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I’ve said before in related posts that most people who grew up
here in Marinduque have heard of stories of gusi filled with gold being
unearthed by poor, industrious people who must have done a lot of good in their lives to be worthy
of being led by earth spirits to secret spots with treasures hidden. There are
even more plentiful stories of gold and precious stones disappearing mysteriously when finders
are about ready to pull them out. Such finds just suddenly covered with
earth and sand by seemingly mysterious forces, never to be recovered again no
matter how hard the finder might try. It is accepted by many that such buried
treasures are zealousy guarded by spirits, and not many are willing to dispute
that fact.
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Anthropologist Wilhelm Solheim II studied archaeological finds in Marinduque.
In folklores from the northern part of Marinduque such hidden
treasure stories are associated with pirates of old. At least two neighboring
villages in northern Mogpog (Silangan and Guisian), attribute the origin of
their place-names to treasures once buried there by pirates.
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| Rocky shores in northern Mogpog As late as 1881 such related stories would resonate in some records. One referred to Mogpog, for example, as “an old village of bandits and of pirates very much feared by their neighbors” as written by the French naturalist and explorer, Alfred Marche. His expedition in the Philippines was considered the first systematic archaeological work in the country. |
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That is to say, stories also related by Marche about spirits and
terrors conveyed to him by local people then, particularly those about caves and
their inhabitants, are still very much alive here. One still hears today of spirits
coming out of many caves in procession to pay homage to a particular spot in
the woods or elsewhere by the sea. Another is about a golden galleon sailing out to sea then disappearing behind an islet.
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| Then there are new, exciting claims: “There’s one cave I know, quite far from here”, says one “very dangerous as it is inhabited by large snakes and very few have ventured to explore it, but there you will find primitive writings, like those early people had their own alphabet.” My eyes opened wide upon hearing that one. Petroglyphs in Marinduque? But who really really knows? |
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| Isuzu Maru sank off the coast of Marinduque on July 2, 1943 - that's exactly 69 years ago today! But going back to pirates, another century or so later, their stories would merge with accounts of Japanese exploits here during the war. One would suddenly find an empty shell of a bomb beneath the shore, uncovered only now by fierce waves caused by a strong typhoon. Then you wonder if that empty bomb shell had anything to do with a Japanese transport ship that sank off the northern coast of Marinduque after it was torpedoed by an American submarine in WW2. |
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| Ashore you might find yourself looking at the blue waters wondering where the ship might have sunk, what cargo she might have carried or might have unloaded before she was torpedoed? |
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| Natural rock formations, signs, whatever. These are just some of the things I saw. Then you turn around. Your mouth agape, noticing something unusual with some of the rock formations in front of you. Could these really have been done by the waves tossing and turning for ages? Or deliberately carved treasure signs out of rocks and stones, by human hands? Cement poured into rocks and stones that formed patterns as future reference? |
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Or maybe best and
safe it is to just dismiss them all as mere figments of one's imagination. It could never
be that easy, you might mutter to yourself, no, no, no, oh, not again?
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