SIMILAR MOVEMENTS IN FORMER YEARS
In the "Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús" I find similar movements reported. One is reported in a letter of Father Pastells of May 2, 1877, and the other in some other letter, the date and writer of which I am unable to cite. The general features were the same, that is, the appearance of a person, in one case a woman, in another a child, with body all golden, who announced the destruction of the world. Crops were not to be planted, domestic animals were to be killed, and all were to await in prayer and fasting the consummation. The object of these frauds was to make the Christian conquest of the upper Agúsan peoples impossible.
On my trip to the upper Karága a venerable old Mandáya informed me that in his youth there had been a similar fraud which was engineered by the Moros of Súmlug, on the east side of the gulf of Davao, and that when the Mandáyas of Karága discovered the fraud they made a raid on the authors of it and killed many.
I also find mention of a similar movement in a letter from Father Urios,17 dated Jativa, July 26, 1899. It seems that one Manáitai, a Manóbo chief, residing at the headwaters of the Bahaían River, was told by his familiar spirit, Sindatúan, to lead all the Manóbos of Patrocinio back to the mountains. By orders of Sindatúan the whole clan was to meet in one house and for the space of one moon they were to unite in prayers and shouts, at the end of which time all would be transported, body and soul, into the sky.
17Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9; 533, 1891.
The letter states that Manáitai was obliged to abstain from everything except roots, sugar-cane, and fish. The worshipers of Sindatúan complied with directions in every particular, even to the burning of candles; but as there was no immediate prospect of a celestial assent, the belief was abandoned and the parties concerned returned to their original creed and observances.
From these examples it does not seem too bold to state that religious revivals of a similar character may be looked for periodically, perhaps every 10 or 15 years, especially on the occurrence of public perils such as contagious diseases or fear of invasion.