Engkanto

Engkanto (from Spanish encanto, lit. 'enchantment') are mythical environmental spirits that are said to have the ability to appear in human form.^[1] They are often associated with the spirits of ancestors in the Philippines.^[2][3][4] They are also characterized as spirit sorts like sirens, dark beings, elves, and more.^[5] Belief in their existence has likely existed for centuries,^[4] and continues to this day.^[6]

It is a bracket term for enchanted human-like beings of the land which includes a variety of mythical races. The term itself was adopted from the Spanish, who were dumbfounded by the wide array of mythical races in the Philippines and just referred to many of the races as "enchanted".^[7] Though at the same time the term does not differ at all from the archaic Spanish sense of the word as referring to a supernatural apparition, sometimes tied to a place.