Nuno sa Punso

Lola's story

When we walked to the park, I always stopped at the anthill and said, "Tabi tabi po." My grandson Kuya asked why. "Because the nuno sa punso lives there," I told him, "and he only forgives people who ask permission out loud." Kuya, who is shy, had to find his big voice.

I know how hard that is. When I was a girl in Manila, I stepped on a punso in my Lola's garden, and I was so scared that I only whispered my sorry. "Lakasan mo!" my Lola said. Louder! "The nuno is very old. His ears are very small." So I said it again, louder, and my itchy foot got better. Or maybe the ants just went home. My Lola never said which.

Kuya stepped on a punso too, chasing a ball in the park. And this time, in front of everybody, he said it loud.

What people say

The nuno sa punso is one of the best-known creatures in Philippine folklore: a tiny, very old man who lives in anthills and termite mounds. If you kick or step on his home, people say he might make you itchy, swollen or sick.

His name means "old one of the mound": nuno is an old one or an ancestor, and punso is a mound of earth. That's why many Filipinos, even grown-ups, still say "tabi tabi po" when they walk past an anthill, a big old tree or a dark corner of the yard. It's a way of showing respect to whatever lives there, even if you can't see it. In the old stories, if someone falls sick after disturbing a mound, the family asks an albularyo, a folk healer, to help them make peace with the nuno.

How to stay safe

Say "tabi tabi po" when you pass an anthill, a big old tree or a dark corner. If you bump into a mound by accident, say "patawad po", "please forgive me."