The 21-year-old informant was born in the Philippines, but moved to the U.S. (Hawaii) at the age of 9. As ghosts and other mythical creatures play a large role in Filipino culture, the informant recounts personal stories and myths that she encountered during her time in the Philippines.

Informant: “So there’s this thing called a ‘duwende’– literally, dwarves. My parents had a concrete farm, and they had like, employees that lived there too. It was kind of a huge lot.

Collector: “Is this still in the Philippines?”

I: “Yeah still in the Philippines… And I guess they said like, they kinda live by trees or whatever, and then if you happen to just run by a tree, or like, kick a tree or whatever– just disturb where they live, they would follow you and like… what was the word for it…? You know like, exorcism? You know how you get like, taken over?”

C: “Oh like, they possess you.”

I: “Yeah! They possess you. There’s like a good kind, and then a bad one, and I remember one of the employees’ daughter that lived there apparently got possessed by it. I never met her ’cause I was little and my mom was just like, telling me about it, but she didn’t want me near her.”

C: “Wait, so there’s a good kind?”

I: “There’s a good kind and bad kind, and the bad kind possessed her apparently.”

C: “Oh so this was like, an actual thing?”

I: “An actual thing, yeah. Well so, my mom said that the dad said this, but she was like, ‘Maybe she’s just crazy’ haha.”