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
No. 35. The patianac whom some also call a goblin (but it is only
their invention, dream, or imagination) must be the genius or devil
who generally plays with them as also with many others, when losing
the faith, they espouse his cause, become familiar with him, or become
subject to him. They attribute to this being the ill success of births,
and say that in order to harm them and cause their destruction, he
enters or hides in some tree or in any other place near the house
of the woman who is about to give birth, and there they sing like
those who wander about, etc. In order to prevent any harm from the
patianac, the men take their position naked and with their privies
exposed to the air; and arm themselves with shield, catan, lance,
and other arms. In this condition they stand on the ridgepole of
the roof, and also under the house, and in all places they slash and
cut right and left with the catan and make various gestures and set
movements for the same purpose. Others, in order to prevent said harm,
generally move the woman who is about to give birth to another house,
for they say that her house contains a patianac.
No. 36. Among other things they also attribute to the patianac the
death of children, as well as to the usang. They refer to them in
the following manner. They assert that the bird called tictic is
the pander of the sorcerer called usang. Flying ahead of that being,
the bird shows it the houses where infants are to be born. That being
takes its position on the roof of the neighboring house and thence
extends its tongue in the form of a thread, which it inserts through
the anus of the child and by that means sucks out its entrails and
kills it. Sometimes they say that it appears in the form of a dog,
sometimes of a cat, sometimes of the cockroach which crawls under
the mat, and there accomplishes the abovesaid. In order to avoid that
harm they do certain of the above things. To the patianac travelers
also attribute their straying from or losing their road. In order to
keep the right path, they undress and expose their privies to the air,
and by that observance they say that they make sure of the right road;
for then the patianac is afraid of them and cannot lead them astray.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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