but to the spirit or nono who resides in it."] Besides this, they have another and exceedingly foolish superstition and belief, which is also found among the Chinese (and the Romans had it, as we read in our father St. Augustine and others); this is the belief that there is an evil spirit who is hostile to the birth of children, and who, they say, in the form of a bird approaches the house where the woman lies in childbirth, and kills the child by tearing out its bowels. This spirit they call in their language usuang (and it is the same that the Romans call Silvanus), which, they say, shines by night. In order to free themselves from this spirit, they do a ridiculous thing. As soon as the woman begins her travail, the husband, attended by other persons, strips off his clothes, and, taking his naked cutlass, climbs to the ridge-pole of the house, his companions remaining below with their lances; and he does not cease making cuts at the air until the infant is born. They believe that the said usuang is frightened away by this, and dares not return. At other times they do the same thing, [except that] they are stationed below the house. They also fear greatly two other genii or spirits, of whom they tell a thousand stories. One they call tigbalang, which they say has the body of a giant and the legs of a horse; and the other, which they say resembles a pigmy they call patianac. [48] It is certain that the demon thus appears to them, to terrify them with threats if they fail to serve him. They also use auguries, which they obtain from a bird that they call batala, in the manner of which Virgilius sings, and which his commentator Servius explains; upon this Gellius, Pompeius, Cicero, Tiraquellus, and other humanists expatiate at length. And it is not surprising that they should be prepossessed by this error; for, if we believe Luis Vives, it passed from Assia to Grecia, and thence to Italia and Roma. Their belief is of that sort in this particular, that, if they set out on any expedition against another people, and on encountering them this bird should appear, singing in what they think is a melancholy tone, they immediately turn back and abandon their purpose, fearing to be entirely destroyed. On the other hand, if the bird sings to them agreeably, they at once regard their success as certain.