The white lady and her libreta

Abstract

The Introduction gives an overview of White Lady beliefs in Western and Eastern Europe, including Russia: a ghost of a female of high status who appears in a particular mansion, fortress or palace where she once lived and died (aristocratic version), or a ghost of a common woman who lives on the road where she met her cruel death (democratic version). In both cases it is a malicious ghost of a woman that had encountered «bad» (unnatural) death, it predicts misfortunes and is especially dangerous for men. In the Philippines the picture is more diverse and interesting. The White Lady of Manila, better known as Babaeng nakaputi (Woman in White), is a malicious ghost similar to that of the Russian “drivers' stories”. Likewise, it is dangerous for males: her appearance causes traffic accidents. Male versions of the legend concentrate on traffic accidents; female ones give more attention to the ghost's appearance in abandoned places, homes and churches. All the informants agree that White Lady is a multo (fr. Spanish «muerto»), bad spirit that lives in balete trees. It has some common traits with the other multo and shapeshifters, like babuy-babuyan or aswang. The Siquijor White Lady, on the contrary, belongs to a category of benevolent spirits of folk Christianity. Catholic healers (mananambal) believe that the highest proficiency in healing is achieved by using the orasyon prayers from the libreta that is given by the White Lady. It is a small book that contains writings in Cebuano and corrupted Latin. The book itself and its contents is popularly described as being invisible/unintelligible for all but the healer who owns it. We had a privilege to closely examine and photocopy one of the libretas.