favor they implored whenever an infant
was born, and when it was suckled and the breast offered to it. They
placed their ancestors, the invocation of whom was the first thing in
all their work and dangers, among these anitos. In memory of their
ancestors they kept certain very small and very badly made idols of
stone, wood, gold, or ivory, called licha or laravan. Among their gods
they reckoned also all those who perished by the sword, or who were
devoured by crocodiles, as well as those killed by lightning. They
thought that the souls of such immediately ascended to the blest
abode by means of the rainbow, called by them balangao. Generally,
whoever could succeed in it attributed divinity to his aged father
at his death. The aged themselves died in that presumptuous delusion,
and during their sickness and at their death guided all their actions
with what they imagined a divine gravity and manner. Consequently, they
chose as the place for their grave some assigned spot, [24] like one
old man who lived on the seacoast between Dulac and Abuyog, which is in
the island of Leyte. He ordered himself placed there in his coffin (as
was done) in a house standing alone and distant from the settlement,
in order that he might be recognized as a god of navigators, who were
to commend themselves to him. Another had himself buried in certain
lands in the mountains of Antipolo, and through reverence to him
no one dared to cultivate those lands (for they feared that he who
should do so would die), until an evangelical minister removed that
fear from them, and now they cultivate them without harm or fear.

107. They mentioned the creation of the world, the beginning of the
human race, the flood, glory, punishment, and other invisible things,
such as evil spirits and devils. They recognized the latter to be
man's enemy, and hence feared them. By the beginning which they
assigned to the world and the human race, will be seen the vanity
of their belief, and that it is all lies and fables. They say that
the world began with only the sky and water, between which was a
kite. Tired of flying and not having any place where it could alight,
the kite stirred up the water against the sky. The sky, in order to
restrain the water and prevent it from mounting to it, burdened it with
islands; and also ordered the kite to light and build its nest on them,
and leave them in peace. They said that men had come from the stem
of a large bamboo (such as one