Saligao Serenade

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

As a priest on staff at the Holy Spirit Church in Margao, one of my duties is to visit the parishioners. A few days ago my visits took me to the famous Rua Abade Faria (named for Jose de Custodio de Faria, the colourful and enigmatic son of Goa – a hypnotist, priest and revolutionary). A few minutes of wandering along this street presents a kaleidoscope of some of the oldest, most notable town houses in Goa, typifying Goan domestic architecture of the 18th and 19th centuries and demonstrating a whole range of styles. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

Saligao is a well-known village in Bardez, Goa. The people from neighbouring villages refer to Saligaokars as Uxellantle Kole or, nowadays, simply Kole (foxes). How did this nickname originate? Let me tell you the interesting story:

Many centuries back it was rather difficult for people in Saligao to travel from one ward to another, especially during the monsoons when the fields were usually submerged in water. In several places there were ponds, streams and even fountains. Read the rest of this entry »

by Mel D’Souza

 “Baba” was a universal term of affection used in Goa to address a little boy or an adult male who was in good standing in the community. The term would also be used, somewhat grudgingly, when addressing the odd individual who was an embarrassment to his family, but whose misdeeds were not serious enough for him to be thrown out of the house. I suppose he could be called the ‘baba’ black sheep of the family.

Black sheep were few and far between, but we had one in our family. He was my granduncle and his name was Galdinho D’Souza. Read the rest of this entry »

In this narration, Professor Eduardo de Souza, a ganvkar of Saligao of the 9^th vangodd of the Comunidade de Saligao meets with ‘Gagro-Naik’, a venerable gentleman who, according to legend and lore, wears a skirt (gagro), bells around his waist and ankles; carries a staff in his hand and has webbed feet!  He is supposed to be the spirit of a departed landowner (gaunkar) who still watches and guards over the crops and property of his village.

It is reportedly a common experience for a late and lonely traveller who has lost his way to be led on the right path by the Gagro-Naik, or for a rogue out thieving to be caught and brought to task by him.  In times of flood and famine, this genial spirit is said to have warned the farmers by wailing at the dead of night.  He also appears to be the lord of certain places, and in the village of Sinquerim, there still exists a pond which belongs to him – nothing dirty can be washed therein. No baker will sound his pole there, nor a bullock-cart approach the spot without the driver removing the bells from the neck of his beasts of burden, unless he is prepared to take the risk of going mad or rolling down the hill along with his carriage, for such is the fate of those that flaunt all beliefs and draw swords with the webbed warrior. Read the rest of this entry »

[Editor's Note: This essay has been compiled by Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas from old documents, magazine cuttings, jubilee souvenirs, and myriad other sources. If you recognize an unacknowledged source, do let us know and we will rectify the lapse.] 

 Engagements and marriages are also tied down by the traditions in Goa and surrounded by a cluster of quaint rites and observances. A week before any wedding there is bustle all around in preparation for the Buim Jevon or Bikareanchem Jevon (Beggars’ Lunch) and so called, because all the poor as well as the rich who are invited for it are made to sit on the floor on a mat (souém) and eat.  The menu consists of rice, jaggery, sweet (onn) a mixture of gram and plantain vegetable, puris made of rice or wheat flour and an aromatic curry of all types of spices washed down by a glass of feni (the local brew).  Dessert is bananas, mangoes or jack-fruits. Read the rest of this entry »

[Editor's Note: This essay has been compiled by Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas from old documents, magazine cuttings, jubilee souvenirs, and myriad other sources. If you recognize an unacknowledged source, do let us know and we will rectify the lapse.] 

A tradition, superstition or a custom is at home in a place, like a plant. It draws vitality and life from a certain fertile environment and will not grow or flourish anywhere else. And in Goa, including Saligao, with her brooding beauty and peaceful atmosphere, has been the responsive soil and setting for some very picturesque folklore. Probably the hard and lonely but contented life some of the peasants lead, worked on their imaginations and endowed the little-known and the remote with grand importance. The village folk were in every respect sons of the soil, with pliant and impressionable minds. With their hopes sown in the fields; their fears fanned by every passing wind, superstitions and legends formed an essential part of  their everyday life. At least, this was the prevalent scene while I was a young lad growing up in Saligao in the early 1950s, before I decided to become a priest and joined the Seminary of Saligao towards the end of that decade, at the age of 17. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

It was a warm, sunny day in Saligao. At the seminary, it was business as usual for us seminarians. The staff were going about their daily routine and the seminarians and priests were either attending classes, or studying/praying, as was their wont were they to have an hour or so free between assignments. Suddenly, one of the kitchen helpers spotted a large snake – a cobra – slithering across one of the corridors. He shouted out loud to draw the attention of the others and soon there was quite a commotion all around. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

It was the second week of May in the year 1952 that Padre Inácio Lourenço Pereira was appointed as supervisor of the construction of the Saligao-Pilerne Seminary (Seminary of Our Lady). He hailed from Albutriel in Portugal (Diocese of Leiria), the place where Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima. He was a missionary along with his priest brother working in Madras-Mylapore diocese. He replaced Fr Paulo Arcanjo Menezes from Sangolda, who from 1936 to 1952 was in charge of building of the Diocesan Minor Seminary. Read the rest of this entry »

Joseph Furtado, the Goan poet from the neighbouring village of Pilerne down the hill, whose lyrical and dramatic poems of ecstatic naiveté received appreciative recognition from no less a literary critic than Sir Edmund Gosse, composed a vivid ballad entitled “The Cobra Woman”, the ghost on Saligao hill, in his book Selected Poems.

Joseph had his early grounding in Latin, Portuguese and elementary arithmetic in Saligao over 115 years ago in a school called ‘Escola de Padre Ladru’.

Read the rest of this entry »