The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55, 1690-1691 / 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

by Unknown

441. The coffin with the body was placed in one of three places, according to the direction of the deceased: either in the highest story of the house itself, in a place like a cock-house, where they usually keep their treasures and other goods; or under the house, which is the sìlong, elevated from the ground; or if they place it in the ground itself, they dig a hole, and enclose it with a small railing and there they deposit the box with the body without covering over the hole. They buried others in the fields, and lit fires in the house, and then set sentinels so that the deceased should not come to take away the living with him. Others had themselves buried in a lofty place on the seashore, in order that they might be venerated and worshiped; and sentinels were posted so that no boats should pass there for a certain time.

442. Another box, filled with the best clothes of the deceased and various viands on their dishes, were set near the grave; if the deceased were a man, various weapons that he used were left there; if a woman, her loom, or other work-utensils that she had used. If the deceased had while living been employed in sea-raids, as a pirate, his coffin was made in the shape of a boat which they call barangay. As rowers they placed in it two goats, two hogs, two deer, or more, as they wished, male and female paired, with a slave of the deceased as pilot in order to take care of them all. Some food was put in for their sustenance, and when that food was consumed, they dried up with hunger and thirst, and all perished. If the deceased had been a warrior, a living slave, bound, was placed under him, and was left there to die with him. After the burial, although the lamentation ceased somewhat, the revelry in the house of the deceased did not cease. On the contrary, it lasted a longer or shorter time, according to the rank of the deceased.

443. On the third or fourth day of the funeral, all the relatives assembled at the house of the deceased, for they said that he returned that day to visit them. At the landing of the stairway of the house, they set water in a basin or tub, so that the deceased might wash his feet there, and rid himself of the earth of the grave. They kept a candle lit all that day. They stretched a petate, or reed mat, on the floor and sprinkled ashes on it, so that the deceased might leave the marks of his feet there. At meal time they left the best place at table vacant for the dead guest. They ate and drank, as at the most splendid banquet; and then spent the balance of the day in relating and singing the prowess of the deceased; then each one went home. This ridiculous ceremony is called tibao. The Indians even yet retain the oldtime custom of this assembly, but all superstition and error have been removed from it, and they unite to pray for the deceased; but it is not without inconveniences that ought to be remedied.

444. The mourning consisted in fasting, and during the days of mourning they lived only on vegetables. This fasting or abstinence was called sipà by the Tagálogs. In dress the Visayans wore white, as do the Chinese in sign of mourning, and this is even yet the custom in some villages; but black is the most usual color for mourning in the rest of the islands. With this kind of mourning they cover all the body, so that the face may not be seen, especially if they are women and if the mourning is thorough. During the mourning the men may not wear a hat; but, instead, a black cloth wound about the head. They wear mourning for any deceased relative, even though he be related only very distantly; but the mourning is greater or less according to the degree of relationship, both in manner and in duration of time.

445. From the above is inferred the belief of these Indians in the transmigration of the souls of the deceased. In this they agree not only with the Chinese, who believe in this peculiar error, but also with other Indians whom Torquemada mentions in his second volume. The similarity that they might relate in rites, both with the Indians of Nueva España and Perû, and with other nations of greater antiquity, may be compared by the curious reader, by reading the entire book of the Origin of the Indians, and by tracing there that of these Indians.[14]

446. It is an assured fact that the oldtime heathen of these islands knew that after this life there was another one of rest, or let us say paradise (for Bathàla Maycapàl alone in their belief lived in the sky); and that only the just and valiant, those who had moral virtues and lived without harming anyone, went thither to that place as a reward. In the same way, as all of them believed in the immortality of the soul in the other life, they believed in a place of punishment, pain, and sorrow which they called casanàan, where the wicked went, and where, they said, the devils dwelt. Consequently, the transmigration of the souls of their deceased to other living bodies was a sign of rest to them. Since no one desired his relatives to be numbered among the condemned in casanàan, the error of the Chinese found in them an easier entrance, for it was built upon the foundation of their own errors.

447. The superstitions and omens of these Filipinos are so many, and so different are those which yet prevail in many of them, especially in the districts more remote from intercourse with the religious, that it would take a great space to mention them. They merit tears, although they are all laughable. They are being continually preached against, but we have not succeeded in extinguishing them; and the people obey the customs of their barbarous ancestors rather than the Christian prudence which the ministers teach them. And although I do not at this time consider it as an explicit error, ut in plurimum, yet the error implied in the tenacity with which these people follow the errors of their ancestors is dangerous.

448. Now they ask permission of the nonos for any task, with the pasingtabi sa nono. Now they have innumerable fears if the owl which they call covàgo hoots; if they find a snake in a new house, or on a journey that they have undertaken; if they hear anyone sneeze; if any rat squeals, or if the lizard sings, or if any dog howls; and other things like these. There must be no talk of fish in the house of the hunter, nor of hunting nor dogs in that of the fisherman; while in neither the one nor the other house must there be any mention of new implements for work, unless they have already been used. Sailors must name nothing of the land, nor landsmen anything of the sea: for all these were omens.

449. Pregnant women could not cut their hair, for they said that the children that they would bear would have no hair. When a woman is about to give birth, some men undress until they are stark naked. Then taking shields and catans, one takes his stand in the silong, and another on the ridge of the house, and they continually fence with the wind with their catans as long as the parturition lasts. I have removed some from this performance by force of punishment. They say that it is to keep the patiànac and the osuàng away from the woman. These are witches among them who come to obstruct the success of the childbirth, and to suck out the souls of children; and the people act thus in order to prevent them. He who does not wish to have this observed in public, through fear of punishment, removes his wife to another house for the parturition, if he thinks that the witch is in his. The procurer of this witch they say is the bird tictic,[15] and that this bird, by flying and singing, shows the witch or osuàng the house where there is a parturition, and even guides him to work other misfortunes. Consequently, whenever they see or hear the tictic, they all grow melancholy, in their fear lest some harm come to them.

450. They greatly fear and reverence the tigbàlang or bibit. This is a ghost, goblin, or devil; and as it knows the cowardice of these Indians, it has been wont to appear to them in the mountains—now in the guise of an old man, telling them that he is their nono; now as a horse; and now as a monster. Consequently, the Indians in their terror make various pacts with it, and trade their rosaries for various articles of superstitious value, such as hairs, grass, stones, and other things, in order to obtain all their intents and free themselves from all the dangers. Thus do they live in delusion until God wills that the evangelical ministers undeceive them, which costs no little [effort], because of the very great fear with which they are filled.