Philippine progress prior to 1898 : $b a source book of Philippine history to supply a fairer view of Filipino participation and supplement the defective Spanish accountsCraig, Austin
History
Philippine progress prior to 1898 : $b a source book of Philippine history to supply a fairer view of Filipino participation and supplement the defective Spanish accounts
Craig, Austin
Philippines
In respect to religion, the more advanced of the tribes appeared
to have arrived at the stage of intellectual progress when Nature
worship begins to give place to a dim idea of a Supreme Being, a
Maker of all things. This protecting genius, to whom they offered
sacrifices, was called Bathalang Meicapal. These people had a vague
conception of a future state in which the good were rewarded and
the wicked punished. Among the Bisayans, Ologan was the term for
Heaven in their ancient religion, and their Hell was Solad. The
souls of their dead were said to pass to the mountain of Medias in
the Oton district. Tigbalan was the name of a forest demon among
the northern tribes, who was treated with great respect. In passing
beneath a tree a native would invariably say "Tavit po,"--that is,
"By your leave, my lord." They practised fire worship and fetishism
and paid homage to the Sun, Moon, rainbow, to animals, birds, and
even to trees, and to rocks of peculiar appearance. The worship of
birds appears to have been confined to two species, the bathala,
a small blue bird, and the maylupa, a species of crow or kite. The
trees, rocks, and headlands which were close to contrary currents,
or places dangerous to navigation, were objects of veneration and
dread, and the deities of these places were propitiated by offerings
of food, or were supposed to be quelled by a flight of arrows being
discharged against them. Influenced by terror, they venerated the
crocodile, calling it nono, or grandfather, and it was sometimes
tamed and cherished by the priests. These huge saurians were extremely
dangerous, and many natives lost their lives by them, for which reason
they constructed enclosures for bathing purposes. The Manobos revered
the lightning, and believed thunder to be its voice. The Bisayans held
that all who perished in battle or were killed by crocodiles became
divata. The divata or anito were guardian spirits, and among some
tribes were represented by idols of gold, ivory, or stone. There were
anito of the cultivations, of the rains, of the sea, cocoanut trees,
also of newly-born children, and of children during the period of
lactation. Again there were family anito, a species of household
gods, who protected the family, and who were principally deified
ancestors, having, it is said, ascended to heaven on the rainbow
(balangao). Images representing these were kept in the houses, or in
the vacant space beneath them, and slaves were sometimes sacrificed
in their honor. It has been denied by some writers that the Philippine
natives had any idols or images, or any places set apart for religious
ceremonies, but the account of Cavendish, the adventurous English
navigator, who visited the Philippines in 1588, states: "These people
wholly worship the Devil, who appears unto them in divers horrible
forms, and they worship him by making figures of these forms, which
they keep in caverns and special houses, offering to them perfumes and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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