EVER SINCE I got my ID as official proof that I'm now a full-fledged senior citizen, I got into this habit of being on the alert for -- and enjoying -- life's pleasant surprises.
One such briefly but sweetly "resurrected childhood" happened to me when I was sweeping fallen avocado leaves on our part of the road in Baguio City one morning last January. As if my guardian angel gave a sign that she was happy I was starting the day right — I chanced upon this rhinoceros beetle.
Yes, you got it right. No sooner than when I realized I still had an angel that looks after the kid in me, I quickly finished what I was doing. And before I knew it, I scooped the beetle on my hands and gave in to the nostalgic emotions ushered in by my accidental encounter with the insect.
This type of beetle is called dumoj in Isinay (“barrairong” in Ilocano and “uwang” in Tagalog).
It has been years, nay, decades, when I last saw the creature up close and even listen to its almost inaudible but sweetly familiar "eeekkk... eeekkk" sound.
It was my first time, too, to find one in cold Baguio. And so I faintly wondered it must have flown from the warmer soils of La Union downhill, and even suspected that one boy caught it from Nueva Vizcaya and upon reaching Baguio he let the creature go.
Anyway, upon seeing that the beetle was alive and well, right then and there half-forgotten boyhood memories of playing with the beetle (as well as cicadas, dragonflies, fireflies, crickets, and grasshoppers) raced like video tape on fast forward in my mind’s eye.
Part of my memories was that slightly forested carabao-grazing part of Abannatan downhill of the Dupax Elementary School where one of my Isinay friends -- Wilfredo Felix -- discovered and revealed to me a particular spot where dumoj were clinging in some vines among the sapang and achuete shrubs.
I passed by the Latar Road last year and I was neyomdaran (surprised) to find that part of Abannatan was already a verdant ricefield flanked by flowering mango trees.
But back to our beetle...
Before I called my daughters to come look at a sample of my insect toys as a boy in Isinay country, I plucked a twig of my wife’s wild button tomato, put it beside the sleepy dumoj on my palm, set them for a good photo op in the morning light, and the picture above was one of the results.
You must have heard how many of us Filipinos, particularly Ilocanos, eat almost anything that moves and are able to use as food any succulent green on the mountain trail. Well, I would like to add that Isinays are also that good at sourcing food from the wilds. This was why during World War 2, it was said that American soldiers loved going with locals rather than their countrymen.
Bayaw ot, e... sorry to spoil your entomophagous (insect-eater) curiosity. Marin masira tiyen dumoj. This beetle is not the one that could be fried and eaten with gusto. Its edible cousin that we folks in Isinay country (Isinay man asta Ilocano) cherished as summer food was the May beetle that is called e-ve in Isinay, abal-abal or sibbaweng in Ilocano, and salagubang in Tagalog.
It is a different thing, however, with the wild button tomato. I have yet to find out if it has a specific Isinay name, but it is called butinggan by some Ilocanos, butbutones by some. Yes, it is also common wild food plant among us Ilocano-Isinays in Northern Philippines. But I'll reserve my take on it for a separate post.
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