academy of 8c.knc* 8 ] THE GREAT RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT OF 1908-1910 239 



These new-fangled spirits were endowed with marvelous powers. They could resuscitate 

 the dead, restore the sick to health, discern the future, impart invulnerability and other won- 

 drous qualities, and in the moment of final dissolution rescue their faithful worshipers from the 

 irrevocable vengeance of the ancient tribal divinities. Many and many a Manobo told me, 

 when I suggested to him the possibility of error or of deception in the whole system, that it 

 was better to be sure than sorry, and that it was well worth the loss of the worldly goods to be 

 sure of securing immunity from the threatened danger. Who would not be afraid when even 

 the mighty Magbabdya of Libaganon would at times demand a lance from every settlement 

 and keep careful watch? When many of them began to discover the fraud they were ashamed 

 to confess their credulity and fanaticism, and so, seeing a good opportunity to recover their 

 pecuniary losses, joined in the fraud and deliberately swindled others out of their temporal 

 goods. 



THE END OF THE MOVEMENT 



The beginning of the end came about December, 1910. The various inconsistencies in 

 the reports from Libaganon, the continual postponement by Meskinan of the end for one flimsy 

 reason or another, the discovery by individuals of lies and fraudulent conduct on the part of 

 the priests, the hunger and misery consequent upon the abandonment of the crops, the constant 

 advice on the part of Bisayas and others, and the ever-increasing scarcity of valuables that 

 might be given as offerings to the priests and to their assistants — all these contributed to bring 

 about the termination of a religious swindle that victimized at least 50,000 people. 



It is evident that when the time announced for the dissolution approached some reason 

 for its failure to take place would have to be patched up and propagated. Thus in the begin- 

 ning the catastrophe was to take place after one moon, but Meskinan made a long journey 

 for the purpose of interceding with the old tribal gods and succeeded in getting a prorogation 

 of three moons. Toward the end of the three moons, Meskinan decided to wait for one more 

 before putting into execution the fatal decree. And so things went on from moon to moon. 

 Now the end would be postponed because Meskinan had to finish a mystic piece of cloth on a 

 loom near the pillars of the world. Then it would not take place because he had hied him to 

 an "island of the sea." And thus things continued until people began to weary of the suspense 

 and to suspect the fraud. 



At the time of my departure from the upper Agusan the whole country was getting into 

 a turmoil. The Mandayas, enraged at the loss of their property bootlessly bestowed on the 

 priest, threatened to make an attack upon the people of the Agiisan. The Manobos announced 

 their intention of raiding the Debabaons. The Maftgguangans menaced the Tagum Mandayas. 

 In a word trouble was so imminent that had it not been for the establishment of government 

 on the upper Agusan to protect the Christianized peoples already settled in towns, probably 

 there would have been much bloodshed. 



SIMILAR MOVEMENTS IN FORMER YEARS 



In the "Cartas de los PP. de la Compania de Jesus" I find similar movements reported. One 

 is reported in a letter of Father Pastells of May 2, 1877, and the other in some other letter, 

 the date and writer of which I am unable to cite. The general features were the same, that is, 

 the appearance of a person, in one case a woman, in another a child, with body all golden, 

 who announced the destruction of the world. Crops were not to be planted, domestic animals 

 were to be killed, and all were to await in prayer and fasting the consummation. The object of 

 these frauds was to make the Christian conquest of the upper Agusan peoples impossible. 



On my trip to the upper Karaga a venerable old Mandaya informed me that in his youth 

 there had been a similar fraud which was engineered by the Moros of Siimlug, on the east side 

 of the gulf of Davao, and that when the Mandayas of Karaga discovered the fraud they made 

 a raid on the authors of it and killed many. 



