In the said forests and hills dwell many people of various tribes, mingled together, Christians and infidels. Some are there, attracted by the hills from which they went out [in former times]; others, in flight from the officers of justice, who are seeking them. Many also go there in order to live in idleness, and to free themselves from the payment of tribute and the fulfilment of other obligations; and many, because it is the region in which they were born, and where they have lived as infidels. There they dwell intermingled, infidels and Christians being married together, and mingling a thousand superstitions with the law of Jesus Christ. From this results a hydra more fierce and more difficult to conquer than the celebrated one with which Hercules fought; for the apostates, as being entirely corrupt, are most difficult to reclaim, and they with their corruption, persuasions, and evil customs, to a great degree pervert the simple nature of the infidels, just as St. Paul tells us. Their sustenance is like that which I related of the Zambals, that is, [obtained] from the chase and from the innumerable wild palms which I have already mentioned; but they also sow their scanty bit of rice, the land responding to them with an incredible harvest, although they cultivate it wretchedly and take very little care of their fields. As many of them are Christians and had learned the mysteries of our holy faith, while the infidels among whom they live have a thousand superstitions, omens, and foolish observances, they make a medley of Jesus Christ and Baal, which is not even that of those Samaritans of whom it is related that they desired at the same time to serve the God of Israel and not to cast out their [false] gods. And because among these peoples are generally encountered not only the superstitions which those infidel communities maintain, but also the frivolous beliefs in which the peoples of Philipinas were living before they could receive our holy faith, I have thought it well to reserve this information for this place--observing, moreover, that among the Christian communities hardly a trace of these things is now encountered. This is the result of the labors, past and present, of the religious in extirpating them, and even in so short a time they have been able to banish them; while in our Europa, and even in our España, after so many centuries remnants of the ancient paganism are still frequently encountered.... Those of whom we are speaking believe that every forest, every mountain, every river, and every grove has a powerful spirit who rules in those places; they call him Nono, which signifies "grandfather"--by which name I understand they call him, partly because they think that the said spirit is that of some one of the powerful ones who once lived there, and also partly on account of the extreme veneration which those people have for their old men. It is also very credible that this foolish belief among them comes from