Why Is Salt A Deterrent Against Engkantos and Folkloric Spirits?

It is a near impossibility to read or listen to any story regarding ‘Philippine Engkanto‘ or ‘folkloric beings’ without salt being part of the conversation.  It is the most common tool used in warding them off, protecting yourself, or causing them some form of harm. It is also part of traditional beliefs that when one prepares a food offering for an engkanto, salt must never be used.  It seems to be clear that this is a firm part of Philippine beliefs no matter what religious faction you belong to, but I am always left wondering why.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

My wife’s Ninang is without a doubt the most Christian person I know.  Her life has been dedicated to her beliefs – all good things are “gifts from God”, while all bad is “God’s will”.  During a 2015 trip to the Philippines, I was using her Makati condo as my home base.  I was invited to visit a property in Batangas that was said to be the home of many engkanto.  I was to meet the property owner and simply listen and learn.  It was a beautiful property and I will never tire of listening to people speak about their experiences with the unknown, but I did not encounter any engkanto.  When I entered the condo back in Makati, I noticed a pile of something near the front door.  I thought perhaps someone was in the middle of sweeping, but didn’t pay much attention until I entered my bedroom and saw a similar pile.  I asked, “is that salt?“.  She answered, “Yes! Just in case something followed you home, it will not be permitted to enter.”  I was well aware of the salt practice for engkantos and knew that many animist beliefs had been syncretized into Catholic practices, but this was the first time it genuinely surprised me.  My wife’s Ninang is a strict Christian and very well educated, so it really hit home just how ingrained these ‘animist’ practices are.

POPULAR BELIEFS

In Maximo Ramos’ Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology, salt is mentioned as effective protection against folkloric and malevolent beings:

• As the “invisible owner of land” in Samar and Leyte, the dwarf eats part of the meal that the farmer offers it before he plants the rice. The meal includes rice, tubers, meat, and fish, but the food must contain no salt or spices.
• Effective protection from the viscera sucker was said to consist of salt, vinegar, and spices.
• Specially prepared coconut oil is said to be effective against witches, and so are table salt, ginger, and garlic, the pungency of the last-named object being said to “ruin their olfactory sense.”
• Witches are said to b e afraid o f salt water…
• …against the manananggal and the aswang, he arms himself with a whip of the stingray tail or spine of sawfish, and scent of garlic, and a pinch of salt.

In the Ramos book The Aswang Complex in Philippine Folklore he surmises, “These beliefs, finally, also suggest an explanation for the Filipino’s fondness for salt, sour, and spicy foods since, as stated earlier, these are considered effective repellents against the aswang, and the cooking and eating of food with a strong dash of these ingredients would serve, it is thought, to ward off these maleficent beings.”

Salt is further confirmed as an effective deterrent for engkanto in Demetrio’s Encyclopedia of Philippine Beliefs & Customs:

• The balbal gets scared if you put salt in the fire when they come near your house. (Mahadlukan ang balbal kong moanha si/a sa imong panimalay kong magbutang sa asin sa kalayo.)
• Salt With Garlic And Ginger Fatal To Witch’s Sense Of Smell
• Water And Salt Counteract Witches
• Salt Antidote To Fairies
• Hen Cackling Means Engkanto Is Near: Salt Scattered Around
• Weird Sounds At Night Stopped By Burning Salt
• To counteract the witch flying over the roof, prepare a basin with water and salt. Stir the water and invite the witch (if you know the witch, call him by name): “Come here, Pedro; let’s eat and drink.” The witch will go down and resume his human form. A few minutes later someone will knock on your door and say, “Good Evening.” Let him in, (but don’t tn.Jist him); this person will ask if you have some salt. (Ang sumpa sa usa ka wakivak nga nagalupad-lupad sa taas sa atop: Mag-andam ug usa ka batya nga may tubig ug asin. Kurawon ang tubig ug imbitaha ang wakwak, nganlan mo. Dali, Pedro, sumsom ta dinhi. Ang wakwak modagpak dayon sa silong ug mahibalik sa iyang naandang pormang pagkatawo. Pipila ka gutlo anaay manuktok sa puertahan ug moingon ug Maayong gabii. Ipadayon siya (pero ayaw pagkompyansa) ug kining tawhana mangutana dayon anaa ka bay asin.)

The encyclopedia also contains entries on preparing food without salt for offering,  “Pamuhat – ceremony of offering something cooked with no salt to spirits to insure harvest, give thanks or diagnose an illness.”

In Demetrio’s Myths & Symbols, Philippines he expands on the beliefs surrounding engkanto, “The engkantos are said to be “dili ingon nato,” “dili ta parehas,” (“people not like or
similar us”). Their dwelling places to the naked eye are mere boulders, large rocks or holes in the ground, or mounds on the earth, or trees like the balete. But to their human friends who are empowered to see them, these are magnificent palaces and mansions. Their food is first class, but contains no salt.”

As Ramos did above, Demetrio also hypothesizes about the salt/ no-salt business, “They (the engkantos) are known to be opposed to the Christian religion and . practices; they -dislike salt (perhaps because of its connections with exorcism and baptism ?.?.?.).”

More important insight is given when looking at specific practices using salt.  This is detailed in F Landa Jocano’s Folk Medicine in a Philippine Municipality, “The salt is ranked second (in importance for the luop ritual. Kalanghuga being first) . When we asked why salt was placed on the embers before the kalanghuga was burnt, one magluluop replied: “Salt has the power to weaken the forces of the supernatural beings. The spirits do not eat salt, but to us humans salt is one source of life. That is why, when you are baptized, the priest places salt in your mouth. This gives you strength and power over the forces of the supernatural world. Thus, when salt is added in the luop ritual, the healer can heal the illness discovered.”

The Encyclopedia of Philippine Folk Beliefs & Practices expands on the use of salt for health benefits:

• If you go swimming in salty water, do not take a bath in fresh water afterwards, for the salt water is medicinal, according to the old folks.
• When your tooth is aching sponge your legs, from the knee down to the feet, with lukewarm water and salt and your toothache will disappear instantly.
• In cleansing wounds use boiled guava leaves mixed with salt, so that the wounds will heal easily.

CATHOLIC CONNECTION

I’m going to state right off the bat that this belief is NOT a result of Catholic influence, but I find is fascinating how it was syncretized into it.  The best example of how this belief has been integrated exists in the paper “Maka-andog” A Reconstructed Myth from Eastern Samar, Philippines by Donn and Harriet Hart.

“Several examples may illustrate how folklore has contributed village life. Christian Filipinos make saltless food offerings to pre-Hispanic spirits (ingkanto). After the offering, the food is recooked with salt and eaten by the participants. Few informants could explain why food is offered to these supernaturals was cooked without salt. The most common reply was : “It is the custom of the old people (tigulang),” or “They do not like salt.” to our knowledge this pan-Philippine practice (saltless food offerings), repeatedly mentioned in the literature, has never been explained. The fullest answer came first in a Samaran folktale.

According to this folktale, an excellent example of the widespread reinterpretation of ancient Filipino culture, the ingkanto were created in heaven during God’s absence. When God returned, His domain was overrun by these newly created persons with preternatural powers. God decreed that if they were to remain in heaven all had to be baptized so they would be Christians. The ingkanto refused. During baptism in the Catholic church, a pinch of salt is put on the infant’s tongue, a symbol of the preservation of the faith. Since “salt melts easily in water,” the ingkanto reasoned, by the principle of imitative magic, their magical strength would “melt away.” God was adamant. Losing patience, He swept heaven clean of the ingkanto, who fell to earth, where they now reside.

One could claim that the connection between the use of salt in the Catholic baptismal ceremony and the saltless ingkanto food offerings was obvious. However, to us-and to other researchers-it was not, although this explanation is superbly logical when one understands the Filipino peasants’ other reinterpretations of pre-Hispanic customs that conflict with their Catholic faith and the predominance of imitative over contagious magic in village life. In southern Negros this particular tale did not reappear. However, some informants in Barrio Caticugan, southern Negros, explained that the ingkanto disliked salt because they were not baptized. “Why?” “Ambut ( I don’t know).”

If we limited our study to documentation from the Philippines (as many do), we could tie this belief to its use in the Catholic Church and the Roman Rite. The Ritual knows two kinds of salt for liturgical purposes, the baptismal salt and the blessed salt.  When studying Philippine beliefs and practices, we must expand our studies to surrounding countries and the waves of migration associated with them.

SALT AND THE SUPERNATURAL FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Nathan Brown, pop culture author regarding the supernatural, says the following regarding salt:

• The Celts used it to ward off bad luck
• Ancient Hebrews would throw salt over their shoulders to also ward off bad luck
• Jesus referenced the power of salt during the Sermon on the Mount
• Mohamed referenced salt as one of four blessings in the Hadith texts
• Hindus mix salt with water to purify new homes of evil spirits
• In Japan, a common Shinto practice uses salt to also bar evil spirits from a room as well as salting the wrestling ring for Sumo matches
• Some Wiccan traditions use salt to purify an altar or ceremonial space before they begin their religious practice or magic

It appears that salt is believed to be a powerful element from our physical world, to expunge entities that don’t belong.  According to the 15 volume Encyclopedia of Religion, salt has long held an important place in religion and culture. At the time of Brahmanic sacrifices, in Hittite rituals and during festivals held by Semites and Greeks at the time of the new moon, salt was thrown into a fire where it produced crackling noises. It was, however,  the common practices throughout the rest of Asia that really caught my interest.

Salt is believed to ward off evil spirits in Mahayana Buddhist tradition, and when returning home from a funeral, a pinch of salt is thrown over the left shoulder as this prevents evil spirits from entering the house. As mentioned above, in Shinto, Shio (塩, lit. “salt”) is used for ritual purification of locations and people (harae, specifically shubatsu), and small piles of salt are placed in dishes by the entrance of establishments for the two-fold purposes of warding off evil and attracting patrons.

It would appear that this exists as a belief in areas that had little to no influence from the Spanish and the Catholic Church, yet do have direct connection to the Philippines through trade and migration.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SALT

Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent.

Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.

In the pre-colonial Philippines Salt was made by pouring seawater over burning logs, washing out the ashes, and boiling the resulting brine.

The journals of Spanish explorers and friars make some of the earliest written references to salt in the Philippines. In 1582, Miguel Loarca documented the importance of the lowland-highland trade in the islands and noted that in the Visayas (Central Philippines ), “the inhabitants of the mountains cannot live without the fish, salt and other articles of food, and the jars and dishes, of other districts; nor, on the other hand, can those of the coast live without the rice and cotton of the mountaineers”. This is further confirmed in Father Alcina’s 1668 Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas, where he describes the various salt-making methods in the region and the importance of this commodity throughout the Visayan Islands during that time. In fact, historical research has shown that salt derived from seawater was “such an essential item of trade it served as a medium of exchange,” with a 5- to 6- cm2 piece of salt being equivalent to three liters of rice. (Scott 1994)

Likewise, Schlegel’s ethnohistorical research on the upland-lowland economies of the Tiruray and Magindanao in Mindanao revealed the intricacies and extent of trade networks for goods such as salt. He notes that the Tiruray were dependent on the lowland Magindanao polity for critical household goods such as salt, earthenware pots, metal tools and textiles. In exchange, the Magindanao would barter these coastal goods for forest products such as beeswax, rattan and sap, which would be further traded down the coast to the maritime port of Cotabato for foreign goods such as Chinese porcelains and silks. An extensive trade network was established among these communities for the acquisition of needed goods.

PSEUDO SCIENCE

While researching this topic in supernatural forums, I came across this comment:  “Salt works due to its crystalline structure. It refracts electromagnetic waves, which are what ghost style aspirations mostly consists of. Just like a flame is just electromagnetic waves at the right frequency to be interpreted and interacted with on our dimension, ghosts manipulate their electromagnetic waves to become visible, or move objects. Salt refracts and distorts this energy and makes it difficult for them to manifest hence a bowl next to the bed working. And circles, create a wall of distortion that’s unpleasant to impossible to cross. Simple physics.”

In an Introductory Article on the Electromagnetic Spectrum, electromagnetic radiation can be described as a stream of photons, each traveling in a wave-like pattern, carrying energy and moving at the speed of light. In that section, it was pointed out that the only difference between radio waves, visible light and gamma rays is the energy of the photons. Radio waves have photons with the lowest energies. Microwaves have a little more energy than radio waves. Infrared has still more, followed by visible, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays.

Sounds reasonable, right?  Except the supposed links between ghosts and electromagnetic fields, low temperatures, radiation, odd photographic images, and so on are based on nothing more than guesses, unproven theories, and wild conjecture. If a device could reliably determine the presence or absence of ghosts, then by definition, ghosts would be proven to exist.  Just about any anything that anyone considers odd for any reason, from an undetermined sound to a “bad feeling” to a blurry photo, has been considered evidence of something otherworldly.

I don’t want to rag on “ghost hunters”.  In a previous post I wrote about how science may be getting close to proving anitos and engkantos are real.  Saying that,  I will leave this theory with a comment from my friend who, I believe, can see the spirits of those who have passed.  I generally ask this particular person about such things because she does not want others to know she has these gifts.  She doesn’t use it for profit or fame, yet I have seen her during her visions and I believe her.  When I presented her with the question about salt expunging spirits and engkanto she told me that she had previously visited a salt farm in Pangansinan and still saw spirits.  This may not address the Engkanto belief, but it is enough for me to put to rest the above theory about salt refracting electromagnetic waves enough to stop ghosts from using it. It’s still not science and it’s still not evidence, but I ground my belief in things unknown to my personal experiences and in those I trust – with varying results.

CONCLUSION

Historically, the main reason for the addition of salt to food was for preservation. Our bodies also use sodium to maintain fluid levels. A balance of fluid and sodium is necessary for the health of the heart, liver, and kidneys. In other words, salt is a mineral that’s provided on our plane of existence and is required by almost all living things to survive here. From very early days salt had a sacred and ‘religious’ character.

If I had to propose a theory based on the research I have conducted, it would be as such: Since water came from the ‘heavens’ and food (crops, seafood, wild game) were thought to be dependent on the graces of spirits and elements sent forth by deities, perhaps salt was the one essential item for life that was believed to be exclusively from our layer of existence. Bacteria that causes disease, illness and rot were believed to be brought by mischievous spirits or engkanto.  These things seemed to be stopped or slowed by using salt.  The application of salt elsewhere would only seem reasonable to someone working outside the realm of science. Smoke can also act as a preservative, and has some of the same associations in various beliefs around the world – such as smudging. This theory risks proposing the notion that animist ancestors were unsophisticated, which I don’t believe.  I am in awe that the healing properties and importance of salt (and other minerals, herbs and plants) became part of spiritual and medicinal practices in the first place. If us city dwellers were suddenly thrust into the ancient past, the natural world would undoubtedly make quick work in disposing of us.

The real reason that salt is believed to ward off the engkanto may be lost to history, but it is certainly a belief from all over the world that seems to be as old as recorded history.  But these beliefs are not entirely in the past.  As mentioned throughout this article, it is still actively practiced in many parts of the world, including the Philippines. I’ll close this article with a more modern entry found in The Encyclopedia of Philippine Folk Beliefs and Practices that suggests salt’s usefulness in expelling things may not be confined to the spiritual realm:

When there are unwanted visitors in the house and you want to send them away, throw salt around the house unnoticed by the visitors. The unwanted persons will then go away soon.

Hmmmmm….a promising prospect for an introvert like me.

*doorbell rings
ME: *sprinkles salt…everywhere*

 

 SOURCES:
The Aswang Complex in Philippine Folklore, Maximo Ramos, 1990, Phoenix Publishing
The The Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology, Maximo Ramos, Phoenix Publishing, 1990
The Encyclopedia of Philippine Folk Beliefs & Customs Vol. 1, Demetrio, Xavier University Press, 1991
Myth & Symbols, Philippines, Francisco R. Demetrio, S.J. 1978, National Book Store
Folk Medicine in a Philippine Municipality, F. Landa Jocano, 2003, PUNLAD Research House Inc.
“Maka-andog” A Reconstructed Myth from Eastern Samar, Philippines by Donn and Harriet Hart, The Journal of American Folklore Vol. 79, No. 314 (Oct. – Dec., 1966)”Religion: Chasing away evil spirits”. History of salt. Cagill. Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2013
Can you pass the salt, please? Archived 27 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Robert Camara, 30 March 2009

 

ALSO READ: ENGKANTO & ANITOS: Could Science Be Close To Proving They’re Real?