They are not usually malicious and in my mother's province are to some extent even considered guardians, if somewhat mischievous.
You can read up on some more general information on the Kapre here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapre
According to my mother and several relatives, there have been several occurrences and sightings involving a spirit/entity/creature described as "a very big man" (In the Philippines 'big' tends to be synonymous with 'tall' rather than 'fat') in the province.
There has been some debate about whether the spirit is a ghost, a Kapre or perhaps even an Aswang (a creature I will write more in detail about in future posts). For the most part however, he is believed to be a Kapre.
One of my uncles, who I shall refer to as Uncle B, has encountered him a few times...very recently in fact during my last few trips out to the province. We were staying at a relative's house, so while I, my brother, mother and aunt occupied the second bedroom there, Uncle B decided to stay at another relative's place nearby. He felt too warm inside the house though, so he chose to sleep outside in a Jeepney instead (a Jeepney is a converted US military jeep that serves as the Philippines primary means of public transport). It wasn't long before he woke up when he felt the vehicle shift significantly, as if a very heavy person had boarded it...when he looked around...he couldn't see anyone, but he knew whatever it was, it was still there...
He ran out of the Jeepney and back into the house. Warm or not, he could not spend the night outside with something unseen watching him.
Similarly, another relative experienced something outside her home, when the tall bamboo growing outside seemingly of their own accord bent all the way down to the ground. They stayed that way for a considerable amount of time before springing back into place. It had been as if something unseen had been sitting on it or had been holding it down (bamboo is very flexible).
Another incident, one of my aunts was up and about at around five in the morning to feed the horses. She said she saw a big man sitting there watching her, when she threw some of the horses feed at him he laughed and disappeared.
A more interesting story, however, is one about one of my older aunts. Now, one is not to speak ill of the elderly, but this particular aunt has a very unfortunate attitude problem that is likely an undiagnosed mental/personality disorder. When my mother was still a little girl, her older half-sister had a tendency to be very grumpy. She was often obstinate, surly, contradicting and generally strange. There were times she would spend the entire night wandering around outside until her feet and clothes were filthy and caked in mud - This apparently happened often after my grandmother would scold her for either not doing her chores or being cruel to her younger siblings.
Because of this, she would usually insist on sleeping apart from her brothers and sisters, choosing to sleep instead on a cot in the kitchen. One night, the entire household awoke to terrible screaming from the kitchen. When they rushed to see what the matter was, they found my aunt sitting upright frantically beating her arms against the air, as if she was fighting some unseen force and initially they were not able to wake her. Within minutes neighbours had arrived with torches and machetes believing that someone was being attacked and asked my grandfather if something had happened. By then my aunt had stopped and they had been successful in waking her, my grandfather just told everyone she had had a nightmare and they left. My aunt claimed that a very big man had come into the kitchen and was attacking her.
My grandmother scolded her, saying that it was her own fault for being so mean all the time and for refusing to sleep in the same room as her siblings. Nevertheless, she told her to sleep in the bedroom adjacent to the kitchen and dining room.
The following night, my aunt did as she was told and moved to one of the bedrooms. There were no nightmares but there were some tapping sounds to be heard from the walls and ceiling that my grandmother explained away as just lizards or geckos being noisy (although, my mother who does not have the sixth sense or third eye never heard a thing).
Then on the third night, my aunt complained again about the tapping and when once more my grandmother said she was imagining things (despite the fact that she could hear it too), almost immediately after, there came a loud banging sound from the wall, as if someone was pounding hard against it with their fist. My mother who was sleeping next to her two brothers once again could not hear it, while both my uncles J and B had heard as well as my grandparents. My grandfather took a spear and my grandmother a flashlight to make sure no one had come into the house...But if someone had, there should have been footprints as it had been raining non-stop for days, and when he asked my uncle who lived next door and had a clear view of the house and the stairs that led up to the front door, if anyone had gone in or exited their home, he was told that no one had entered or left the house.
My mother believes that it had been the Kapre, that perhaps he had been offended somehow by my aunt's behaviour and had sought to teach her a lesson.
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