They were, moreover, very liable to find auguries in things they witnessed.  For example, if they left their house and met on the way a serpent or rat, or a bird called Tigmamanuguin which was singing in the tree, or if they chanced upon anyone who sneezed, they returned at once to their house, considering the incident as an augury that some evil might befall them if they should continue their journey—­especially when the above-mentioned bird sang.  This song had two different forms:  in the one case it was considered as an evil omen; in the other, as a good omen, and then they continued their journey.  They also practiced divination, to see whether weapons, such as a dagger or knife, were to be useful and lucky for their possessor whenever occasion should offer.

These natives had no established division of years, months, and days; these are determined by the cultivation of the soil, counted by moons, and the different effect produced upon the trees when yielding flowers, fruits, and leaves:  all this helps them in making up the year.  The winter and summer are distinguished as sun-time and water-time—­the latter term designating winter in those regions, where there is no cold, snow, or ice.

It seems, however, that now since they have become Christians, the seasons are not quite the same, for at Christmas it gets somewhat cooler.  The years, since the advent of the Spaniards, have been determined by the latter, and the seasons have been given their proper names, and they have been divided into weeks.

Their manner of offering sacrifice was to proclaim a feast, and offer to the devil what they had to eat.  This was done in front of the idol, which they anoint with fragrant perfumes, such as musk and civet, or gum of the storax-tree and other odoriferous woods, and praise it in poetic songs sung by the officiating priest, male or female, who is called catolonan.  The participants made responses to the song, beseeching the idol to favor them with those things of which they were in need, and generally, by offering repeated healths, they all became intoxicated.  In some of their idolatries they were accustomed to place a good piece of cloth, doubled, over the idol, and over the cloth a chain or large, gold ring, thus worshiping the devil without having sight of him.  The devil was sometimes liable to enter into the body of the catolonan, and, assuming her shape and appearance, filled her with so great arrogance—­he being the cause of it—­that she seemed to shoot flames from her eyes; her hair stood on end, a fearful sight to those beholding, and she uttered words of arrogance and superiority.  In some districts, especially in the mountains, when in those idolatries the devil incarnated himself and took on the form of his minister, the latter had to be tied to a tree by his companions, to prevent the devil in his infernal fury from destroying him.  This, however, happened but rarely.  The objects of sacrifice were goats, fowls, and swine,