The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 07 of 55: 1588-1591; 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 Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 07 of 55: 1588-1591; 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 Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
Their manner of burying the dead was as follows: The deceased was
buried beside his house; and, if he were a chief, he was placed beneath
a little house or porch which they constructed for this purpose. Before
interring him, they mourned him for four days; and afterward laid him
on a boat which served as a coffin or bier, placing him beneath the
porch, where guard was kept over him by a slave. In place of rowers,
various animals were placed within the boat, each one being assigned
a place at the oar by twos--male and female of each species being
together--as for example two goats, two deer, or two fowls. It was
the slave's care to see that they were fed. If the deceased had
been a warrior, a living slave was tied beneath his body until in
this wretched way he died. In course of time, all suffered decay;
and for many days the relatives of the dead man bewailed him, singing
dirges, and praises of his good qualities, until finally they wearied
of it. This grief was also accompanied by eating and drinking. This
was a custom of the Tagalos.
The Aetas, [28] or Negrillos [Negritos] inhabitants of this island, had
also a form of burial, but different. They dug a deep, perpendicular
hole, and placed the deceased within it, leaving him upright with head
or crown unburied, on top of which they put half a cocoa-nut which was
to serve him as a shield. Then they went in pursuit of some Indian,
whom they killed in retribution for the Negrillo who had died. To
this end they conspired together, hanging a certain token on their
necks until some one of them procured the death of the innocent one.
These infidels said that they knew that there was another life of
rest which they called _maca_, just as if we should say "paradise,"
or, in other words, "village of rest." They say that those who go
to this place are the just, and the valiant, and those who lived
without doing harm, or who possessed other moral virtues. They
said also that in the other life and mortality, there was a place
of punishment, grief, and affliction, called _casanaan_, which was
"a place of anguish;" they also maintained that no one would go to
heaven, where there dwelt only Bathala, "the maker of all things,"
who governed from above. There were also other pagans who confessed
more clearly to a hell, which they called, as I have said, casanaan;
they said that all the wicked went to that place, and there dwelt
the demons, whom they called _sitan_.
All the various kinds of infernal ministers were, therefore, as has
been stated: _catolonan; sonat_ (who was a sort of bishop who ordained
priestesses and received their reverence, for they knelt before him as
before one who could pardon sins, and expected salvation through him);
_mangagauay, manyisalat, mancocolam, hocloban, silagan, magtatangal,
osuan, mangagayoma, pangatahoan_. [29]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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