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. 48]

II4

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 48

that they have killed such persons with their lances.
I do not doubt that the vulgar herd invent much, but
as little is it doubtful that there are many wizards,
who do a thousand evil things.
Among them a malady is apt to prevail which they
call bungsol (which signifies "a sudden swoon"),
which is apt to attack them as a result of swellings,
as hard as a stone, which originate in their stomachs;
this trouble is often caused by chills, which they experience from going barefoot in the water and in wet
places, and is wont to cause them such pains that on
occasion they will suddenly appear as if dead. At
other times, this sickness is also caused by some magic
of a sorcerer, which they call gavay, by which word
they are accustomed to denote the witchcraft and the
act of practicing it - in which they do not often make
a mistake; for through their mouths, as well as
through other conduits of the body, these sorcerers
on occasion eject rice in the hull, and other things,
which could not be done if they were not aided by
something of the said magic. In order to cure the
person bewitched in this manner, they endeavor to
summon some other person who has the reputation
of a sorcerer; and this person, performing various
exercises of his powers, calls to the one who caused
that sickness. If the sufferer does not improve, the
sorcerer at once pretends that the first one must be
very far away, and for this reason cannot hear him,
but will return the next day; and by this means he
keeps the people deceived, and eats and drinks at the
cost of the poor sick man. It also sometimes happens
that they are quickly cured, and therefore when they
see these things they feel such fear that, when the
sorcerer goes so far as to ask for anything, they im