The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55, 1690-1691: 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 40 of 55, 1690-1691: 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
There were so many of those arrows that, although
the Spaniards set fire to them and burned a countless number of them
in hatred of so cursed a superstition, many remained there, and the
number increased in less than one year to more than four thousand.
106. They also adored private idols, which each one inherited from
his ancestors. The Visayans called them divata, and the Tagálogs
anito. Of those idols some had jurisdiction over the mountains and open
country, and permission was asked from them to go thither. Others had
jurisdiction over the sowed fields, and the fields were commended to
them so that they might prove fruitful; and besides the sacrifices
they placed articles of food in the fields for the anitos to eat,
in order to place them under greater obligations. There was an anito
of the sea, to whom they commended their fisheries and navigations;
an anito of the house, whose favor they implored whenever an infant
was born, and when it was suckled and the breast offered to it. They
placed their ancestors, the invocation of whom was the first thing in
all their work and dangers, among these anitos. In memory of their
ancestors they kept certain very small and very badly made idols of
stone, wood, gold, or ivory, called licha or laravan. Among their gods
they reckoned also all those who perished by the sword, or who were
devoured by crocodiles, as well as those killed by lightning. They
thought that the souls of such immediately ascended to the blest
abode by means of the rainbow, called by them balañgao. Generally,
whoever could succeed in it attributed divinity to his aged father
at his death. The aged themselves died in that presumptuous delusion,
and during their sickness and at their death guided all their actions
with what they imagined a divine gravity and manner. Consequently, they
chose as the place for their grave some assigned spot, [24] like one
old man who lived on the seacoast between Dulac and Abuyog, which is in
the island of Leyte. He ordered himself placed there in his coffin (as
was done) in a house standing alone and distant from the settlement,
in order that he might be recognized as a god of navigators, who were
to commend themselves to him. Another had himself buried in certain
lands in the mountains of Antipolo, and through reverence to him
no one dared to cultivate those lands (for they feared that he who
should do so would die), until an evangelical minister removed that
fear from them, and now they cultivate them without harm or fear.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account