The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

RELIGION BEFORE 1000 A. D.

33

sun, may my arm not be scalded, because I am not at fault."
The one who was the more severely burned lost the case.
The priests pray to the sun, moon, and some of the constellations, as well as to the stars as a whole. They also worship
earthquakes, typhoons, thunder and clouds. The old men
teach that the sky is another world, inhabited by people similar
to the people on earth. There is, they say, still another world
underneath, inhabited by people who have tails. The sun
shines on the earth in the daytime, and on the under-world
at night.
The following vivid tale well illustrates the belief regarding
the under-world which is held in varying forms by all Igorots:
When a man dies his soul "first plunges into the depths of
the sea for the space of ten days, after which he returns to
his cabin, where he finds the bench before his door overturned,
by which sign he knows that he is dead. Thereupon he departs to dwell in the land of the dead, where he rejoins his
ancestors and fellow countrymen who died before him. From
time to time, however, he returns to his native village wandering about his domestic hearth, walking through the rice
fields and working good or ill to the living according as they
are friends or enemies.
"In order to beguile the time in the subterranean caverns
in which he spends eternity he builds a home similar to the
hut of the tribesmen. Four trunks of trees to support the
roof of dried grasses, and a few bamboos or reeds to serve
as walls, are all the materials he requires for his dwelling.
But one cannot live without cattle, for even in the spirit world
there must be buffaloes to plow the fields, and he must have
pigs and chickens for eating, and dogs for hunting. So the
Igorots make a hecatomb of all kinds of animals on the day
of the funeral, so that their sacrificed animals, having been
r lasted and eaten by the assembled friends, may go to serve
their old master in the region beyond. The richer the dead
rlan the greater is the massacre of animals. A funeral is
ruinous to the sorrowing family, but it is better than being
t,rmented for the remainder of one's days by the anito of a
displeased ancestor.