others true, and that in all cases that it might be wrong to be present
at such gatherings ... he left."59 Others, however, were not content with merely
withdrawing: the fiscal, Don Luis Navarro, known as Maestro Luis, denounces
her to the parish priest and she is arrested.60
But the matter does not end with Seberina's confinement
to the stocks in
the local casa real or town hall. Isac pursues her even there, exchanging filthy
innuendoes with the guards over possible marriage partners for Alin Vela, the
viilage's bieja hca ('mad old woman') and other such inanities. On the next
night, she confronts him, demanding an explanation for her present sufferings,
including, it seems, a whipping. Finally, she tells him to leave her alone and
begins to recite the Creed. Pandemonium then breaks out. There is a deafening
noise, so loud that the guard outside thought that 'the house was failing down',
as Isac hurls a large piece of wood at her (described by the jailer as 'too heavy for
Seberina to have handled'), missing but hitting the door. She cries out for help
as he begins to lift the stocks but the guard arrives at this moment with a light to
find her "trembling all over her body and so cold that he thought she was at her
last breath."61 And from that moment on she never sees nor hears from Isac again.
The supernatural

world of the village

The testimony of Seberina Candelaria provides valuable insight into the world
view ofthe rural population ofthe Philippines at the start ofa century of change
and transition that was to prove so influential in shaping that society. It also
raises serious questions about the degree to which Christianity had displaced
earlier beliefs after more than 200 years of friar evangelisation
and mission
in the archipelago, suggesting the continuance
of another level of reality that
was only lightly, if at all, touched by the ministrations of the Church. But the
priest was himself an important part of the village world, and the deliberations
of Seberina's inquisitors disclose much about their attitudes and perspectives
and, in the process, indicate the increasing gulf that separated them from their
parishioners.
An essential first step in this inquiry is to consider the extent to which Seberina
Candelaria's views represent those of the majority rural population at the time:
to determine that she was not simply a delusional psychotic but that her lore
formed part ofa wider belief system shared by many if not most of her neighbours.
More significant than simply the number of people who evidently attended the
nightly gatherings is the social status of those who came to ask questions of
the familiar. The identity of those called to give testimony at Seberina's trial

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journal of social history

fall 1999

reveals that many belonged to the principalia or local village elite, precisely
the people one might expect to have been most exposed to Christianity and
Hispanic culture over the last two centuries.
One of the principal venues for Seberina and Isac was the home of Don
Fernando Caguia, the gobernadorcilk or municipal administrator and magistrate
of Obando. In particular, his wife was very solicitous of her husband's health
and good fortune. Among the distinguished visitors to the house was Don Josef
Thoribio of Polo, better known as Captain Biyo, who came on four consecutive
nights to inquire after the whereabouts of his dead son's horse. Biyo recounts
how he came to Obando to light a candle to Santa Clara in the church there
but, after hearing the news and seeing the 'great concourse of people' at Don
Femando's, had decided to ask the familiar on his own behalf. After paying two
reaks to Seberina, he was told the animal could be found in Bigaa but, unable
to locate the beast there he returned a second and then a third time to be told it
had moved to Tinaferos and then Santol. Angrily, Biyo returned on yet a fourth
night offering to pay two pesos if the familiar would tell him for certain where
the horse was or have it brought back to him.62
Seberina mentions another occasion when she was invited to the house of
a certain Captain Pasqual Castila in Polo who wanted to consult the familiar
over some missing goods.63 Nor were the local police above such consultations,
even if their inquiries were ofa somewhat more basic and cruder nature. All in
all, a picture emerges of a community in and around Obando that accepts the
existence ofa supernatural realm inhabited by both malign and benevolent spirits
with which it was possible to communicate
through the medium of familiars
like Isac. For the young, such impressions were only reinforced by the seeming
endorsement given by their elders and betters. The chorister, Fulgencio de San
Juan, despite his misgivings about attending such gatherings, felt that they had
been "authorised by the presence of many from the principalia."64 The actions
of prominent members of the community like Captain Biyo speak louder than
any reservation which witnesses may have expressed at a legal hearing before
the vicario foraneo, who, after all, was also a priest.
The participation of the principalia in the maintenance
of such practices
remains intriguing. Earlier evidence suggests a fairly close relationship between
celebrants at pre-Hispanic religious ceremonies and local elites. An account
written in 1683 specifically identifies native priests or babaylanes as drawn from
the 'principal people ofthe village'.65 Certainly the cleric involved in Seberina's
case expresses deep concern about the extent of the elite's role, even accusing
the gobernadorcillo and principales of Obando as her 'accomplices'. The vicario
foraneo blames the prevalence of these types of cases on the fact that municipal
officers were Indios and, the more one reprimanded or exhorted them to take
firmer action, "the more they are the first to hide such things."66 Possession by a
demonic familiar, then, was evidently not regarded by this churchman as unique
or particularly exceptional.
Instances of similar and related practices are also revealed in the vicario
foraneo's report to the archbishop in Manila. While a missionary in the uplands,
he had come upon another case whereby an eight year old girl had been possessed
by a demonic familiar who appeared to her in the shape ofa 'black (Negrito) child'.
He describes how this spirit managed to win the confidence and trust ofthe child,

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

AND SPANIARDS

45

becoming its friend and playmate "but without losing any occasion on which
to instruct her in the most obscene entertainments."
It took the priest over two
years to convince the girl about the nature and true identity of her companion
and to teach her to conduct herself "with all the judgement of a good christian
adult." The priest then consoles himself with the reflection that her death,
at the age of ten, was an occasion of much edification to the entire mission.67
In still another part of his letter to the prelate, the priest relates what he
knows about other forms of divination commonly practised within his parish. In
particular, he recounts how people who have lost things or had them stolen will
frequently consult a diviner who places a light in the middle ofa reed tray or sieve
(bilao) about which are placed playing cards and other objects. The whereabouts
of missing items are inferred from the inclination ofthe flame towards the objects
on the bilao.68 Similar practices were witnessed by Antonio Mozo and Tomas
Ortiz during the eighteenth century but, in these instances, the divinations were
performed by shaking the sieve.69 Far from being a world in which such ideas
were considered to be arcane relics of customary tradition, the vicario foraneo's
report suggests that many indigenous people held a more diverse world view
than might be supposed from their outward adherence to Christianity.
This impression receives further reinforcement by a comparison of the activ?
ities surrounding Seberina's possession as related in the transcripts of her trial
with the accounts of ritual practices performed by babaylanes as described by the
early missionary fathers. The importance of music is particularly evident to both
but so is the apparent strange symmetry of harmonics between the instruments
beat of castanets
despite the separation of centuries: the often uncoordinated
and drum to which Isac performed 70 and the irregular cadence of bell, gong
and kettle-drum to which the priestesses danced.71 Song, too, appears to play a
central role in both descriptions. Several witnesses make mention ofthe familiar
singing a broad range of verses from canticles to amorous tunes,72 and song was
also a noted part ofthe ceremonies at which babaylanes were celebrants.73 Again
many of those who testified at the trial of Seberina remarked on the unusual char?
acteristics of the familiar's voice just as an earlier report describes such voices as
emanating from *a hollow reed'.74 Given these similarities and those of venue
(private homes), activity (divination) and participation (including local dignitaries), there would appear to be some doubt as to how Seberina was regarded
by her local community: as a woman possessed by a demonic familiar within a
Christian cosmology of God and the Devil, as an officiating celebrant within a
tradition of customary beliefs with its origins in the pre-Hispanic period, or as
something of both. Even the outward manifestations of Christianity may need
as being more in the minds of Seberina's sacerdotal interlocutors
examination
than in her own or those of her fellow villagers.
However, such an interpretation gives insufficient recognition to the impact of
centuries of Christian evangelisation in the Philippines and to the way in which
elements of power external to those societies were often selectively incorpo?
rated within local communities
to create new cosmologies that were neither
nor
wholly foreign
wholly customary. Dieter Bartels argues that the Ambonese
responded to Europeans by absorbing elements ofthe newcomers' beliefs thought
to confer access to sources of power previously unknown, eventually syncretising
them into a system in which traditional elements were preserved. Rather than

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journal of social history

fall 1999

invalidating customary beliefs, such new knowledge served only to enrich the
Ambonese conceptualisation
of the universe, so that elements of both systems
were retained without any apparent contradiction.75
Certainly, there are aspects of both customary and Christian beliefs in Seberina's case. In response to repeated questions about Isac's identity, she eventually
calls him a 'tianac', a mischievous and diminutive sprite or dwarf common to the
folklore of Tagalog, Bikol and Visayan traditions and described by both Mozo
and Ortiz in the eighteenth century.76 Indeed, there are a number of striking
similarities between Seberina's experience with Isac and the explanation of such
phenomena given by Tomas Ortiz.
The patianacs whom some also call a goblin (but it is only their invention, dream,
or imagination) must be the genius or devil who generally plays with them as also
with many others, when losing the faith, they espouse his cause, become familiar
with him, or become subject to him. They attribute to this being the ill success of
births, and say that in order to harm them and cause their destruction, he enters
or hides in some tree or in any other place near the house ofa woman who is about
to give birth, and there they sing like those who wander about, etc.77
However, despite her evident association of the familiar with a figure from in?
digenous cosmology, she can only succeed in liberating herself from his influence
through recourse to the Christian profession of faith, by reciting the Creed.
These two belief systems, the native and the foreign, become even further
blurred in the form of Isac himself. While the figure of a tianak is variously
depicted as dark with horns, fangs, long pointed ears and angular features,78
Seberina's familiar is imbued with all the characteristics of her colonial 'masters'.
She describes him as dressed like a Spaniard, wearing a beret and bearing a
pah or staff of office.79 Nor does Isac simply perform just any old dance but
specifically k marcha, the boiero and fandangos, all eminently Spanish steps and
all to the accompaniment
of castanets.80 It would seem that devils, familiars and
least in the cosmology of Seberina Candelaria
Spaniards had become one?at
and her village. A somewhat similar transcultural association has been noted
among medieval Christian communities in Europe to whom the Devil was often
manifested as a Moor.81
But more is going on here than simply the 'colonisation ofthe indigenous spirit
world' as Hispanic and Christian forms take on shape and substance within local
belief systems. The very symbols of Spanish power, both its secular might and
spiritual prowess, have been appropriated and incorporated into native concepts
of power. At their initial meeting on the road from Polo, Seberina is offered a
of the power of the Catholic Church, by Isac
rosary, a visible manifestation
whom she perceives to be a tianak, an indigenous malevolent sprite but who
wears European clothes and bears the staff of colonial office. The fact that
Seberina may be representative ofa long tradition of female intermediaries with
the spirit world known all over the archipelago from pre-Christian times should
not obscure an appreciation of her ability to tap these new sources of power,
ones, moreover, that were external to her community and whose acquisition
conferred on her a higher status than she had enjoyed previously. While priestly
office was mainly limited to elite groups within society, such restrictions may have

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

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47

had no weight when it came to tapping previously unknown sources of power.

Thus, as Bartels notes on Ambon, "new powers can be attained by anyone,
regardless of previous position in society and this can have a great effect on the
social structure."82 It may be no coincidence
that the person who eventually
denounced Seberina to the authorities was a member ofthe principalia, Maestro
Luis, who might have felt that his own and his peer's influence in the community
was increasingly being eroded by the sway of this woman.83
The possibility of competition between Seberina and a local authority struc?
ture dominated by men raises another aspect of her appropriation and incorpo?
ration of new sources of power. The conquistadures brought with them a very dif?
ferent concept of gender construction that emphasised Catholic mother-centred
definitions of womanhood and affected relations between the sexes, restricting
women's activities largely to the private sphere. The public sphere was defined as
masculine. In other words, the Spanish colonisation ofthe Philippines involved
not only the physical subjugation of the indigenous peoples to Europeans but
also the cultural subjugation of women to men.84 Few women wielded any form
of public power within colonial society and what little they did exercise was
mainly dependent on their intimate access to men in positions of authority,
such as the mistress of a parish priest.85
Not only is Seberina able to tap into Hispanic and Christian forms of secular
and spiritual power but she uses this new source to give her greater influence
outside a male dominated authority structure. Her familiar is male, and, while
he does not always exactly do her bidding, she is nonetheless the only means
by which he is able to manifest himself to the local community. Moreover, he
bears a palo, the symbol of colonial authority at the municipal level and vested
in the office of the gobemadorcillo,
the most important male figure within her
immediate sphere. As Seberina becomes a centre or focal point of an alternative
means of accessing power within her village, she, intentionally
or otherwise,
invests herself with the symbols and trappings of recognised authority. At any
event, her activities are increasingly seen as a threat to the male monopolisation
of power wielded by the gobemadorcillo and ultimately the parish priest. Not that
the secular and spiritual were clearly differentiated within her mind: Isac both
bears a staff of office and offers her a rosary. In a short period of several months,
Seberina comes to exercise a form of influence that a young woman of twentytwo could not hope usually to have in her community. Ultimately, however, she
transgresses too many boundaries and is brought low. Beaten and admonished
by her husband, denounced by Maestro Luis and imprisoned, assaulted and then
abandoned by Isac, Seberina is found by the guard cold and quivering on the
floor of her prison cell, a forlorn and rather pathetic figure.
Where in all these happenings surrounding the case of Seberina Candelaria at
Obando is the Spanish priest? Despite the fact that he has long been considered
the most knowledgeable of royal officials, versed in the language and customs of
the indigenous peoples through long residence in one locality, he seems a very
remote and distant figure: unaware, unless so informed, of the activities of his
parishioners; understanding little of the belief systems by which members of his
flock made sense and operated in the world about them. While the outward forms
of Hispanic power and Christianity may have been integrated into an indigenous

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journal of social history

fall 1999

cosmology, the priest remained an outsider: a potent symbol, certainly, in much

the same way as a sacred grove, an ancestral shrine or a hallowed landmark but
external to the daily round of the village.
The distance between priest and his congregation only widened in the eigh?
teenth century as the effect ofthe Enlightenment
increasingly influenced Euro?
pean perceptions of supernatural phenomena and witchcraft came to be viewed
as more delusional, the product of the mind rather than of magic and the black
arts.86 While the early missionary fathers had decried the foul works ofthe Devil
in the archipelago, Seberina's examiners take a somewhat more 'scientific' view
of the affair, one indicative of the extent to which the ideas of the Enlight?
enment had already penetrated the rural Philippines by 1808. To Fr Casimiro
Tembleque, parish priest of Obando, Seberina's familiar is nothing more than
"the delusions of a 'weak mind' (fantasia debil) so common to her sex" and he
initially counsels her simply to "arm herself with the shield of faith," blesses
and admonishes her to hear mass frequently, take communion and recite the
rosary. Later, however, when he discovers that the case is well known through?
out the locality, he realises firmer action is called for. Even so, he refers to
the situation as a "strange case ... difficult to believe in without such evident
proofs" but feels that it "should be dealt with by the full rigour of the law, since
not only does it deal with a loss of faith ... but its consequences are very prejudicial to public morals and good order."87 In other words, Seberina should
be proceeded against not only because of anxiety about her or her fellow vil?
lagers' immortal souls but because her actions disturb public order within the
community!
As a more rationalist approach permeated Catholic theology during the nine?
teenth century, concern over uncovering the demonic practices associated with
witches is replaced by a conceptualisation
of the Devil as the arch-beguiler, the
spinner of deceits and the master of duplicity against whom the unwary need to
be constantly on their guard. As mental delusion supplants witchcraft, the gap
between the Spanish priest and his indigenous parishioners, between a system
of beliefs imbued with the new ideas ofthe Enlightenment and a native cosmol?
ogy that has selectively appropriated and incorporated Hispanic and Christian
symbols, would only appear to have widened.
Conclusion
The case of Seberina Candelaria and others like her make the historian more
aware of the complexities of writing colonial histories that are unable to penetrate the surface layer of historical representation and fail to reach beyond
the level of action to the realm of consciousness.
Here, of course, the ground
becomes very slippery. James Scott identifies one path through this morass by
focusing on what he calls the hidden transcripts or the alternative meanings
given to public texts that can cloak a dissonant political culture behind a veil of
seeming compliance. According to this mode of analysis, the events that take
place in Obando can certainly be interpreted as representative of a latent hostility against a colonial order sustained behind the facade of Christianity: devils,

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

AND SPANIARDS

49

familiars and Spaniards are, after all, one in Seberina's consciousness.

And the
widespread attendance at the nightly gatherings, the conspiracy of silence that
surrounds these activities for months, and the evident isolation and relative
impotence of the priest only east serious doubts over the penetration and effectiveness of Spanish rule in the Philippines after more than two hundred years of
colonisation and evangelisation.
But there would also appear to be so much more going on here than simply
popular defiance at a colonial system: Scott's hidden transcripts seem a useful but
somewhat crude analytical device if confined purely to examining the relations
between ethnic, racial or class groups in Obando. Seberina's case is not only
about domination and the forms of resistance between indigenous peoples and
the Spanish but is also about gender relations in her community. Possession by a
demonic familiar grants her the opportunity to manipulate an alternative source
of influence outside the male dominated authority structure that was not usually
available to women of her age and position in that society. Ultimately it will
also create a backlash that overwhelms and then crushes her.
However, in the final analysis, the case of Seberina Candelaria is about how
power is abstracted in a rural community during the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth century Philippines. And here, perhaps, is its most valuable histor?
ical insight. Far from overtuming the previous belief systems, it suggests that
the forms and symbols of Christianity had themselves been appropriated and
incorporated within a pre-Hispanic mythology and tradition of mainly female
priestesses. The result was neither wholly indigenous nor wholly exotic but the
formation of a hybrid cosmology. Moreover, this cosmology was, in some ways,
even further removed from the ideas ofthe Enlightenment
than the Christianity
ofthe early missionary fathers, who had at least shared with their converts more
ofa belief in the supernatural means of manipulating reality.
Nor is it possible to gauge just how commonplace
such hybrid cosmologies
were given the relative paucity of the historical record for the period. Jerry
Bentley argues that the simple effort to communicate
any beliefs and values
across cultural boundaries "almost inevitably entailed a certain amount of syn?
of foreign concepts required some degree of
cretism, since the explanation
to familiar ideas."88 If such is the case, then
comparison and assimilatation
the encounter between Christianity and indigenous belief systems did not in?
volve the wholesale acceptance of an alien religious system by the native pop?
ulations of the archiplegao, but rather its selective adoption and adaption in
which the former's original elements were fractured, restated in new terms, endowed with different meanings, and assembled in a new way that made sense
and gave significance to the latter's cultural point of view.89 Colonial society,
then, may have been full of 'Seberinas' whose existence, however, remained
hidden to all but the most discerning among Spanish religious and secular
authorities.
Whether Seberina Candelaria herself was a bored young woman seeking local
notoriety and importance within her community, a psychotic who heard voices,
or a latter-day priestess in the time-honoured
tradition of the babaylanes is a
matter of personal and, perhaps, cultural interpretation. However, not only does

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50

journal of social history

fall 1999

her case permit the historian a rare glimpse into the inner world of a young
woman and the imagination of her fellow villagers alive nearly two hundred
years ago, but it also raises serious doubts about the extent of Spanish control
over the rural Philippines.
Department of History
Private Bag 92019
Auckkmd, New Zealand

ENDNOTES
1. Greg Bankoff, "Big Fish in Small Ponds: the Exercise of Power in a Nineteenth
Century Philippine Municipality," Modern Asian Studies 4, 26 (1992): 679-700; Glenn
May, "Civic Ritual and Political Reality: Municipal Elections in the Late-19th-Century
Philippines" in A Past Revisited(Quezon City, 1987) pp. 30-52; Norman Owen, "The Principalia in Philippine History: Kabikolan, 1790-1898," PhilippinesStudies 22,3-4 (1974);
and Eliodoro Robles, The Pmtippinesin the 19th Century (Quezon City, 1969).
2. Greg Bankoff, "Bandits, Banditry and Landscapes of Crime in 19th Century Philip?
pines," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 29, 2 (1998); Isagani Medina, Cavite Before
The Revolution (1571-1896) (Quezon City, 1994) pp. 59-105; and David Sturtevant,
Popular Vprisings in the Philippines 1840-1940 (Ithaca and London, 1976) pp. 115138.
3.
James Scott, Weapons ofthe Weak. Everyday Formsof Peasant Resistance (New Haven,
1985) p. 29.
Michael Adas, "From Footdragging to Flight: The Evasive History of Peasant Avoid4.
ance Protest in South and South-East Asia," The Journal of Peasant Studies 13, 2 (1986):
64-86.
5.
Brian Fegan," 'Tenants' Non-Violent Resistance to Landowner Claims in a Central
Luzon Village," The Journalof Peasant Studies 13,2 (1986): 87-106 and Benedict Kerkvliet,
"Everyday Resistance to Injustice in a Philippine Village," The Journal of Peasant Studies
13, 2 (1986): 107-123.
6. James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance. Hidden Transcripts(New Haven
and London, 1990).
7.

James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance p. 32.

8.
Vincente Rafael, Contracting Colonialism. Translation and Christian Conversion in
Tagabg Society Under Early Spanish Rule (Ithaca and London, 1988) and Reynaldo Ileto,
Pasyon And Revolution: Popular Movements ln The Philippines, 1840-1910 (Quezon City,
Y
1979).
9. These trial transcripts comprise the initial statements made in secret by Seberina
Candelaria and her fellow villagers before the ecclesiastical tribunai held in Obando, that
tribunal's writs and orders, a summary of the case referring the matter to a higher court,
an accompanying letter from the parish priest, and the evidence of the spiritual interrogators in the convent where Seberina is ultimately confined. However, it is impossible
to determine whether these initial statements were actually the product of interrogation
or simple declarations.

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

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51

10. A more graduated picture of witchcraft is presented by Stuart Clark who views
changes in such beliefs in terms of their relationship to the wider intellectual life of
Europe. Clark argues that the rise of demonology to intellectual prominence from the
middle of the fifteenth century was closely connected to the way in which belief in
witchcraft was related to how science, history, religion and politics were regarded. Its
subsequent decline in the eighteenth century reflected its loss of intellectual appeal as
other means of depicting the world came more to the fore. Stuart Clark, Thinking With
Demons. The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Oxford, 1997).
11. Stuart Clark, Thinking With Demons pp. 112-113.
12. This work was compiled by two German inquisitors, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich
Institoris, subsequent to the papal bull of Innocent VIII, Summis desiderantes effectibus,
authorising the persecution of witches in certain dioceses in 1484.
13. Norman Cohen, Europe's Inner Demons. The Demonization of Christians in Medieval
Christendom (Pimlico, 1993); Julio Baroja, "Witchcraft and Catholic Theology"in Bengt
Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen (eds.) Early Modern European Witchcraft. Centres and
Peripheries(Oxford, 1990) pp. 19-43; and G.R. Quaiffe, Goaiy Zedand Furious Rage. The
Witch in Early Modern Europe (London and Sydney, 1987).
14. Margaret Murray,The Witch-Cult in WesternEurope. A Study in Anthropokgy (Oxford,
1921) p. 12.
15. Alan Macfarlane, 1970. Witchcraftin Tudorand Stuart Engknd (London, 1970) p. 10
and Lucy Mair, 1969. Witchcraft (London, 1969) p. 229. Subsequently Carlo Ginzburg,
while remaining critical of Murray's thesis, recognises a distinction between belief in
witchcraft and its practice and proceeds to document the existence of an ecstatic agrarian
cult in Fruili, Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in which men and
women were compelled to go forth 'in spirit' four times a year to battle against witches
for the fertility of their fields. Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles. Witchcraft and Agrarian
Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (London, 1983).
16. C.W. Watson and Roy Ellen (eds.), UnderstandingWitchcraftand Sorcery in Southeast
Asia (Honolulu, 1993) p. 3.
17. Richard Lieban, Cebuano Sorcery. Mahgn Magic in the Philippines (Berkeley and Los
Angeles, 1967).
18. Gustav Henningsen, The Witches' Advocate. Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inqui?
sition (1609-1614) (Reno, 1980) pp. 22-23.
19. Fernando Cervantes, The Devil in the New World. The Impact of Diabolism in New
Spain (New Haven and London, 1994) p. 25.
20. Diego Aduarte, "Historia de la Provincia del Sancto Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores, Manila, 1640" in Emma Blair and Alexander Robertson (eds.), The PhiUppine
Isknds, 1493-1898 (Mandaluyong, 1973) volume 31, p. 73.
21. Luis de Jesus, "Historia General de los Religiosos Descalzos del Orden ... S. Augustin,
Madrid, 1681" in Blair and Robertson, The PhiUppineIsknds volume 21, p. 202; Pedro
Colin, "Labor Evangelica, Madrid, 1663" in Blair and Robertson, The PhiUppineIsknds
volume 40, pp. 69-75; and Pedro Careen, "Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, Roma, 1604" in
Blair and Robertson, The PhiUppineIsknds volume 12, pp. 264-265. There is also evidence
ofa belief in some rudimentary concept of a creator goa variously called Bathala, Laon or
Macaptan. Ibid. p. 263 and Miguel de Loarca, "Relaci6n de las Yslas Filipinas, Arrevalo,
1582" in Blair and Robertson, The PhiUppineIsknds volume 5, pp. 133-134.

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22. Pedro Coiin, "Labor Evangelica" p. 74; Diego Aduarte, "Historia de la Provincia del
Sancto Rosario" volume 30j>. 289; Diego de BoEadilia, "Relation ofthe Pilipinas Islands
by a Religious Who Lived Tnere For Eighteen Years, 1640" in Blair and Robertson, The
PhilippineIslands volume 29, p. 285; and Pedro Careen, "Relaci6n" pp. 206,268,272-273.
23. Luis de Jesus, "Historia General" p. 202; Pedro Colin, "Labor Evangelica" p. 71;
Diego de Bobadilla, "Relation of the Pilipinas Islands" p. 285; and Antonio de Morga,
"Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Mexico, 1609" in Blair and Robertson, The PhilippineIslands
volume 16, p. 131.
24. Pedro Colin, "Labor Evangelica" pp. 74-75; Diego Aduarte, "Historia de la Provincia
del Sancto Rosario" volume 30, p. 286; Pedro Careen, "Relaci6n" p. 269; and "Resume
of Documents 1521-1569" in Blair and Robertson, The Philippine lshnds volume 2, p.
139. Other contemporary commentators note that officiates were frequently also male or
asog, effeminate men possibly transvestites. Luis de Jesus, "Historia General" p. 203 and
Alcina as quoted in Evelyn Cullamar, Babaylanism in Negros: 1896-1907 (Quezon City,
1986) p. 18.
25. Pedro Colin, "LaborEvangelica" p. 77; Diego de Bobadilla, "Relation ofthe Pilipinas
Islands" p. 286; and Pedro Careen, "Relaci6n" p. 270.
26.

Pedro Careen, "Relaci6n" pp. 269-270.

27. Pedro Careen, "Reiacion" p. 269 and Juan de Plasencia, "Customs of the Tagalogs,
Manila, 1589" in Blair and Robertson, The PhiUppineIslands volume 7, pp. 190-191.
28. Diego Aduarte, "Historia de la Provincia del Sancto Rosario" volume 30, p. 286
and Juan Mendoza, "History of the Great Kingdom of China, Madrid, 1586" in Blair and
Robertson, The PhilippineIslands volume 6, pp. 147,191.
29. Pedro Colin, "Labor Evangelica" pp. 75-76; Diego de Bobadilla, "Relation of the
Pilipinas Islands" p. 286; and Miguel de Loarca, "Reiacion de las Yslas Filipinas" p. 133.
30.

Luis de Jesus, "Historia General" p. 203.

31. Juan de Plasencia, "Customs of the Tagalogs" p. 190.

32.

Pedro Colin, "Labor Evangelica" p. 76.

33.

Luis de Jesus, "Historia General" p. 207 and Pedro Careen, "Reiacion" p. 269.

34. Antonio de Morga, "Sucesos" p. 131 and Miguel de Loarca, "Reiacion de las Yslas
Filipinas" p. 163.
35.

Pedro Colin, "Labor Evangelica" p. 77.

36.

Pedro Careen, "Relaci6n"p. 271.

37. Juan Mendoza, "History" p. 147 and "Resume 1521-1569" p. 139.

38.

Pedro Careen, "Reiacion" p. 263.

39. Diego Aduarte, "Historia de la Provincia del Sancto Rosario" volume 30, p. 296 and
volume 31, p. 73.
40. Diego Serrano, "Edict of Fray Diego Garcia Serrano. Archbishop of the Philippines,
1622" in Blair and Robertson, The PhiUppineIslands volume 21, p. 60.

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS
41.

AND SPANIARDS

53

Pedro Careen, "Relaci6n"p. 271.

42. Tom&sOrtiz, "Prictica del Ministerio, 1713-42" in Blair and Robertson, The PhiUp?
pine Islands volume 43, p. 106.
43. Murillo Velarde, "Historia de Philipinas, 1674-83" in Blair and Robertson, The
PhiUppineIslands volume 38, p. 88.
44.

Diego Serrano, "Edict" p. 61.

45. "Historia del Santissimo Rosario, Manila, 1742." in Blair and Robertson, The PhiUp?
pine Islands volume 43, pp. 52-53.
46.

Murillo Velarde "Historia de Philipinas" p. 93.

4 7. "Santissimo Rosario" p. 5 2.
48. Antonio Mozo, "LaterAugustinian and Dominican Missions, Madrid, 1763" in Blair
and Robertson, The PhiUppineIslands volume 48, pp. 113-114.
49. The article was included in the document series compiled by Emma Blair and
Alexander Robertson with the following notation from the authors: "It is deserving
of a place in this series, as showing what is actually believed at the present time among
some ofthe ignorant Filipinos." Blair and Robertson, The PhilippineIslands volume 43, p.
312.
50. Jose*Nufiez, "Present Beliefs and Superstitions in Luzon, 1905" in Blair and Robert?
son, The PhiUppineIslandsvolume 43, pp. 310-319. Another Manila newspaper, La Democracia, carried an item on 29 August 1903 report ing the hanging of men accused of killing
a witch.
51. Richard Lieban, Cebuano Sorcery.
52. The vicario for&neo was invested with both executive and judicial powers, though
his authority in criminal matters was limited to a preliminary investigation of the case
and the preparation of a sumario or initial report for referral to the diocesan court of the
bishop or archbishop that acted as the court of first instance in all matters that fell within
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Thus the Philippines was divided between four, later five,
tribunals: the archdiocese of Manila, and the dioceses of Nueva Segovia, Nueva Caceres,
Cebu, and subsequently Jaro. However, the prelate did not exercise jurisdiction himself
but deputised a vicariogeneralfrom among the diocesan chapter to act as his representative.
This court was vested with the authority to investigate, punish, excommunicate or absolve
both crimes and sins, and its sentences were definitive though appealable. Greg Bankoff,
ln Verbo Sacerdous: the Judicial Power of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century
Philippines (Darwin, 1992) pp. 8-9.
53. "Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria N[atural] de Obando por Sociedad con un
Diablo Familiar," Archive ofthe Archdiocese of Manila, Asuntos Criminales, Box 18081819, file 1808-1811A, pp. 1-4.
54. The sementera would often be at a considerable distance from the family house and
those working in it might spend several nights there, especially at certain times of the
agricultural cycle such as before the harvest.
55. "Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" pp. 17-18.
56. "Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" pp. 4-16.

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57. There is some difficulty in estabiishing the extent of Seberina's healing powers as
the Spanish text repeatedly uses the verb hiktearse and the noun hikteo for which no
satisfactory translation has yet become available. The context, however, in which the
words occur strongly suggest that the meaning has to do with restoring health. "Causa
Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 18.
58.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 18.

59.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 9.

60. The fiscal or fiscaliUo was an ecclesiastical official introduced into the Philippines
from Mexico during the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century whose duties com?
bined those of a sacristan and religious secretary. Unofficially, however, they acted as
the moral guardians of their villages, admonishing irregular behaviour in the community,
confirming that parishioners had valid reasons for not attending mass and checking that
people observed Christian tenets in their daily lives. They were also the priest's henchmen
and chief advisers on all matters local, inflicting corporal punishment or other penances
on those deemed to merit such correction and providing what information might be re?
quired on the character and reputations of parishioners. Traditionally the office was held
by the principaliaor prominent members of the community. Greg Bankoff, "Big Fish" pp.
693-695 and Greg Bankoff, In Verbo Sacerdotispp. 23-24.
61.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" pp. 13-14,18-19.

62. "Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 15. The currency situation was fairly chaotic
during the 19th century with coins of the Dos Mundos variety, bust-portraits of the later
Bourbon kings, those of the newly independent Latin American states (especially the
Mexican peso) as well as those of Spain all in circulation at any one time. In addition,
decimalisation was instigated in 1858 adding still further to the complexity of working
out the value of coins in daily use. There were eight reales to every peso. Angelita de
Legarda, Pikncitos to Pesos. A Brief History of Coinage in the PkUppines (Manila, 1976) pp.
17-46.
63.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 18.

64.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 9.

65.

"Santissimo Rosario" p. 52.

66.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" pp. 24-26.

67.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 25.

68.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 26.

69. Antonio Mozo, "Later Augustinian and Dominican Missions" p. 115 and Tomas
Ortiz, "Prdctica del Ministerio" p. 109.
70. "Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 10.
71. Luis de Jesus, "Historia General" p. 203.
72. "Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 13.
73. Luis de Jesus, "Historia General" p. 203 and Juan de Plasencia, "Customs of the
Tagalogs" p. 190.

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DEVILS, FAMILIARS

AND SPANIARDS

55

74. "Resume 1521-1569" p. 139.

75. Dieter Bartels, "Politicians and Magicians: Power, Adaptive Strategies, and Syncretism in the Central Moluccas" in Gloria Davis (ed.), What is Modern Indonesian Cul?
ture? (Madison, 1976), p. 283.
76. Antonio Mozo, "Later Augustinian and Dominican Missions" p. 115 and Tomas
Ortiz, "Pr&cticadel Ministerio" p. 107. The tianak or patianak (also referred to as dwende)
in Tagalog is synonymous with the Bikol patydnak, the fusion of an untimely discharged
human foetus and a tiny black bird whose mournful wailing resembles that of an infant,
and the Cebuano manuydnak, a supernatural being of a brownish hue who preys on
new-born infants. Leo English, Tagalog-EngUshDictionary (Manila, 1986); John Wolf, A
Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan (Manila, 1972) p. 670; and Merito Espinas, "A Critical
Study ofthe Ibalong, The Bikol Folk Epic Fragment," Unitas 41, 2 (1968): 183. A similar
phenomenon is known as an aswang in the Ilocos. Contemporary representations of these
sprites can be seen in the popular Tagalog movies Anak ni Janice and Shake, Rattk and
Roll.
77. Tom?s Ortiz, "Prdctica del Ministerio" p. 107.
78. John Wolf, Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan p. 670 and Merito Espinas, "A Critical
Study" p. 183.
79. "Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 17.
80.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 17.

81. Norman Cohen, Europe's Inner Demons pp. 25-26.

82.

Dieter Bartels, "Politicians and Magicians" pp. 284-285.

83.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 12.

84. Greg Bankoff, "Households of Ill-Repute: Rape, Prostitution and Marriage in the
Nineteenth Century Philippines," PiUpinas17, Fall (1991): 35-49.
85. Greg Bankoff, "Big Fish" pp. 695-697.
86. Robin Briggs, Witches & Neighbours. The Social and Cultural Context of European
Witchcraft (1996) pp. 378-380.
87.

"Causa Contra Seberina Candelaria" p. 24.

88. Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters. Cross-Cultural Contacts in Pre-Modern Times
(New York 1993) pp. 15-16.
89. Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters p. 16.

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