May our Lord bestow upon your Lordship His grace and spirit, so that in every step good fortune may be yours; and upon every occasion may your Lordship deign to consider me your humble servant, to be which would be the greatest satisfaction and favor that I could receive.  Nagcarlan, October 21, 1589.

Fray Juan de Plasencia [26]

Relation of the Worship of the Tagalogs, Their Gods, and Their Burials and Superstitions

In all the villages, or in other parts of the Filipinas Islands, there are no temples consecrated to the performing of sacrifices, the adoration of their idols, or the general practice of idolatry.  It is true that they have the name simbahan, which means a temple or place of adoration; but this is because, formerly, when they wished to celebrate a festival, which they called pandot, or “worship,” they celebrated it in the large house of a chief.  There they constructed, for the purpose of sheltering the assembled people, a temporary shed on each side of the house, with a roof, called sibi, to protect the people from the wet when it rained.  They so constructed the house that it might contain many people—­dividing it, after the fashion of ships, into three compartments.  On the posts of the house they set small lamps, called sorihile; in the center of the house they placed one large lamp, adorned with leaves of the white palm, wrought into many designs.  They also brought together many drums, large and small, which they beat successively while the feast lasted, which was usually four days.  During this time the whole barangay, or family, united and joined in the worship which they call nagaanitos.  The house, for the above-mentioned period of time, was called a temple.

Among their many idols there was one called.  Badhala, whom they especially worshiped.  The title seems to signify “all powerful,” or “maker of all things.”  They also worshiped the sun, which, on account of its beauty, is almost universally respected and honored by heathens.  They worshiped, too, the moon, especially when it was new, at which time they held great rejoicings, adoring it and bidding it welcome.  Some of them also adored the stars, although they did not know them by their names, as the Spaniards and other nations know the planets—­with the one exception of the morning star, which they called Tala.  They knew, too, the “seven little goats” [the Pleiades]—­as we call them—­and, consequently, the change of seasons, which they call Mapolon; and Balatic, which is our Greater Bear.  They possessed many idols called lic-ha, which were images with different shapes; and at times they worshiped any little trifle, in which they adored, as did the Romans, some particular dead man who was brave in war and endowed with special faculties, to whom they commended themselves for protection in their tribulations.  They had another idol called Dian masalanta, who was the patron of lovers and of generation.  The idols called Lacapati and Idianale were the patrons of the cultivated lands and of husbandry.  They paid reverence to water-lizards called by them buaya, or crocodiles, from fear of being harmed by them.  They were even in the habit of offering these animals a portion of what they carried in their boats, by throwing it into the water, or placing it upon the bank.