The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 40]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 40

"God" the "Creator" or "Maker." The Visayans
call him Laon, which denotes "antiquity."
They adored (as did the Egyptians) animals and
birds; and the sun and moon, as did the Assyrians.
They also attributed to the rainbow its kind of divinity. The Tagalogs worshiped a blue bird as large
as a turtle-dove, which they called tigmamanuquin,
to which they attributed the name of Bathala, which,
as above stated, was among them a name for divinity.
They worshiped the crow, as the ancients did the
god Pan or the goddess Ceres, and called it Meylupa,
signifying "master of the earth." They held the crocodile in the greatest veneration, and when they saw
it in the water cried out, in all subjection, "Nono,"
signifying "Grandfather." They asked it pleasantly
and tenderly not to harm them, and for that purpose
offered it a portion of what they carried in their boat,
by throwing it into the water. There was no old tree
to which they did not attribute divine honors, and it
was a sacrilege to think of cutting it under any consideration. Even the very rocks, crags, reefs, and
points along the seashore and rivers were adored,
and an offering made to them on passing, by stopping
there and placing the offering upon the rock or reef.
The river of Manila had a rock that served as an
idol of that wretched people for many years, and
nity, being, or dominion), and the Budsao who takes possession of
the baylanas when they tremble, and of the Baganis when they
become furious; it is a power which is derived from Mansilatan.
This interpretation of the word Bathala is confirmed
by that word of the Visayans, Diuata; we always find here the
same idea signified in the words Diwa and uata, differing only
in their transposition.... In closing, we may note that Dewa
in Malay, Dewa in Javanese, Sunda, Makasar, and Day[ak?],
Deva in Maguindanao, and Djebata in Bornean, signify 'the supreme God,' or 'Divinity.'"