Part III. Eyery-day Forms of Religious Response 



INTERVIEWS WITH THE GODS, CALLED MANG ANITO 



The concept of anito is somewhat variable throughout the Islands, 

 and hardly any two writers agree exactly as to the content of 

 the word. Among the Tagalog, nature deities of the mountains, 

 the plains and the sea, as well as the small images that imperson- 

 ated them, were called anito ; the spirits of dead ancestors, also, 

 were placed among the anito. 30T Rizal explains that, "It appears 

 that the natives called anito a tutelary genius, either of the family 

 or extraneous to it. Now, with their new religious ideas, the 

 Tagals apply the term anito to any superstition, false worship, idol, 

 etc." 308 Mendoza wrote, in 1588, that in Luzon small images 

 were called manginitos, and a great feast was held for them. 30 ° 

 Visayan tribes, according to Morga, applied the name anito to their 

 idols of demons, and we find elsewhere that they used such images 

 for conjuring away sickness. 310 Jenks says that the Igorot give 

 the name of anito to all spirits of the dead. 311 



The material gathered by me from the Bagobo does not give the 

 impression that the word anito is associated with demons or with 

 ghosts of ancestors, unless it be secondarily. With the Bagobo, 

 the anito are those gods that are in the habit of coming into direct 

 communication with man by means of a medium, through whose 

 lips they speak oracles, ask and answer questions and give advice. 

 The deities who speak in this manner to man are those who are 

 closely related to his interests, and who hold a friendly attitude 



307 Cf. F. Colin: 'Native races and their customs." Blair and Robertson: op cil., 

 vol. 40, pp. 72—73. 1906. 



308 Blair and Robertson.- op. cif., vol. 10, p. 131 footnote. 1904. 



309 Cf. ibid., vol. 6, p. 146. 1903. 



3,0 Cf. ibid., vol. 16, p. 131, and vol. 21, p. 207. 1905. 



311 Cf. "The Bontoc Igorot." P. I. Department of the Interior. Ethnological Survey 

 Publications, vol. 1, pp. 71, 196. 1905. 



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