Chapter Eighth

Of their belief concerning the dead

It is said that the souls of those who are stabbed to death, eaten by crocodiles, or killed by arrows (which is considered a very honorable death), go to heaven by way of the arch which is formed when it rains, and become gods.  The souls of the drowned remain in the sea forever.  By way of honor to these, they erect a tall reed and hang upon it a garment—­that of a man, if the dead be a man; but a woman’s, for a woman.  This garment is left there until it falls to pieces through age.  When the children or other relatives of drowned persons are sick, the relatives are taken and placed in a barangay, in company with a baylana, who is a sort of priestess; and, at the place indicated by the priestess, they throw into the sea a chest filled with robes and other articles, which they have brought with them.  At the same time their ancestors are invoked to protect and help the sick man during his illness.

Belief regarding the dead

If those who die from disease are young, the Pintados say that the mangalos, who are goblins, are eating their bowels, wherefore they die; for these people do not know that the corruption of humors causes diseases.  They say of those who die in old age that the wind comes and snatches away their souls.  And of those who die thus, the Arayas (which is a certain alliance of villages), they say, go to a very high mountain in the island of Panay, called Mayas.  The souls of the Yligueynes, who comprise the people of Cubu, Bohol, and Bantay, go with the god called Sisiburanen, to a very high mountain in the island of Burney.

The god Sidapa.  They say that there is in the sky another god, called Sidapa.  This god possesses a very tall tree on mount Mayas.  There he measures the lives of all the new-born, and places a mark on the tree; when the person’s stature equals this mark, he dies immediately.

Belief concerning the destination of souls.  It is believed that at death all souls go directly to the infernal regions; but that, by means of the maganitos, which are the sacrifices and offerings made to the god Pandaque in sight of the mount of Mayas, they are redeemed from Simuran and Siguinarugan, gods of the lower regions.

It is said that, when the Yligueynes die, the god Maguayen carries them to Inferno.  When he has carried them thither in his barangay, Sumpoy, another god, sallies forth, takes them away, and leads them to Sisiburanen, the god before mentioned, who keeps them all.  Good or bad alike, he takes them all on equal terms, when they go to Inferno.  But the poor, who have no one to offer sacrifices for them, remain forever, in the inferno, and the god of those regions eats them, or 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.