The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 21 of 55: 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 21 of 55: 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
They showed themselves very dutiful toward their dead, burying them
with lamentations and remarkable minuteness of detail, increasing or
lessening the obsequies according to the quality and worth of their
actions. The nearest relatives were careful to close their mouths, for
they feared lest the soul of the dead would enter into their bodies
and do them a great deal of harm. Then they began their mourning by
lugubrious songs, which one of the kin intoned, while the others were
very attentive in order to respond, in time, with fearful cries. That
lasted more or less time according to the excellence of the deceased,
whose exploits were mentioned with great exaggeration. The friends and
acquaintances came in, both to console them and to become intoxicated,
which formed the relief for that sorrow. Only the mourners, who wore
white, refrained from drinking, in order that they might receive the
compliments of condolence soberly and in a dignified manner.
So great was their devotion to the souls of their parents and
grandparents (whom they called _humalagar_), that they always
offered them food in their banquets, especially when they finished
any house, thinking that they themselves would die if they failed in
that. They did the same with the first yield of their fruits. When
they became sick, they invoked these ancestors to aid them, as we do
the saints. Then they summoned certain old witches, who were their
physicians. They respected the latter so greatly that, from the day
on which they entered their doors, no fire was lit in that house, as a
sign of great reverence. The medicines applied were after consultation
with the devil, in the shape of a little idol or a very ugly figure of
a man or woman, whom they asked for the life of the sick person. If
the idol moved, it was a sign of death, just as remaining still was
a sign of life and health. They made the same tests in the water,
by putting a boat in it, and observing from a distance its state of
quietness or motion.
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