Volume 40 — Chapter XV

Of the false heathen religion, idolatries, superstitions, and other things, of the Filipinos

They adored (as did the Egyptians) animals and birds; and the sun and moon, as did the Assyrians. They also attributed to the rainbow its kind of divinity. The Tagálogs worshiped a blue bird as large as a turtle-dove, which they called tigmamanuquin, to which they attributed the name of Bathala, which, as above stated, was among them a name for divinity. They worshiped the crow, as the ancients did the god Pan or the goddess Ceres, and called it Meylupa, signifying “master of the earth.” They held the crocodile in the greatest veneration, and when they saw it in the water cried out, in all subjection, ”Nono,” signifying “Grandfather.” They asked it pleasantly and tenderly not to harm them, and for that purpose offered it a portion of what they carried in their boat, by throwing it into the water. There was no old tree to which they did not attribute divine honors, and it was a sacrilege to think of cutting it under any consideration. Even the very rocks, crags, reefs, and points along the seashore and rivers were adored, and an offering made to them on passing, by stopping there and placing the offering upon the rock or reef. The river of Manila had a rock that served as an idol of that wretched people for many years, and its scandal lasted and it gave rise to many evils, until the fathers of St. Augustine, who were near there, broke it, through their holy zeal, into small bits and set up a cross in its place. Today there is an image of St. Nicholas of Tolentino in that place, in a small shrine or chapel. When sailing to the island of Panay, one saw on the point called Nasso, near Potol, a rock upon which were dishes and other pieces of crockery-ware, which were offered to it by those who went on the sea. In the island of Mindanao, between La Caldera and the river, there is a great point of land, on a rough and very high coast. The sea is forever dashing against these headlands, and it is difficult and dangerous to double them. When the people passed by that one, as it was so high, they offered it arrows, which they shot at the cliff itself with so great force that they stuck there, offering them as if in sacrifice so that it would allow them to pass. There were so many of those arrows that, although the Spaniards set fire to them and burned a countless number of them in hatred of so cursed a superstition, many remained there, and the number increased in less than one year to more than four thousand.

107. They mentioned the creation of the world, the beginning of the human race, the flood, glory, punishment, and other invisible things, such as evil spirits and devils. They recognized the latter to be man’s enemy, and hence feared them. By the beginning which they assigned to the world and the human race, will be seen the vanity of their belief, and that it is all lies and fables. They say that the world began with only the sky and water, between which was a kite. Tired of flying and not having any place where it could alight, the kite stirred up the water against the sky. The sky, in order to restrain the water and prevent it from mounting to it, burdened it with islands; and also ordered the kite to light and build its nest on them, and leave them in peace. They said that men had come from the stem of a large bamboo (such as one sees in this Orient), which had only two nodules. That bamboo, floating on the water, was carried by the waves to the feet of the kite, which was on the seacoast. The kite, in anger at what had struck its feet, opened the bamboo by picking it with its beak. When it was opened, out of one nodule came man and from the other woman. After various difficulties because of the obstacle of consanguinity in the first degree, one of the gods namely, the earthquake, after consulting with the fish and birds, absolved them, and they married and had many children. From those children came the various kinds and classes of people. For it happened that the parents, angered at having so many children idle and useless in the house, took counsel together; afterward the father one day gave way to his anger, and was desirous of punishing them with a stick which he had in his hand (a thing which they can never do). The children fled, so that some of them took refuge in the chambers and innermost parts of the house, from whom they say came the chiefs; others escaped outside, and from them came the freemen, whom they call timauas; others fled to the kitchen and lower parts, and they are the slaves; others fled to various distant places, and they are the other nations.

109. If the sacrifice was because of the danger of death in the house of sickness, the minister ordered that a new, large, and capacious house be built at the expense of the sick person, in which to celebrate the feast. That work was performed in a trice, as the materials were at hand and all the neighbors took part in it. When it was finished, the sick person was taken to the new lodging. Then preparing the intended sacrifice—a slave (which was their custom at times), a turtle, a large shellfish, or a hog—without an altar or anything resembling one, they placed it near the sick person, who was stretched out on the floor of the house on a palm mat (which they use as a mattress). They also set many small tables there, laden with various viands. The catalona stepped out, and, dancing to the sound of gongs, wounded the animal, and anointed with the blood the sick person, as well as some of the bystanders. The animal was then drawn slightly to one side and skinned and cleaned. After that it was taken back to its first location, and the catalona there before them all, spoke some words between her teeth while she opened it, and took out and examined the entrails, in the manner of the ancient soothsayers. Besides that the devil became incarnate in her, or the catalona feigned to be him by grimaces, and shaking of the feet and hands, and foamings at the mouth, acting as if out of her senses. After she had returned to her senses, she prophesied to the sick person what would happen to him. If the prophecy was one of life, the people ate and drank, chanted the histories of the ancestors of the sick person and of the anito to which the sacrifice was being made, and danced until they fell through sheer exhaustion. If the prophecy was one of death, the prophetess bolstered up her bad news with praises of the sick person, for whose virtues and prowess she said the anitos had chosen him to become one of them. From that time she commended herself to him and all his family, begging him to remember her in the other life. She added other flatteries and lies, with which she made the poor sick person swallow his death; and obliged his relatives and friends to treat him from that time as an anito, and make feasts to him. The end was eating and drinking, for that marked the termination of their sacrifices. Each person who attended the sacrifice was obliged to offer something—gold, cotton, birds, or other things—according to his capacity and wish. The offering was given to the priest or priestess who had performed the sacrifice. Consequently, the latter were generally quite rich and well dressed, and had plenty of ornaments made of various kinds of jewels. On that account, however, they were not honored or esteemed; for they were considered as an idle lot, who lived by the sweat of others. After their duty was once performed no further attention was paid to them, unless they united with their office nobility or power.

111. The oaths of these nations were all execrations in the form of awful curses. Matay, “may I die!” Cagtin nang Buaya, “may I be eaten by the crocodile!” Maguin Amo, “may I turn into a monkey!” The one generally used is Matay. When the chiefs of Manila and Tondo swore allegiance to our Catholic sovereigns, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-one, they confirmed the peace agreements and the subjection with an oath, asking “the sun to pierce them through the middle, the crocodiles to eat them, and the women not to show them any favor or wish them well, if they broke their word.” Sometimes they performed the pasambahan for greater solemnity and confirmation of the oath. That consisted in bringing forward the figure of some monstrous beast asking that they might be broken into pieces by it if they failed in their promise. Others, having placed a lighted candle in front of them, said that as that candle melted and was consumed, so might he who failed in his promise be consumed and destroyed. Such as these were their oaths.

112. It remains for us to speak of their mortuary customs. As soon as the sick person dies, they begin to bewail him with sobs and cries—not only the relatives and friends, but also those who have that as a trade and hire themselves out for that purpose. They put into their song innumerable bits of nonsense in praise of the deceased. To the sound of that sad music, they washed the body. They perfumed it with storax, or benzoin, and other perfumes, obtained from tree-resins which are found throughout these forests. Having done that they shrouded the corpse, wrapping it in a greater or less number of cloths, according to the rank of the deceased. The most powerful were anointed and embalmed according to the manner of the Hebrews, with aromatic liquors which preserve the body from corruption, especially that made from the aloes wood, or as it is called, eagle-wood. That wood is much esteemed and greatly used throughout this India extra Gangem. The sap from the plant called buyo (which is the famous betel of all India) was also used for that purpose. A quantity of that sap was placed in the mouth so that it would reach the interior. The grave of poor people was a hole in the ground under their own houses. After the rich and powerful were bewailed for three days, they were placed in a box or coffin of incorruptible wood, the body adorned with rich jewels, and with sheets of gold over the mouth and eyes. The box of the coffin was all of one piece, and was generally dug out of the trunk of a large tree, and the lid was so adjusted that no air could enter. By such means some bodies have been found uncorrupted after the lapse of many years. Those coffins were placed in one of three places, according to the inclination and command of the deceased. That place was either in the upper part of the house with the jewels, which are generally kept there; or in the lower part of it, raised up from the ground; or in the ground itself, in an open hole which is surrounded with a small railing, without covering the coffin over with earth. Near it they generally placed another box filled with the best clothing of the deceased, and at suitable times various kinds of food were placed on dishes for them. Beside the men were placed the weapons, and beside the women their looms or other instruments of labor. If they were much beloved by those who bewailed them, they were not permitted to go alone. A good meal was given to some slave, male or female, and one of those most liked by the deceased; and then he was killed, in order that he might accompany the deceased. Shortly before the entrance of the faith into the island of Bool, one of the chiefs of that island had himself buried in a kind of boat, which the natives call barangay, surrounded by seventy slaves with arms, ammunition, and food—just as he was wont to go out upon his raids and robberies when in life; and as if he were to be as great a pirate in the other life as in this. Others buried their dead in the open country, and made fires for many days under the house, and set guards so that the deceased should not return to carry away those who had remained.

113. After the funeral the lamentations ceased, although the eating and drunkenness did not. On the contrary, the latter continued for a greater or less time, according to the rank of the deceased. The widow or widower and the orphans, and other relatives, who were most affected by grief, fasted as a sign of mourning, and abstained from flesh, fish, and other food, eating during those days naught but vegetables, and those only sparingly. That manner of fasting or penitence for the dead is called sipà by the Tagálogs. Mourning among the Tagálogs is black, and among the Visayans white, and in addition the Visayans shave the head and eyebrows. At the death of a chief silence must reign in the village until the interdict was raised; and that lasted a greater or less number of days, according to his rank. During that time no sound or noise was to be heard anywhere, under penalty of infamy. In regard to this even the villages along the river-bank placed a certain signal aloft, so that no one might sail by that side, or enter or leave the village, under penalty of death. They deprived anyone who broke that silence of his life, with the greatest cruelty and violence. Those who were killed in war were celebrated in their lamentations and in their funeral rites, and much time was spent in offering sacrifices to or for them, accompanied with many banquets and drunken revels. If the death had happened through violence—in war or peace, by treason, or any other manner—the mourning was not laid aside nor the interdict raised until the children, brothers, or relatives, killed an equal number not only of their enemies and the murderers, but also of any strange persons who were not their friends. Like highwaymen and robbers they prowled on land and sea, and went on the hunt for men, killing as many as they could until their fury was appeased. That barbarous kind of vengeance is called balàta and in token of it the neck was girt with a strap which was worn until the number of persons prescribed had been killed. Then a great feast and banquet was made, the interdict was raised, and at its proper time the mourning was removed. In all the above are clearly seen the traces of heathendom and of those ancient rites and customs so celebrated and noised about by good authors, by which many other nations, more civilized, were considered as famous and worthy of history.