THE PEOPLING OF TEE PHILIPPINES. 355 



tained to which the custom is to be traced back. The chronological 

 evidence leads to the confident belief that the custom and the tribe 

 immigrated together. 



Over the whole Philippine Archipelago religious customs have 

 changed with the progress of external relations. Christianity has in 

 many places spread its peculiar customs, observances and opinions, 

 and changed entirely the direction of thought. On closer view are to 

 be detected in the midst of Christian activities older survivals, as 

 ingredients of belief which, in spite of that religion, have not vanished. 

 Before Christianity, in many places, Islam flourished, and it is not 

 surprising to witness, as on Mindanao, Christian and Mohammedan 

 beliefs side by side. But, before Islam, ancestor worship, as has long 

 been known, was widely prevalent. In almost every locality, every 

 hut has its Anito with its special place, its own dwelling; there are 

 Anito pictures and images, certain trees and, indeed, certain animals 

 in which some Anito resides. The ancestor worship is as old as 

 history, for the discoverers of the Philippines found it in full bloom, 

 and rightly has Blumentritt* characterized Anito worship as the 

 ground form of Philippine religion. He has also furnished numerous 

 examples of Anito cult surviving in Christian communities. 



Chronology has a good groundwork and it will have to observe every 

 footprint of vanishing creeds. Onl}^, it must not be overlooked that 

 the beginning of the chronology of religion has not been reached, and 

 that the origin of the generally diffused ancestor worship, at least on 

 the Philippines, is not known. If it is borne in mind that belief in 

 Anitos is widely diffused in Polynesia and in purely Malay areas, the 

 drawing of certain conclusions therefrom concerning the prehistory of 

 the Philippines is to be despaired of. 



Next to religious customs, among wild tribes fashions are most 

 enduring. Little of costume is to be seen, indeed, among them. There- 

 fore, here tattooing asserts its sway. The more it has been studied in 

 late years the more valuable has been the information in deciding the 

 kinship relations of tribes. Unfortunately, in the Philippines the 

 greater part of the early tattoo designs have been lost, and the art itself 

 is also nearly eliminated. But since the journey of Carl Semperf it 

 has been known that not only Malays but also Negritos tattoo ; indeed, 

 this admirable explorer has decided that the 'Negroes of the East 

 Coast' practise a different method of tattooing from that of the Mari- 

 vales in the west, and on that account they attain different results. In 

 the one case a needle is employed to make fine holes in the skin in 



* Der Ahnencultus und die religiosen Anschauungen der Malaien des Philip- 

 pinen-ArcMpels. Wien, 1882, p. 2. (From Mittheil. der K. K. Geograpli. 

 Gesellschaft) . 



t Die Philippinen und ihre Bewohner. Wiirzburg, 1869, pp. 50, 137. 



