04 EARLY PHILIPPINE SOCIETY: 05 Relation of the Filipinas
OF THEIR BELIEF CONCERNING THE
DEAD
 Souls stabbed to death, eaten by
crocodiles, killed by arrows (honorable
death)
o Go to heaven by way of the arch
when it rains
o Become gods
 Souls of the drowned remain in the sea
o By way of honor to these
 Erect tall reed and hang upon it a
garment
 Garment is left until it falls to
pieces
o Sick relatives taken and placed in
barangay, in company w/ a baylana
(priestess)
o Throw into the sea a chest fillled w/
robes
o Ancestors invoked to protect and
help sick man
BELIEF REGARDING THE DEAD
 If those who die from disease are young
o Pintados say that mangalos (goblins)
are eating their bowels
o They do not know the corruption of
humors causes diseases
 Those who die in old age
o Wind comes and snatches souls
o Arayas (alliance of villages) go to
high mountain in Panay called Mayas
o Souls of Yligueynes (comprise people
of Cebu, Bohol, Bantay) go w/ god
called Sisiburanen to high mountain
in Burney
THE GOD SIDAPA
 Another god in sky
 Possesses very tall tree on mount Mayas
 Measures lives of all new-born
 Places mark on tree
 When person’s stature = marks
o Person dies immediately
BELIEFS CONCERNING THE
DESTINATION OF SOULS
 All souls directly go to infernal regions
 By means of maganitos: sacrifices and
offerings made to the god Pandaque in
mount Mayas
 Redeemed from Simuran and
Singuinarugan, gods of the lower regions
 When Yligueynes die
o God Maguyen carries them to
Inferno
o Sumpoy, another god, takes them
away and leads them to Sisiburanen
(keeps them all)
o Good or bad, on equal terms in
inferno
o Poor (no sacrifices): remain forever
in inferno
 God of those regions eats them
 Keeps them forever in prison
 From this, it will be seen how little their
being good or bad avails them, and how
much reason they have to hate poverty
BAYLANAS
 Natives of these islands have neither
time nor place set apart for the
offering of prayers and sacrifices to
their gods
 Only in the case of: that sacrifices are
offered
o Sickness
o Seed-swing
o War
 Sacrifices: baylanes
o Priestess/men who perform this
office: also called baylanes
 Priestesses dress very gaily
o Garlands on heads
o Resplendent w/ gold
 Bring pitarrillas (earthen jar) w/ rice
wine, live hog, food
 Chants songs and invokes demon
(appears glistening in gold)
 Demon enters her body and hurls her to
the ground
 In this state, declare whether sick
person is to recover or not
 Foretells future
 All this takes place to the sound of bells
and kettledrums
 Rises and pierces heart of hog
 Dress it & prepare for the demons
 On altar: dressed hog, rice, bananas,
wine, others
 All done in behalf of sick persons or to
redeem those confined in infernal
regions
 Offer prayers to Varangao (rainbow)
and to their gods, Ynaguinid and
Macanduc
o Going to war
o Expedition
 For redemption of souls detained in
inferno
o Also invoke ancestors and the dead
o Claiming to see them and receive
answers to questions
BELIEF ONCERNING THE WORLD. THE
GOLD MACAPTAN
 World has no end
 Macaptan dwells in highest sky
o bad god
o sends disease and death
o he has not eaten anything of this
world
o or drink any pitarrillas
o he does not love them  kills them
THE GOD LALAHON
 dwells in volcano
 Negros Island
 Hurls fire
 Volcano: 5 leagues from town of Arevalo