Something about the asuang

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Something about the asuang
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 9 (No. 6) June 1929
Year: 1929
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Fulltext: 22 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER UF COMMERCE JUUKHAL june, confided, which means teachers. The correct gives way to As with what they purport to imply, the instructor and the professor, who rank above teachers. Col leagues from abroad conveys what the author really wishes to say. In the higher reaches or grades of education. The phrase is too general to be clear, and in our higher schools does better. Confined. Preferably entrusted. America]? or English conjunction is and. Like. This properly or As is the case with. No language is like another; languages merely have points of sim ilarity, and it is their dissimilarities which dis tinguish them from one another. Correctly, the author is not comparing languages, but a characteristic common to them. This word like is often carelessly employed. One should avoid doing so. It is an introductory word for similes. Foreign (as an adjective modifying languages). Superfluous, hence should be omitted—a charac teristic genius pervades every language. “Genius”. Erroneously placed within quo tation marks, whereas the author uses it in a usual and correct sense. The English language. In this phrase the article and the noun language are superfluous, hence should be omitted. A facility of English is the ease with which nouns convert into ad jectives and verbs, adjectives into nouns, etc., and this exemplifies it. The genius of English is elusive. Native born. If used at all, this expression requires the definite article the preceding it. But some such expression as those to whom it is a mother tongue is preferable. Or those. The correct conjunction is and; and, better than those, others. And who. The best usage avoids and who, and which, and analogous expressions, which usually may be done by omitting the conjunction. Persuasive and compelling. As an expression apposite to the word intelligible as used in the context, this expression falls short; and as in telligible serves the full purpose of the author, it is only weakened in purport by adding any thing to it. Nothing should therefore be added. Or economic fallacy. The vagueness of this term rules it out. It is also repetitious, since the mistaken zeal alluded to is one of economizing expense: the author does not question the zeal of the government otherwise, and of course not the filipinization policy. A poor material. The article should be omitted. The same applies later in the same sentence to the expression a good one, of which only the word good should be retained. Purged in part of fault, the piece is, in the .opinion of the commentator, one of the most common sense statements he has read anywhere on the question of providing our higher schools with competent teachers of English. It now reads: “Creation of a board of examiners to test in English all university and college graduates in the Philippines who wish to continue their studies in the United States is a novelty. It is a tacit admission made the more patent by the com plaint of the Registrars’ Association of the United States that the teaching of English in our higher institutions of learning in accordance with the filipinization policy of the government has not been entirely a success. 4 “Whatever economic advantages the socalled filipinization in our public schools may have had, it has one serious drawback, and that is, the teaching of English by those who have no thorough knowledge of it. We hold no brief against native teachers. Some of them are exceptionally bright and as a capable as their Something About The Asuang Frank Lewis Minton The writer accepts no responsibility for the authenticity of this article, as it is compiled from a number of more or less garbled accounts of the Bisayan storytellers.—M. and priests. This is a widespread primitive; it was not limited to the Philippines. Noting the relish with which the heads of church and state devoured these human giblits, the people became envious and demanded that they, too, be allowed to share in the sacrificial feasts. Their demands were promptly and emphatically denied on the ground that only semideities and those endowed by the sun god with superhuman powers could be allowed to eat sacrqd foods. The leaders of the malcontents were suitably punished, and the incident was considered closed. But the curiosity of the people had been aroused, and they soon began killing children and practicing the cannibalistic religious rites secretly. Finding the flavor of human flesh much to their liking, they revolted and began destroying their offspring openly, in defiance of priest and chieftain. Later, deciding that it was wasteful to burn the sacrificial victims, they began the practice of eating the bodies entire. That famine had more to do with the in stitution of cannibalism than these folk tales indicate, is extremely probable. The fact that protracted periods of extreme hunger will cause cannibalism and mob insanity has been demon strated too often to admit of dispute, notably during the past year in China. And that these early settlers, impoverished, improvident and restless, with very limited knowledge of agri culture, suffered severe food shortages, is prac tically certain. To the ignorant sun worshippers it seemed that they had discovered a novel method of replen ishing their larders. Children and youths were plentiful. The body of an adult, or a slain enemy occasionally augmented the meat supply. But as the generation grew older the number of children decreased rapidly, and there were no more young men and maidens suitable for the sacrifice; so they began harrassing neighboring tribes in search of the gruesome game which their perverted appetites, by that time, de manded. The raids on the nearby settlements were conducted with great stealth, and at first the unsuspecting good people believed that the youths and children who so frequently disap peared, never to return, were victims of croco diles; but eventuallv the atrocities of the sun origin of the asuang, by The evolution of the asuang apparently began among the sun worshippers who settled long ago on Panay and other southern islands, among whom the custom of human sacrifice was com mon. These are frequently mentioned among Bisayan raconteurs as the bad people, to distin guish them from the good people, who worship ped Bathala, the god of goodness. When the sun was angry, that is, when severe storms buf fered the country, or when epidemics scourged the settlements, priest and chieftain would select a young man and maiden, or young chil dren to be sacrificed on the altar of their god; but first the livers and hearts of the victims were removed, roasted and eaten by chieftains colleagues from abroad. But, without wishing to appear unpatriotic—the writer is a Filipino—• it seejp# to us that the teaching of English in our higher schools should be confided to Amer ican and English teachers alone. As with most languages, the genius of English is elusive. It can be caught and mastered only by those to whom it is a mother tongue, and others who have had opportunities of learning it at its source from early childhood. “Whether we like it or not, the Philippines is bound to adopt the English language. Would it not be the better part of wisdom, therefore, to learn it from those alone who are competent to teach it, who know it, as it were, by instinct? Only thus can we expect to make our speech intelligible. Only thus can it represent “the golden harvest that followeth the flowering of thought.” To encourage the use of what is commonly known as bamboo English, because the goverment, through mistaken zeal in econo mizing expense, refuses to hire real masters of English, is deliberately to choose poor material when, at a little difference in cost, good could be had with far better results.” Brilliantshine Metal Polish For cleaning and polishing brass, nickel, aluminum, and other metals, fixtures, chandeliers, bath trimmings, musical instruments, auto mobiles, etc. Used extensively not only in homes and factories, but in large quantities by steamship and railroad companies. 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They were led by their deposed chieftains and priests, to whom they had turned for aid and advice in their extremity, like unruly children seeking the protection of parents when in trouble. To save their people from the wrath of the followers of Bathala, the leaders of the sun worshippers now publicly tabooed human sacrifices, and modified their religious rites considerably, sub stituting animals. and fowls for youths and children; but tales of cannibalistic orgies in the hills back of the tiny settlement, probably much exaggerated, were still bruited about among the good people, and the ostracized tribe remained practically social outcasts for centuries. The Spanish priests induced the tribe to accept, nominally at least, the Catholic faith, and baptisms were frequent; but some, notably older folk, continued to practice strange rites in secret, and were branded as witches. Fear of their suspicious neighbors made those accused of witchcraft and cannibalism ever more se cretive in their habits of life, avoiding social intercourse, confining themselves to their huts by day, ant'd only venturing forth at night, on furtive excursions in search of food. This very secretiveness increased the suspicion of the community and fanned the fires of hatred. They were credited with supernatural powers and termed asuangs', persons possessed of devils and given superhuman power to harm normal beings, and to transform themselves at will into birds, animals, or reptiles, with the exception of the sheep and the pigeon. The asuang, according to lingering supersti tions, is a human being, not actually a spectre, Changing American Policy in the Orient— Its Manifestations in the Philippines (Concluded from page 18) Periodically, at times when farm products are depressed in America, henceforth these islands will face the danger of forfeiture of free trade with the mother country. Their protests will avail them little, but an investment of a billion dollars of American money in their plantations might always be a preponderant influence; at least it would always be on their side, even though it were concerned with rubber and the threat was immediately against sugar; for it would sense the danger in such precedents. It is American investments in Cuba which Arts obtained for her, and now secure to her, a tariff differential, or drawback. This money is inim ical to Philippine interests, but a billion put into these islands would offset it and probably always checkmate it. The islands will be pretty safe in the free trade controversy so long as the industrial element in America is not pitted against them and the farmers have to contend alone; for prices will never remain depressed, perhaps, long enough to gain the farmers their point, and as soon as prices rise the gorge of the farmers against tropical competition will subside. The major benefit of all, to be derived from concessionist interests in the Philippines on a large scale—such as the changing American policy toward the islands contemplates—-is the neutralizing influence it would have upon industrial agitation against Filipino migration to the mother country. Back of this movement is an urbanite, no farmer—a man organized with but one who is possessed; who has been given supernatural power to harm other human beings, by the evil one; a monomaniac whose obsession is an abnormal appetite. The asuang is said to devour young children and even adults. It steals the dead, putting in their places banana stalks transformed into exact, life-size replicas. There are two varieties: the prowling asuang, who hunts on the ground, and the flying asuang, or mananangal, which severs its body in the his fellow men, easily brought into meetings for the expression and reiteration of opinion. When such men mean business, they are a force to reckon with. When, however, they should cry the alarm of cheap labor, if great American plan tation and industrial interests existed here, employing Filipinos in the production of products selling wholly or mainly in the United States, these interests would exert their influence against the propaganda and might be the deciding factor: certainly alone Filipinos could do nothing. On such occasions, too, American capital in Cuba and that in the Philippines would not be natural enemies, but natural friends. So there is something decidedly to say for the concessionists. Only, these are the questions they care about—tariffs and trade, egress to market—-not questions of local government, be it good, bad or merely indifferent. For it does not much concern them. And since they and their welfare qualify materially the present American policy toward the Philippines, jt is easy to see why the primary objective of govern ment, the administration of wholesome laws applicable to all alike, is neglected. Better ments now can’t be expected. Concessionists are often victimized, sometimes by their own anticipations—too grandiose. They are wary, it is really a game to land them. It is reminiscent of someone’s recipe for dealing with fleas, beginning—first catch your flea! That’s what the government is doing now. ________________ —W. R. middle, hiding the lower half, while the upper portion flies about in search of food, like some great night bird. The asuang is believed to transform itself into bird, animal, or reptile, instantaneously, at will. 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