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

48 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES
the Tagalogs the five commands to which reference has already
been made.
We may summarize this brief sketch of the ancient religions as follows:
I. The tribes living in the Philippines prior to the Spanish
occupation differed widely in their religious practices and
beliefs.
2. They had the following characteristics in common:
(a) All the tribes were intensely religious, no detail of
life being free from religion and magic.
(b) Anitos were beings with human intelligence but lacking corporeal bodies. The tribes of the Northern Islands
used the term to cover gods and spirits, but the tribes of
the Visayas and Mindanao used anito to mean souls of dead
human beings, the word diwata being used to denote gods and
spirits.
(c) The anitos were not reverenced or loved. They were
thought of as having the moral frailties of human beings and
were feared and bargained with because of their mysterious
powers.
(d) The greatest gods were not intimately connected with
the affairs of men and were less often called upon than the
minor deities.
(e) The future life bore a shadowy resemblance to that
on this earth.
(f) Sacrifice and prayer, accompanied by feasting, were
the leading forms of worship. The prayers were formulas
relating myths about gods and heroes.
(g) The purpose of religious rites was to secure health,
good crops, fortunate marriages, and other material blessings.
(h) The priestly class consisted of men and women, with
women in the majority, acting as media for spirits. They
ought therefore to be called mediums rather than priests.
(i) Magic was as universal as is the use of medicinal
remedies among civilized peoples. This magic was supposed
to induce or compel the gods to do the will of the practicer
of the magic.