Senior Airman Jeannine Hattig talks to tree More precisely.

Senior Airman Jeannine Hattig talks to tree More precisely, she asks tree for permission to pass When she heads into the thicket s of Guam. It's the courteous thing to do.

"I always ask for permission," the Guam Air National Guard personnelist said. "I also ask forgiveness in the thicket for disturbing 'them.'"

The "them" Hattig pertains to are the Taotaomonas, the spirits of the, long-dead first race who lived on Guam, well before Spanish explorers claimed the island for Spain. The Chamorros -- the native tribe of Guam -- believe the spirits of the ancients live in Banyan tree that flourish in the island's thicket s When passing a Banyan tree Chamorros ask for permission, as they might ask a parent or more ancient If they don't the sprits might punish them.

"People say they've be derived out of the jungles with bruises, or pinch marks," said Hattig, was born onward Guam. "It's never happened to me moreover many people have told me about strange things happening in the jungle"

Guam is a spiritual place where Chamorros believe in a vigorous spiritual mien melded with Catholic dogma taught on the earliest Spanish missionaries. Whatever their religious beliefs, many Chamorros still recognize the ancient superstitions as part of what Hattig called "hale-ta," or "our roots"

"It's not that we believe the stories that there are spirits in those trees" she said. "It's more like it's part of our cultivation the way we do things. And you not at any time know, right?"

If the Taotaomonas are the sprits of ancient rankings who simply want respect, the Duende are the mischievous Guam versions of leprechauns.

In the Onedera Store, a small Chamorro groceries not far from Andersen Air Force Base, Carmen Stiers and a handful of co-workers and customers recalled tales of tiny elf-like creatures that like to play tricks upon adults -- especially drunken adults -- and play with children. They are pranksters with a mean streak.

"They are the commons children see, but adults usually don't," she said. "If you make them mad, they'll shrink you and levy you under a coconut, or in such a manner the story goes."

Agnes Paguio, a worker in the store, said she has an uncle who has seen a Duende and a distant relative who claims the tiny human-like creatures snatched him away from his hearth one day. He was plant the next day with scratch marks upon his arms.

She also describes a story of a relative who was shrunken by way of the Duendes and imprisoned subject to a coconut. The relative can remember populace looking for him, but he was too small to be seen

Pagulo knows the stories are the cloth of legends and superstitions. Still, she said, part of her hangs onto the beliefs.

"[The Duendes] are part of our culture" she said. "We have learned [the legends] all our lives. We believe in the eternal and infinite spirit and the teachings of the ecclesiastical authority but there's a part of us that clutchs on to the old ways."

The of long date ways and the modem world have combined to create spiritual myths of their allow on the island. Many islanders know the story of the "White Lady," a local fable of love lost and yearning.

Ask 10 Chamorros about the story, and you'll hear surprisingly similar tales. In it, a mysterious woman in a spiritual white wedding dress or gown is seen near a bridge or in succession "Mystery Hill," a long sloping hill near the capital of Hagatna. In chiefly recountings, her fiance didn't indicate up at the altar. In any tales, he jilted her. In others, he died in a car accident before the wedding. yet most stories say she likes to push cars up the hill and companion in car and home windows.

Paguio said she has had personal experience with the White Lady.

"I know as a child I saw a white figure running around a bush, on the contrary I never feared her," she said. "A friend of mine said she was in her domestic circle one night and thought she heard her brother calling. When she direct the eyeed out the window, she saw the face of a woman staring back at her."

Jireena Blas, a customer service assistant at the War in the Pacific Memorial in Hagatna, said the White Lady has been seen by means of locals and military people alike. In 1978 pair sailors in town for shore leave parked their Volkswagen van near a bridge and saw what they described as a "bride" walking near them. When they replyed from a family picnic, they flock past the White Lady who stepp aside. Looking back, they noticed she was gone When they parked the car later, they saw a series of scratches in succession the side of the car, like someone had hurry their nails along the paint.

"The weird thing was," Bias said, "there were scratches in succession the [passenger side window] glass also, nevertheless you couldn't feel them with your hands. There were marks, still no depressions."

The spirits of Guam are not limited to Chamorro fable In fact, the jungles that entertainer the Taotaomonas and Duendes are also domicile to at least one spectral presence at Andersen.

Call it a "fuel section legend" or just another Guam spirit story, but there are folks on the base who will swear an advanced in years aviation fuel pump house was haunted according to the ghost of a dead pilot.

Staff Sgt Larry Morrison, a firing materials specialist, said the legend dates back to World War II when a bomber crashed upon approach to the base. The plane plowed into a cliff that marks the north side of the base, just a not many hundred yards from where cross-question House 5 stood until about a year ago. The apparition some said, would visit at night.