This is an attempt to write my family history and to get to know my relatives. Much of the details in this article was provided by my aunt Beatrice kilat. I hope to improve on it soon...
ODU KONDILIM
My maternal grandmother's name was Kondilim. Her parents were Gumontod and Solimoi.The only known relative of Gumontod was his cousin Dumayan. Their fathers were brothers. Dumayan married Sokundoi and they had three children, Asou, Daliam and Katut. When Kondilim was married, her nopung was received by Asou. Asou was the grandfather of Rev. Fr. Rudolf Joannes, Sr. Laura Robert,FSP and soon-to-be Sr. Liza Robert,FSIC.
Solimoi had several siblings. They were all women. Her elder sister Sundimoi married Bulangai, and their children were Sulatam, Gorusui and Betud. Stephen Sulatam as well as his own son, are active youth leaders at St. Theresa Parish, Tambunan. Solimoi's other siblings were Sohinoi, Yohinoi and Solima. One of Solima's daughter, Kiaoi married an Indonesian Muslim, Kundang, and made their residence in Sumbiling, Tenom. They had three offsprings, Umpong, Felia and (... ) unkown.
Gumontod and Solimoi had several offsprings but only Kondilim survived. According to popular beliefs at that time, the death of her other siblings were caused by a sidut-sidut. It was a spirit that was believed to eat little children, or kosidung caused them to fall sick and to die.
"Kosidung boh gia sidut-sidut!"
Kondilim's siblings died either in their early infancy or as late as fourteen years old. One afternoon, one of them would suddenly fell ill and in the same night, they died. It was heartbreaking for the young couple. After sometime they adopted a pet, a kera or monkey. Monkeys were believed to have the ability to see ghosts or spirits. LIkewise, spirits were believed to be afraid of the monkeys. And it worked.
After sometime, Kondilim was born. Her birth gave great joy to her grieving parents. But the rejoicing did not last long for Solimoi's exhausted body finally gave in, and she too passed away to rejoin her earlier offsprings. Gumontod was devastated. Left with a young infant still in need of her mother's milk, he did not know what to do. Finally, he thought of feeding the young child with juices that he could squeeze out of the sugarcane. Miraculously, the infant survived. Unfortunately, she suffered what was called a perut buddha syndrome, enlarge belly due to the excess sugar intake she was exposed to so early in her life.
A few years later, Gumontod suffered from a nasty boil on his testicles. The condition made it impossible for him to walk around. One day he noticed that they had no more dish to go with their usual rice. Due to his condition, his brother-in-law Bulangai had somehow abused them and killed his fowls for his pusas or dishes that accompany the rice wine when he was moginum.
Gumontod called Kondilim to his side.
"Ingga no napa tokou. Ongoi po pogihum do bonong," he said.
Kondilim was frightened. It meant she had to go out during the night to look for edible field frogs. She was just a child herself, maybe around eight years old or so. However she was afraid to disobey her ailing father, so she took a ...... to light her way and an "iso dapa do wulu" to use in her search. Gathering up her courage, she went our into the dark. Fortunately the spirits were with her. She was able to catch several frogs which she brought home and they cooked for their meal.
During those days, when somebody was ill, the people usually called a bobolian to perform mogondi or manampasi. One day, Gumontod asked Kondilim to go to her uncle Dumayan. Dumayan's wife, Sokundoi, knew how to do the magandaway, or short prayers to ask the spirits for healing.
There was no religion then. The natives were superstitious and practiced animism. The bobolian especially were believed to receive their knowledge and healing powers from the karaganan or dark spirit.
Now Dumayan lived a fair distance away from Gumontod. Kondilim pitied her father's situation. Besides, she had no other choices but obey her father and go to her uncle's house. She walked for a long time. She would have to go through three hills to reach her destination. Walking on one's own two meet was the only means to travel during those days.
Later she told her daughters how, on the journey when it was montop rotop and the sun was setting behind the hills, she saw a duarong on a branch but he did not see its tail. It was believed that a duarong was an evil spirit in the guise of an animal. She was so frightened that she ran all the way to Dumayan's place without stopping. She collapsed immediately upon her arrival, much to the chagrin of her relatives.
The next day, Sokundoi performed the magandaway on Gumontod but his ailment was far too advanced for healing. There was nothing Sokundoi could do, so she left them and went back to her family.
Aware that he would not last very long, Gumontod summoned up all his strength to sharpened his hunting knife. He called his daughter to his side, for he intend to use the knife on her.
"I would rather kill you before I die, than knowing that you would suffer ill treatment from others when I am gone," he reasoned.
Kondilim's neighbours heard about it and stopped him. "Don't go near him," they told her. "He is not in his right mind."
Soon after, Gumontod died. He was buried beside his wife. After his death, Bulangai brought Kondilim to stay with his family. However his ...(cont.)
AKI KILAT (KEBIUS)
My grandfather's name was Kilat, and later took the name Kebius when he was baptized. His parents were Gintaw and Tumolong. He had an older brother, Ukang who got married to an older woman so they did not have any children. The youngest brother, Tula, was from Tumolong's second husband. Tula's waris can be found in Kg. Dalungan.
Odu Tumolong was a 'bolungkitas bobolian'. She was very popular during her time, and believed to be the last of her kind. And although she mentored some women in the craft, they never completed the final lesson, the rinait. It was believed to be too long to memorize.
Odu was often called to do mogondi, magandaway or mansayaw tampal, among other things. Some of the tools she used was the tinimung, assortments of things on a nyiru; a selection of bamboo suki which was used during rundukan, as well as knives and other metals. She was often in demand in other places, and hardly stayed in her own house. She was known to heal sicknesses after receiving revelations from the sumarung. Unfortunately she was away when her own husband was sick. It was too late when she was finally home.
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