divinity; and it was a sacrilege to cut such a tree for any purpose.  What more did they adore? the very stones, cliffs, and reefs, and the headlands of the shores of the sea or the rivers; and they made some offering when they passed by these, going to the stone or rock, and placing the offering upon it.  I saw many times in the river of Manila a rock which for many years was an idol of that wretched people.  This scandal, which occasioned great evils, lasted until the fathers of St. Augustine (who dwell near by) with holy zeal broke it to pieces, and erected in its place a cross.  While sailing along the island of Panai I beheld on the promontory called Nasso, near Potol, plates and other pieces of earthenware, laid upon a rock, the offering of voyagers. [80] In the island of Mindanao between La Canela and the river [i.e., Rio Grande], a great promontory projects from a rugged and steep coast; [81] always at these points there is a heavy sea, making it both difficult and dangerous to double them.  When passing by this headland, the natives, as it was so steep, offered their arrows, discharging them with such force that they penetrated the rock itself.  This they did as a sacrifice, that a safe passage might be accorded them.  I saw with my own eyes that although the Spaniards, in hatred of so accursed a superstition, had set a great many of these arrows on fire and burned them, those still remaining and those recently planted in the rock numbered, in less than a year, more than four thousand arrows; they certainly seemed as many as that, to all of us who passed that point. [82]

Besides these, they had a thousand other superstitions.  If they beheld a serpent or lizard, or heard anyone sneeze, they would always retrace their steps, and on no account go further at that time, for such an occurrence would be an evil omen.  The ministers of the Devil also cast lots for them; this was another fraud and deceit which I must not describe for fear of being too prolix.  Nor can one express the blindness in which they were, ignorant of their Creator:  let what has already been said suffice.  In regard to the first point, they had no places set aside for worship, or public days for general festivities.  Not until we went to Taitai did I learn that in many of the houses there was another one, but smaller, made of cane, as it were a little tower, fashioned somewhat curiously, to which they passed from the main house by a short bridge, also made of cane.  In these were kept their needlework and other sorts of handicraft, by means of which they concealed the mystery of the little house.  From information that I received from some of the faithful, it was in reality dedicated to the anito, although they offered no sacrifice in it, nor did it serve for other use than as it was dedicated to him—­perhaps that he might rest there when on a journey, as Elias said to the other priests. [83] I had all these houses demolished, so that not one remained.  I also found in some little hamlets