be numbered among the
condemned in casanaan, the error of the Chinese found in them an easier
entrance, for it was built upon the foundation of their own errors.

447. The superstitions and omens of these Filipinos are so many, and
so different are those which yet prevail in many of them, especially
in the districts more remote from intercourse with the religious,
that it would take a great space to mention them. They merit tears,
although they are all laughable. They are being continually preached
against, but we have not succeeded in extinguishing them; and the
people obey the customs of their barbarous ancestors rather than the
Christian prudence which the ministers teach them. And although I do
not at this time consider it as an explicit error, ut in plurimum,
yet the error implied in the tenacity with which these people follow
the errors of their ancestors is dangerous.

448. Now they ask permission of the nonos for any task, with the
pasingtabi sa nono. Now they have innumerable fears if the owl which
they call covago hoots; if they find a snake in a new house, or on
a journey that they have undertaken; if they hear anyone sneeze;
if any rat squeals, or if the lizard sings, or if any dog howls; and
other things like these. There must be no talk of fish in the house of
the hunter, nor of hunting nor dogs in that of the fisherman; while
in neither the one nor the other house must there be any mention of
new implements for work, unless they have already been used. Sailors
must name nothing of the land, nor landsmen anything of the sea:
for all these were omens.

449. Pregnant women could not cut their hair, for they said that the
children that they would bear would have no hair. When a woman is about
to give birth, some men undress until they are stark naked. Then taking
shields and catans, one takes his stand in the silong, and another
on the ridge of the house, and they continually fence with the wind
with their catans as long as the parturition lasts. I have removed
some from this performance by force of punishment. They say that it
is to keep the patianac and the osuang away from the woman. These
are witches among them who come to obstruct the success of the
childbirth, and to suck out the souls of children; and the people
act thus in order to prevent them. He who does not wish to have this
observed in public, through fear of punishment, removes his wife to
another house for the parturition, if he thinks that