The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 48, 1751-1765: 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 48, 1751-1765: 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
their neighbors the Chinese, who likewise attribute to every river,
forest, field, and grove these Penates and fauns, giving them a name
which signifies the ruler and master of those places. They believe,
then, that this spirit which they say rules there has his dwelling
in some one of those trees which are most distinguished for size and
for abundance of leaves, as likewise in some great heaps of earth,
shaped like a sugar-loaf, which are made by a kind of ants, very
destructive, which they call anay, [47] of which many are found in
the open country there. Accordingly, not only do they regard it as
a religious duty not to pick fruit or take anything from the said
hills without first asking permission from the nono, with words of
great reverence, but likewise, whenever they pass before the said
tree or hillock, they pay their respects, saying in their language,
Tabipo, which means, "By your permission," and then they go on
their way. They are so fearful that, if they fail in doing this,
they imagine that the said spirit will send upon them some sickness
which will deprive them of life; this notion they confirm with some
irrelevant casualties--some persons having failed to perform this
ceremony, and afterward by accident having fallen ill--from which
they conclude that this was a punishment from the nono; and therefore
they try afterward to appease his anger by various gifts, which they
offer to him after their fashion. Moreover, in the said trees there
is often heard some loud noise, which, although it is frequently made
by some great serpent which has its abode in some hole that may be
in the tree, they attribute to its nono--although it is true that
the demon, in order to blind them more and thus to inspire them with
greater terror, is wont to appear to them often in the said trees. The
sacrifices which they are wont to offer to him in case of sickness,
as likewise several times in the year, are reduced to burning certain
herbs in front of the said tree, and placing there some little portion
of food, drink, leaf tobacco, and an herb which they are accustomed
to chew when combined with the small fruit of a palm, which they
call luyos in the Pampanga tongue, and bonga in the Tagal (and that
fruit and the herb all together they call in the former language mama,
and in the latter buyo), all which things, after having thus offered
them, they themselves eat, having made their prayers, such as they
are. [Mozo here stops to recall how like superstitions and heathen
sacrifices lingered for a long time in Africa and even in Europe,
and the efforts made by the Christian fathers to extirpate them. He
says that in Filipinas the heathen do not "adore the trees as gods;
but the aforesaid tree they regard as the dwelling in which the spirit
who rules that grove or forest has his abode, and therefore they
offer before it what we have described, and perform the said acts
of prayer and veneration; but these are not directed to the tree,
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