The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55: 1621-1624; 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 20 of 55: 1621-1624; 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
The Ygolotes are in general a very active people, bold, well
built, and feared by the other nations surrounding them. As they
have discovered that, and that others, even when numerous, always
run from them, the Ygolotes attack with but few men. Whenever they
kill anyone, scarcely has he fallen before his head is cut off. On
that account they make many feasts, and at night light many fires
on many peaks. They make cups of the skulls, from which they drink
in their feasts and revelries; and leave them as household effects
to their heirs. If any of them are killed, and they can conceal it,
they endeavor to do so; for they grieve greatly and consider it as
a very great insult if the bodies of their dead are not carried away.
The arms used by them consist of a pointed lance one-third of a vara
long, which they generally carry, well polished, and set in a handle
of strong wood more than one braza long. They have others with which
they usually fight, made from heavy green poles, larger than the
above. At the head they insert a bamboo knot, with its point well
sharpened into two edges. They cover themselves with their shields,
which consist of certain short and very light boards, about four or
five palmos long and two or more wide. They use many sharp-pointed
stakes with which they sow the ground, particularly about their haunts,
and wherever harm might come to them. [57]
The Ygolotes are an idolatrous race. They say that their god is
the sky, whom they call Cabunian; and they offer and sacrifice to
him, in their banquets and feasts, swine and carabaos, but under no
consideration cows or bulls. The method of sacrifice practiced by them
is [as follows]. Having tied all the animals not prohibited about the
house of the sacrificer, after the ceremony an old man or old woman,
having placed on the ground a painted cloth that resembles a surplice,
and which they call _salili_, they continue to kill the animals, and
make a great feast. They keep that up for two or three days until they
have finished eating what they have, when their feast or _magunito_
also finishes. He who keeps up such entertainment longest and kills
most of the said animals is most respected.
Their sages or philosophers are the oldest men and women, whom they
respect and obey in an extraordinary manner, and most when they are
occupied in the said feasts; for they say that then and even ordinarily
those persons are wont to talk with the devil, who keeps them blinded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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