Note 92 — Chapter VII

M. and D. omit “than the word of the whole world.”

Mas says (pp. 90–96): “The superstitions of these people can be divided into three classes. The first consists in believing that certain monsters or ghosts exist, to which they give names and assign special duties, and even certain exterior forms, which are described by those who affirm that they have seen them. Such are the Tigbalan, Osuang, Patianac, Sava, Naanayo, Tavac, Nono, Mancuculan, Aiasip, the rock Mutya, etc.

“The Antinganting is any object which promises wealth or happiness, as we would speak of the girdle of Venus, or the ring of Giges.

“Many Spaniards, especially the curas, imagine that these beliefs are not very deeply rooted, or that they have declined, and that most of the Filipinos are free from them. This is because in the presence of such the Filipinos do not dare tell the truth, not even in the confessional, because of their fear of the reprimand that surely awaits them. I have talked to many about these things, some of whom at the beginning began to laugh, and to joke about the poor fools who put faith in such nonsense. But when they saw that I was treating the matter seriously, and with the spirit of inquiry as a real thing, they changed their tone, and made no difficulty in assuring me of the existence of the fabulous beings described above....

“The second class consists in various practices, like that of burning incense under the balete tree; putting ashes at the door of the house where a person has died, in order that they might recognize the tracks of the soul of the dead one; leaving a plate for the dead man at the table, etc.

“When Don G. Piñeiro went to Culamba in 1841, for the purpose of climbing a lofty mountain, he encountered innumerable difficulties in getting people to accompany him, in spite of the orders of the superior government; and he had to desist and climb from the village of Los Baños accompanied by the cura, who had the road opened for him. The reason for that, as the said religious assured me, was the fear of the Filipinos for the anito, although the excuses that they offered were quite different.

“In the said village of Los Baños, they believe that there is an antinganting in one of the hot water springs, which has water at 67° Reaumur. This consists in the Divine Child, who appears and hops about in the water on Good Friday; and he who catches Him obtains the antinganting. This last year, 1841, a man tried to get too near, and fell in. His entire body was scalded, and he was bled; but not one drop of blood could be drawn from his body, and he died on the following day.

“The third, and to me the most remarkable, class is found not in certain personages or superstitious and determined proceedings, but in sudden and capricious scenes, and in improbable and inexplainable apparitions.

“There is scarce a Filipino, even the most enlightened, who does not tell marvelous things that have happened to him—wondrous visions, mute and speechless; ghosts, goblins, strange figures; dead people; dogs, and fabulous and never imagined animals; castles, and balls of fire, that have appeared to him; frightful noises of all sorts that have scared him; and, finally, the most improbable stories and bits of nonsense that could be invented by the most raving maniac.

“On hearing them recount so many of these extravagances, and seeing that they distinguish them from dreams, I have been unable to believe that they were deceits; and observing their faces very carefully during the narration, I have been convinced that they were intimately persuaded that they had seen the things that they described. Whence can this mental weakness come? It is not from ignorance, for I have noticed the same thing as in the others, in several clerics who have studied in the university for ten or twelve years. One day I was in a convent where the boards of the floor began to creak because of dryness, and the coadjutor became so frightened that he went away to sleep in another house; and the Christian reflections, jests, and anger of the Spanish cura could not restrain him.... The Filipino cura, Don J. Severiano Mallares, committed and caused to be committed fifty-seven assassinations, because he believed that he could by this means save his mother, who, he had persuaded himself, had been bewitched; and was hanged in the year 1840. The attorney on that cause talked in pathetic terms of the indescribable and barbarous prodigality of blood shed by that monster. Reflecting upon this phenomenon, I am inclined to think that it is based on their natural timorousness....”