Note 5 — Letter from Father Pedro Rosell1 to the Father Superior of the Mission2

And now your Reverence may behold one of their pagdiuatas or sacrifices which they perform in honor of their gods, Mansilátan and Badla. Several bailanas assemble in the place assigned for the purpose, together with those persons interested and invited to take part in it. They erect a sort of small altar on which they place the manáugs or images of the said gods which are made of the special wood of the báyog tree,5 which they destine exclusively for this use. When the unfortunate hog which is to serve for the sacrifice is placed above the said altar, the chief bailana approaches with balarao or dagger in hand, which she brandishes and drives into the poor animal, which will surely be grunting in spite of the gods and of the religious solemnity, as it is fearful of what is going to happen to it; and leaves the victim sweltering in its blood. Then immediately all the bailanas drink of the blood in order to attract the prophetic spirit to themselves and to give their auguries or the supposed inspirations of their gods. Scarcely have they drunk the blood, when they become as though possessed by an infernal spirit which agitates them and makes them tremble as does the body of a person with the ague or like one who shivers with the cold. They seize in their hands a gong to which they give repeated blows with the third finger, snapping it with the thumb, thus making a kind of toccata with it. While they are doing this, after having belched forth a few dozen of times, they invoke the above-mentioned gods Mansilátan and Badla, to whom they chant the following Mandayan song: