The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 05 of 55: 1582-1583; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 05 of 55: 1582-1583; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
of us until they beheld us return through the sea.
Chapter Eighth
_Of their belief concerning the dead_
It is said that the souls of those who are stabbed to death, eaten
by crocodiles, or killed by arrows (which is considered a very
honorable death), go to heaven by way of the arch which is formed
when it rains, and become gods. The souls of the drowned remain in
the sea forever. By way of honor to these, they erect a tall reed
and hang upon it a garment--that of a man, if the dead be a man; but
a woman's, for a woman. This garment is left there until it falls to
pieces through age. When the children or other relatives of drowned
persons are sick, the relatives are taken and placed in a barangay,
in company with a _baylana_, who is a sort of priestess; and, at the
place indicated by the priestess, they throw into the sea a chest
filled with robes and other articles, which they have brought with
them. At the same time their ancestors are invoked to protect and
help the sick man during his illness.
_Belief regarding the dead_
If those who die from disease are young, the Pintados say that the
_mangalos_, who are goblins, are eating their bowels, wherefore they
die; for these people do not know that the corruption of humors causes
diseases. They say of those who die in old age that the wind comes
and snatches away their souls. And of those who die thus, the Arayas
(which is a certain alliance of villages), they say, go to a very
high mountain in the island of Panay, called Mayas. The souls of
the Yligueynes, who comprise the people of Cubu, Bohol, and Bantay,
go with the god called Sisiburanen, to a very high mountain in the
island of Burney.
_The god Sidapa_. They say that there is in the sky another god, called
Sidapa. This god possesses a very tall tree on mount Mayas. There he
measures the lives of all the new-born, and places a mark on the tree;
when the person's stature equals this mark, he dies immediately.
_Belief concerning the destination of souls_. It is believed that
at death all souls go directly to the infernal regions; but that,
by means of the _maganitos_, which are the sacrifices and offerings
made to the god Pandaque in sight of the mount of Mayas, they are
redeemed from Simuran and Siguinarugan, gods of the lower regions.
It is said that, when the Yligueynes die, the god Maguayen carries
them to Inferno. When he has carried them thither in his barangay,
Sumpoy, another god, sallies forth, takes them away, and leads them to
Sisiburanen, the god before mentioned, who keeps them all. Good or bad
alike, he takes them all on equal terms, when they go to Inferno. But
the poor, who have no one to offer sacrifices for them, remain forever,
in the inferno, and the god of those regions eats them, or keeps them
forever in prison. From this it will be seen how little their being
good or bad avails them, and how much reason they have to hate poverty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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