Status Updates From The Creatures of Philippine...

It's quite baffling that most Filipinos, myself included, know little about the Philippine lower mythology even as we constantly restrict ourselves from doing a number of activities due to our superstitious beliefs. Not too deep in the book yet, but I'm enjoying relearning the traits of various creatures that are often generally confused with each other.

The evidence of ethnocentricism in Philippine society probably gets an added push from the belief that creatures are suspect whose pigmentation is darker than that of one's group... or are fairer in complexion... Dagot gave the information that in Palawan, many
fair-skinned, good looking mestizo youths were forced into incestuous
marriages because no brown-skinned Filipino would marry them.

lt is surprising how many Filipino children drown each year, largely because they cannot swim. An important reason is probably that many Filipinos fear mermaids and sea dragons, so that even if they can swim, their fear of these imaginary creatures often paralyzes them and makes them drown.
Over here there was a folktale where a water critter was used to teach children how to swim.

This chapter seems to have mostly been about society and nationalism. No idea if anything ever came out of it.

Bulatao's study indicated that to most Filipinos, marriage to another
Filipino is more desirable than marriage to a foreigner.
Interesting.
Hunt found that "these show a remarkable measure of agreement," the sample indicating their preference in this order: American White, Spanish,
Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and American Negro.
Oh shit.

There was an opera about Hansel and Gretel? And Hansel was the one killing the witch according to this book? Odd, because in the original tale it was Gretel and in the mentioned opera they did it together.

Importance of mythology... not even half of the book is over and now he comes with that.... well, lets see.

Werewolves take the form of an animal at night, such as a dog, cat, bog, "or whatever they may choose" or "whichever animal [they meet] first."
But can it still be called a werewolf then if its shapes are that varied? In fact, this story of a female malakat seems to describe here has a clawed, very hairy human whose hair crawls into the victim's nose, ears, mouth and eyes. cool image, but werewolf? No.

First the vampire and now the viscera sucker have stories were ointments are used for the transformation? They seem more and more like witches. Also most of what I heard about aswang lore before that was associated with vampires (the whole chicken thing) is under viscera sucker here.

rubbing with an ointment to gain powers? That reminds me of witches instead of vampires and considered how over here the aswang is almost exclusively associated with vampires I would have expected a bigger section on vampires.

The basic structure of the chapters is fine but inside he is a bit chaotic. It is interesting to read about these ogres with their differing features or how Garuda turned from a deity to a shapeshifting ogre on it way to the Philippines but it would be easier to read if he wouldn't be throwing such information in so randomly here.

lt is narrated that during the Filipino-American War, an American captain went to bathe at the foot of Botocan Falls and saw a golden centipede at the bottom of the water.
Are centipedes aquatic? Also, why is this in the section on mermaids? Did it belong to a mermaid?

What is with this odd structure of the text? It cannot be due to the fact that this is a study (which the book should have stated on the title in my mind).

"Giants may either be human, animal, or bird in form," wrote Erminie W. Voegelin. Although the Philippine giants have human shape, at least one of them, the bannog (banog, ban-og) of Northern Luzon, is in the shape of a bird, and another, the ikugan, has a simian form.
Then what is your definition of "giant?" This is a common problem here, the sometimes inconsistent definitions.