s a hot spring beside which lived a creature that
was half-horse and half-man. As in ancient Greece, there is little
doubt that a belief in this being came from the wonder excited by
the first horsemen.

Sea-eagles in the East are large and powerful, and are believed to
have long memories. According to report, a man living near Jala Jala
once stole a nest of their young and carried it to his house. It was
a year from that time before any retaliation was attempted. The birds
then appeared above his premises, swooped down on his wife, clawed
her face and beat her with their wings until she was half-dead; then
picked up her babe and carried it away before the eyes of the helpless
parents. Next year they came again, and another infant, a few months
old, was stolen. The man tracked them to their nest, which had been
built high on a cliff that no one had ever scaled before. Nerved by
grief and anger, he climbed it. In the nest were the skeletons of
his children. As he clung to the rock, hanging over a dizzy space
and looking on these sad relics, the father bird came swooping from
the sky and began to strike at him with claws and wings. In the face
of such an assault the man could not descend in safety. Death was
sure. He could only hope to kill his enemy, too. As the bird drew
near he leaped from the rock, caught the eagle about the neck, and
the two plunged down to death together.

An animal god especially to be feared is Calapnitan, king of the
bats. He is so powerful and capable of mischief that in exploring a
cave where bats are likely to have congregated the natives will speak
in the most respectful terms of this deity, for he would be sure to
hear them if they spoke flippantly of him, and might swoop from the
cave roof and whip their eyes out with his leathern wings or tear them
with his claws. Hence they bow their heads and speak with reverence
of the Lord Calapnitan's cave, the Lord Calapnitan's stalactite,
even recognizing his temporary ownership of their clothing, arms,
lights, and so on, and alluding to their own jackets as the Lord
Calapnitan's. By carefully refraining in this manner from giving
offence the Filipinos have succeeded in keeping their skins entire
while guiding white travellers through the caverns in their islands.

Later Religious Myths and Miracles

Among stories that date no farther back than the Spanish conquest we
find the usual tales of sacred springs, of visions, and of blessed