Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Brownie House Sprite Leaves Foot Marks on Walls


In this house in the Philippines, a few strange things have happened since the new occupants have moved in. Mysterious foot marks have appeared on the freshly-painted walls. They appear to have been made overnight while people are sound asleep. The marks were initially thought to have been made by kids with dirty hands and feet and were promptly cleaned. But when the marks continued to appear overnight and a presence was felt in the house (even when there were no kids around), it became obvious there was something supernatural going on. Most of the marks showed what appeared to be toes, but only three of them were obvious.

It was thought the muddy visitor was an ogre, or kapre in local terminology. Kapre in the Philippines tower two storeys high and smoke a big cigar that never goes out. They do not appear clean and are hairy. Some (or the same one) have been seen in the area by those who could "see things." Later, based on a consultation with a local medium and healer or albularyo, the house was not visited by a kapre, but instead was inhabited, or frequented, by two playful nature entities or elementals (earth) that were as small as and looked like kids.

According to the mystic, unlike the kapre, which can be difficult to drive away, these little beings can be reasoned with and are actually lucky in a household. Those who went for the consultation forgot what these entities were called by the mystic. After a bit of research online, the house occupants concluded that the little elementals were brownies.

In European folklore, brownies are three-foot-tall, hairy house sprites with simple nostrils for noses, that adopt families and do household chores at night. They can eat food that's left for them although they may resent it if the food is offered to them in return for doing chores in the house. They also do not like it if there is too much food. They do not like to be seen and it is said that if they are provided with clothing, they will leave the house forever. In the Harry Potter series, there's this house sprite called Dobby (left; promotional image) who was set free from servitude after Harry tricked him into accepting a sock. Now this is debatable. It is not clear if brownies leave an abode because they are set free by a gift of clothing, or they leave because they feel insulted by the gift (they do prefer to wear dirty rags, hence the name "brownie"). If they are mistreated, brownies supposedly turn into boggarts, which are mean and mischievous.

Having read about brownies (left; drawing from Wikipedia), the occupants decided to try an experiment and left an item of food on the table one night. It was just little one piece of chicharon, or puffed pork skin in a plastic packet. A pair of scissors was placed over the packet. In the morning, the chicharon and packet were gone and the scissors placed on a table mat. There were only two people in the house that time, and neither of them took the chicharon. Was it the brownies that took the food? Who knows. Maybe the brownies simply preferred some types of food over others. They are said to have a taste for honey, milk, cream and porridge. Other food left on the table the next night was untouched and no chores were inexplicably done overnight. Perhaps they left.

Possible brownie house sprite caught on camera in Bicol, Philippines

Photos, unless specified, are owned by alvinwriter. Contact him for inquiries.

You all know these little guys! But unlike the brownie, which adopts a family, this family of dwarves adopted Snow White! Get them all for your house. Maybe a brownie will notice and take up residence! Order the seven dwarves here.

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