MUNICIPALITY OF GATTARAN, CAGAYAN, Historical Data Part 2

1. The appearance of the morning star is a sure sign that the dawn of the day is coming.

2. During sunny days, people can tell the time by the appearance, position, and size of the shadow. When one exactly steps on the shadow of his head, it is noon or twelve o'clock.

3. During rainy or gloomy days, the old people can tell the time by the closing and opening of some flowers. The patola and ampalaya flowers close between five and six o'clock in the afternoon. The gumamela, sampaguita, and squash flowers open in the morning about six o'clock.

4. At nighttime, one can tell accurately the time by the crowing of the roosters. The first time the cock crows is at ten o'clock P.M.; the second time it crows is at one o'clock A.M.; and the third time it crows is at three o'clock A.M. When the horrible noise of the "kalaw" bird sounds at dawn, it is five o'clock A.M.

5. The special calendar for telling the months would be revealed by some trees, especially identifying the seasons, the dry season and the rainy season. There are some trees whose leaves fall and bear flowers during May and June, like the narra and bagbag trees.

1. If on the third night of the new moon, it is cloudy or it showers, then the rain is sure to come during that month. If the sky is clear, it is a dry month.

2. At the beginning of the planting season and the farmers find some bees (wasps) building their hives among low grasses, it is a sign of storms during the year.

3. During the planting season and the frogs make sounds inside the tubes of bamboos or in the fences, the afternoon following the sound will be a rainy day.

4. A short rainbow denotes a storm.

5. When the earthworms come out from the ground in swarms, it is a sign that there is a flood coming.

6. If, after a flood and the banks of the river remain soft for several days or months, it is a sign that some more floods are expected to come.

7. If there is a rainbow in the afternoon, and the position is a concave, it is a sign of rainy or stormy weather. If the position is convex, it is a sign of a sunny day.

8. If there is a star at the point of the new moon, it is a sign of war, or a bloody month, for there will be killing and stabbing among people.

9. If the moon is encircled by a ring, it is a sign of a rainy day.

10. If the fruits of citrus trees are plenty and very healthy, it is a sign of a good harvest in the following year.

11. If the kapok trees have plenty of fruits, it is a sign of good harvest in the following year.

12. If it is raining the whole day of New Year's Day, it is a sign that the year is rainy and stormy most of the year.

13. Among fishermen, if the sky is clear and scaly, the former is a sign of fair weather and the latter denotes a good catch.

14. When a new moon is inclined to the south, it is a sign of dry season.

15. When an earthquake happens at daytime, it is a sign of dry season. When it happens at night, it is a sign of rainy season.

16. When flocks of birds are flying low, it is a sign of rain.

1. The people believe in anitos. These anitos may cause some persons to become sick. The anitos can be appeased only by offering them food, clothes, or jewels.

2. Spanking a child with a slipper will not make success in life.

3. When one ties or binds a child to a post as punishment, it is believed that someday, the child will be imprisoned.

4. When one is preparing to go somewhere, especially in the place is very far, and somebody in the house sneezes once, it is a sign of bad luck on the part of the one leaving. It is believed that he must linger for a while in order to avoid bad luck.

5. When one travels and he meets a black cat on his way, it is also a sign of bad luck.

6. If an owl makes a sound near the house of a sick person, it is believed that somebody will die soon and usually the sick person will be the victim.

7. If one dreams that a tooth or any part of his body is lost or removed, it is a sign that somebody in the family will die very soon. The same is true when one dreams of having a banquet or dinner in one's house, it also means that somebody will die in that house.

8. When a dog barks at night or daytime, it is believed that it can see a ghost or some spirits in heaven.

9. If a child is suffering from a skin disease which is very odorous, it is believed that the mother had poured hot water over some spirits around the house. The part of the child which has the disease is the part of the spirit which was splashed with water. In order to heal this, one should make coconut oil and offer it to the spirits for overnight, and then use this oil as an ointment. In preparing the oil, one must be very careful not to let anybody taste it or she must not scatter any part of the coconut so that not even the cat or any animal can touch it. All the husk and the leftovers after making the oil must be buried immediately so that it will not be touched by anybody.

10. When one is on the family way, she must let her hair hang freely when walking at nighttime, so that she will not get sick.

11. In erecting a new house, one must put a cross on the spot where the house will be erected before the construction can take place.

12. One must put corn grains in the hole of the first post to be set up so that the owner of the house will be lucky. The owner will have easy means of accumulating wealth.

13. If, before erecting the house, one dreams that somebody prohibits the spot, the owner must not continue the construction of the building in the said place, because if he does, the family will meet misfortunes very often, like death and continuous sickness among the members of the family.

1. A couple is considered lucky when their first-born child is a boy.

2. If a child comes out covered with a thick membrane, the child will be considered lucky.

3. If a child comes out with the limbs first, it is believed that the child, when he is able to perform some kinds of work, can remove any bone stuck in the throat.

1. In the past, couples were married through the selection of their parents.

2. A suitor had to render service for at least two or three years to the family of the woman whom he loved. He had to give several gifts in the form of food, clothing, or jewelry, especially on holidays. He should give "sab-ong" or dowry to the bride before the marriage.

1. Most people light candles opposite to the head of the deceased.

2. The deceased is given a full bath just before he expires.

3. Some people put the belongings of the deceased inside his coffin.

4. When the corpse is brought out from the house, a person, usually an old woman, sprinkles a handful of rice inside the house. A prayer for the dead is also said before taking him out for burial.

1. The bereaved and immediate relatives wear black clothes to show a sign of sorrow for at least one year.

2. When the corpse is being put into the grave, all people around it throw a piece of earth into the hole. After the burial, all the persons who assisted in the handling of the dead should wash their hands, face, and arms upon arriving at the house of the bereaved. This is done so that they will not suffer from cramps or dizziness.

3. The bereaved and relatives say a "novena" for nine consecutive nights and, on the ninth day, they celebrate it by offering a luncheon or dinners to the visitors.

4. The corpse is taken to the church to be blessed by the priest or minister before it is taken to the cemetery.

"Why worry about the children?" thundered Datu Gammad. "They or of no help. Give them no rice for they don't know how to work. They do not know how to plant and harvest rice. Give them no meat for they cannot help in hunting. Give them only the skin for they are only good in sleeping." These were the angry words of Datu Gammad when he was having a meeting with his men in order to solve the famine during his time.

Long ago, before the Spaniards came to the Cagayan Valley, there lived in a village east of the place, where the Chico River and the Cagayan River meets, a group of Kalingas ruled by Datu Gammad. These people were famous hunters. Be cared little for their rice harvest, for the liked meat more than anything else. So, they attended to hunting most of the time.

Wild pigs, deer, and wild carabaos where abundant and they enjoyed hunting in the forests near their village. They were contented for it was easy for them to get food. There needs where very few. The men used only g-strings and the women wore tapises.

Not long afterwards, a great famine came. The crops failed and only a few animals could be haunted in the forest. Datu Gammad called for a meeting to discuss ways and means to help the people during the famine. It was suggested by the members of the council that the catch in every hunt be divided equally among the families based upon the number of children in each family from the youngest to the oldest. Some of the members did not agree to the proposition because they were without children. The hunters who had many children were weak in hunting. They had great controversy and, consequently, there was no agreement made during the meeting. At last, datu made an order that the children would only have the skin as their share.

The poor parents sympathized with their children with regards to the discrimination made. At any rate, they tried to cook the skin in such a way that it could easily be eaten by the children. They cooked it so crisp and savory that when one bit into it, it made a crackling sound, "cik-charo-charon" while eating it repeatedly. Because of this sound, the recipe was called "Chi-charon." This became a favorite food of the children, and later on, even the adults enjoyed eating the chicharon. Since then, the word "chi-charon" was used to name any skin of an animal cooked crisp. This incident became the origin of the recipe "chi-charon."

Calaoagan Dackel is situated on a portion of Dummun Valley, extending from Batug-Palagao up to Nabaccayan. It is a wide fertile plain which consists of an area of about 36 square kilometers. The northern and southern boundaries are hills and mountains which contain rich forest products and wild animals.

In 1910, seven young men — Cesario Lamug, Paulo Aguinaldo, Cayetano Dumlao, Demetrio Jose, Francisco Ancheta, Agustin Baraoidan, and Felix Lorenzo — started from Laoag to look for lands in Cagayan to settle in. They had found this place covered with thick forest and inhabited by Negritoes. These Negritoes bartered their lands with clothes, salt, and wine with the seven men mentioned above. They then decided to make a settlement in this place. Each of them began to clear the lands they acquired from the Negritoes and applied for homesteads. Fish, fruits, and wild animals were in abundance, but mosquitoes were also terribly attacking them. They did not mind the mosquitoes, and by the following year, they went back to Laoag to get their families. Upon their return, they brought with them not only their respective families but also many of their relatives from Laoag like the Puguid, the Aglugub, the Medina, and the Duruin families. These newcomers, like the settlers, applied for homesteads. From time to time, people coming from Laoag were pouring to this place until it became thickly populated.

It is important to note that when there was no more land to be owned by the people coming from Laoag, the later group resorted to finding another place other than the Calaoagan Dackel, and there again, they settled in like manner.

Because the people of Calaoagan Dackel valued so much the town where they came from, they named their place "Calaoagan," which meant to that people there were all originally from Laoag, and they added "Dackel" because there was another place smaller than theirs whose inhabitants originated from the same town and was called Calaoagan Bassit.

They then realized that they needed a school, and they put up a schoolhouse, and making Cayetano Dumlao as their leader. The first school building was placed very near the riverbank at the homestead of Felix Lorenzo. This school did not last long. The second attempt of building a schoolhouse was donated by Cayetano Dumlao and Felix Lorenzo, and up to the present time, the school is growing fast and strong in the same place. It is now the Calaoagan Dackel Elementary School.

This barrio got its name thus stated above, and because of its continuous growth in population, today Calaoagan Dackel speaks of its name as one of the biggest barrios of Gattaran.

At the letter part of the Spanish regime, a couple lived in the southern part of the barrio of Callao. They were Pascual Magulod and Fortunata Palumayan. Only one survived among the many children born to them and it was he who lived to tell the following story:

The last children born to them were twins. But one of the twins was an unusual one — a horse, and the other — a baby boy. Overwhelmed with embarrassment, the father did not lose time in burying the horse alive in the rice fields. It was before the wee hours in the morning.

The following night, the father had a dream. He dreamed that his child (the horse) talks with him and said, "Father, had you let me live, I would be the savior of the people here. I would save them from a horrible incident to come." With tears in his eyes, the father repented, but it was already too late. The other twin baby boy died the following day, too.

After a year, the father became lame. He lived as a lame man throughout his life. Many years later, the couple died and left behind one of their children, Emilio Magulod. This man married and brought forth children. Many peaceful years passed since the birth of the unusual twins, and no horrible incident had happened. Then, the cruel rule of the Japanese came.

One early morning at the latter part of the Japanese occupation, the people of Callao awoke only to find out the they were surrounded by the Japanese soldiers. They gathered around sixty persons and burned them alive. Emilio Magulod, the brother of the unusual twins, and his children, in-laws, grandchildren, and wife did not escape this horrible incident. It was only then that the relatives and the people who knew about the story of the twins realize that what the horse revealed in a dream came true.

Three years ago, the Municipality of Lasam was a part of the town of Gattaran, which comprised a central school and twenty-nine barrio schools. When Lasam became a town, eleven schools were given her while Gattaran retained nineteen schools.

Gattaran likes on a gradually sloping downward plateau with hills and mountains on the eastern side and the Cagayan River at the western side. The town is composed of eighteen barrios after Lasam was separated as a town. Six of the barrios are along both the national highway and the Cagayan River. All the rest are located on the eastern interior part, with trails and small rivers as their only means of transportation.

The name Gattaran is derived from a native word "gattbunaggugui-buquiq," which means a sloping plateau at the foot of the mountain going downward to the riverbank. Since the town proper is situated on the plateau and at the foot of the mountain by chance, then the people named this town Gattaran.

This story may seem legendary but it did really happen according to my father, Juan Talamayan, as it was related by his mother, Camila Magulod, my grandmother. This tormented spirit arrived at the year my father was born and frequented the place within seven years.

At about the end of the Spanish regime, there once lived a man named Jose Addun. He resided in Bunton, Tuguegarao. He was schooled and rich but did not live an exemplary life, for he had nine wives. He killed all his wives without fear or knowledge of the law. After killing his last wife, he felt desperate and hung himself from a mango tree. There, his children and relatives found him hanging and dead. They buried him, but when the people wear returning home from the cemetery, they were surprised to find him sitting at their balcony laughing at them as they approached the house. The people wear scared by his appearance, but soon he suddenly disappeared. From that time on, the spirit wandered from place to place. People whom he met could recognize his presence by his foul odor and quivering voice, but they could not see his body.

One day, this ghost happened to visit a big wooden house in Fugo, an island west of Gattaran. The said house was owned by a certain Judge Ulualde, but only his servants were living in the house while the judge and his wife lived in town. The servants were eating their supper when suddenly their plates and platters were turned upside down. They could smell the foul odor and hear the quivering voice. One of the mail servants inquired bravely, "Who are you and what do you want?" And without waiting for an answer, he continued, "If you are interested in any of these women here, just get any of the female pigs below." These words angered the ghost, and he threw stones and pieces of wood at the house, which caused much destruction in the house. On the third day after this incident, a group of women who were carrying jars of water smelled the foul odor again. One of them commented, "Hu! Hu! What a foul odor this is!" A voice answered, "Siyam siyam." The women looked around to see who spoke, but they found nobody. They were so frightened by the voice and the odor that they ran as fast as they could, breaking their jars behind them. That night again, the people heard the sound of stones and wood being thrown at the big house.

Judge Ulualde was alarmed by it because he saw that his house was already demolished. So, he decided to sleep in the house to find out who was doing the mischief. When he heard the name "Siyam Siyam" accompanied by the sound, he got a lantern and peeped through the window to see who was talking, but he did not see anybody. The judge bravely asked, "My friend, Siyam Siyam, will you show yourself to me?" The ghost answered with a trembling voice, "He-e-e, He-e-e, the moment you can see me, perhaps you will die of fear. I am crowned with nine different snakes, likewise, tongue is composed of different snakes and my body, too, is wrapped with interlacing snakes." "Why do you demolish my house?" asked the judge. "I hate your servants for they told me to marry your pigs. You must know that I am a 'caballero' and I had nine wives; all of them I killed without being caught by the law. Now that I am dead, my sins are not forgiven. I went to Rome to ask forgiveness from the Pope, did not forgive me. I am penalized with nine years of suffering on earth for every person i had killed. Since my sins were not forgiven, i will never forgive anybody also." Then, he went away.

At times, he would be absent for a week or less, and then he would appear again to any group of people. He always introduced himself as "Siyam Siyam" when somebody noticed him due to his peculiar odor. The men got used to his presence that, when they were in groups, they would encircle the source of the voice, but the voice would laugh at them from another place. He could tell the name of any person although that person was new to the place. This tormented spirit was coming back and forth to Fugo Island for several years until Judge Ulualde asked the parish priest to sprinkle holy water and bless the land around the house. When the people heard that the ghost had not visited the house after its blessing, they also requested the blessing of the whole barrio.

Many old folks of Cagayan narrate that there was once a whistling crocodile roaming in the Cagayan River during moonlit nights. He used to lie on the dry land and whistled as if he was calling and waiting for someone.

It was believed that this crocodile was once a very handsome young man who fell in love with a beautiful young girl living near the bank of the river. They used to spend their romantic hours at the bank of the river.

One night, while they were strolling on the bank, a heated quarrel arose between them. This quarrel ended their relationship. The man was madly in love with her and so he tried to appease the anger of his sweetheart, but he failed. Since he was not able to regain her love, he cursed himself and prayed that he would be changed into a crocodile so that he could get the lady when she went to the river to take a bath. His prayers were granted by God, and so he began to roam in the river. He was always near the bank of the river where his lady love lived.

Time went on and the lady forgot all about her lover, and so she went to the river alone to take a bath. While she was taking a bath, all of a sudden, the crocodile came out and took her into the deepest part of the river. The lady cried out for help, but nobody came to her rescue.

Since then, the crocodile stopped roaming in the river. But his descendants still continued to catch not only women but also men if they saw them in the river. That is why people are very much afraid of crocodiles, especially in places where the crocodiles live.

A long time ago, the barrio of Mabuno was not yet known by the people during the Spanish regime. Only a few Negritoes inhabited the place. They lived in little huts built near a brook which had abundant fish called "bunog." This fish was a favorite of the Negritoes.

When the Spaniards were busy converting the people into Christians, they came to the little valley where Mabuno is now located. Here, they found the Negritoes living in little huts along the brook. They were busy catching fish. One of the Spaniards asked the Negritoes what the name of the place was while he was pointing at the brook. Immediately, the oldest Negrito answered, "Bunog," thinking that the Spaniard was asking what they were catching. The Spaniards wanted to stay long so that they could baptize the people, but since they could not understand the Negritoes, they left the place and went home. Since that time, they called the place Mabuno because there were many fishes called "Bunog."