Dalaketnon

Also Known As: also Dalakitnon, the form recorded for the Eastern Visayas; glossed as “those who live in the balete tree”, from dalakit, a local name for the balete or strangler fig
Region/Culture: Southeast Asia
Mythos: Philippine Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Fairy Folk and Spirit Beings
Mythical Attributes: The Dalaketnon are tree-dwelling spirit people of the Eastern Visayas whose balete trees are really mansions and who can pass among humans without being noticed.
Role in Mythos: They are the regional form of the fair, wealthy forest people of Philippine belief, recorded under this name by the folklorist Maximo D. Ramos.
Relation to Humans: The Dalaketnon mix freely with people at dances, at college and abroad, and nobody around them knows what they are. In the one story recorded of them, a Dalaketnon youth charms a young woman, drives her to a splendid city, and leaves her to be found crying alone in the forest the next morning.

Somewhere back in the trees a plate knocks against another plate. Then comes the smell of something frying, and after a while, thin and far off, the crying of a baby. There is no house. There is only an old balete, a strangler fig with its roots hanging down like ropes around a hollow where another tree used to be.

That is how the people of the Eastern Visayas are said to know the Dalaketnon are home. The name, in its recorded form dalakitnon, means those who live in the balete tree, and nearly everything that can be said about them with confidence comes from one book: The Creatures of Midnight by the Filipino folklorist Maximo D. Ramos, in the edition Phoenix Publishing House issued in 1990. Ramos gives them a short passage and one story. The record is that small.

What he sets down is specific. The Dalaketnon are tall and handsome, men and women both. Their skin is smooth and white and their hair is brown and wavy. Their clothes are shot through with gold and silver thread. They live deep in the wild woods, and the trees that look like balete to anyone walking past are their mansions, with kitchens busy enough to be heard from the path.

They do not stay in the woods. This is the odd and memorable part. A Dalaketnon might be the best dancer at the village hall on a Saturday night, the heat of the room on his face like anyone else’s. They enroll in college. They travel to other countries. They drive new cars, and they win beauty contests. Nobody checks.

The one story goes like this. A good-looking young woman from the city came to a village to spend a quiet summer near the forest. At the village dance she met a handsome young man. They danced, and danced again, and she fell in love with him. He asked her to come and meet his family, and she said yes. He drove her in his own car to a beautiful city, with wide streets and fine houses on both sides. The next morning she was found in the woods, alone, in tears. The story stops there. It does not say what she saw when the light changed, or whether she ever went looking for him.

Ramos gives no origin for them. He names no king or queen, no single Dalaketnon, and no village where the story happened. He records no charm against them and no way to send one off.

A good deal more is told about the Dalaketnon now. Recent retellings give them pointed ears, a hidden realm entered through the trunk of the tree, feasts of black rice that trap whoever eats, and command over the aswang and other night creatures. None of that is in Ramos, and none of it comes with a named teller or a printed page behind it. It may be local tradition that never reached a book. It may be newer than that.

The ground they stand on is firmer. Across the Visayas and beyond, people speak of the engkanto, fair and well-dressed strangers who live in great fig trees, court humans, and lead them away to rich houses that turn back into forest. The balete itself is treated with care all over the islands, and many people will not cut one or point at it. The Dalaketnon are the Eastern Visayan members of that company, and they should not be loaded with every trait the wider family has.

Their power, as far as the record shows it, is seeming. A tree looks like a tree when it is a mansion. A forest becomes a city for one night. A stranger passes for a classmate, a neighbor, or a beauty queen.

The limits sit inside the same story. The city does not last until morning. Sound and smell slip out of the tree, so the dishes and the cooking give the household away to anyone who stops to listen. And whatever the youth wanted from the girl, he did not keep her.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Dalaketnon?

The Dalaketnon, also spelled Dalakitnon, are tree-dwelling spirit people in the folklore of the Eastern Visayas in the Philippines. Their name means those who live in the balete tree. They look like tall, good-looking humans and can live among people without being recognized.

Where do the Dalaketnon live?

The Dalaketnon live deep in the woods inside balete trees, which are strangler figs. What looks like a tree to a passerby is said to be a mansion. People know a household is there by the clink of dishes, the smell of cooking and the sound of babies crying.

What do the Dalaketnon look like?

The Dalaketnon are described as tall, handsome men and women with smooth white skin and wavy brown hair. Their clothes are woven with gold and silver thread. Pointed ears appear in recent retellings but not in the account recorded by Maximo D. Ramos.

What is the story of the Dalaketnon and the city girl?

A young woman from the city spent a summer in a village near a forest and met a handsome youth at the village dance. She fell in love and agreed to visit his family, and he drove her to a beautiful city with wide streets and fine houses. The next morning she was found alone and weeping in the woods.

Where does the Dalaketnon legend come from?

The main written record of the Dalaketnon is The Creatures of Midnight by the Filipino folklorist Maximo D. Ramos, in the 1990 Phoenix Publishing House edition, which gives the name as dalakitnon and assigns it to the East Visayans. Details such as black rice feasts, a hidden realm and rule over the aswang are told today but are not in that account.