ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 109 
RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS, 
AntmismM.—They believed in the immortality of the soul, which 
they called ‘Sante.” At the death of a person they put upon the head 
of the corpse a little basket, ‘tas though inviting the spirit to make 
its home in that basket in place of the body it leaves, or in order that 
it may have a nesting place when it shall come from the other life to 
pay them a visit from the place of its sojourn.”“ The souls of those 
who died a violent death were supposed to go to Sasalaguan, or the 
dwelling place of Chayti, who heats them in a forge and beats them 
incessantly. Those dying a natural death were supposed to descend 
to a paradise in the underworld, where there are bananas, coconuts, 
sugar cane, and other fruits of the earth. In determining the future 
destiny of the soul good and evil conduct apparently had no part. 
The souls of the dead, especially of ancestors, were looked upon as 
demons (aniti) and venerated. 
The spirits of the dead, like the lares of the Romans, were regarded 
as natural protectors. They were called aniti, and were thought to 
be powerful for evil if not duly respected and propitiated. In times 
of distress they were called upon and their aid was invoked to keep 
away evil and to bring good luck to those for whom prayers were 
offered. The natives held the aniti in dread, and they sometimes paid 
them homage for self-protection; ‘‘for,” says Padre Garcia, ‘* the 
devil, in order in some fashion to retain this respect and servile fear, 
is wont to appear to them in the form of their fathers and ancestors 
and to terrify them and maltreat them.” They had no temples, sacri- 
fices, idols, nor defined creed.” They had, however, certain supersti- 
tions, especially in connection with their fisheries, during which they 
kept profound silence and practiced great abstinence for fear or for 
flattery of the aniti, lest they punish them by driving away the fish or 
visit them in dreams to frighten them, which the natives really believed 
they had the power to do, These aniti, it thus appears, were of an 
unkindly disposition rather than beneficent, and may be considered 
‘ather as demons than as divinities. To this day there is among the 
natives a superstitious dread of the aniti, who are supposed to dwell in 
the forest. Sometimes benighted travelers going through the bush 
are seized by the throat or scratched with sharp claws; sometimes 
stones are hurled by unseen hands, and sometimes in solitary places by 
the shore a headless figure may be seen sitting motionless fishing In 
the sea. The aniti are supposed to lurk among the many trunks of 
the nunu or banyan tree (/%evs sp.) and haunt the sites of ancient 
houses (casas de los antiguas). ¢ 
“Garcia, Vida y Martyrio de Sanvitores, p. 205, 1683. 
bIdem., p. 204. 
¢ See p. 97. 
