2. The Philippine languages.—Of these the most important are the Tagala, the Bissayan, the Pampango, the Iloco, and the Abac. Of the Bissayan there are several dialects: the Mindanao, the Samar, the Iolo, the Bohol. The structure of the Tagala has been particularly studied by Humboldt. It represents the Malay in its most complex form; and is essentially agglutinate in respect to its inflection.
All the numerous Philippine dialects and languages are fundamentally Malay. Those of the Blacks are but little known. Still, as far as our knowledge extends, the philological phenomenon is the same as with the Samang of the Malayan Peninsula. The difference in language is less than the difference of form and colour.
3. The Extent of Hindu influences.—These are less in the Philippines than in Celebes, and much less than in Java and Bali. Still the Philippines have a native alphabet, and this native alphabet has the same origin with the alphabets of Sumatra, Java, and Celebes; viz. the Hindu Devanagari.
4. The remains of the original mythology.—I give what I know of this in the following note from Marsden's Sumatra,[61] where it is inserted from Thevenot, for the sake of illustrating that of Sumatra.
"The chief deity of the Tagalas is called Bathala mei Capal, and also Dinata; and their principal idolatry consists in adoring those of their ancestors who signalised themselves for courage or abilities; calling them Humalagar, i.e. manes. They make slaves of the people who do not keep silence at the tombs of their ancestors. They have great veneration for the crocodile, which they call nono, signifying grandfather, and make offerings to it. Every old tree they look upon as a superior being, and think it a crime to cut it down. They worship also stones, rocks, and points of land, shooting arrows at these last as they pass them. They have priests, who, at their sacrifices, make many contortions and grimaces, as if possessed with a devil. The first man and woman, they say, were produced from a bamboo, which burst in the island of Sumatra; and they quarrelled about their marriage. The people mark their bodies in various figures, and render them of the colour of ashes; have large holes in their ears; blacken and file their teeth, and make an opening, which they fill up with gold. They used to write from top to bottom, till the Spaniards taught them to write from left to right. Bamboos and palm-leaves serve them for paper. They cover their houses with straw, leaves of trees, or bamboos split in two, which serve for tiles. They hire people to sing and weep at their funerals; burn benzoin; bury their dead on the third day in strong coffins, and sometimes kill slaves to accompany their deceased masters. They held the caiman, or alligator, in great reverence, and when they saw him they called him nono, or grandfather, praying with great tenderness that he would do them no harm; and, to this end, offered him of whatever they had in their boats, throwing it into the water. There was not an old tree to which they did not offer divine worship, especially that called balete; and even at this time they have some respect for them. Beside these they had certain idols inherited from their ancestors, which the Tagalas called anito, and the Bissayans, divata. Some of these were for the mountains and plains, and they asked their leave when they would pass them. Others for the corn-fields; and to these they recommend them, that they might be fertile, placing meat and drink in the fields for the use of the anitos. There was one of the sea, who had care of their fishing and navigation; another of the house, whose favour they implored at the birth of a child, and under whose protection they placed it. They made anitos also of their deceased ancestors, and to these were their first invocations in all difficulties and dangers. They reckoned amongst these beings all those who were killed by lightning or alligators, or had any disastrous death, and believed that they were carried up to the happy state, by the rainbow, which they call balan-gao. In general, they endeavoured to attribute this kind of divinity to their fathers, when they died in years; and the old men, vain with this barbarous notion, affected in their sickness a gravity and composure of mind, as they conceived, more than human, because they thought themselves commencing anitos. They were to be interred at places marked out by themselves, that they might be discovered at a distance and worshipped. The missionaries have had great trouble in demolishing their tombs and idols; but the Indians, inland, still continue the custom of pasing tubi sa nono, or asking permission of their dead ancestors, when they enter any wood, mountain, or corn-field, for hunting or sowing; and if they omit this ceremony, imagine their nonos will punish them with bad fortune.
"Their notions of the creation of the world, and formation of mankind, had something ridiculously extravagant. They believed that the world at first consisted only of sky and water, and between these two, a glede; which, weary with flying about, and finding no place to rest, set the water at variance with the sky, which, in order to keep it in bounds, and that it should not get uppermost, loaded the water with a number of islands, in which the glede might settle and leave them at peace. Mankind, they said, sprang out of a large cane with two joints, that, floating about in the water, was at length thrown by the waves against the feet of the glede, as it stood on shore, which opened it with its bill, and the man came out of one joint, and the woman out of the other. These were soon after married by consent of their god, Bathala Meycapal, which caused the first trembling of the earth; and from thence are descended the different nations of the world."
THE BABYANIS.
Locality.—Due north of Luçon.
THE BASHIS.
Locality.—Due north of the Babyanis.