The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 1670-1700: 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 43, 1670-1700: 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
I have been able to ascertain the facts about this and other horrible
sacrifices through the sacrificers themselves who have been converted
to the Catholic faith, who have not hesitated to relate them to me with
the above details and others which I omit. The above will suffice for
your Reverence to understand that human sacrifices are a real business
here, and are maintained not only by Bagobos, but also by Moros and
other heathen races. It is an infamous traffic which can only be wiped
out by means of the civilizing action which España is exercising over
Mindanao. Some heathens having been reprimanded on a certain occasion
by the governor of this district in regard to so barbarous a custom,
had the audacity to reply to him in the following manner: "Sir, is
not every one allowed to spend his money as he pleases? Slaves answer
the purposes of money among us, and we spend that money according to
our pleasure and custom."
Much more barbarous are they than the Ammonites, who sacrificed their
sons to Moloch, and those other idolaters who sacrificed to Saturn,
for both of them did it only several times a year, for the Bagobos
sacrifice very frequently. There is no ranchería in which they do not
annually make their feasts to the demon--Búsao, Mandarángan, or Daragó,
for they are wont to give him these and many other names. On the day of
the great assembly at the house of the dato or chief of the ranchería,
they only eat and drink, sing and dance with joy, and there is no
appearance of anything evil, except the scandals which reveling and the
worship of Daragó generally occasion. There with cup of wine in hand,
they mutually pledge one another, and yielding the word to the old man
or chief of the feast, they drink toasts with him in honor of the great
Daragó, whom they promise to follow and honor forever, offering to him,
as did their ancestors, the blood of many human victims, so that he
may be their friend and aid them in their wars. Curious persons who
are present at those feasts, do not understand the language of the
old men nor see anything that hints of a human sacrifice, but those
who are fully initiated in the Bagabo customs, will note immediately
the token of the human sacrifice which was made in the woods on the
preceding day among the branches placed in the bamboo or drum, before
which the old men above mentioned make their invocation to Daragó.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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