Note 34 — Chapter IX

In the said forests and hills dwell many people of various tribes, mingled together, Christians and infidels. Some are there, attracted by the hills from which they went out [in former times]; others, in flight from the officers of justice, who are seeking them. Many also go there in order to live in idleness, and to free themselves from the payment of tribute and the fulfilment of other obligations; and many, because it is the region in which they were born, and where they have lived as infidels. There they dwell intermingled, infidels and Christians being married together, and mingling a thousand superstitions with the law of Jesus Christ. From this results a hydra more fierce and more difficult to conquer than the celebrated one with which Hercules fought; for the apostates, as being entirely corrupt, are most difficult to reclaim, and they with their corruption, persuasions, and evil customs, to a great degree pervert the simple nature of the infidels, just as St. Paul tells us. Their sustenance is like that which I related of the Zambals, that is, [obtained] from the chase and from the innumerable wild palms which I have already mentioned; but they also sow their scanty bit of rice, the land responding to them with an incredible harvest, although they cultivate it wretchedly and take very little care of their fields. As many of them are Christians and had learned the mysteries of our holy faith, while the infidels among whom they live have a thousand superstitions, omens, and foolish observances, they make a medley of Jesus Christ and Baal, which is not even that of those Samaritans of whom it is related that they desired at the same time to serve the God of Israel and not to cast out their [false] gods. And because among these peoples are generally encountered not only the superstitions which those infidel communities maintain, but also the frivolous beliefs in which the peoples of Philipinas were living before they could receive our holy faith, I have thought it well to reserve this information for this place—observing, moreover, that among the Christian communities hardly a trace of these things is now encountered. This is the result of the labors, past and present, of the religious in extirpating them, and even in so short a time they have been able to banish them; while in our Europa, and even in our España, after so many centuries remnants of the ancient paganism are still frequently encountered …. Those of whom we are speaking believe that every forest, every mountain, every river, and every grove has a powerful spirit who rules in those places; they call him Nono, which signifies “grandfather”—by which name I understand they call him, partly because they think that the said spirit is that of some one of the powerful ones who once lived there, and also partly on account of the extreme veneration which those people have for their old men. It is also very credible that this foolish belief among them comes from their neighbors the Chinese, who likewise attribute to every river, forest, field, and grove these Penates and fauns, giving them a name which signifies the ruler and master of those places. They believe, then, that this spirit which they say rules there has his dwelling in some one of those trees which are most distinguished for size and for abundance of leaves, as likewise in some great heaps of earth, shaped like a sugar-loaf, which are made by a kind of ants, very destructive, which they call anay,34 of which many are found in the open country there. Accordingly, not only do they regard it as a religious duty not to pick fruit or take anything from the said hills without first asking permission from the nono, with words of great reverence, but likewise, whenever they pass before the said tree or hillock, they pay their respects, saying in their language, Tabipo, which means, “By your permission,” and then they go on their way. They are so fearful that, if they fail in doing this, they imagine that the said spirit will send upon them some sickness which will deprive them of life; this notion they confirm with some irrelevant casualties—some persons having failed to perform this ceremony, and afterward by accident having fallen ill—from which they conclude that this was a punishment from the nono; and therefore they try afterward to appease his anger by various gifts, which they offer to him after their fashion. Moreover, in the said trees there is often heard some loud noise, which, although it is frequently made by some great serpent which has its abode in some hole that may be in the tree, they attribute to its nono—although it is true that the demon, in order to blind them more and thus to inspire them with greater terror, is wont to appear to them often in the said trees. The sacrifices which they are wont to offer to him in case of sickness, as likewise several times in the year, are reduced to burning certain herbs in front of the said tree, and placing there some little portion of food, drink, leaf tobacco, and an herb which they are accustomed to chew when combined with the small fruit of a palm, which they call luyos in the Pampanga tongue, and bonga in the Tagal (and that fruit and the herb all together they call in the former language mama, and in the latter buyo), all which things, after having thus offered them, they themselves eat, having made their prayers, such as they are. [Mozo here stops to recall how like superstitions and heathen sacrifices lingered for a long time in Africa and even in Europe, and the efforts made by the Christian fathers to extirpate them. He says that in Filipinas the heathen do not “adore the trees as gods; but the aforesaid tree they regard as the dwelling in which the spirit who rules that grove or forest has his abode, and therefore they offer before it what we have described, and perform the said acts of prayer and veneration; but these are not directed to the tree, but to the spirit or nono who resides in it.”]